Das Haus pavilion showcase. Image courtesy of the German-American Chamber of Commerce (GACC).
Working in close collaboration with Fraunhofer CSE and the German American Chamber of Commerce (GACC), Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is bringing Das Haus, a pavilion showcase of German innovations in energy-efficient home building and technology, to Cambridge.
Das Haus will be exhibited at the MIT campus from June 18th through the 27th, and is open for public viewing from 10am to 6pm. Visitors can arrange to get a guided tour by RSVP. A grand opening event has been scheduled for June 20th.
Since October 2011, Das Haus has been traveling across the US, making stops at major cities around the country. At each stop, the pavilion has offered visitors the chance to get a hands-on preview of what they can expect to see from tomorrow’s homes and buildings.
Exclusive technologies and features incorporated into Das Haus include:
- Thin film photovoltaic roof, facade and louvered panel systems
- Heat-recovery climate control and ventilation systems
- Passive House standard triple-pane windows
- Solar-powered LED lighting systems and high-efficiency appliances
- Vacuum-insulated panel systems
- VRLA battery systems
- Advanced wall construction materials and methods
Das Haus is an extension of Germany’s winning entries in the 2007 and 2009 Solar Decathlon. The Decathlon, a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, brings together 20 collegiate teams from around the globe to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are aesthetic, cost-effective and energy efficient.
We’re very excited to support Das Haus’s exhibition showcase, so be sure to check it out while it’s in town!
HK Chaudhary
June 8, 2012
Thank you for sharing this interesting news about Das Haus, the German pavilion showcasing technological innovations in energy-efficient home building at Cambridge. I have been hearing about Das Haus from last year when it first started touring various places in the US, showing the locals how our future homes and buildings would look like. Nonetheless, your post takes a critical and detailed look at the exclusive technologies and features incorporated in Das Haus. This initiative once again clearly shows us the importance of solar power in today’s world, where sky-high fuel prices and steady decline in fossil fuel deposits, coupled with steep rise in global CO2 emissions is threatening our existence.
Katherine Frangos
July 19, 2012
Thanks for your comment Chaudhary,
We had a successful outcome overall from the Das HAUS project. Complementing Das HAUS, Fraunhofer CSE, MIT and UMass and the German American Chamber of Commerce (GACC) organized a cross-disciplinary dialogue between leading building technology researchers and the industrial leaders that commercialize these technologies. The symposium addressed real-world market challenges for building technology in the US today; topics from the presentations included: on-site power, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), as well as building enclosures.
If you are interested in downloading any of the rich content from the speakers, check out our site http://cse.fraunhofer.org/post-symposium/