— PATENT PENDING —

GARMENT ARCHITECTURE FOR A CHANGING CLIMATE

Solar Veils creates a shaded, ventilated layer at the building envelope. Using lightweight, tensioned architectural fabric, Solar Veils helps reduce solar heat gain before it enters the building—using no energy.

SOLAR VEILS — PROTOTYPE 1, 2026

Artwork and experimental passive-cooling textile architecture

by Melissa Lockwood

Installed at Arcosanti, Arizona

Featured Artist — FORM 2026, October 8–11

Inspired by Paolo Soleri’s concept of Garment Architecture.

Requiring No Operational Energy

Reduces Heat Gain

Passive Cooling

Passive Airflow

Scalable Design

From Sunshade Fabrication to Solar Veils

Melissa Lockwood’s research into textile shading developed through several years of hands-on work at Arcosanti. Beginning with the fabrication and replacement of worn architectural sunshades, her work expanded into the design, construction and observation of textile systems responding to the intense Arizona sun.

In 2025, she was appointed Manager of Arcosanti’s Garment Architecture Department, and later continued working on sunshades under contract. Through making and observing numerous shades across the site—working with different openings, geometries, fabrics, attachment systems and distances from buildings—she began investigating shade as more than a protective covering.

That accumulated experience led to Solar Veils: an ongoing exploration of textile architecture as a lightweight environmental layer that can intercept solar radiation while encouraging natural airflow and reducing heat gain.

EARLIER WORK / TEXTILE, SPACE + ARCHITECTURE