roof-grown
Of the block’s electricity came straight from our 1,840 m² solar canopy.
01 — The premise
A courtyard that does more than look alive.
Our central glasshouse catches winter sun, gathers rain from four roofs, and keeps the battery suite at an easy temperature. It is also where people trade seedlings, teach repair skills, and check the day’s generation over coffee.
That overlap is deliberate. Infrastructure is easier to care for when it lives where your neighbours do.
02 — This month in common
Every roof has a vote.
The co-op dashboard makes the system legible: production first, household need second, flexible loads when the sun is generous.
of calm power
Stored in the communal battery room for evening meals, lifts, and cloudy-day basics.
back locally
Summer surplus returned to members as bill credit and the repair-library fund.
03 — A live loop
A little electricity with a long social life.
We don’t treat excess generation as a number to export and forget. The community set three priorities for it: keep homes comfortable, shift useful work into daylight, and let the benefit circulate.
1Catch. Roof cells feed the atrium inverter before noon.
2Use. Residents book laundry, tools, and e-bike charging for sun-rich hours.
3Share. The remaining kilowatt-hours become credit in every member’s account.
Warm-up & water
Greenhouse vents open, water loops wake, and the bakery mixer takes its first sunny draw.
Make & mend
The workshop’s induction benches, sewing machines, and tool-library chargers run on the bright stretch.
Bank the afternoon
What homes do not need settles into the battery suite for the dinner-hour climb.
Table time
Courtyard lights soften on, lifts stay reliable, and the shared kitchen starts its long table service.
05 — Trace a generous day
Where does the daylight go?
The system is not automated away from people. Move through one ordinary day and watch how the commons changes its mind: first warming, then making, then saving, then carrying on after sunset.
Choose an hour, or drag the slider through the glass. The battery on the right fills with the daylight that has not yet been spent.
Morning priority
Warm the glasshouse
The vents, water loop, and bakery mixer take the first gentle draw while the battery starts its day at 24%.
06 — Notes from the atrium
What residents notice.
Not the abstract promise of a smarter building — the tiny, practical changes of belonging to one.
“My nine-year-old knows when to put the laundry on. That’s more useful than another dashboard.”— Lene, C stair
“When my inverter question turned into a six-person conversation over mint tea, I knew this was different.”— Omar, repair steward
“The atrium has made winter feel less like a season we have to endure alone.”— Ragnhild, 14 years here
07 — Visit Verdance
Bring a question. Leave with a cutting.
Every Thursday afternoon, our energy stewards open the battery room and the greenhouse to neighbours beyond Block 9. No sales pitch, no membership pressure — just a working system, a warm bench, and people happy to explain the wiring.
Open atrium / Thursday
15:30–18:30
Verdance Commons, Hillside Block 9
Entry through the east garden gate