A House With Edible Walls

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The builder is none other than students and teachers of University Of Maryland. Keeping the eco system in mind, the University has arranged a competition for students and faculty to design and build a house fully and creatively powered by the sun.

Last year the winner of the competition is Terp team. The conceptual design they worked on was the WaterShed.

The WaterShed, concentrated on fully utilizing the energy of sun, wind and rain, as well as household ''wastes'' that retain valuable energy and nutritional resources.

The house was two rectangular units capped by a butterfly roof, which is well suited to capture and use sunlight and rainwater to form the house. The features of the house are :

1. A rooftop photovoltaic array.
2. An edible green wall and garden.
3. Smart technologies to control temperature, ventilation, humidity, and light.
4. Beautiful, sustainable, cost-effective and durable things.

"Our goal for WaterShed is to produce an eco-system whose efficiency comes from the interconnectedness of building, site, and the people who inhabit them," Gardner said.

The Watershed, does not die with this competition. Nearly 300 students from architecture, engineering, environmental science and technology, landscape architecture and other disciplines will help bring WaterShed to life even in future.

Like the last year students and faculty of this year too built the Watershed and equip it with better technologies. But the factors of the house remain the same - Sun, Air,Water and waste, with edible walls.

This concept if introduced in India, might actually bring down the cost of living and food problems but on the second thought, what if the cow eats your roof?