Solar Housing Parks, 1940s and 1950s, updated 8 March 2017_anniversary plus one

Updates: April 6, 2017

Re: Keck's House of Tomorrow, 1933-34 at the Chicago World's Fair then Crystal House and more (mid-1970s interview with Josh Kind) followed by "Will you love me tomorrow?" a good question from the Shirelles.

https://vimeo.com/207474565

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3irmBv8h4Tw 

Fred Keck and others designed and built solar-heated homes starting in 1940.  Two prime groupings are in Glenview and Glencoe, Illinois.

A few photos will illustrate: first from Glenview and next from Glencoe.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has recently added Keck building photos online from many eras. More to come.
Follow this link, then type Keck next the blue Go button.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Content.aspx?dsNav=N:1135  

Also see Anthony Denzer's blog Solar House History including extensive resources section which continues to grow.  solarhousehistory.com/blog/ 

History researcher and activist, John Perlin interview, author of Let it Shine (New World Library 2013) inspired many works while riding a "bus in Jerusalem"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG662Yi9dCk

democracy, struggle, society, architecture

Sullivan believed that art must become a value in democratic society that could stand beside business, politics, science and religion in shaping the mind and heart of America…what happened in architecture determined what happened in society.  “Therefore, by this light, the critical study of architecture becomes not merely the direct study of an art – but…the study of social conditions producing it; the study of a newly shaping type of civilization.”  …what we did with our buildings…determined how we related as citizens of a democratic community.

Culture and Democracy:  The Struggle for Form in Society and Architecture in Chicago and the Middle West during the Life and Times of Louis H. Sullivan, Hugh Dalziel Duncan

  

"Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies 
Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground 
Falls the remorseful day." 

A.E. Houseman

...nevertheless another vimeo album
NB Experience of these vimeos may be a not-so-easily acquired 'taste' aided with a simultaneously mixed soundtrack of your choosing.
 

Keck Energiewende, Housing 

with this video link (clicking to advance clips) https://vimeo.com/album/4323792

Contact: localmediaarchive there at gee mail then another com

From the blog weeds-seeds-and-needs file:
Dynamic Ecology (with an inspired subtitle: multa novit vulpes)
https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/

A stalwart tribe:  Ocean Arks formerly New Alchemy Institute
http://www.oceanarksint.org/


And an unscheduled guest appearance from Germany
Bastian Hoffman
How to adjust an apartment to the natural outdoor temperature (winter)
Video, Farbe, Ton, 02:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfXbOtr37jQ&t=59s

Théâtre de la Cruet

a Sony video version

Untitled 2000
https://vimeo.com/album/4288842

(Title:  who cares?) 2007
https://vimeo.com/channels/1160036 

Title: steady cram Sélavy  circa 2016
https://vimeo.com/channels/1159911 

Most clips from House of Tomorrow 2016 (vimeo clicking as usual)
https://vimeo.com/album/4322169 

five sisters
https://vimeo.com/200691480

recently escaped from the laboratory

toward experiments and por que no results

Solar Lane and Environs_https://vimeo.com/album/4265517

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Houses_https://vimeo.com/album/4313974

Houses of Tomorrow and then some_https://vimeo.com/album/4261326 

Green Essen, NRW, Solar Park, etc._https://vimeo.com/album/4265125
2:48:38  (OK friends, it's dreadfully long.  Call me Rublev, if you wish.)
The shorter clips are at  https://vimeo.com/album/4298092 only 12 minutes. An addendum at https://vimeo.com/album/4261326.

more from local media documentary archive

(assembly continues of media archive by Jim Laukes)


Sloan One, designed by architect Fred Keck in 1940, called a "solar house" with calculated features of a solar-heated home. Independent video, 2016, rough cut. (clicks necessary for Vimeo album viewing below)
https://vimeo.com/album/4270692

House of Tomorrow, built at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, then moved to Indiana. Also by architect Fred Keck and others.  A stepping stone to Keck's later solar homes.  Awaiting restoration. Recently designated a "national treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Independent video, 2016, rough cut. (more Vimeo clicking)
https://vimeo.com/album/4270692 

Anthem to the Sun: and other Appropriate Technologies of Today
Independent film, 1980-81, funded by Illinois Humanities Council, aired at festivals, PBS and cable access TV outlets.

Recent invited presentations

Who Could Have Designed the 1933 House of Tomorrow (pdf available)
Chicago Chapter, Society of Architectural Historians, December 7, 2016

Midwest Sources of Solar Buiding, 1933-1978 (pdf available)
University of Illinois - Urbana, Champaign, 2013

On the taproots of Passive House (video link)
Passive House US, July 12, 2012

local media documentary archive and storm door company...assembling

Links to Vimeo open access albums. Patiently click through links and play buttons when necessary.

House of Tomorrow in Indiana https://vimeo.com/album/4290085

Independent production, b-roll, 2016

NEW Blauhaus, Germany https://vimeo.com/album/4301392

Independent production, rough cut available online, 2016

Essen 2017 Green Hauptstadt Europas, Ruhr Triiiennelle, NRW, Wuppertal Institute https://vimeo.com/album/4298092

Independent production, rough cut available online, 2016

Memories of Learning, Episode 4

Produced at KRWG-TV, a PBS affiliate, Las Cruces, New Mexico, 1987-88

Paris towards Kyoto etc. https://vimeo.com/album/4288842

Screened in a backyard in Maywood then later near a Caerleon ironmongery of Mr. Jenkins, 2000-2001

contact: laukesy@yahoo.com (b. 1948)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POEw-2vAojk