Press & Media
“Safford’s priorities included maximizing energy efficiency and minimizing maintenance. The house’s primary source of heat is the passive energy of the sun coupled with radiant heat in all floors, while solar panels generate 20 percent of its electrical needs. ‘In the winter, on a sunny day, the windows can be open, the heat off, and the house is warm,’ he says.”
“A series of logic programs control the roof shades, window shades – which play their part in privacy as well as in climate control, motorized windows, and a large fan. Moreover, these ‘programs’ are seasonal and can be manually turned on and off. ”
Crystal Palaces, Glass Houses, and Geodesic Domes: The VS1 Study House Nr. 1 and its Antecedents
“‘What the Louvre Pyramid represented, [Franz Safford] explains, ‘was a transparency factor to solving wall constructions that was unprecedented.’ Safford’s epiphany would lead him on a twenty- five year quest to design and engineer solutions to the problem of creating increasingly transparent glass and metal buildings.”
by Sheila Maloney • April 2017
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