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Solar Living CenterIn the winter of 1998 I visited my brother who was living and worki ng in SanFrancisco ,California. During this vacation we visited the Solar Living Center, abrilliant example of using the principles I would one day call Natural Living. Wefound this oasis for natural living in the middle of a desert, in a place calledHopland. We took a guided tour of the facilities and I was blown away by theinspired thinking that had created the highly integrated systems of water flows,shading, straw bale construction, natural lighting, and art. The solar poweredfountain at the heart of the center was constructed to display many elements ofnature including orientation of the sun, time, water, and space, with a built incalendar to mark the cycles of nature. The amazing, inspiring story of the design,development and construction included:• using soil to color the walls despite the laws preventing it• use of straw bales on such a large scale• powered by photo voltaic sola r panels on a very large scale, combined withwind turbines• ventilation systems optimized for the local orientation, location andenvironment and it worked well on the sunny warm day we visited• natural sun light as the primary source of light, supplemented by florescentlights• ponds that were naturally populated with fish from the local river• the incredible beauty of the naturalization processInspired by my parents, Gaby, the Toronto Health y House and The Solar LivingCenter, it was time to start designing our own home.210