Courtesy of SolarLab, Photo by doublespacephoto.com. ImageRed River College Innovation Center / Diamond Schmitt Architects & Number TEN Architectural Group
As environmental accountability becomes embedded in design culture, the building envelope is being reconsidered not just as a protective skin, but as an active energy-producing surface. Treating solar technology as a material rather than an attachment reshapes how architecture is conceived and detailed. Color, texture, rhythm, and assembly become inseparable from performance. Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) operate within this expanded definition of materiality. By integrating solar technology into façades and rainscreens from the earliest project stages, architects can reduce redundancy, align energy goals with design intent, and rethink how envelopes are composed. Yet translating this ambition into buildable systems requires technical precision and construction intelligence.
As the primary interface between interior spaces and the external environment, facades play a central role in both the performance and architectural expression of buildings. Increasingly, they are no longer seen as static envelopes, but as active mediators between climate, energy, use, and aesthetic. In dense urban contexts, however, they are also gaining relevance for another reason: while roof surfaces are often limited, fragmented, or already occupied by technical equipment, vertical envelopes remain largely underutilized in terms of energy production.
As the solstice marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, it also draws attention to something architecture has long negotiated but often overlooked: time. Beyond form or function, buildings and spaces are continuously shaped by cycles of light and darkness, seasonal shifts, and environmental rhythms that affect how they are inhabited.
In recent years, a growing number of architectural projects have begun to work explicitly with these cycles. Rather than designing spaces to function in a single, fixed way, architects are creating environments that change throughout the day, across seasons, or in response to natural phenomena such as the sun's path, lunar phases, wind patterns, or circadian rhythms. These projects operate in dialogue with time, appearing, transforming, and activating differently depending on environmental conditions.
Two students sit one desk apart. One excels in science. The other struggles. One receives praise, the other criticism. One gains confidence, the other slowly loses it. It's easy to assume the difference comes down to effort, parenting, or natural ability. But what if the real factor was the classroom itself? Imagine the student who fell behind sat at a desk flooded with glare from poorly placed windows every single day. With fixed homeroom seating, they couldn't move. Over time, that small but constant distraction turned into disengagement, and disengagement eroded their confidence. A chain reaction triggered not by effort, but by design.
The sun is an inescapable partner in architecture, influencing lighting, energy efficiency, and comfort inside and outside buildings. This influence has become increasingly relevant in the context of climate change, which has led to rising temperatures and the creation of challenging environments. In response, designers are constantly working to adapt cities to heatwaves through large-scale urban strategies. On a smaller scale, such as in residential settings, the issue can be addressed more specifically through various shading solutions.
Since the sun's behavior varies by region and time of year, adjustable shade structures are crucial for managing sunlight and heat effectively. In high latitudes, the solar angles shift with the changing seasons, while in equatorial regions, the radiation remains more consistent throughout the year. ShadeFX retractable solutions are crafted to adapt to these varying conditions, regulating direct light intensity and minimizing excessive heat. By enhancing the comfort and functionality of spaces, these solutions also help reduce the impact of an overheated planet.
https://www.archdaily.com/1020060/how-to-choose-shade-structures-strategies-based-on-solar-angles-and-seasonsEnrique Tovar
Between now and 2050, worldwide installation of cooling appliances, like air conditioning, is projected to triple, resulting in a twofold increase in energy consumption. This reliance on such devices, often seen as exacerbating global warming, poses a paradox: how can we fightrising temperatures in cities while simultaneously contributing to them through our dependence on these solutions?
As a highly transparent material that stands up to all but the most extreme of weather conditions, is easily formed into any size or shape, and, once formed, will last for thousands of years, glass is still one of the most innovative and crucial materials used in architecture. Although contemporary building practices allow us to form huge, glittering skyscrapers of glass that rise hundreds of meters into the air, the ancient material’s original purpose – to welcome light into weathertight and secure interiors – remains its most important more than a thousand years on.
As important as glass is to almost every typology of architecture in the form of windows, when it comes to the roof of a building, the use of glass is not so simple. We’ve understood the power and danger of combining light and glass ever since we saw a magnifying glass used to concentrate the heat of sunlight into incredibly high temperatures in children’s cartoons. Under a glass roof, the solar gain can make for uncomfortable internal environments without the correct protective precautions.
As the temperature drops in the Northern Hemisphere, cold outdoor spaces are overcome with frost, ice, and snow, and we find ourselves rushing from one heated indoor environment to the next, less willing or less able to stop and appreciate the natural world around us.
Apart from dragging a spruce or fir tree inside and dressing it up in yuletide costume, we tend to leave the real natural world to its own seasonal devices until it reemerges in Spring. However, by inviting the positive effects of plant life into our homes, we can improve both our mental health and the air we breathe by filling them with peace and joy all year round, not just at Christmas.
Solar design in contemporary architecture is rooted in the profession's sustainable turn. The relationship between architecture and energy is tied to both passive strategies and performance via more recent innovations in technology. As one way to begin addressing the global climate crisis and greenhouse gas emissions, solar design is reshaping cities and architecture around the world.
Although the sun is almost 150 million kilometers away, this star has had the most impact on our planet. But while some are busy chasing the sun for sun-kissed skin, architects are all about creating sun-kissed spaces.
By definition, “passive solar energy is the collection and distribution of energy obtained by the sun using natural means”. The simple concept and process of implementing passive solar energy systems have provided buildings with heat, lighting, mechanical power, and electricity in the most environmentally-conscious way possible.
In this article, we will provide you with a complete guide of implementing passive solar systems in your designs.
