Design – Dutch Design Week 2022 teamed up with the Solar Biennale to present The Solar Pavilion, an energetic meeting place where visitors can experience the poetic power of the sun. V8 Architects and Marjan van Aubel created a structure with a swooping roof topped with 380 colourful photovoltaic tiles that acts like a sun power-harvesting ‘solar cloth.’
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about Dutch Design Week on Archipanic.
The pavilion resembles a giant beach chair and consists of four robust steel masts supporting a sheet of unique glass solar panels by Kameleon Solar and further developed together with Marjan van Aubel Studio. The energy collected by the tiles is used to spread our star’s heat in the dark space underneath the structure using infrared radiation.
A short journey through the roof gives visitors a spectacular experience of color and light standing amid a field of solar panels. Below the canopy, an intimate room shields and warms visitors through sun-powered infrared panels while an arena hosts a programme of talks and performances.
The installation transforms Solar Technology into Solar Design, counterbalancing the prevailing technological and economic viewpoints on solar energy. “Energy currently gets harvested in a techno-functional manner,” says Michiel Raaphorst of V8 architects. But the roofs and agricultural fields we use to generate cheaper and more sustainable energy increasingly clash with the landscape and our cities.
“We want to find a way to make the energy of the sun integrate into our daily lives so that we can embrace it, love it, and enjoy it.” Says Michiel Raaphorst of V8 architects. “Solar energy needs a new perspective, something more personal, and that is part of our culture. It’s time for Solar design.” Adds Marjan van Aubel.
The Solar Pavilion is entirely circular and uses borrowed standard building and energy components that will be returned to the owners and partners. As a result, every part of this pavilion can be disassembled and reused afterward.
The pavilion is the last exhibition of the Solar Biennale, an initiative by Marjan van Aubel and Pauline van Dongen that promotes solar design thinking for a solar-powered future. It can be visited for free daily at the Ketelhuisplein in Eindhoven until October 30 between 11:00 and 18:00.