Sola Roof Goal
If you were asked what your most fundamental needs are, would you respond thus:
"Every person needs to have food (and water) and a "roof" over their head."
But what is striking is the degree to which we take for granted this most essential need. It is something that we will only miss when we do not have it. When did you last think about the roof over your head other than in the context of giving thanks! One could say it is a case of "out of sight; out of mind".
One explanation for this neglect of attention is that a roof is a capital investment - unlike food, which needs to reach your table every day. Roofs are built once and serve perhaps several generations. The technology for roofs, if we can speak of such, is generations old and the rate of change is negligible. Thus who would think this to be a fruitful place to look for solutions to the urgent problems that face mankind today?
Christopher Alexander in his paper ORIGINS OF PATTERN THEORY states that there are 2 billion buildings in the world and that our urbanized or built areas occupy some 10 trillion square feet of roofs. The only objective of this vast roof area is to provide for our protection and security - to assure comfort in our homes and productive working environments. However, in a world now facing resource depletion this vast "empty" expanse of roof must be looked at with new eyes that are open to discover a new method to abundantly provide for the residents and occupants of these built environments.
Considering that, during the next generation, humanity is irrevocably expanding towards doubling our present 6 billion populations and in consequence we will build more new structures then currently exist. If you accept that building according to the pattern of wasteful and inefficient urban sprawl, which is now the trend, would place such a resource depleting burden upon the earth as would crush the ecological carrying capacity of the planet, then you must share our concern for our children and understand that we must begin now to build a living structure at the heart of every community - the new pattern that has the power to transform our world and reconnect us with the abundant renewable resources of nature. (Perhaps you will join the Sola Roof Coop Initiative)
The Sola Roof is seeking to deliver the envisioned living structure pattern, which we call Ecomimicry Architecture. And one key component of this solution is the transparent envelope that bestows to any building the capacity to use its entire roof area to capture and utilize solar radiation. It is the purpose of Sola Roof to make accessible and affordable the Blue Green solutions that are key concepts for building living structures. Briefly stated the blue denotes water working and the green denotes living plants and our goal is to use the Sola Roof Tech to enable the integration of these concepts into the vast majority of roofs.