The winner of this year’s prestigious 2011 Solar Decathlon was announced over the weekend.

Last month we reported on the 2011 Solar Decathlon. It’s an extremely important event in the sustainable architecture community, like the Olympics/Eurovision of solar design, bringing together collaborative teams from universities all over the world.

Over the weekend, the winner was announced.

Out of the 18 prefab homes competing in this year’s Solar Decathlon, the team with the prettiest, most cost-effective and energy-efficient house is…

WaterShed from the University of Maryland!

Maryland’s WaterShed house also took first place in the architecture contest and scored in the top five in almost every other contest, including engineering and market appeal. The design was inspired by the beloved Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, harnessing the power of the sun’s energy with a particular focus on water, specifically harvesting, recycling and reusing it.

Philosophically, the house is meant to serve as a model of how architecture can help preserve watersheds while “harmonizing modernity, tradition, and simple building strategies,” per the team’s website.

Structurally the house is built as two “shed” or butterfly modules connected by a small middle bit, referred to as a hyphen. The two larger modules serve as the public and private realms of the house, with the bathroom tucked in between.

Storm water runoff is collected on the roof and directed to a water axis at the core of the house.

With an interior space of 900 square feet, the exterior features composting, an edible garden and a vertical wall.

A solar thermal panel lines the back of the house, which heats water for domestic use.

A graphic illustrating how water is collected and directed to the core of the house.

For a list of all the winners, visit the official tally.

Images: US Dept. of Energy; UMD Watershed on Flickr; UMD Watershed

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