Architects Fred and William Keck began building passive solar houses in the 1930s and continued up until 1979. Fred Keck produced the House of Tomorrow and the Crystal House for Chicago's Century of Progress World's Fair in the midst of the Depression. During WWII, they built Solar Park in Glenview, Ill and a pre-fab housing development of Green's Ready-Builts in Rockford. Later, in 1952, they built another solar development of 22 houses in Glencoe, lll.
In the 1930s, the Kecks experimented with shallow rooftop pools for evaporative cooling in the summer and external blinds for shade control. They used radiant heating and built some buildings with an ancient Roman method, forced air heating through hollow floor tiles.
Keck trademarks:
flat roof
passive solar
indirect lighting
cedar siding
radiant heat in the floor
post and beam construction, (most often wood, but sometimes steel)
modular design
fixed Thermopane windows with separate operable screened vents
from http://www.chicagobauhausbeyond.org/...
The trademark of a Keck and Keck design was the separation between glazing and ventilation. The windows were fixed glass, first single pane and later Thermopane, and ventilation louvers were placed beside or below the glazing. The vents were operable from the inside, secure from intruders, keeping out rain.
Because of their size and quantity, the vents while open create the effect of an outdoor pavilion rather than an enclosed structure. The Spence House in Bensenville (1941), for example, remains comfortable without air conditioning on all but the hottest days because of these vents and the proper placement of wide eaves and shade trees.
from http://jetsetmodern.com/...
They also used wide eaves which allowed winter light to enter and heat the house while shading the rooms from the summer sun.
All in all, Keck and Keck completed 807 projects from apartment buildings, offices, and houses to simple additions.
The Kecks created hundreds of elegant, livable houses in the Chicago area and elsewhere. Unlike more famous contemporaries, who talked about bringing fine architecture to the masses but failed to do much about it, the Kecks created houses that were affordable and came in on budget. Their mark on the public's consciousness is such that today, three decades after the firm was dissolved, North Shore real estate agents listing these houses routinely use the phrase "Keck house'' at the top of their newspaper ads.
The House of Tomorrow at the 1933 Chicago World Fair included a hangar for the family airplane. It was called the USA's first all glass house.
Advertisement for Keck and Keck designed solar pre-fab home
Photo and video tour of Chicago modern architecture with more Keck and Keck buildings
http://www.chicagobauhausbeyond.org/...
Photo tour of one restored Keck and Keck house
http://jetsetmodern.com/...
William Keck
Chicago Architects Oral History Project Interview transcript
http://www.artic.edu/...
Jetset Modern has a dead link to a Popular Mechanics Article, Aug 1946, which details some Keck and Keck passive solar houses. I'm guessing it would be instructive. If anybody comes across a live link, please let me know.
More solar history from John Perlin, one of the authors of A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology at http://www.californiasolarcenter.org...
Earlier entries in this series:
Old Solar: Venetian Vernacular
Old Solar: 1881
More on windows as solar energy devices:
A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector
Your Southernmost Window
Solar IS Civil Defense.