BJTU+ Joint Team supported by our Fund shortlisted for Solar Decathlon China 2021

The Solar Decathlon China 2021 (SDC2021) has been launched recently, with a shortlist of fifteen official teams and two back-up teams coming from 33 higher education institutions across eleven countries. Among those shortlisted is the BJTU-represented Joint Team, which is proudly supported by our Fund.

The participating teams of SDC2021 are invited to the host city of Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province to build prototypes in response to triple critical challenges, namely sustainable development, smart connection, and human health. The prototype buildings developed at the competition will be used as facilities for the 2022 Winter Olympics. They will also serve as living laboratories of the national demonstrative zones for renewable energy, and exemplars for regional sustainable development. The maintenance of the prototypes will be handled by the Olympic Games host city.

The BJTU-led Joint Team is a product of positive international collaboration, consisting of the Sustainable Design Studio (“SD”) of the Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), the Loughborough University of the U.K., the BRE Trust of the U.K., as well as our Fund. The Loughborough University offers specialised knowledge about community energy elasticity and healthy/clean cooking energy whereas the BRE Trust gives professional advice on areas such as architectural environments and post-disaster reconstruction. BJTU serves as the representing team.

As part of the team, we have actively reached out to and sought the collaboration of humanitarian organisations, overseas professional institutes, as well as higher education institutions. In addition to providing funding support, our Fund also shares knowledge and case examples in the areas of humanitarian actions, health, and sustainability. With our support, the team will be able to put into application concepts of sustainable architecture based on good use of natural resources such as solar energy, to develop a comprehensive framework for emergency shelters in support of humanitarian work.

Apart from offering support to the SD at the competition, our Fund has launched an in-depth cooperation with BJTU. Under the cooperation, we aspire to consolidate the existing curriculum through the teaching-and-technical development project of “sustainable post-disaster emergency architecture”. It is hoped that the project will combine teaching with research, in order to encourage university students to, firstly, translate their professional learning into the development of socially-beneficial, environmentally-friendly and humanitarian infrastructure; and secondly, practically apply the relevant standards and benchmarks of humanitarian work. (You may check out this link for more projects that we support.)

For more information about the competition, please feel free to subscribe to the public WeChat channel of SD.

About the Solar Decathlon China

Co-organised by the Chinese National Energy Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy as well as developed by the China Overseas Development Association, the Solar Decathlon China (SDC) is a competition for global collegiate teams with a focus on challenges surrounding green energy and architectural technology. Through bringing together top-notch technology and creativity of international R&D and design teams, the competition aims to encourage the exploration of unified solutions to develop comfortable, functional, and sustainable living spaces embedded in the interconnected ideas of clean energy, energy efficiency, and architectural design.

The contest is based on ten evaluation criteria: engineering, innovation, market potential, architectural design, promotion and publicity, comfort, household appliances, home living, electrical gadgets and transportation, as well as energy balance.