ROXUL® Inc. sponsors Montreal students in sustainable housing worldwide decathlon

MILTON, ON, Sept. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - ROXUL® Inc., North America's largest stone wool insulation manufacturer, backs university super group TeamMTL with a Team Member Sponsorship of product and expertise.  The team consisting of university students from architecture, engineering and design faculties of both McGill and Concordia will compete globally to build a net zero energy, sustainable, green energy home for The 2018 Solar Decathlon in Dezhou, China.

McGill University was invited to the 2018 China competition and later teamed up with multiple departments from Concordia to form TeamMTL. Combining technology and concepts of sustainable building practices, teams design and build one or two-storey, 1290-2150 ft2 fully functional, comfortable, energy generating and conserving homes. Each home is to fully facilitate all necessary household appliances and include an electric vehicle and accompanying charging station.

"This project has been nothing short of inspirational," explains Michael Jemtrud, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, McGill University. "We are witnessing the collaboration of diverse talents, together with new age materials and technology as it gives shape to the future of housing."

TeamMTL's design takes into consideration the evolution of the modern family unit and what their social dynamics will entail.  Flexibility and adaptability, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and ecological awareness are among the top factors driving their Passive House inspired design. TeamMTL has coined this project as Deep-Performance Dwelling to reflect this comprehensive understanding of sustainability and resilience inclusive of the socio-cultural as well as energy performance. Multiple prefabricated housing designs were proposed to facilitate the scenarios surrounding the new urban family dynamics of work, play, live, intergenerational cohabitation and extended family.

The in-kind contributions from ROXUL extended to include products from the stone wool insulation and roofing lines. Comfortbatt®, Safe'n'Sound®, Monoboard® and Cavityrock® products were used in prefabricated wall and roof panels helping the team achieve highly insulated and air tight designs synonymous with that of passive housing.

Taking it one step further than contributing product to the sponsorship, The ROXUL Specifications Team and Building Science Team have worked directly with TeamMTL to identify the best possible solutions, optimal product applications and consultations to perform thermal bridging and hygrothermal modelling of the wall and roof assemblies.  This modelling will help ensure an energy efficient building envelope and durability suitable for China's northern climate. "ROXUL Insulation, prefab construction and Passive Housing go very well together.  With so much insulation and very little heat loss, there will be very little space cooling or heating required to maintain comfortable temperatures," says Vincent Chiu, Building Science Specialist at ROXUL Inc.

TeamMTL is the only Canadian team to compete in the 2018 Decathlon. They will dismantle the home currently housed at Concordia's Loyola campus and ship to China where they will have only 18 days to successfully reassemble. Entries will be judged on 10 criteria of architecture, market appeal, engineering, communications, innovation, comfort zone, appliances, home life, commuting and energy performance. To learn more about TeamMTL, visit www.teammtl.ca. 

About ROXUL Inc.

ROXUL is part of the ROCKWOOL Group.  With five factories and plants and 1,000 employees, we are North America's largest stone wool producer, offering advanced building insulation, industrial and technical solutions. 

At the ROCKWOOL Group, we are committed to enriching the lives of everyone who experiences our solutions.  Our expertise is perfectly suited to tackling many of today's biggest sustainability and development challenges, from energy consumption and noise pollution to fire resilience, water scarcity and flooding.  Our range of products reflects the diversity of the world's needs, supporting our stakeholders in reducing their own carbon footprint along with way. 

Stone wool is a versatile material and forms the basis for all of our businesses.  With approximately, 10,600 passionate colleagues in more than 35 countries, we are the world leader in stone wool solutions, from building insulation to acoustic ceilings, external cladding systems to horticultural solutions, engineered fibers for industrial use to insulation for the process industry, marine and offshore.  For more information, visit: www.rockwoolgroup.com.

SOURCE Roxul Inc.