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Lecture

Harvesting the Sun: Solar Energy in Urban Gardening

In course

AR-597(a): Superstudio A

This Superstudio will study the history of the villa by focusing on 30 case studies, from antiquity to the last century. The aim of this study is to understand through the architecture of the villa the most quintessential tropes of architecture: form, poli ...

Description

This lecture explores the potential of solar energy in urban gardening projects, focusing on the conversion of rooftops and parking lots into green spaces with solar panels and water heating systems. It discusses the challenges and benefits of such transformations, including cost considerations and technical expertise. The lecture also delves into the collaboration between architects, residents, and local organizations to create sustainable and energy-efficient urban environments.

Instructors (3)

Paolo Tombesi

Sébastien Jacques Marie Marot

Martin Fröhlich

Official source

Related concepts (12)

Urban agriculture

Urban agriculture refers to various practices of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in urban areas. The term also applies to the area activities of animal husbandry, aquaculture, beekeeping, and horticulture in an urban context. Urban agriculture is distinguished from peri-urban agriculture, which takes place in rural areas at the edge of suburbs. Urban agriculture can appear at varying levels of economic and social development.

Allotment (gardening)

An allotment (British English), or in North America, a community garden, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants, so forming a kitchen garden away from the residence of the user. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundred parcels that are assigned to individuals or families. Such parcels are cultivated individually, contrary to other community garden types where the entire area is tended collectively by a group of people.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long time. Specific definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Experts often describe sustainability as having three dimensions (or pillars): environmental, economic, and social, and many publications emphasize the environmental dimension. In everyday use, sustainability often focuses on countering major environmental problems, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, loss of ecosystem services, land degradation, and air and water pollution.

Solar energy

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essential source of renewable energy, and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power.

Urban horticulture

Urban horticulture is the science and study of the growing plants in an urban environment. It focuses on the functional use of horticulture so as to maintain and improve the surrounding urban area. Urban horticulture has seen an increase in attention with the global trend of urbanization and works to study the harvest, aesthetic, architectural, recreational and psychological purposes and effects of plants in urban environments. Horticulture and the integration of nature into human civilization has been a major part in the establishment of cities.

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