2024-11-08T11:03:55-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150033964/unknown-pioneer-of-solar-energy-konrad-frey-is-given-a-second-look Noémie Despland-Lichtert 2017-10-18T17:23:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/d0/d0czqn6w76plw1f1.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Konrad Frey was a pioneer who designed and built solar houses based on data and scientific insights. Yet Frey and his work are largely unknown. A project by the architectural theoretician Anselm Wagner aims to change that.</p></em><br /><br /><p>"The architectural designs of Konrad Frey are characterized by the fact that their form is a consequence of function. Had he worked in Vienna, had his activities started in the urban context, his architecture would have become a topic of research long ago,"&nbsp;says art historian and architectural theoretician Anselm Wagner.&nbsp;<br></p> <p>Frey studied solar energy in the 1960s and designed Austria's first solar house in 1972, together with Florian Beigel, using a combination of&nbsp;active and passive harnessing of solar energy. "The Sun Houses of Konrad Frey: Environmental Research and Solar Design Knowledge", a research project funded by Austrian Science Fund FWF, will produce an online catalogue raisonn&eacute; and a monograph of Frey work. </p>