Solar Tower House
The Next House competition brief invited a reimagining of the US suburban home. The Solar Tower House responds with a minimal footprint and small, four-story tower, leaving much of the site open for other program.
The house is designed as a system, intended to be a modular core and shell package that mimics the integration approach of a space habitat module. Purposely constrained by fabrication, transportation, and assembly, the home offers a wide variety of configuration options for both interior customization and lot utilization.
Building systems take advantage of modular fabrication methods wherever possible and frame on-site construction work as subsystem assembly. Components and materials emphasize lightness and are supported by a 3D printed foundation.
With every stair serving as a communal circulation stair, the kitchen, dining, and living areas are interconnected in three dimensions, with slight separation for the different program of the living room. A small patio on the kitchen level provides ample daylight and views.
Solar insolation on the solar array surfaces is more than adequate to power the home, even with the tower due south and after accounting for system efficiency losses at end-of-life. The system would adapt to other orientations or site strategies as needed, creating a versatile approach that can work for most sites.
The cooler microclimate created by the solar trees lends itself to “agrivoltaic” farming, with a well-understood set of food production crops. The site layout and building planning should be thought of as configurations rather than absolutes, opening the design space to wide variation as different homeowners in different locations adapt the house to suit their needs.