In a month Versailles will host the Solar Decathlon competition which unites the greatest universities from all over the world to design, build and operate a full-scale, entirely functional solar-powered house.

We are a group of students from the Versailles School of Architecture, our team is composed of people from several countries from France to Japan. We had the chance of being able to design and build two entrances on the Solar site as a part of our academic curriculum. We are really excited about it because it is the very first time that we can build something we have projected.

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To do so we have combined our skills in traditional architecture design with new parametric drawing tools, this was our first challenge. In order to achieve the final solution we used all kind of tests: digital software, models, laser-cutting, render, hand-drawing…

Finally we got two projects, the first of them was The Blooming Gate. The idea came from nature, especially flowers, they bloom together and rise with the sun and they make amazing shadow on the ground. You will be wrapped up in beautiful shadow when you go through the gate. To achieve this atmosphere we made small modules we can parametrize to get the perfect shadow so you can feel like underneath flowers. Our gate greets people with open arms by saying “hello” as blooming flowers.

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The second project is the Flag. However this is not a “typical” mast but a complexe design based on transegrity. This principle consist on the capacity of a frame to be stable by the equilibrium of tension and compression forces. The pieces which seems to float in the air attract people who comes from afar to the site because of the singularity of the object. Furthermore when people located at the right position they would be able to read a hidden message on the strings.

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At the moment all the design process is made. We have made countless drawings, models, digital models and even real scale models. So we are more than ready to build the only setp that lefts is the sponsoring. This is our final challenge just before the construction could begin. So we are really looking forward your help and your support in order to be able to build our dream.

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Projet ENSAV Solar Decathlon