How This Midcentury Modern House Harnesses the Sun

The term ‘Solar Home’ was coined in Chicago in the 1940s. Despite the recent declaration of the term, good practices around orientation and window placement have been around centuries. But, coming off the Great Depression, coupled with the proliferation of glazing and emerging technology such as air-conditioning, architects and the public felt the benefits of passive solar design more acutely. This video visits the Schweikher House, built during the 1930s, to explore its passive solar techniques. It is not a ‘Solar Home,’ per se, but the architect worked closely with George Keck, prior to its construction and it incorporates many of principles that would get codified later on. George Keck pioneered solar research in architecture and created the first ‘Solar Home,’ a project the video explores at the ‘Houses of Tomorrow’ exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum.

Solar Information:
https://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org/from-home/solar-solutions/

Schweikher House:
https://www.schweikherhouse.org/

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Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.

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Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.

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University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/