Solar Architektur fur Europa

In the future, solar architecture will be a necessary component of the energy sector, because buildings, which are responsible for around 30% of energy consumption in Europe, not only have the potential to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, but also offer a huge, previously unexploited surface area for the active and passive use of solar energy.

Architect Sir Norman Foster puts it succinctly: “Solar architecture is not a question of fashion, it is a question of survival.” Chris Zijdeveld, councilor responsible for construction in the Dutch solar city Schiedam, expresses the importance of solar architecture more practically: "We want to design houses in such a way that they receive as much heat from the sun as possible and with good installations and careful ventilation, that they lose as little of this energy as possible." He also seems to know for sure why so little has been done in this area: "The reason why solar architecture is so little used is that at the moment nobody believes that something better can be done without spending more." And it is precisely on this point that the film offers numerous concrete examples from all over Europe, which, despite different levels of efficiency, have one thing in common: they not only generate and save energy, but also offer their inhabitants better living conditions with their more open, freer, greener and healthier architecture.

From the series: Humans and the Environment distributed by the Goethe Institut.