there are 3 primary types of PV systems currently on the market, and depending on where you’d like to place your PV panels, the choice of product would differ. to see the different types of panels on the market today, refer to the article “type of PV panels“.

the major stress on sustainability efforts has been on efficiency, and rightly so. attaining efficiency is the low hanging fruit in the greening effort. so replacing outdated technology and processes to attain better returns, that’s relatively easy and we can do that immediately. but in my view, efficiency is a zero sum game. one can be very efficient at doing the WRONG thing. think of hyper efficient coal plants. super efficient cars. these would still create waste and pollution, regardless of how efficient they are, because they are producing the WRONG type of product in the first place.

thus i believe, before we talk about efficiency, we should talk about effectiveness. the question to be asked first must be “if this is good?” the concept of good is extremely problematic. good for whom? for which group of people, for people alone or all species?

very often, we are still caught in the human-centric vision where good means for the good of the human species. the opposite is the bio-centric view. this means for the good of all species. gradually, we are moving towards being more bio-centric, as we realize that we are part of the ecosystem and not outside of it. destroy the ecosystem, and we cannot survive. it’s as simple as that.

thus, i believe that a very important question that we are currently missing out on and that we should ask in any effort is this: “is this effective in conserving/restoring/protecting the health of the entire ecosystem?”

from that angle, there has to be a fundamental relook at our production methods and the way we make things. for a deeper discussion, refer to here

Alain de Botton

The Architecture of Happiness is a lyrical discourse on the value and influences of architecture through the eyes of a non-architect. Weaving together the thoughts of architects, artists, philosophers and his personal experiences, Alain de Botton presents a humanistic view of the subject that is often overlooked in favor of discussions on aesthetics or construction methods. The key argument is that buildings are able to affect our emotions. Therefore, architects must be sensitive to ‘create environments that satisfy the needs that we never consciously knew we even had’. Quoting Strendhal on ‘beauty is the promise of happiness’, de Botton argues that buildings contribute to these visions of happiness through the embodiment of the man’s ennobling values in a material medium.

Organized into six chapters, de Botton explores various aspects of architecture that are emotionally inspiring. He also provides numerous images of buildings that possess or lack such qualities, often placed in contrast of each other, to highlight the point. He suggests that the ideals of an age are materialized through the act of building; they are metaphors of our values and beliefs. Buildings also stand as memorials to identity, manifest of our longing for communication and commemoration. A curious example of an obelisk erected in memory of a pig demonstrated the extents of our desire to remember. Order and predictability in the built environment, coherence of parts, balance between contrasting elements, elegance and grace of buildings are additional virtues discussed within the book.

De Botton writes in a simple and charming style that makes the book highly readable and stimulating. Occasionally, he would provide snippets of pure insight. On the failure of architecture to create delightful spaces, he wrote that ‘ these can in the end always be traced back to nothing more occult than a failure of empathy, to architects… who allowed themselves to be seduced by a simplistic vision of who we might be, rather than attending to the labyrinthine reality of who we are’. The psychological impact of design in architecture is something that architects often neglect but it is required to create the beauty in environments. De Botton summed it up succinctly – ‘Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design… the tendency to not understand who we are and what will satisfy us.’

The book avoids dwelling on the specifics of architecture like the plans, sections, space, or technical performance. Present day architects, who are easily caught up with the exacting demands of modern day practice, would find the contents a refreshing read with the philosophical take on architecture. The general public would also find the book highly accessible due to its non-technical nature. Indeed, the strength of the book lies in encouraging the readers, and society in general, to look more carefully at the built environment and develop a new sensitivity towards which we judge them. Ultimately, the book reminds us that we must all return to the premise that buildings are for people, and should be designed as such.

what these leads to is a primacy of visual impact over everything else in architecture. this is nowhere more evident in modernist architecture, where form, space and order is sacred. the aesthetic, the visual aesthetic is the be-all and end-all. In fact, we can also see this happening to green architecture, where it becomes a visual fad, a style to be sold, to be bought, and to be consumed and reprocessed.

what happened to all the rest of our senses. the touch of the roughness of stone, or the warmth of wood. the sounds of echoes down a hallway. the contrast between the warm fireplace and the bitter winter cold, the smell of fresh herbs in the kitchen. these information transmit to us the sense of scale and the sense of place. how awful is it that we give up all of these, just to create lifeless compositions of glass and steel.

architecture cannot be truly sustainable if it doesn’t touch the soul.

the eyes of the skin is an excellent read on the topic. see space and experience from an alternative point of view

The Eyes of the Skin

another book that makes for easy reading is the architecture of happiness. it’s lyrical but entertaining. read the review here

The Architecture of Happiness

another classic on sensory architecture: steen eiler rasmussen

Experiencing Architecture