Team China Fuses High & Low Tech With The Y Container Solar Decathlon House

We’re no strangers to <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/shipping-container-architecture/">shipping container architecture</a>, but Team China’s <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container </a> house at the <a href="http://www.solardecathlon.gov/index.html">Solar Decathlon</a> definitely impressed us with its interesting use of these common building blocks. The <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/solar-decathlon/">Solar Decathlon</a>, which came to a close this weekend in Washington D.C., challenges collegiate students to transform our understanding of consumer housing by developing innovative, eco-friendly, and energy efficient homes. Team China constructed the <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> house using six recycled <a href="http://inhabitat.com/architecture/m2e-power/">shipping containers</a>, interconnected in such a way to form a Y shape. Considering their trans-Atlantic journey, the design makes a lot of sense in terms of shipping, but the home also boasts a surprisingly comfortable interior. And despite a modest choice of shipping containers, the house looks pretty futuristic, hosting a triangular solar panel roof and a wooden strip wrap that both softens the façade and helps keep the home cool.

Team China used common shipping containers in their <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> Solar Decathlon house to highlight the flexibility in design of the trendy, if not difficult, steel box. The design consists of three pairs placed at 120 degree angles with a roof covering where they meet.

Each container stands 9.5 feet tall, 20 feet long and 8 feet wide. The three interior zones of the <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> are set up for cooking, living, and sleeping, with a central multifunctional space in the middle.

The interior of the <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container house</a> is sparsely furnished with custom designed furniture, allowing a single piece to be used for seating, storage or as table.

<a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> has movable walls that add a great level of functionality to the home's design. Residents can slide the walls to expand the common area or close off sections to make them more private.

Team China demonstrated the moving walls for us. The partitions slide easily along their tracks, meaning that residents could configure the <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> with little effort.

The moveable walls of the <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> house slide along the edges of the containers that compose each wing. This means that the bedroom wing can easily be divided in two to create a workspace or additional bedroom.

Each wing of the <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> house has access to the outdoors, allowing for natural light and air to permeate every room.

The Y Container's cooling is introduced by a <a href="http://www.howstuffworks.com/ac3.htm" target="_blank">split system</a>, and heat is provided by a large flat solar thermal system that caps one of the home’s sections. The captured energy is used to heat the floor via radiant tube and the domestic hot water. Prevailing breezes can be captured from any direction and vented through the center roof.

The Y Container house is shaded by its 40 panel 8kW solar array, which was donated by <a href="http://panasonic.net/sanyo/">Sanyo Electric Co.</a> While the containers may be low tech, the walls use a one-two punch of high tech materials to maintain comfort. <a href="http://inhabitat.com/new-building-panel-promises-high-r-values-and-comfortable-interiors/">Vacuum insulation panels</a> are highly effective and reduce the thickness of the walls. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_material">Phase change</a> panels passively help maintain temperatures during the day, reducing the peak cooling load, and therefore energy consumption.

The <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/">Y Container</a> house's three outdoor spaces are set up accordingly for private and public functions.

Team China <a href="http://www.solardecathlon.gov/scores_teams_china.html" target="_blank">scored their highest</a> in the Comfort Zone category, proving that the Y Container's cooling and ventilation work quite well.

For a target market of a growing young family in the outskirts of Shanghai, the <a href="http://solardecathlon.tongji.edu.cn/" target="_blank">Y Container</a> will be a great fit.

<a href="http://www.tongji.edu.cn/english/">Tonji University</a> is no stranger to the Decathlon -- their <a href="http://inhabitat.com/sun-powered-bambu-house-sprouts-at-solar-decathlon-europe/">Bambu House</a> turned a lot of heads last year in Barcelona with an aggressive bamboo façade and structure.

A construction drawing shows how the six shipping containers of the Y Container house intersect, creating three distinct sections of the house.

A 3D rendering of the Y Container house by Team China.

A drawing showing how the containers were transported from China to Washington, D.C.