Would you appreciate a home with a modern, open floor plan and automated systems that changed your home’s configuration in response to environmental conditions to both save you money, and ensure your comfort?  The LUMENHAUS residence, Virginia Tech’s 2010 entry to the Solar Decathlon Europe competition, does all that and more.  The designers describe the home as a modern pavilion – an energy-conscious home with an open, flowing floor plan and design.

The north and south walls are entirely glass, maximizing the owner’s exposure to natural daylight.  A key component of the home’s design is a fully automated Eclipsis System, comprised of independently sliding layers which creates a solar-powered house, filtering light through the sliding panels in unique patterns throughout the day.

The concept for LUMENHAUS embodies a “whole building design” construction approach, in which all the home’s components and systems are integrated to maximize user comfort with environmental protection.

Technology is optimally used to make the owner experience more streamlined, energy efficient and less expensive.  The home is an example of ‘responsive architecture’ and LUMENHAUS is designed to operate completely self sufficiently, as a zero-energy home, completely powered by solar energy and featuring the capacity to respond to environmental changes automatically to balance energy efficiency with user comfort.  A few of its sustainable features include passive energy systems, radiant in-floor heating and building materials derived from renewable and/or recyclable sources.