How This Midcentury Modern House Harnesses the Sun

[@MKEAnarchytect]

This one took me back to my undergrad days doing net-zero design. I think it's really fascinating how many residential projects these days try to brute force green design practices with panels and finishes while almost completely ignoring site and orientation when those factors are so powerful in this conversation.

[@HantaleMedia]

It'd be interestng to review the cost/benefit tradeoff of solar and net-zero design. Most new houses where I live are thrown up as cheaply as possible: Templates with optional extras. Little regard for the efficient design principles you'll learn about. What are the savings like compared to the higher cost of the home? What's the timescale of that investment? etc. Those nitty gritty details we don't often get to see in a formal video.

[@kschleic9053]

@@HantaleMedia the only mandatory increased expense in a passive solar design is in the design and construction labor, as fixed windows are the same $/sqft as mid tier siding materials.

[@NathanWeberTheDesigner]

@@HantaleMedia I've built a couple of residential projects like this. There's a... not insignificant.. construction cost increase for sure. But my clients have reported more than enough energy savings to cover the increased loan due to sustainable design. I was one of the student leaders on the 2013 Solar Decathlon home 'Desert Sol' and started my first company immediately after college. So I've have quite a few people come to me for this type of thing in my professional life. Most of the time they never makes it past design, but sometimes they do. The clients who are living in those homes are all satisfied and see financial benefit. But I've never seen hard proof from them (like energy bills or anything), so take this with a grain of salt. I've always wanted to find a client who would let me install sensors for post-construction data gathering, but have never felt comfortable asking (yet).

[@metricstormtrooper]

Site orientation is generally for those who have the $ to buy a block of land large enough to take advantage of that orientation, and who are building in an area where the local council will Not mandate which direction you home faces.

[@HantaleMedia]

@@NathanWeberTheDesigner That's mostly what I've seen in the research I've done. It appears to be roughly 'cost effective', but you definitely get diminishing returns as well. There was a good overview by some texas-based home designers somewhere on youtube that's worth a look.

[@christopherpardell4418]

My grandfather’s house had a cool trick for keeping food fresh, built back before refrigerators. There was a vertically oriented cabinet built into the Kitchen cabinetry. When you opened it, the shelves were all wooden grids. Stick your head in and you saw that the top and bottom of the cabinet were open; on the bottom, into the basement/crawl space of the house, on the top into the attic space, where there was a large Venturi vent to allow hot air accumulating in the attic to escape. When you stuck your hand into the cabinet, you could always feel a gentle breeze blowing up, pulling cool air from the crawl space up into the attic. So, say you wanted to keep a head of lettuce or something like that fresher for longer, and your literal icebox simply did not have the room, and anyway was too cold. You cut the head of lettuce in half and placed each half on a plate and put it in the cabinet, then you poured a little water into the plate and covered it with a cloth. The water would wick up into the cloth, and the constant breeze blowing in the closed cabinet would cause the water in the cloth to evaporate, dropping the temperature inside the cloth by 15 or 20 degree. My grandfather told me all the houses built back when his were built had such cabinets, but most people in the 1960s didn’t know what they were for and so they closed off the top and bottom and put in normal shelving. In the 1960’s he still used his to make produce last longer.

[@PlanetIscandar]

*Christopher Pardell* A very interesting trick that surely does not originate from "barbarians". I bet, not many people paid attention to your comment.

[@firstname-qq3xp]

Wow cool!

[@rx0102]

wouldn't bugs from crawlspace get in

[@christopherpardell4418]

@@rx0102 there was a screen at the bottom and at the top. So, no bugs larger than ants would get in. And, back then, you just sprinkled borax powder on the edges of the shelf and that would kill any ants that got in. I mean, Its not as good a solution as a refrigerator. But back in the 1800’s when the house was built its was useful for keeping fruits and veggies fresh longer. My father was an appliance repairman, and had given my grandfather an old fridge that someone had abandoned and my dad repaired. It was one of those really old style that had the circular condenser coils on top. But even in 1960 my grandfather Still had an old icebox where you could still buy blocks of ice from a vending machine down the block and stick them in there to keep stuff cold.

[@luxill0s]

The piano cover of "House of the Rising Sun" in the beginning was a nice touch. This video is so fascinating, I always thought it was interesting to find clever ways to keep houses heated/cooled without ever needing a typical hvac system.

[@johnl5316]

I thought it suggested the need for brothels to have more sunlight.

[@salty6pence672]

Check out the cover songs done for the show WestWorld on HBO ( Westworld Piano songs) They are amazing works of art. All available on KZbin. they are played by Ramin Djawadi.

[@garymccallum4152]

The Passive Solar Energy Book published in 1979 has all the information you deed to design a solar home. These days with the low price of Solar PV systems it is easy to design a net zero home

[@Xaac1609]

My parents actually did something similar when designing their home. The Balcony railing on the south side is intentionally build to allow climbing plants to use it. In the sommer, these plants grow leaves that throw shade on the windows below, while in Winter all the leaves are gone and the Sun can easily heat up the House. This seriously saves quite some energy.

[@darksentinel082]

That sounds not only really smart but really pretty in the summer as well

[@RialuCaos]

Very clever use of nature. If only such considerations were more widespread.

[@paolopasaol9700]

🐻&🦝: Did someone say food source?

[@susyguima]

@@daviddou1408 grapes, kiwis, passionfruits, chayote, etc

[@steamedclam1]

@@susyguima 😋 my stomach’s growling now

[@walterpleyer261]

Some smart peron once said that a smart building isn't necessarily one with lots of electronics etc, but a smart layout from the beginning, so you don't need the fancy stuff in the first place. This building is a great example for this approach.

[@62Cristoforo]

As with most things, the less moving parts (and electronics) the less chance of breakdowns.

[@brentgreeff1115]

I have put an incredible amount of thought into this lately - I am in Thailand and was living in a house where the bedroom wall faces the afternoon sun. - its a very thin brick - by 5pm the wall - on the inside - is so hot to the touch, its unbelievable. - the house then bakes until 3am - so everyone runs their aircons all day & night. - its an apartment building and electricity is included in the rent everyone pays - so... the landlord pays the aircon bill for 12 units. - this is not an outlier. - baffles the mind how such little thought goes into house design. Have you ever noticed that Japanese houses have an entrance area where you can take off your shoes & there are storage cupboard so you don't have to take all kinds of junk into the house if its just coming out again? - most buildings are just walls - and you can choose what colour you paint them - the lack of care for its occupants is shocking. - I can prove my point with a simple example. - how many people want a cold shower? - would it not make a lot more sense to have HOT & WARM tap in the shower? - then you are not mixing boiling hot & freezing water - then the hot water does not have to be so hot it can take your skin off - which happens to many many people including children every day. - 30C ( for warm ) and 50C ( for hot ) means you can have a huge mixing range to find the perfect temp.

[@strider_hiryu850]

the confusion of "smart" design with tech is truly fascinating

[@bradevans7935]

@@62Cristoforo Exactly. The KISS principle at work.

[@udishomer5852]

Passive heating and cooling designs were used for at least 3,000 years. We seem to have forgotten them these days, as most buildings are designed with zero regard to the climate, sun and wind.

[@busharmann]

The complete opposite approach from where I am. I work as an architect in Thailand which is very hot and high humidity in all seasons. The approach we go for is limited to blocking out the heat and extra ventilation flow. Facing our opening at north side and solid wall at the south. Lifting our floor to stay away from the ground to create air barrier for humidity when floor start release heat in the evening.

[@idromano]

I'm from Brazil and I feel you. I always find it fun how north America and Europe call a nice weather "warm" and love big windows facing the sun

[@busharmann]

@@idromano the adopting of glass box trend here is a huge problem

[@cchangg]

I'm a Taiwanese living in Canada.... I found both world of building technique super interesting.

[@g0d5m15t4k3]

Yeah, each site needs its own design specifications for its relative weather. I super dig the idea of designing a home for where it is actually going to reside. Problems happen when you just chose from a catalog and completely ignore where it's going to be built.

[@busharmann]

@@g0d5m15t4k3 That's the problem with modern houses in SEA people want those shiny glass box and dump AC on it.

[@StephenCoorlas]

Architecture shaped by functionality; a timeless design principle. This is the good stuff.

[@Jan-hf3ip]

Also so much prettier. Love the house.

[@Peglegkickboxer]

It's almost like we havea whole field dedicated to it called engineering.

[@firehorsewoman414]

@@Peglegkickboxer hahaha

[@StephenCoorlas]

@@Peglegkickboxer Almost...

[@danaroyer3018]

Our house has some of these designs, including a foot of concrete underneath the section of floor receiving winter sun. On sunny winter days, the temperature in these rooms is always 2-5 degrees above the thermostat set point. So nice! At night we have shoji screens to pull across the glass, which helps with thermal retention.

[@tomsitzman3952]

These ideas were used by German farmers living along the Volga River in the Kanton of Frank in the 1800's. Their homes were dug about 4 feet below grade level. So you stepped down about four steps into the house. The walls were made of a mixture of mud and straw with no north facing windows. The south facing windows did not allow indirect summer sun. In the winter the sun reached about 20 feet into the rooms. A thermal mass Russian style stove kept the houses comfortable in the winter, using very little fuel. A few of theses homes were built on farms in Nebraska in the l1890's. They were said to be very warm in the winter and cool in the summer heat.

[@gigel99324]

This used to be common knowledge. Amazing how people today dump fortunes into homes with windows facing north, then spend insane amounts to heat them up

[@jacklynnmjackson2383]

Idk, seems like common sense to me.

[@mr.butterworth]

@@gigel99324the advent of mechanical heating and air-conditioning changed a lot. At that point, the design of homes became more about the view outdoors and whimsy in general.

[@gigel99324]

@@mr.butterworth but the cost of building a home went way up. Not many afford a badly built home when it comes to paying for heating or cooling them. There's a bunch of prebuilt homes I pass sometimes - all built facing the Northern access road with a single South window, the opaque window one. Amazing. Not to mention they probably feel like a crypt with close to no sunlight. Yuck.

[@howedeblaizes9356]

My BFF his family heritage was exactly this. Only one U S destination for the Volga River Germans, which was Omaha NE.

[@sarah-jowatt-linnett5628]

Your videos have made me realise just how much 'mid century modern' style was developed wayyy before the 50s.

[@christopherstephenjenksbsg4944]

All of these principles are so basic to good building, but so often ignored these days. It seems like many architects and their clients think that modern HVAC systems can make a space comfortable using brute force. Not only is this incredibly wasteful and expensive; it often doesn't work. As an example, a friend of mine worked in a tall office building in the Long Island City section of Queens built in the late 1980s. The building was sheathed entirely in glass, with architect-designed mylar shades in the south and west-facing spaces. Despite this, these spaces were impossible to work in even in the winter because of the heat gain. No amount of air conditioning could mitigate the problem. Those spaces are now used mainly as storage and utility rooms, or left empty. The Schweikher House has very much the same vibe as many of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses. I wonder if they influenced each other.

[@michaelcrockis7679]

In my experience far too many modern residential houses aren't touched with a hand of an architect. Clients hire designers instead. So the picture sells although no one thinks how it will work in real life. And more often than not it doesn't.

[@altosack]

@@michaelcrockis7679 - I agree with your point, but the words you use have a different meaning to me. “Design” implies proper functionality to me, and “architect”, to me, evokes more “art” than design. Yes, I know “design” has been partially co-opted to mean form rather than function, but we must resist this! (As a mechanical design engineer, I _may_ have both some bias and a dog in this fight.)

[@chlly]

@@altosack I think design is a more generalized term, whereas architect is a more specific niche within the umbrella of design. Designing always requires an input or parameter of some piece to unfold, so this could be for 'form' or for 'function'. I would always argue that even the most 'form' end results of designing are still performing a baseline function.

[@hexidecimark]

@@michaelcrockis7679 Designers? Hardly. It's far 'better' to just use the mathematically best house for ratio of money in to selling points out, and then copy-paste it across every biome universally in a maze of cul-de-sacs

[@Ghost0fDawn]

I feel that this in large part is going to contribute to our energy and climate concerns. Regions having blackouts in the winter because every house in the region is trying to brute force HVAC itself to being warm, hoping it doesn't break down in the summer so no one bakes in their own home. Imagine how much energy could be saved if homes were built with these natural methods of transferring heat using science instead.

[@Ziegque]

I was incredibly privileged in the mid 1990s to receive a private tour of the Schweickher house. What a exceptional environment to live in. I was impressed on how the use of wood on the interior carried over to the shower, which was lined with cypress, I believe. Thank you for showcasing this beautiful home and its history.

[@stevemasonwilder9]

More vids like this please! I grew up in a passive solar heated house and can’t understand why there aren’t more new buildings that implement passive heating and cooling.

[@idromano]

my wild guess is because it's harder to standardise. It's easier to make cookie-cutter houses and buildings and force HVAC on them

[@MindBlowerWTF]

@@idromano yeah, here all new builds are forced to use like 6 inches insulating boards from polystyrene and 3 pane windows with heat pumps, solar panels and forced ventilation. It is very expensive to build like this.

[@mariannerichard1321]

I grew up in a mid 19th century farm house (c. 1850), the porch on the South facing façade was acting like the hang over part of the video. The sun would shine in on winter and not shine in at all on summer. Although, all the rest of the heat distribution mechanics were absent, it still helped a lot to keep the temperature even.

[@nacoran]

I keep waiting for the phase change solar mass to hit the market. I saw something on it a few years back. It used sealed wax beads in the dry wall. The wax was formulated to go through a phase change at a specific temperature (near room temperature). That let it absorb a huge amount of energy whenever the room was above that temperature and then radiate it back when the temperature dropped. It took up much less space than traditional thermal mass and by adjusting the mix when making wax you could adjust the temperature the wall tried to keep the room at.

[@62Cristoforo]

Fascinating concept

[@TheRealPlato]

Imagine nicking the wall with a chair leg and all your insulation drains out into a puddle

[@AlaskaSkidood]

Not sure if you have seen or heard of the Cold Climate Housing Reaserch Center (CCHRC) in Fairbanks, Alaska, but they have done a lot of research and experimentation with homes and buildings using passive solar to provide a more comfortable and affordable living space for people in the Arctic. They have a KZbin channel with videos that go in to some detail on these homes. You may also be interested in their office building which was built not only as a work space but also a testbed for some for the technologies and building techniques that have been pioneered by their work over the last 20 or so years. This video reminded me of some of their work regarding optimizing roof overhangs to allow 3 seasons of sunlight into a space and shade out the hot and constant summer sun. Keep up the good work!

[@davecisneros5285]

This method is used in cob houses. In studying them I read the winter sun at noon is the same angle as summer moon at midnight and vice versa. This was a way to get sight lines in order for opposing seasons though they are 6 months away. In addition to that, they would build just to the east of deciduous trees to get additional shading in the summer and sun in the winter. Natural shading is a huge cooling factor in the summer.

[@adam__smith]

I visited northern Norway in early January a few years ago. Although the sun never rose, the full moon circled the horizon in the same way that the sun would in summer - as you described. It was beautiful, but a little disorienting (literally and figuratively).

[@JamilaMusayeva]

Your channel is a gem! Just found it to today and fell in love with your content immediately.

[@emorysumi]

So happy the algorithm showed me this video. Thanks for making this awesome content.

[@EnnesArms]

I’ve heard of the solar home concept from Frank Lloyd Wright’s “solar hemicycle” Jacobs II house. It’s so interesting to see how other architects employed the concept in their own way!

[@manuelka15]

I saw a bit of Jacobs II in Uni and never thought it might have a relation to the sun. Such awesome content in this channel and youtube nowadays, makes me feel as such an ignorant! but I'm glad I can learn more about these concepts now.

[@rbasket8]

Solar home comes from every popular Architecture, not from XX century. All around the globe, popular architecture had used in an intelligent way the natural factors. The problem is that during some period, specially in the "new world" people forgot that and built almost the same everywhere.

[@jeffwhyte8205]

Glad you were able to visit Stewart. This has been one of my favorite houses for decades. In fact, I had my architectural studio on the property for over for over 20 years. I was the building architect and assisted with all its restoration during that time. Curiously, your comments about the house are almost verbatim from the tour I developed and gave to hundreds of people. I can only guess that it was offer to you by the current staff. I really hope you enjoyed seeing it. Wish your could have come while Martyl still lived there. You would have noticed a distinct difference. Keep up the good work. Love your videos. Cheers.

[@kevinn1158]

That Schweikher House is gorgeous. I love the warm materials used and how the home creates a courtyard. 1 story homes also show a sensitivity and modesty. They never scream look at me, I was made to impress you. It also let's nature shine. It's like the house says, I fit into your domain. I respect nature. Thanks for the great video Stewart.

[@friendlyfire7861]

I see what you mean, mostly, but I don't think the nature of this kind of design represents an effort to fit in or respect nature.

[@tiagojordao4105]

@@friendlyfire7861 Neither modesty. People are clueless about the cost of these houses. The sofa at 09:05 is made of thousands of dollars in wood, not to mention the whole house is expensive wood and bricks. And the house is huge too, although most people apparently don't notice that.

[@shesthebethest]

Pretty sure that window orientation and a thermal mass floor is exactly what they do in earthships! So cool.

[@rocketjim54]

Stewart, thank you for sharing this video. Great topic. As it relates to the Schweikher House, I was struck by the materials used (brick, wood and glass) and the level and refinement of the work. So, I checked their website, checked the schedule and drove down for a visit this morning. What a wonderful find! Dan Fitzpatrick led me on a tour of this gem. I am not familiar but this is a masterpiece of architecture and engineering. A masterpiece, yet, a sublime one. Too much to describe but I will return. Thanks again for all of your videos, this one specifically. I shall return to Schaumburg soon.

[@mikegilbert5434]

As soon as I saw the image I yelled “Schweikehr House”!😂 Truly my dream house with plenty of space for living and then that amazing work space for all the woodworking and crafts.

[@Ubi2447]

Yes! I love that you're going to locations like this and exploring the architecture on site. What a stunning house. Can't wait for more, Stewart!

[@MbahMu9829]

I took a semester regarding this subject in the architect school. it is a powerful knowledge indeed. but most architect forget or ignore it and opt for electrical/mechanical means to control light and temperature instead

[@scientic1337]

Hello everyone undergrad student from Turkey here. There are more techniques in the sense of utilizing the sun. Especially in the middle east and north africa regions. Certain dome styles use different pressured airs (pressure, created by the flow of air) to ventilate, or the sun chimneys to create airflow yet again. Very good video also thank you for doing this.

[@brunotvrs]

I'm a very... demotivated architect considering a career change, but those videos, "basic" as they are (intended for non-architects), make me smile and feel glad I went to an architecture school, as limited and flawed an experience as it was. Thanks, Stewart!

[@MrYoubrian]

As a non architect, who is just a carpenter from Idaho, this is my passion. If I won the lottery I would spend the rest of my life with this puzzle- If you combine these ideas along side a micro home and make it as cheap as possible to build using the materials available onsite..... then there is NO REASON we can't house all of the homeless within 10 years. You should check out this school design by a New York architect- 'An AD100 award-winning, sustainable school in Jaisalmer that aims to empower women" - by NY architect Diane Kellogg

[@pamelah6431]

I love homes that use clever "cheat codes" to beat nature instead of relying on electronic gadgetry. Very cool video.

[@WestExplainsBest]

Thank you for a great connection I can make in my math classes! Amazing application of angles!

[@JilSoniaMcDonald]

Absolutely brilliant! I'm an interior designer & have great respect for architects!

[@benjamindavenport1857]

Huge fan of your videos, have to be honest this is one of my favorites because passive design and siting is one of my personal favorite topics. It makes me think about Alvar Aalto (especially his choices for the siting of the MIT dormitory) and Lewis Mumford criticisms of the UN Building. Random thoughts: I would be really curious to see you do a video on how despite Modernism being seen as "international" it also grew out of masters in what Kenneth Frampton called critical regionalism (e.g. Aalto, Gaudi, Horta). Another topic that I think could be really interesting would be the design of "middle density" housing and how architects balance that. Or, similarly, design approaches for really small lots. Not that you don't clearly have enough good ideas coming out. Anyway, thanks for making me get a weekly dose of arch hist.

[@willhannah5902]

It's very interesting to see the comparison between Illinois and Australian architecture which focuses less on the heating instead the cooling. A house is to be fully openable essentially just a roof for it to passively work in summer. Glenn Murcutt, Peter Stutchbury, Rick Leplastrier are good examples. That being said it still needs to accommodate for some cold winters. Loved the vid

[@VanillaMacaron551]

All of Australia still gets winters. I had to go and buy a heater when I lived in Mackay, Queensland. The entire southern half of the country has cold winters (not like Minnesota or Illinois) and is very suitable to solar passive design. There are houses in cold Canberra (near the Snowy Mountains) that need no heating because they can capture daylight heat and sun in winter. But winter sun coming into your house is beneficial even in tropical environments. Summers are getting too hot now for just natural cooling or breezes to work - especially considering insects etc. Better off incorporating well-insulated spaces with aircon and running it off solar power. Modern air con is v efficient and cheap to run. Interestingly my almost 100-year-old Queenslander house is incredibly efficient and comfortable using these techniques. And the north-facing deck makes you feel like a lizard who just wants to bask in the sun all day during winter.

[@hscott3417]

My question is, that if you walked around with an IR camera in one of these older solar homes, how “sealed” is it? Or are the deficiencies in the construction (gaps, old glass, improper fitment) even out weighed by the “efficiency” they have utilizing the Sun? It seems, as modern “green” design goes, it’s the engineers world for hvac… How well can I contain a space, in order to most precisely manipulate the conditions inside it. As opposed to actual symbiosis with the environment the building is being built in. PS love your content!

[@byronarnold9747]

I think it comes down to integrated design principles and when you get the engineer involved. From my perspective as an engineering student it’s possible to have these conversations early in the design process and to establish the systems around the design. If we want to make a house/building that utilizes as many natural benefits to reduce the need for mechanical systems to run, some HVAC designers would be thrilled to face that challenge. You would spend more time on the exact design of the fenestrations and spend more money upfront for windows/other materials, but you would run some analysis to try and prove the long term effectiveness and cost savings. You also impact lighting designers with the way the light flows which might reduce the need for artificial light and reduce heat gain in that sense. Hopefully this helped or aids in a conversation! I love these videos as well and I’m a architectural engineer with a focus in structures. Our worlds are one in the same! We each just carry a different lens.

[@tomsitzman3952]

It has been my experience lining in one of these homes is that modern sealed double pain windows makes a world of difference.

[@jphickory522]

I agree David..

[@austindmeyer]

I've been in this house on a 90 degree day and with all of the windows shut and it was a probably about 70 inside. Very comfortable.

[@lycopodtakeover1692]

Thank you for the empty cup comment, saved me some anxiety... Lovely video, an excellent topic.

[@CetHommeCuisine]

The amount of information - wisdom, even - distilled in this short video is astounding. Thank you.

[@elanthys]

I love Midcentury Modern houses, such clean lines... This may be a precursor but it's just as great, thanks for showing it to us!

[@practicalporters]

We built our super insulated home in Fairanks Alaska with sun heat and 8 inches of insulation. (Rock wool and blue board foam is the best). We spent 1 week finding the perfect spot to face the sun in winter time on a hillside property. We have 3 large 4x4 fixed pain windows facing winter south. This has been 3 years of payoff as we have stunning mountian views along with vitamin D and massive amounts of warmth. The long 6 months of winter are very bearable now compared to 15 yrs living on the flat land in North Pole. For summer 24 hr sun: We installed cross breeze operable windows on the E/W sides and heavy shades for summer on the south side. My wife designed it with an expert sourdough builder down the street who showed us all the things 30 years of "wish he would have done but didn't ". So far we have no regrets. Cheers from Alaska.

[@itsokie4274]

thank you! im 14 and i really like architecture and craftsmanship, i cannot tell you how much your videos make my day not to mention you elaborate efficiently!

[@adrianzhang1706]

This reminds me of a woman who gave a ted talk on her architectural designs involving curled bimetallic sheets. If the sun warmed up the sheet, one end would expand more than the other, unfurling the metal to shade the building. As it cooled down, it would unfurl to let in the light.

[@62Cristoforo]

Isn’t that how a thermostat works? Bi-metal strips of two different materials with different coefficients of expansion?

[@rabbit251]

It appears that other architects still apply these principles. My father's house in Wisconsin has a passive solar room on the south side of the house. It doesn't have the grates, but does have solar curtains to keep out the cold at night in winter and the heat out in summer. My father also put in two wall fans to pull the warm air out. In winter my father uses his furnace only once in the morning. He built his house in 1979-80. I was always surprised that this didn't incorporated in every house.

[@josephhuether1184]

Recently visited Stratford Hall (1738) on a hot day in Virginia and was struck by (a) how cool the interior felt and (b) how good the naturally harvested light was within rooms with relatively small windows. Glass is set close to the exterior surfaces and the thick walls with splayed jambs do a phenomenal job at capturing and distributing natural light. I could easily read 20’ from exterior walls with no artificial lighting. Very balanced.

[@savak1994]

I have been looking into this subject for past week. It was enlightening to see your explanation on this.

[@acidfuzzpedals9986]

I used to have a MCM home in Midland, MI designed by Jackson B Hallett, 1907 Sylvan Ln. It was designed with the same passive energy principles. No west facing windows, other than one very slim window in the corner of the office. The south facing side is ~all glass, but has an overhang which blocks direct sun in summer, but allows full sun in winter, when the sun is lower in the sky. In winter the direct sun heats the extensive brick work in the middle of the home, which acts as a thermal battery. The home was also designed around large trees adjacent to it, which provide shade in summer, and act as wind blocks in winter. When I purchased it, I assumed my energy bills would be much higher with all the glass. They were extremely low for a home of it's size. These passive energy management design principles work well.

[@korratheaustralianshepherd5804]

love the classic take on House of the Rising Sun during the intro. Amazing architecture work too!

[@NadazRez]

The curator probably mentioned to you about The House of Tomorrow's current location and it's condition; so it's rather hard to get tours in and around it. Though it is located near some other World's Fair houses in Beverly Shores, Indiana. A good checking out of them and the shore if you're ever in The Region.

[@piraterubberduck6056]

I love solar passive house design. I started looking at ideas for this alongside rammed earth construction. There is current research into using both in the construction of affordable housing in Canada. I hope solar passive design becomes used more again.

[@62Cristoforo]

Arkopia, Winnipeg

[@garymccallum4152]

Find a copy of "The Passive Solar Energy Book" published in 1979 and available on line

[@warrengans1346]

Sometimes I feel a "like" under appreciates a video. This is one of those times. Thank you, please keep this coming!

[@jimpeters3328]

I’m currently designing a remodel to my home in the PNW and came across this wonderful video… thank you!! I want to lift half of my living room roof to create a shed roof with transome windows, high ceilings and a large 3 pane window facing SE to capture the winter sun deep into my living room while designing the overhang to shade from late spring on. This video really helps me to understand this geometry better and to know more about how effective it will be. Thx again!

[@kevmagill5163]

This house may be a solar technological blueprint...but it's just freaking beautiful too...it's exactly the vibe I respond to, the wood, textiles, art, ceramics, rugs, furniture, layout, visual warmth...everything...it's 👏

[@nicon9120]

I loved this video. These homes showcase what design is all about. As an Illinoisan Im definitely going to check out these spots.

[@jimherchak7505]

After 90 years, this example of passive solar technology is still working perfectly with no extra effort from the home owner. In comparison, photovoltaics panels are finicky, need maintenance, need replacing every couple decades, and their savings are debatable. A new home owner might remove or neglect a PV system, but passive solar features are simply part of a home, and continue to work unnoticed. Without fan fare, passive solar simply makes makes homes more comfortable at less cost. Good video.

[@GeoRedtick]

I have always wanted to design and build a passive heating home. I kind of wish I would have gone to architecture school, home architecture has also interested me so much. I love this house, thank you for sharing.

[@joeabreu7685]

im a cuban architect student and this video is very powerful for me despite having such a different climate than ILL. great work stewart!

[@Ursaminor31]

We learned very little about this in architecture school but enough to know it’s possible obviously. So much analog and passive skill is more valid than the mech systems of today. Thing is how to develop the concepts and operating principles into. Ore diverse forms instead of the typical flat or canted roof and opposing masonry wall. Thank you for sharing.

[@BenBreard]

I love the Barwa chair at the beginning. Those are the best and I just picked up another one last weekend. Great video!

[@bakamund]

Real smart! I like how the sun angle is limited, so if you're standing upright you shouldn't get blinded by the sun directly shining into your eyes.

[@james_robnett]

This sounds great and I have a porch I built with the same principle but it's kind of wrong. What you'll find is that it's great on Dec 22nd, the sun reaches across the room. And then you remember that you haven't actually hit winter yet and you watch rather sadly as January leads to February and the sun line is marching back across the floor and by early March it's still butt cold and you have almost no sunlight. 30 degrees would be a better angle than 24.5. You'll still block summer sun but you'll get better thermal gain from early November through March.

[@MrNiceGuyMEGA08]

It's a complicated subject for sure with some nuance. Every place is unique. The thermal mass (floor) can carry the heat back through entropy whereby reducing the need for direct exposure. If you look closely, the floor has rugs which reduces the solar gain anyways, so there would have to be a significant amount of thermal mass. While your argument makes sense, it's hard to make a simple statement since we don't know so many factors. (Did they account for this limitation and oversize the thermal mass?) Anyway, it's a good observation, but be careful with assumptions is all I'm trying to say. (And your comment is a great solution to reduce the thermal mass, btw as long as the summer gain isn't too much in the hotter months. A balance that definitely needs consideration.)

[@GeeCeeAte]

Just input your house into 3D Studio Max. Add a sunlight. Then you can see exactly how the sun comes through your window at any time or day of the year. That’s how I designed my house.

[@fleaniswerkhardt4647]

" . . . . . 30 degrees would be a better angle than 24.5" Isn't it entirely dependent on the latitude you're on?

[@james_robnett]

@@fleaniswerkhardt4647 Yes and no, certainly the optimal angle depends on latitude but for anywhere in the northern hemisphere where you're calculating how much overhang is ok 30 degrees will provide more sunlight for more of the winter months while still ensuring complete shade in the summer months.

[@fleaniswerkhardt4647]

@@james_robnett ok. I'm in the southern hemisphere so the same should apply?

[@mattaudio]

This reminds mine of The Original Green by Steve Mouzon and his book about how we could control comfort the “pre-thermostat era.”

[@blakekennemer1166]

I just wrote a paper about how Usonian style houses were very ahead of their time. The tenants of organic architecture are things that we have come to learn improve mental health like sunlight and natural earth tones.

[@alexgray1905]

Great video ... it is stunning how we have forgotten all this and how we again turned to active technologies exclusively.

[@chrismoody1342]

As an HVACContractor I’ve been involved in quite a few passive solar homes. Believe me they may help offset some of the energy demands for a home but in no way can completely condition a home fully.

[@adannielsen2442]

What if the structure is also set deeper into the ground to benefit from ground source heating

[@wd8005]

@@adannielsen2442There’s no way you can fully condition a house with passive strategies. You can reduce the need for conditioning the house by carefully designing it for passive solar for heat gain during the winter + super insulated to retain heat & it needs to be air tight target 0.6 ACH or lower if you can. Look into the Passive House Standard if you want to know more about it. Certified Passive House is 90% more efficient than conventional built house.

[@akazod]

I live in a passive solar home and it's an amazing experience. I don't think I could ever live in a traditional home again.

[@gonsalomon]

Took this as a solid piece of advice while designing my future home. Also, the low roof slope from another of your videos. Thanks for handing us this valuable data! As for the roof slope: a 4.5m takes a 80cm height for the tangent to get close to that angle. Or a 5.65m and a 1m height. Sorry for the lack of imperial units, metric ones are the way to do things where I live at.

[@wenaadormeo9839]

Loving the design.. using the natural light, it gives mores elegant ..

[@PeterKontor]

I just bought mid century house in North side Chicago and same solution is implemented here as well. Love the solution 👌

[@mrman5066]

Now this is peak architecture. Both heavy thought and design plus art

[@timmmahhhh]

Stuart thank you for this video. Thanks to seeing this my wife and I toured the house today. I had no idea about this architect or his house and it was great to learn about both. Seeing this video and this house are both good refreshers to remind me of these principles from architecture college 32 years ago now.

[@CUBETechie]

Such a beautiful house

[@marcob1729]

My house is passively heated, but it uses brick flooring for thermal mass, which I think is better than wood. The one thing I’ll say about passive solar is that most calculations leave you hanging in the early spring. It’s time distance from the winter solstice means that you’re already well into indirect solar mode by April 1 when you certainly still need heating

[@MindBlowerWTF]

You could still get small amount of solar collectors for warm water and use that water also for heating in autumn and spring. What do you use?

[@bbbmw]

Our last house in Louisiana was designed very similarly. Thin single pane 50s windows and always super comfortable. Situated exactly to match the sun and shade itself in summer and get some heat in the winter. That house was absolutely brilliant.

[@lukeblackford1677]

Yesterday I was searching “earth ships built to code” lol. I am now gonna search “passive solar home designs”. Thank you!

[@swschilke]

Dear Stewart, what about a video/ videos about architecture books? From books to learn things about architecture (text books to all sorts of books) to coffee (or tea) table books to please your eyes.

[@BentoDeSago]

That angle depends on the latitude of your property. So it should change for houses at different latitudes.

[@plugboot]

This blows my mind. I was sucked down the home design rabbit hole, and up pops Schaumburg. I grew up in Mt. Prospect, and I know it’s not great, but we routinely made fun of Schaumburg as being a wasteland, (mostly due to the mall). Thanks for this.

[@jacks7991]

Love seeing you get out and about! Seeing you be invested in the subject matter you’re discussing is very engaging!

[@stewarthicks]

I agree, doing it when I can...

[@peteywheatstraws4909]

It actually reminds me of a lot of elementary schools built back in the 70's. Starting in the early 00's, we built a lot of additions on them things, most had this basic design. Mid Atlantic region of the coastal US, from Maryland down into the Carolinas.

[@Oakz]

One gotta talk about earthships when talking about passive houses. Would love to see some of content about it made by you! Great work! Keep it flowing! cheers

[@tombaker674]

A beautiful house - worthy of publication by Phaidon or GA Detail. I did find some drawings on Art Institute of Chicago web site. Mr. Hicks does a great job of explaining the solar basis for the orientation and proportions. "Design With Climate" is a good resource for further study.

[@mdhazeldine]

i LOVE that house. Pretty amazing how advanced it was for its time. Still looks modern today.

[@lightspeedguru]

Great video! However, I think that it is important to mention that while 24.5 degrees might be perfect for IL, you'll need to calculate this according to your location. Up here in Canada, that angle decreases as the sun is lower all year round. Something else to consider is that the angle changes throughout the year and it might be a mistake to design for the lowest angle since you'll only experience that during a short period each year. Instead, one idea would be to design for the shoulder seasons. Especially in a cooler climate zone, designing for a 45 degree angle might be a good compromise as it will still allow sun to reach the floor in November and March.

[@midcoastprepper3495]

Bingo! I'm here to say the same. In fact, I have many criticisms of this design. I currently own a home that has a similar design concept. And for 9 months out of the year, it's like living in a refrigerator. Absolutely horrendous idea for a home in the North, such as mine, and this design here, to be built to repel the sun for all but the shortest time of the year. The house feels like it's always in the shade. you can't have any plants, very poor natural light, and for some odd reason, the architects who design like this, place windows that do not open. It is far superior to have a house receive the sun, rather than repel it, and to mitigate warmer periods with an OPEN WINDOW! This house looks way too dark. No wonder the owner fled to Yale.

[@hijodelaisla275]

Stewart Hicks, he does a good job with these presentations.

[@eugenetrollip751]

Glad you posted this subject. We have energy efficiency as part of our build regulations (code). Orientation, shading devices, conductance and solar heat gain coefficients are regulated in order to safe energy

[@JoshColletta]

Those of us who grew up in South Florida are well familiar with The Barnacle, the oldest house in Miami-Dade County that is still in its original location (there are older homes, but they've been moved). It was built in 1891 by Ralph Munroe, one of the founders of Coconut Grove and the founder of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Its property sits directly on Biscayne Bay, with a direct clearing through the canopy from the house to the water. It isn't exactly a "solar home" in the sense of what we're talking about here, but it's one of the earliest examples of modern passive cooling that I'm aware of. The main structure is almost exactly a square footprint, oriented northwest to southeast from front to back, with the front and both sides under significant shade. The sun doesn't directly come through the windows in the back, but anyone who has lived in Miami can tell you that doesn't matter. The roof is what really does all the cooling work. In addition to significantly large gable overhangs for shade, the roof structure is a pyramid with a covered vent at the top. That, combined with the seabreeze coming off the bay, pushed warm air up and out of the peak of the ceiling. Anyone who has taken the tour as a school kid (as I did) likely recalls the tour guide's explanation that a solid block of ice, which was used to provide drinking water and cooling for the ice box, would last several days in the central kitchen on the first floor, because it would remain cool enough in that location even in the peak of summer. A third-grade visit to The Barnacle Historic State Park is what got me interested in passive cooling (and heating) in home design, and while it may not be the most perfect method, it is certainly a fantastic example of some of the earliest modern attempts to stay comfortable by working the architecture around the environment.

[@lk7195]

There's examples of vernacular architecture using those techniques and others across the south east. Many haven't survived but cracker houses, dog trot houses, shotgun houses for example all had passive cooling techniques.

[@BuickDoc]

I once owned such a home near Springfield, MO. A pleasant place to live...

[@cupbowlspoonforkknif]

This is the most concise explanation of passive solar I've ever heard! And with a great demo house. I will be sharing this a lot. The only thing I might add is that a stone or concrete floor is usually recommended because they have significantly more thermal mass than wood. It's frustrating to see that every new home in the last 50 years completely ignores solar orientation. It's free heating and cooling at basically no extra cost.

[@denisesaunchegrow4088]

By luck, I bought a 1954 neighborhood home, that is at just the right angle to allow the winter sun to reach almost half way across the living room and 2 of the 3 bedrooms. The roof over hang during the summer then blocks the higher summer sun, which barely enters. In the the PNW here, I love it.

[@stephenmoerlein8470]

Interesting explanation of solar engineering. Thanks for posting.

[@zombieplague1266]

One of the houses that captured my imagination as a child was the Alfred A. Schiller House in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. I believe it was designed by Schweikher & Elting for Alfred Schiller. The house had so few windows on the outside, and yet full of glass on the inside surrounding a central atrium. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, yet still some how got demolished and it broke my heart.

[@sharksport01]

Demolished to extend the backyard of a neighbors dutch colonial.

[@shaunmckenzie5509]

I would love a house like this. Beautiful style and practical too

[@The_Smith]

Nice choice of music. A quick thanks for making these videos, very informative, and entertaining,

[@mwmayerle]

I used to live in one of the Edgewater condo complexes with a completely unobstructed west view. Never ran the heat until around 6PM in the winter.

[@shesthebethest]

I visited my family in a small village in Northern Greece in about 2003 and I was so surprised that one of the walls of my family's home was about 2ft thick while the others were more normal. It was probably the south facing wall that used the thermal mass to warm the house at night, right?

[@stewarthicks]

Probably!

[@VanillaMacaron551]

I'm not an architect but the winter sun flooding in to a room through large windows is just gorgeous and practical. The solar passive houses I know do not block the sun with a wall! Houses can be designed to absorb solar heat into the slab underneath, meaning you get the best of both worlds. Thick walls on the sunny side (south in the northern hemisphere, north in the southern hemisphere) seem like a travesty to me. Orient the house east-west and stick all the cupboards and solid walls on the cold side, and open it up to the sun on the sunny side!

[@moiraf.2562]

@@VanillaMacaron551 It was probably an older house where aesthetics played a minor role. could be that the original builders of the house had neither the materials nor the technical knowledge to place windows in that wall. You're forgetting that for a long time, windows weren't even covered with glass but with animal hides (in cold climates) or just left as open holes. Having a thick south facing wall would have protected the home from the summer heat. Apart from being more comfortable, that would have helped conserve food. And I suppose the wall would have acted as store for warmth when it was hit more directly by the winter sun. I find it really fascinating how people built their houses to protect them from the environment before they had the luxury of modern insulation and central heating. @Beth V: Do you know how old this house is? And it would be interesting to know if that is typical for the regional building style. You definitely have some new questions for your next visit :)

[@iknowyouwanttofly]

What? I thought the thickest wall should be to the north against the cold and big windows to the sun to get the most sun in?

[@blcksu6011]

@@iknowyouwanttofly not in the very warm climate

[@charpnatl]

It’s amazing that this house was Pre - Mid- Century! I really loved all the built in features and living zones. I’m curios about the roof and how it was designed to deal with snow loads. On a side note- your acting skills are impeccable I loved the opening reading act LOL!

[@TheGrenadier97]

I generally dislike the aesthetics and polemics of contemporary but i'm fair: the modernists have excellent solutions to light, air and space. Outstanding.

[@r.b.l.5841]

The problem: The angle of the sun is equal on March 21st and Sept21 BUT weather is no where near the SAME in March as Sept. This is due to the inertia of the earth, it take time for the land and air to warm from the winter, so March doesn't equal Sept. A better design uses hardwood trees, that leaf out and drop their leaves at times matching the warming temps. With their leaves down during winter the low angle light can enter windows. Most of the problems with "passive" is having too little control. A combination of operable draps with trapped air pockets and reflective layers, plus use of hardwoods to create shade when you need shade.

[@jppj2399]

Thank you very much for this information. I hope you can feature more sample houses in the future.

[@gixellia8455]

Excellent. My type of house, coziness everywhere. Thank you.

[@kentpetersonrealtor3549]

Absolutely fantastic home!!