Solar Alpine home warms up via 3-story greenhouse facade
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t0z58juaWc
Emanuele Almagioni wanted to build a home in a cold and windy, but very sunny, town high in the Italian Alps that would use the sun to provide all of its heating needs. So he built a very tall, thin, 3-story wooden home with an all-glass southern facade for maximum sun exposure and nearly completely closed on the other three sides for maximum insulation. The home is nearly all wood, using prefab OSB panels for structural support and as interior cladding and locally sourced, untreated larch as exterior cladding. Heating is supplied by the sun’s energy and on the rare days when the sun isn’t shining, there’s a wood-burning stove that also doubles as a stove (though the space is so well-insulated that with 2 hours of burning, the home is usually warm for the day). Almagioni used recycled materials for much of the furniture, in particular, wine boxes for kitchen and bathroom cabinets and bedside tables.