EVDS Architecture Professor Tang Lee was interviewed on CBC radio Homestretch Sept 4, 2013 about a partially completed concaved building in the United Kingdom that has melted parts of a car, burned carpeting, made paint buckle and tiles to delaminate from neighbouring buildings.
Reflective window glass is installed on buildings to reduce air-conditioning cost but it becomes a mirror that can focus the sun’s rays onto the city streets.
Lee explained that this phenomenon is rare because the concave curve must be a parabolic shape to focus parallel rays of the sun. A simple semi-circle does not have a focal point.
Professor Lee has been designing solar heated building since 1975. He builds several solar hot dog cookers to demonstrate the power of the sun to school children. Strips of mirrors are glued to a parabolic trough and when positioned towards the sun, all of the hot dogs are cooked within 10 minutes or less depending on the size of the cooker and number of mirrors.
Click here to listen to Lee on the CBC's Homestretch and to learn more about Lee's areas of research.