Problem
Many efforts are being made to harness solar energy by converting it into hot water or electric power. And yet the easier way to harness solar energy is the most obvious and the oldest: namely, to trap the heat inside a greenhouse and use it for growing flowers and vegetables.
Solution
In temperate climates, build a greenhouse as part of your house or office, so that it is both a “room” of the house which can be reached directly without going outdoors and a part of the garden which can be reached directly from the garden.
Related Patterns
… to keep a garden alive, it is almost essential that there be a “workshop” - a kind of halfway house between the garden and the house itself, where seedlings grow, and where, in temperate climates, plants can grow in spite of cold. In a House Cluster (37) or a Work Community (41), this workshop makes an essential contribution to the Common Land (67).
Place the greenhouse so that it has easy access to the Vegetable Garden (177) and the Compost (178). Arrange its interior so that it is surrounded with Waist-High Shelf (201) and plenty of storage space - Bulk Storage (145); perhaps give it a special seat, where it is possible to sit comfortably - Garden Seat (176), Window Place (180) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 812.