Virginia's sliding panels

The big outdoor feature from Team Virginia was sliding screen doors, seen here close up, which served many functions. The doors provide privacy for people inside, as shutters do, while allowing light in. Using a "thermal mass," the doors also stored heat from the sun that could be released later in the day. The building is equipped with a weather station on the roof that collects data. That information is fed to a home-automation system, which opens and closes the screen doors to adjust for changes in the weather. The system can be manually operated, too.