Architecture Canada has given North House, the SFU co-developed ultra-green, cold-weather home prototype, an award of excellence for innovation. School of Interactive Arts and Technology professors Lyn Bartram and Robert Woodbury and their grad students created the energy-monitoring and interactive home systems for North House, which finished fourth at the 2009 International Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C.

The house featured floor-to-ceiling windows and side-mounted solar panels that capture low-angle sunlight. The prototype also contained subfloor salt-hydrate packets that absorb heat and release it as the temperature drops. The house could produce double the energy its occupants consume. North House led to West House, an eco-friendly “laneway house” now accommodating two tenants as SFU research subjects in East Vancouver. See also: http://at.sfu.ca/MzJgOF; http://at.sfu.ca/SIOJtv.