“Our most abundant energy resource is the sun and our most underutilized urban space is our rooftops.”

The urban roofscapes offer tremendous potential as living spaces, because of their direct access to solar energy, ventilating breezes and nourishing rain. It is an advantageous environment, both for the building and the greater urban infrastructure, yet to be discovered to develop its full architectural and urbanistic potential.

The “Solar RoofPod” is a ‘Plus-Net-Energy’ roof pavilion, designed to provide local green energy for urban environments. The pod was originally constructed as part of an interdisciplinary design-build initiative at The City College of New York (CCNY), hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2011 Solar Decathlon.

In Spring 2014, the prototype returned to the rooftop of CCNY’s Spitzer School of Architecture, where it now serves as a living classroom, a lookout, and hub for urban sustainability.

In the years to come its performance will be monitored, to evaluate and improve its functions, and to make it a comprehensive precedent case study for urban roof-scape living.

Through presentations and conversations with policymakers, architects, engineers, and sustainability specialists, the space will create an open forum of exchange of ideas. The pod will serve as an intellectual arena to fuel dialogue amongst students, and propel investigation of how we must develop our buildings and cities for a sustainable future.

Our website serves to convey data and conceptual strategies, to announce upcoming events and, in a greater sense, to connect community to the large-scale issues  our environment.

If you are interested in joining our initiative, please sign up here to receive regular updates and invitations for open-door events.