Client : Solaris Kit
In many regions, that still means burning fossil fuels just to get hot water for washing, cleaning and basic comfort.
Solariskit set out to make solar thermal simple, affordable and easy to live with. A flat-pack, prismatic collector that ships efficiently, assembles quickly and sits lightly on rooftops and open ground. They asked Filament to help turn that idea into a product that communities could install, use and repair themselves.
Not a piece of industrial hardware dropped on a roof.
But a quiet object that turns sunshine into something people feel every day.
sealed boxes needing cranes, specialist installers and a level of permanence that does not suit every project. In lower-income and remote settings, that complexity halts progress before anything reaches a roof.
Solariskit pointed towards a different model. Ship as a compact kit. Use a low-profile geometry that feels at home on homes, schools and clinics. Design for repair, not disposal.
Technology that cannot be installed or fixed locally becomes decoration.
Make it buildable and repairable on site and it becomes infrastructure
balancing heat capture, durability and weight so the unit performs without becoming fragile or awkward to handle.
Every joint and fixing was treated as a guided decision. Parts line up in a natural order, resist leaks and can be swapped individually rather than discarding the whole unit. We prototyped for dust, wind, UV and rough handling so the collector succeeds on rooftops in Rwanda, not just in controlled test rigs.
Designed for flat roofs, courtyards and local hands.
So hot water becomes a long term asset, not a fragile donation.
Kits arrive flat and stack tightly on pallets. Local teams assemble the units with basic tools, raise them into place and connect them to simple storage. Once installed, the low profile prism quietly turns sunlight into hot water day after day.
providing hot water for affordable housing and clinics in Rwanda, with more deployments planned.
Hot water becomes predictable, less expensive and far less dependent on fossil fuels, delivered by something that feels appropriate to its setting rather than imposed on it.
