The South window wall ( details at left) is the piece of architecture that feeds the solar system, both the passive (immediate) and the active (stored). The storage medium is a concrete sub-slab labyrinth which will be discussed later. The window wall has an outer layer of insulating glass and an inner layer of single glass. On the bottom 2 windows, on each side, the inner layer is replaced by an insulated collector plate. Air is drawn from the sides of the center top window into this cavity ( right and left) through a dust filter, down through a back draft damper into the storage labyrinth. The fan is located at the other end of the labyrinth on the north side of the room; this de stratifies the air temperature both vertically, and horizontally in the space.
All the windows have a layer of black anodized aluminum screen on the outer edge of the cavity to absorb a portion of the sunlight; so that the air becomes progressively hotter as it moves downward, and is boosted at the end of the run by the collector plates. An expected air temperature of 120 degrees F is adequate for this system. The strategy is that in winter some of the light passes through and heats the space directly, and some is removed and stored for nighttime or heavily clouded weather. The choice of screens for mini-absorber plates in the windows was based on the common experience that people have of looking through screens and mentally "readings them out".
The collector plates at the bottom are made of punched aluminum sheets,with a selective surface paint, canted to force the air to pass through them, the turbulence transferring heat from the aluminum into the airstream.
The masonry in the interior space between the glass layers is painted a dark magenta to absorbs any intercepted light. While black would be optimal, the chosen color has a greater visual sense of "heat". Also each layer has color differentiation to emphasize its existence. The window becomes something to look at as well as look through.