KMUTT to enter 'House of the Future' in design contest

King Mongkut's University of Technology Thon Buri is going to apply its knowledge to enter a green innovation called the "house of the future" in a world competition.

KMUTT was selected recently to compete against 20 teams from around the world in designing, building and operating an energy-efficient and energy-independent house in the "Solar Decathlon" global competition.

The KMUTT team comprising students and staff from the university is the only team in Asean, and one of four in Asia, picked by the selection panel of the competition.

It is led by the School of Architecture and Design and supported by the Faculty of Engineering, School of Energy, Environment and Materials, and Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment.

The team has about 18 months to work on engineering, designing and developing the processes and materials to equip the house.

Following an open call for applications last October, 20 teams from 16 countries were selected out of 44 submissions from 23 countries. Only the teams with a home that met the expectations expressed in the Solar Decathlon Europe (SDE) 2014 regulations were chosen.

Assoc Prof Bundit Fungtammasan, vice president for research at KMUTT, said this was the first time that the university had submitted a proposal to the competition.

"We showed the panel the concept of the house with traditional Thai architecture that helps save energy, produces a low carbon footprint, affects the environment less and is liveable during flooding."

The competition will be held at the Versailles in Paris from June-July.

In the final phase of the competition, university teams will assemble their innovative houses, open them to the general public and undergo the 10 tests of the decathlon. For SDE 2014, the goal is to contribute to and disseminate the knowledge of industrialised, solar and sustainable housing.

Each team would be given a basic allowance of 100,000 euros (about Bt4 million) by the organiser. However, the team estimates that actual expenses would be double that, so KMUTT was making efforts to raise funds and donations from public and private entities in the form of cash, materials and equipment, or air tickets, to make up the shortfall.

"We hope that this house will be a prototype of an energy-efficient and energy-independent house - a house of the future that can be used practically," he added.