UPLUGGING THE DOMESTIC
There is no shortage of energy on Earth, just too much of it. So much so that an overheated atmosphere threatens humanity. But we want more, so we burn fossil fuels, risking the future of civilisation. It not often thought that converting solar energy into electricity is also costly, as signalled not only by the global protests against lithium mining but also by high battery prices.
A significant part of our household energy use is for heat. In the northern countries, energy poverty is strongly linked to heating costs, where the extraction of heat from both gas combustion and electricity requires huge additional resources.
Perfectly harnessing the sun's energy, which is radiated over just 3 square metres of Lithuania's territory, would statistically be enough to power a medium-sized and larger household for a whole year.
Obviously, there are technological limiting factors that prevent it from being used without loss. But we also have cultural limiting factors: we are already learning to consume less polluting goods, but we still rarely require architecture to be attentive to the sun's rays. How can architecture and design make use of the sun's rays falling on the surfaces of cities? Or are there new behavioural patterns and daily rituals that could enable the evolution of new architecture and design solutions?
A significant part of our household energy use is for heat. In the northern countries, energy poverty is strongly linked to heating costs, where the extraction of heat from both gas combustion and electricity requires huge additional resources.
Perfectly harnessing the sun's energy, which is radiated over just 3 square metres of Lithuania's territory, would statistically be enough to power a medium-sized and larger household for a whole year.
Obviously, there are technological limiting factors that prevent it from being used without loss. But we also have cultural limiting factors: we are already learning to consume less polluting goods, but we still rarely require architecture to be attentive to the sun's rays. How can architecture and design make use of the sun's rays falling on the surfaces of cities? Or are there new behavioural patterns and daily rituals that could enable the evolution of new architecture and design solutions?