Why
The cost of the roof is too big a part of the total cost of the house. The quality of the roof is by far too little in relation to that cost. Apart from too high a cost, the roof construction is too easy to damage, is too demanding for the layour of the plan of the house. The usual roof construction offers to many constrains for looking out, for daylight and for ventilation.
The shortcomings of roofs should not be taken as a natural limitation. Instead it should be realized how much there is to win in comfort when roof constructions become smarter. Such a design effort should first of all relate to the many billions of people living in extreme poor conditions.
How
A roof construction can profit from a modular construction approach, offering standardization and flexibility at the same time. Use of low cost modern materials can increase its quality. More functions can be assigned to the roof surface such as harvesting water as well as solar energy and offering space for growing plants. The roof surface can also be made suitable for chemical processing, such as recycling human waste and any chemical process that benefits from exposure to light. A roofconstruction should also be easy to open up widely for enjoying the sun and the niceness of the local climate at day or night time.
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