Self-sufficient house is being built in Rio

We need to understand our customer’s relationship with energy in the future,” explains Marcelo Llévenes, head of Enel Brazil – the arm of energy multinational Enel that is building the house. “We will use feedback from the people living in the house to enable us to learn more about how the most innovative solutions available can be made to work for people, and we’ll even have the opportunity to test solutions that are still in the pre-market stage. This is a very exciting project.”

The project is a partnership with two leading Brazilian universities: Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-Rio) and Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV). The house has been designed by local architects Studio Arthur Casas, with the technology coordinated by Enel’s Brazilian subsidiary Ampla. It is due to be finished before next year’s Rio Olympics, with the residents chosen in a competition on the internet.

The project marks the first time that crowdsourcing has been used to help build and design a home of the future. People from around the world were invited to use the internet to discuss what the home of the future should look like. Over 4,000 new ideas were put forward – all of which were assessed by the project’s technical committee.

Innovation starts with the construction, which will generate 85% less waste and 80% less carbon emissions than standard houses of the same size. This will be achieved by using prefabricated modules made of reforestation-certified wood which will help to cut construction time by around a quarter, as well as reducing the use of water, and materials like mortar.

The walls will be clad in specially treated wood that provides high insulation, while newly developed flame-retardant paint, which also has soundproofing qualities, will also be used.

Solar panels on the roof will make the house energy self-sufficient and allow it to operate as its own micro-power grid, with Prátil, another Enel Brazil company, ensuring that surplus green electricity can be stored in high-capacity batteries, or transferred to the local distribution grid.

Remarkably, even the flooring will be generate energy: a kinetic floor has been installed in one room, with every step taken by residents generating around 0.1 watts of energy.

Residents will also be able to take advantage of intelligent, remote-controlled appliances, which can decide what time of the day it is best to operate, leading to a more efficient use of energy. Even the countertops will be interactive and equipped with internet access, giving the residents handy access to a set of tools that interact with the furniture.

The house will be self-sufficient in water, with all water and effluents, including sewage, treated on site and reused, with extra water supplied though rainwater harvesting, a process that also helps reduce the risk of flooding. Naturally, given Enel’s involvement, smart meters will be used to measure water, electricity and gas consumption in real time.

The house has also been designed so that it can rely totally on natural light during the day, without the need to flick a switch, and will include windows made of self-cleaning glass that gets lighter or darker depending on the amount of available sunlight.

An intelligent cooling system will cut out the need for energy-sapping air-conditioning by using liquid, naturally cooled in pipes 15m under the ground, which is then pumped back into the house to cool it.

Outside, residents will be able to use an extensive garden for growing crops, with any organic waste going into a bio-digester which will generate gas to use in the kitchen.

The home will also be the first in Brazil to be in the running for the Living Building Challenge (LBC) certificate, an extremely rigorous building performance standard. Launched in 2006, it is run by the environmental NGO the International Living Future Institute and, although over 250 projects are currently registered, just 25 have achieved full LBC certification.