F87 (Efficiency House Plus with Electromobility) was developed by an interdisciplinary team under the direction of Professor Werner Sobek. It demonstrates the potential of actively coupling energy flows between the emerging fleet of electric vehicles and our built environment. This concept is architecturally embodied through a striking glass showcase in which all of the core technical systems are laid out prominently to form a full-scale living display. The project not only illustrates the feasibility of building future single-family homes which generate a significant surplus of energy – enough to power the electric vehicles of their occupants – but also demonstrates how future buildings can be designed and built to allow for complete disassembly and recycling at the end of their life cycle. The holistic design approach employed by the inter-disciplinary design team takes the scope of “sustainable design” to a new level.

The glass core serves as energetic and architectural link to the mobile and immobile area of life. To the garden side there is a complex building; to the road side there is an open frame structure which serves as a big showcase for the public providing information about the building and inviting to interact. The focus of the innovation lies on optimized building services and the interface of energy flows and the storage capacities between the Plus-Energy House and future mobility. The division of the house into three parts – viz. the living areas, the energy core, and the showcase – embodies this approach. Its spatial orientation and the integrated photovoltaic as well as solar heating allow generating more energy than the building and the vehicles need. The surplus energy is fed into the public network.

As the floor plan is flexible in terms of spatial requirements the building has the ability to adapt to the constantly changing needs of its inhabitants. Due to its modular design the house can also be adapted to specific suburban conditions.