#solar architecture

[acarefullycuratedmess]

L. Hodges Passive Solar Home (Ames, Iowa)

Designed by David A. Block AIA

[ancientstuff]

Solar architecture choreographs light and shadow across an ancient Macedonian tomb

Athens-based independent scholar Demetrius Savvides has shown that in Amphipolis, northern Greece, where the Kastas Monument rises in tiers

Such wonderful results. This kind of manipulation of landscape and architecture fascinates me.

[rethinkingthefuture1]

An overview of Solar architecture

An approach to design known as solar architecture strongly emphasises utilising solar energy to produce energy efficient structures

[lakeseasky]

Solar house by Mike Munson, in Hill NH, comment by Susan Roaf

[motherearthnewsmag]

A Restored Creole Cottage That Stays Naturally Cool

By Robyn Griggs Lawrence

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Madeleine’s meticulously restored 19th-century Creole cottage in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, a few years back when we photographed it for Natural Home & Garden. Madeleine and her partner, musician Mark de Basile, poured a lot of love and a lot of sweat into Maison Madeleine, built using a heavy timber frame technique calledcolombage and filled in with bousillage, a type of wattle-and-daub made with local mud and cured Spanish moss. I spent two warm spring nights inMadeleine’s bed-and-breakfast guest house, falling asleep to the sound of tree frogs, watching the birds as they alighted from the rookery nearby, and basking in the comfort of the home she’s created. I completely understand Madeleine’s hesitancy to leave this little paradise. “Friends try to get me to go out on the weekends, but they know I’ll refuse,” she says. “This is a much better place to be than most places they want me to go.” [Keep reading....]

[motherearthnewsmag]

Cool Without AC? 3 Homes in the South Prove It Can Be Done

By Robyn Griggs Lawrence

Before we had air conditioning, homebuilders employed a number of intuitive strategies to keep homes cool naturally. Natural ventilation, hefty thermal mass and evaporative cooling are all ancient techniques that are now considered an “alternative” known as passive cooling. It’s a fast-growing trend that’s not likely to go away soon. “People want to be able to work and live at home, without air conditioning,” says Steve Badanes, an architecture professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. [Keep reading....]

[motherearthnewsmag]

Passive House vs. Passive Solar: A Continuing Discussion

By Richard Schmidt

In the April/May 2014 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS, we ran Passive House: Beyond Passive Solar in Ask Our Experts that discussed the difference between “passive solar design” and “Passive House design.” In response, we received a letter from architect Richard Schmidt of San Luis Obispo, Calif., questioning a number of points in the article. We’ve posted his letter below, and we’d like to hear your thoughts as well. [Read the letter.]

[rjzimmerman]

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