One of our favorite events on the National Mall is the biennial Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, where colleges from around the world compete to build the most energy efficient houses. We’re in an in-between year, so let’s turn to the European Solar Decathlon and congratulate Virginia Tech, announced yesterday as the first place winner for their entry, Lumenhaus. As the website notes, “Inspired in the Farnsworth house by Mies Van Der Rohe, Lumenhaus house presents an open distribution that connects the inhabitants of the house … with the external environment.” Virginia Tech finished a disappointing 13th in the 2009 U.S. Solar Decathlon, but as the student in this tour of the 2009 version of Lumenhaus notes, “The motto goes: One sun, 20 teams, we all win.”