Fractal community tissue: Differentiating the energy harvest through self-similar urban form

This paper describes the application of fractal dimensioning and self-similar geometric patterning properties to the strategic harvest of solar energy. Specifically, the paper examines application of fractal principles at the scales of community, building, component, and material surface. Using fundamental geometric properties as the “simple rules applied repeatedly”, one can maximize (at differing scales) the opportunity for differentiating and managing the energy harvest to fit user(s) need. The paper discusses the use of fractal patterning as a means of dimensioning and scaling the “ratios of transparency” — the formal geometric expressions of conversion potential resulting from surface roughness condition(s). Roughness in fractal terms is a relative factor ranging in application from community-scale constructs on the land (which can mimic natural physiography) to the microscopic geometry of PV semi-conductor surfaces. Specific illustration at the scales cited can be correlated to the spreadsheet inventorying of energy harvest potentials. Fractal patterning provides an opportunity for treating strategies of energy harvest — embodied in community, building, component, and material surface — as seeds for a new urban form.