The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning took second place in its first ever entry in the U. S Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The prestigious and highly competitive contest challenged 14 architecture schools to design, build, and operate a highly sustainable house prototype. The entries were scored in ten categories which evaluated criteria such as design, market appeal, affordability, comfort, and energy use. UB achieved an impressive score of 941.191 points of a possible 1000. The winning team from the Stevens Institute of Technology beat UB by just 9.494 points. The battle was tight from start to finish coming down to scoring in the final category to determine the winner.

The 14 competition houses were clustered into a decathlon village in Irvine California where they were judged over the last week. The UB house will be deconstructed and shipped back to Buffalo, where the School says, it will be reassembled somewhere in the city for actual use. The UB team named their house “The Grow Home”. You can get more detail on the house at this Link, along with a whole lot of pictures and videos.

I am sure that this loss, by less than 9.5 points, was tough to take for these kids, who obviously worked so hard on this project. But, this was a fantastic rookie entry for the School. They have a lot to be proud of. Give them a big round of applause. I can’t wait to see the Grow Home back in Buffalo.