On Friday, April 4 from noon to 1 p.m. several designs for the BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar Home will be open for review. The charrette will be held in Fletcher Hall, room 109, the large open studio space on the first floor closest to Girard Park.
Input from the public is welcome. UL Lafayette’s BeauSoleil team was selected as one of only 20 teams from around the world (including Cornell, Darmstadt Germany, Madrid, Rice, Penn State, and Virginia Tech) to participate in the international design/build competition called the Solar Decathlon.
Thirty-nine universities submitted proposals for selection. The Solar Decathlon is a competition for teams of university students that compete to design, build, and operate an attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar powered house.
In late September 2009, these teams from around the world will join the competition's organizers and sponsors in Washington, D.C., to assemble a "solar village" on the National Mall. The project represents a collaboration between the UL Lafayette School of Architecture and Design, the College of Engineering and the B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration.
Architecture, design, business and engineering students along with LASBH and other community partners will design and build the BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar Home over the next two years. The name, inspired by the Grammy-winning Cajun band, reflects the proposal’s intent to relate the project to its Cajun roots.
The home will employ renewable energy sources in a culturally resonant form. For more information or how you can support the project, call or email W. Geoff Gjertson, AIA, associate professor of Architecture and team coordinator for the BeauSoleil Louisiana Solar Home at 337-482-5175, 337-278-2722 or at Gjertson@louisiana.edu.