Rolf Disch

Rolf Disch
Rolf Disch
Born	1944; Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg Germany
Nationality	German
Alma mater	Structural Engineering School Freiburg, ; University of Applied Sciences Konstanz, ; Guest Professor National School of Design Karlsruhe
Occupation	Architect
Awards	1997 Eco-manager of the Year; 2002 European Solar Prize; 2003 Global Energy Award; 2006 Germany's most beautiful housing community; 2008 German Sustainability Award
Practice	Rolf Disch Solar Architecture
Buildings	Heliotrope ; PlusEnergy ; Sun Ship
Projects	Solar Settlement

Last updated February 24, 2019

Rolf Disch is a German architect, solar energy pioneer and environmental activist. Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, Disch has dedicated particular focus to regional renewable and sustainable energy.

Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with a population of about 220,000. In the south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain. A famous old German university town, and archiepiscopal seat, Freiburg was incorporated in the early twelfth century and developed into a major commercial, intellectual, and ecclesiastical center of the upper Rhine region. The city is known for its medieval minster and Renaissance university, as well as for its high standard of living and advanced environmental practices. The city is situated in the heart of the major Baden wine-growing region and serves as the primary tourist entry point to the scenic beauty of the Black Forest. According to meteorological statistics, the city is the sunniest and warmest in Germany, and held the all-time German temperature record of 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) from 2003 to 2015.

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.

As head of his own architecture firm, Rolf Disch Solar Architecture, Disch is committed to advance Germany's usage of solar energy in respect to residential, retail and commercial building and design. In 1994, Rolf Disch built the Heliotrope in Freiburg which was the world’s first home to create more energy than it uses, as it physically rotates with the sun to maximize its solar intake. Disch then developed the concept PlusEnergy, simply making it a permanent goal for his buildings to produce more energy than they consume in order to sell the surplus solar energy back into the grid for profit.

Rolf Disch Solar Architecture, creators of the Heliotrope as well as several other visionary green building projects, is based in the solar city Freiburg, Germany. Led by solar pioneer Rolf Disch, who has been building with the sun for more than 40 years, this architecture office's prolific portfolio also includes such successful projects as the Solar Settlement and the Sun Ship. As winners of the 2002 European Solar Prize and the 2003 Global Energy Award these projects demonstrate the power of solar architecture; harness the sun both passively and actively. Lying at the base of the Black Forest, in the sunniest city in Germany, Rolf Disch Solar Architecture offers a premium design that exceeds the highest ecological standards while creating profitable opportunities for their investors.

The Heliotrope is an environmentally friendly house designed by the German architect Rolf Disch who also designed the Sonnenschiff (Sun Ship). Three such houses exist in Germany, the first experimental version having been built in 1994 as the architect's home in Freiburg im Breisgau, while the other two are used as exhibition buildings for the Hansgrohe company in Offenburg and a dentist's lab in Hilpoltstein in Bavaria. The Heliotrope in Freiburg was the first building in the world to capture more energy than it uses, all of which is entirely renewable, emissions free and CO₂ neutral. The structure physically rotates to track the sun, which allows it to harness the maximum natural sunlight and warmth possible. Several different energy generation modules are used in the building including a 603 sq ft (56.0 m²) dual-axis solar photovoltaic tracking panel, a geothermal heat exchanger, a combined heat and power unit (CHP) and solar-thermal balcony railings to provide heat and warm water. These innovations in combination with the superior insulation of the residence allow the Heliotrope to capture anywhere between four and six times its energy usage depending on the time of year. The Heliotrope is also fitted with a grey-water cleansing system and built-in natural waste composting.

PlusEnergy is a term used in building design to describe a structure that produces more energy than it uses. The term was coined in 1994 by Rolf Disch when building his private residence, the Heliotrope as the first PlusEnergy house in the world. Disch then went on to refine the concepts involved with several more projects built by his company Rolf Disch Solar Architecture in order to promote PlusEnergy for wider adoption in residential, commercial and retail spaces. Disch maintains that PlusEnergy is more than just a method of producing environmentally-friendly housing, but also an integrated ecological and architectural concept. As such, PlusEnergy is intended to be superior to low-energy or zero-energy designs such as those of Passivhaus.

Rolf Disch’s biggest venture was completed in 2004 with the 59 PlusEnergy home Solar Settlement and the 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m²). PlusEnergy Sun Ship. In June 2009, Disch launched the 100% GmbH organization, with the aim to make Freiburg and its surrounding district the first 100% sustainable renewable energy region in the world.

The Sun Ship is a large integrated office/retail building designed by architect Rolf Disch and located in Freiburg directly next to the Solar Settlement by the same designer. It uses 60,000 sq. ft. for retail, commercial and residential space.

Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, and rural (off-grid) energy services.

Biography

Early years

Rolf Disch was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in 1944. Disch first studied cabinetmaking in 1958 until later switching to masonry in 1961. In 1962 he enrolled at the Structural Engineering School in Freiburg as a structural engineer. Disch knew he was passionate about building, although he found his true heart lied in architecture and after only one year, in 1963, he transferred as an architect to the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz, Germany. After his graduation in 1967 Disch worked as an architect for two years and established his own firm in 1969, Rolf Disch Solar Architecture.

Baden-Württemberg is a state in southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the border with France. It is Germany’s third-largest state, with an area of 35,751 km² (13,804 sq mi) and 11 million inhabitants. Baden-Württemberg is a parliamentary republic and partly sovereign, federated state which was formed in 1952 by a merger of the states of Württemberg-Baden, Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. The largest city in Baden-Württemberg is the state capital of Stuttgart, followed by Karlsruhe and Mannheim. Other cities are Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Pforzheim, Reutlingen and Ulm.

Konstanz is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany, bordering Switzerland. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was for more than 1200 years residence of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Konstanz.

Activism

Rolf Disch became an environmental activist during the protest against the construction of a nuclear power plant in Wyhl, Germany. As an educated environmentalist Disch saw this form of energy as destructive, seeking renewable energy as an alternative to achieve sustainable development. The protesters in Wyhl succeeded and the nuclear power plant was never built which fueled the anti-nuclear movement. This success in mind, Disch applied his architectural knowledge to the advancement of renewable and sustainable energy systems in building. The “Disch Design” was a concept he worked on from 1985 to 1988 building solar powered vessels of all sorts. During this period, in 1987, Disch raced a self-designed solar powered automobile in the World Solar Challenge, a race using only solar powered vehicles from Darwin, Australia to Adelaide, Australia. Disch cofounded three organizations promoting the use of renewable energy: Energie in Bürgerhand (Energy in citizens’ hands), 100% GmbH and FESA – Förderverein Energie- und Solaragentur Regio Freiburg (Development association for energy and solar businesses in the Freiburg region). Disch is an active member of the associations Eurosolar, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie (German society for solar energy), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen e.V.(German sustainable building council).

Wyhl is a municipality in the district of Emmendingen in Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany.

The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, or international level. Major anti-nuclear groups include Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Peace Action and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. The initial objective of the movement was nuclear disarmament, though since the late 1960s opposition has included the use of nuclear power. Many anti-nuclear groups oppose both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The formation of green parties in the 1970s and 1980s was often a direct result of anti-nuclear politics.

The World Solar Challenge or the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge since 2013 due to the sponsorship of Bridgestone Corporation is a biennial solar-powered car race which covers 3,022 km (1,878 mi) through the Australian Outback, from Darwin, Northern Territory to Adelaide, South Australia.

Rolf Disch and his team during the World Solar Challenge race in Australia in 1987. WorldChallengeAustralien.jpg — Rolf Disch and his team during the World Solar Challenge race in Australia in 1987.

Built with the Sun

With a focus on solar power use in his designs, in 1993 Disch started an initiative to make Sport-Club Freiburg the first solar soccer team in Germany with photovoltaic panels to power their stadium. Together with Coach Volker Finke, the Dreisam stadium in Freiburg was the first soccer stadium in Germany to install solar power. In 1995 Disch designed the Heliotrope building, a house that physically rotates with the sun to maximize sunlight and natural heat use. The Heliotrope was the first building worldwide to have a positive energy balance, meaning it generates more energy than it consumes. Different types of renewable and sustainable energy concepts in addition to solar power are used in the original Heliotrope, built in Freiburg’s Vauban quarter. It was the first of three such structures to be built in Germany. After the design of the Heliotrope Disch has been promoting the use of Energy-plus-houses. His office Rolf Disch Solar Architecture is using the brand name PlusEnergy to describe these structures which produce more energy from renewable energy sources, over the course of a year, than they import from external sources.^[1] It has designed several such buildings since, including the residential project Solar Settlement.

Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bundesliga in 2016. Freiburg has traditionally bounced between the first and second tier of the German football league system, leading to the fan chant, "We go down, we go up, we go into the UEFA Cup!" during the 1990s.

Volker Finke is a German football manager. He was the coach of SC Freiburg for 16 years.

Vauban is a neighbourhood to the south of the town centre in Freiburg, Germany. It was built as "a sustainable model district" on the site of a former French military base named after Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the 17th century French Marshal who built fortifications in Freiburg while the region was under French rule. Construction began in 1998. In the year 2001 the first 2000 residents moved in.

Awards

2008 German Sustainability Award
2007-08 Japanese PEN-Magazine Creativity Award
2006 Germany's most beautiful housing community
2005 Wuppertal Energy and Environment Prize
2003 Global Energy Award
2002 European Solar Prize
2001 Photovoltaic Architecture Prize Baden-Württemberg
1997 Eco-manager of the Year

Selected works

Heliotrope, Vauban Quarter Freiburg, 1994
Heliotrope, Offenburg, 1994
Heliotrope, Hilpoltstein, 1995
Solar Settlement, Vauban Quarter Freiburg, 2002
Sun Ship, Vauban Quarter Freiburg, 2004

Heliotrope in Vauban Freiburg, 1994
Heliotrope built for Hansgrohe in Offenburg, 1994
A PlusEnergy home designed by Rolf Disch Solar Architecture, 2000
59 PlusEnergy Homes - the Solar Settlement in Vauban Freiburg, 2002
The PlusEnergy Sun Ship in Vauban Freiburg, 2004

Related Research Articles

Sustainable energy is a principle in which human use of energy "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Another definition of sustainable energy is that it is consumed at insignificant rates compared to its supply and with manageable collateral effects, especially environmental effects. Sustainable energy strategies generally have two pillars: cleaner methods of producing energy, and the promotion of efficient energy use.

An energy-plus house produces more energy from renewable energy sources, over the course of a year, than it imports from external sources. This is achieved using a combination of microgeneration technology and low-energy building techniques, such as: passive solar building design, insulation and careful site selection and placement. A reduction of modern conveniences can also contribute to energy savings, however many energy-plus houses are almost indistinguishable from a traditional home, preferring instead to use highly energy-efficient appliances, fixtures, etc., throughout the house.

Schwarzwald-Stadion is a football stadium in Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is currently the home of Bundesliga team SC Freiburg. The stadium holds 24,000 spectators and was built in 1953. For many years it was called the Dreisamstadion, situated near the river Dreisam.

Sustainable cities, urban sustainability, or eco-city (also "ecocity") is a city designed with consideration for social, economic, environmental impact [1][1], and resilient habitat for existing populations, without compromising the ability of future generations to experience the same. These cities are inhabited by people whom are dedicated towards minimization of required inputs of energy, water, food, waste, output of heat, air pollution - CO₂, methane, and water pollution. Richard Register first coined the term "ecocity" in his 1987 book, Eco city Berkeley: Building Cities for a Healthy Future. Other leading figures who envisioned the sustainable city are architect Paul F Downton, who later founded the company Ecopolis Pty Ltd, as well as authors Timothy Beatley and Steffen Lehmann, who have written extensively on the subject. The field of industrial ecology is sometimes used in planning these cities.

The International Solar Energy Society (ISES) is a global organization for promoting the development and utilisation of renewable energy. ISES is a UN-accredited NGO headquartered in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Dr David S. Renné is the current president.

The Sun Ship is a small community that is run entirely by solar energy. It was built in 2004 in Freiburg im Breisgau's renowned Vauban quarter. Sonnenschiff was designed by architect Rolf Disch, who also built the Heliotrope, and generates four times more energy than it uses.

The Solar Settlement at Schlierberg (German: Solarsiedlung am Schlierberg) is a 59-home PlusEnergy housing community in Freiburg, Germany. Solar architect Rolf Disch wanted to apply his PlusEnergy concept, created originally with his Heliotrope home, to mass residential production. This residential complex won such awards as House of the Year (2002), Residential PV solar integration award (2002), Germany’s most beautiful housing community (2006). It is the first housing community in the world in which all the homes produce a positive energy balance and which is emissions-free and CO₂ neutral. Built between 2000 and 2005 in the Vauban quarter of Freiburg the design of each home offers maximum energy efficiency and turns energy bills into energy income. The Solar Settlement has proved Disch’s vision of a “fundamental environmental imperative” as these homes have exhibited more than 8 years of full occupancy and each produced more than 4,000 Euros ($5,600) each year in solar energy profits. Disch believes the image his community exhibits is equally as important as the eco-savings it brings. Disch says 50 homes that eliminate energy bills and feed clean sustainable renewable energy into the city’s grid is the imperative we need. They contribute towards the goal of sustainable ecological and economic development and show the entire world that communities like this are economical, beautiful, comfortable and in fact preferable. The tenants at the Solar Settlement do not claim to have made any compromises in their living situations but rather that they have both environmentally and economically improved. Made from Black Forest timber, the wood interior and natural lighting provide for happily lit spaces and a natural flow from room to room.

German developments that employ green building techniques include:

Environmentally sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of ecological sustainability.

An ecodistrict or eco-district is a neologism associating the terms "district" and "eco" as an abbreviation of ecological. It designates an urban planning aiming to integrate objectives of sustainable development and reduce the ecological footprint of the project. This notion insists on the consideration of the whole environmental issues by attributing them ambitious levels of requirements.

Climate-adaptive building shell (CABS) is a term in building engineering that describes the group of facades and roofs that interact with the variability in their environment in a dynamic way. Conventional buildings have static building envelopes, and can therefore not act in response to changing weather conditions and occupant requirements. Climate adaptive building shells, on the other hand do have the ability to change with time. Well-designed CABS have two main functions: they contribute to energy-saving for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting; and they induce a positive impact on the indoor environmental quality of buildings.

The Lorettoberg, also known as Josephsbergle in Freiburg, is a mountain ridge in the South-West of the Wiehre district in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany. The mountain, with its elevation of 384,5 meters above sea level, is wooded at its peak. It divides the district Unterwiehre-Süd and borders the Vauban district in the West. 500 meters north of the “peak” there is a high spur 348m above sea level, next to which the eponymous Lorettokapelle is located. The name derives from Loreto, the second biggest Italian (Mary-) pilgrimage destination, after the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Schloss-Café is located at the top of the mountain making the Lorettoberg a popular destination for a getaway, strolling and a local recreation area.

References

↑ http://www.rolfdisch.de

External links

Rolf Disch Solar Architecture

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[1] ttp://www.rolfdisch.de