We are Team HelioMet, an organisation within the Sir John CASS (The CASS) Faculty of Art, Architecture, Media and Design at London Metropolitan University. Established in 2011, Team HelioMet was set up to allow graduate students to partake in the globally recognised Solar Decathlon competition. Solar Decathlon is an international competition, supported by the U.S. It invites students from around t
he world, specialising in Architecture, Engineering, Sustainability and Urban Design to participate in creating a new typology of urban social housing whilst operating self-sustaining local solutions run primarily by solar power. Solar Decathlon Latin America & Caribbean 2015 will challenge participating teams to design, build and operate houses that are run by solar power, energy efficient and attractive in terms of distribution and design. Considering the event will take place in Santiago de Cali, participants must adapt their social housing projects to the tropical climatic needs and issue the social housing demand, as a positive impact generation to the local community. Over the next 12 months, with the support of our collaborative partners, we will continue our research. Not only will this allow us to create a zero carbon solution for the 2015 Solar Decathlon , it will provide significant support in the global development of self-efficient housing. We strongly believe that cost efficient, lightweight material and simple assembly techniques are the future of sustainable design. We aim to develop collaborative partnerships within the sustainable design and construction industry. This shared knowledge and research would allow us to demonstrate, on a global scale, how sustainable social housing can be delivered at low cost, whilst maintaining architectural relevance within our cities.
