What is the Solar Decathlon?
An international university competition with the aim of improving the transmission of knowledge and research in the renewable energy sector. In particular, solar energy applied to housing. The objective is to have multidisciplinary university teams (town planners, architects, engineers, teachers, researchers from universities around the world etc.) design and build some twenty very high environmental performance housing demonstration models using the sun as their sole energy source.

Why? In a similar vein to global exhibitions, the aim of this event is twofold:
- to show the general public the concrete results of ongoing research on town and country planning and the housing of tomorrow. 
- to train new generations of designers, through practical experiments, to imagine inhabited space by considering all its aspects, in terms of energy, environment, economy and uses.

This competition also demonstrates that it is possible to build environmentally friendly houses at a high level of industrialisation, without neglecting aesthetics and quality of life. For the first time in 2022, all teams will have to deal with the issue of regenerating existing buildings.

Who is Aura? 

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes team is made up of students, academic partners from outside Grenoble Alpes University and several partners including Bouygues Construction. 
This partnership reflects Bouygues Construction's ambition to build differently through environmentally friendly design, low-carbon construction solutions and the circular economy. This is in line with Greenlight and its “Construire sans détruire” approach (Building without destruction), which means developing the activity of renovation, transformation and enhancement of existing buildings, in order to meet the objective of reducing CO² by 30% by 2030 and to contribute to carbon neutrality by 2050. 

What themes are highlighted by the AURA team?
Renovation of existing buildings using solar energy, bio-based materials (straw, raw earth, wood) and reused materials (second life solar panels) in order to revitalise rural areas. The team also relies on urban exodus scenarios that extend to 2050 or 2100, according to IPCC studies. 
The case study is the renovation of a mid-mountain tourist hotel with a bottle rack layout to turn them into positive energy housing.

This is an exciting challenge that the AURA team will address. The final prototype will be presented on 6 May 2022 at the Grands Ateliers (Bourgoin Jallieu in Isère - 30 minutes from Lyon) before leaving for Germany and the final competition from 10-26 June! 

The countdown has already begun! Since February, the prefabrication site of the demonstration models has been accessible at the Grands Ateliers upon request to Xavier Gauvin.