It’s called the Techstyle Haus, and in this case you can learn a lot from the name. Techstyle because its walls and roof are textile-based; Haus because it meets (and greatly exceeds) Passivhaus standards – and maybe also in recognition that a third of its design team was German. The Techstyle Haus grew from a collaboration between the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Brown University and was entered in the solar house design competition Solar Decathlon Europe 2014. With air-to-liquid heat pumps taking care of climate control and extensive utilization of both photovoltaic and thermal solar energy collection, the Techstyle actually creates half again as much energy as it uses. You can easily tell it’s a concept building from the outside, and the 825-square-foot interior looks both innovative and perfectly livable, with lots of space wrapped around a central utility core that holds the bathroom, kitchen, storage, and an extra bed on top. All that and the Techstyle didn’t even finish in the top half of the competition! You can find the winner and a list of other entrants here.
h/t Tiny House Talk