Page 32 - ISES SWC50

1928
• The 26 architects who attended the First international Congress of Modern Architecture held in Switzerland
issued a declaration that the driving force of architecture should be “maximising accessibility for all to enjoy
fresh air, light and sun”
• Swiss German Architect Hannes Meyer (who had attended the Swiss conference) designed and built
the Federation of German Trade Unions school near Berlin with the philosophy of maximising maximum
exposure to the winter sun in all 60 rooms.

Late 1920s
• German Architect Hugo Haring (who had attended the Swiss conference) designed single story houses
that ran east-west whose main rooms had large windows facing south and had retractable awnings for
keeping out the summer sun.

1920s and 1930s
• Solar architecture spread across Europe with many new buildings adopting the principles of using the sun
in winter to warm the rooms and also ensure buildings did not shade others during winter.

1939
• Solar I, completed in 1939, was the first demonstration house in America to be heated by the sun’s energy.
A single-story house-like structure on the MIT campus, Solar I used solar radiation as a heat source for the
winter, but projects were also conducted on summer air conditioning and power generation. The project
was managed by Professor Hoyt C Hottel , who in the 1960’s wasmember of the Solar Energy Society’s
advisory scientific committee and winner of the very first Farrington Daniels Award in 1975.

1943
• Dr George Löf , who studied under Professor Hottel at MIT , designed an early flat-plate solar heating unit
and installed it on the roof of his house in Boulder, Colorado. It was called the “first solar-heated home” in
the United States. Dr Löf was also involved with ISES from the very beginning and was President in 1973-
1975.

1948
• MIT Solar House II was completed.
• Frank Lloyd Wright designs and builds the “Solar Hemicycle” in Madison Wisconsin, USA due to its
semicircular layout and being built from stone, concrete, and wood, materials which allowed the house to
retain solar energy

1949
• MIT Solar House II was converted into Solar III, which returned the heat collectors to the roof. Aesthetically
more pleasing, Solar III was the first solar house to be used as a home, and was inhabited by a student
family with one child. The house was demolished after it caught on fire in December 1955.
• MIT’s the Dover Sun House, built in Dover Massachusetts, USA was different from the others. The house
heating unit was designed by Dr. Maria Telkes, an assistant in MIT’s Department of Metallurgy, and instead
of water, the heating storage device was Glauber salts (sodium sulfate decahydrate).

14 | ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions