# Passive and Active Solar Systems in Eco-Architecture and Eco-Urban Planning
## 2 Materials and Methods
### Solar Architecture and Solar Urban Planning: The State of the Art
#### 2.1.2 Solar Architecture from Antiquity to Modernism  
\"Passive\" houses, in terms of insolation, had already appeared in ancient cultures in South America, as well as in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and China. In Greece, the way both houses and cities were built was an excellent example of solar construction, the aim of which was to provide each home with sufficient light and heat, especially in winter. [PERSON] house, as described in ancient literature, looked toward the sun. The largest windows were located on the south side while the \"pantry\" on the north side served as a buffer space protecting against the cold [4]. Olynthus, one of the most important Greek cities, used southern solar exposure in its urban complex. Each of the houses had all its rooms used for living, opening onto the south side of a portico. In Delos, the walls on the north side were lower than on the south side, and this allowed for additional insolation of the rooms in winter and for limiting the inflow of sunlight during hot summer days. The Romans used glazing widely in winter gardens and glass houses, thus accumulating solar heat by creating a greenhouse effect in the interiors [27; 28]. From the 1 st century AD, Roman houses used flat and convex glass combined with metal. [PERSON], a Roman architect living in the 1 st century BC recommended that the appropriate location of a residential building should take into account its relation to the sun [29]. In Lauretum in the house of [PERSON] in the Apennines, solar heating was used by locating the so-called solar furnace room (a concentric room, with windows to the south, south-east and south-west, from where heat was distributed through a system of pipes to the rest of the house) [28]. Starting from the 1 st century AD until the fall of the Roman Empire, solar energy was used to heat houses, conservatories and Roman baths, and an element of Roman law was the so-called \"Solar Law\". With the fall of the Roman Empire, the tradition of constructing conservatories and of using the sun in architecture disappeared for many centuries [27; 30]. From the 16 th century, domestic glasshouses added onto the southern side of buildings were commonly found in the Netherlands, France and England. In Renaissance Italy, [PERSON] used [PERSON] advice on buffer spaces in his projects to place rooms more frequently used in winter on the south side with summer rooms on the north side. In the 17 th century, in France and England, \"fruit walls\" were used--solar walls of various structures and a southern exposure [28]. In the 18 th century, greenhouses and conservatories located against residential houses became common. In the 19 th century, such elements were gradually transformed into larger buildings that housed exotic plants. Having a greenhouse at that time became synonymous with higher status, and this was one factor resulting in their development. An excellent example of such a building serving as a public space was the Crystal Palace of [PERSON], built of glass and prefabricated elements for the Great International Exhibition in London in 1852. In the 19 th century, Polish manors were in principle energy-efficient with a front facade, tilted axially toward the south, due to which the sun in the period from April to September could reach all walls of the house during the day [4]. Since the mid-19 th century, there has been a growing interest in the active use of the sun in architecture. On a wave of interest in innovative solutions, solar collectors that use the energy of the sun to heat water, houses and support the functioning of various devices have appeared. In 1885, the French engineer [PERSON] introduced low-emission solar collectors to drive a solar pump used in agriculture [27]. In 1889, the industrial production of water tanks heated with the energy of the sun, patented by [PERSON], was launched. Built in 1902, the Larkin Office Building, designed by [PERSON], was the first to be air-conditioned. At the same time, projects using photovoltaics were being developed [28].