Housing’s Bright Future

Imagine a house with no utility bills that grows food for you and fights climate change.

That’s what University of Maryland architecture, engineering and agriculture students designed and built to compete at the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon in October in Denver. UMD came in second, just behind a team from Switzerland, impressing the judges particularly in the innovation category while adding to the university’s history of strong finishes in the competition: A Maryland team won in 2011 and took second in 2007.

The team named the 994-square-foot house reACT—Resilient Adaptive Climate Technology—and it lives up to its name with a host of systems to make life easier, cheaper, healthier and more environmentally friendly.