SOLAR ENERGY: HARVESTING THE SUN

An architectural approach through Le Corbusier’s groundings Roughly, all through history of mankind, solar solutions in constructions always have been purchased fiercely during periods of energy crisis, mostly when non-renewable energy sources were endangered in some way.For this paper an architect of the 20th century was chosen, Le Corbusier, as a good example of how to design and build with the sun. Not only he knew how to harvest the sun for comfort issues, balancing wisely natural light and heat (gathering and storing heat for cold periods, or protecting openings from harsh sun beams), but he also dominated the light to valorize shapes and volumes. Here one of his famous project: the “Unité d’habitation de Marseille” is analyzed to show a well conceived architecture in urban area. Le Corbusier teach us awesome lessons on how to take sides of so called “passive” solutions and fully merge them in architecture, creating not only energy efficient buildings but an astounding architecture. This study focuses on a particular building to point out comparatively simple solutions in architecture and looks forward to the possibility of sprawling such solutions with a huge potentiality in energy savings. It also tries to demonstrate that good design must consider architecture ruling an ensemble of fields, including urban inclusion and respect to local social and geographic peculiarities. Harvesting solar energy in architecture doesn’t mean necessarily adding technical devices to buildings but certainly depends on designers’ postures and abilities to integrate technical solutions into an artistic and aesthetical whole.