Thanks to its bipartite envelope and a combination of passive and active sustainable solutions, EMBRACE home provides optimal indoor temperatures and comfort levels for its inhabitants. The thermal envelope shelters the bathroom, living room, kitchen, a technical core and the bedroom, while “the weather shield” protects the whole building from rain and thunderstorms and supports several solar panels. The project was designed by Danish architecture students and is part of this year’s Solar Decathlon Europe competition.
Students from the Technical University of Denmark designed the home for two by combining passive and active technological solutions. The building’s thermal envelope shelters only the necessary area and leaves as much space as possible for the occupants to use during most of the year. The outer layer, named the “weather shield,” protects the building and the indoor garden from rain and thunderstorms and enables year-round use of this in-between area.
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The weather shield also provides structural support for photovoltaic panels, arranged in a pattern meant to provide the necessary shading to the house. The openings in the weather shield ensure good natural ventilation inside the space, and the skylight enables enough daylight to enter the thermal envelope.
Images by Kenneth Sørensen
