Solar Pavilion / V8 Architects

Text description provided by the architects. The central theme of Dutch Design Week this year is Get Set and indicates a shift in mindset: We’re bracing ourselves, it’s time to take action, and we have to do it together. The Solar Pavilion’s main argument is to transition from solar technology to solar design. Marjan van Aubel: Solar energy needs a new, more personal perspective that is part of our culture. This pavilion demonstrates that solar energy can be experienced and used in a new way. The pavilion is a sensory experience and, during Dutch Design Week, the place to poetically experience solar energy harvesting.

The Netherlands has a long tradition of making the environment as profitable as possible and is known worldwide for its designed solutions. In our drive to make our planet more sustainable, combined with our energy hunger, rooftops and fields are now being used to generate solar energy. This approach increasingly clashes with our landscape and cities.

Michiel Raaphorst of V8 Architects: “Currently, energy is only harvested in a techno-functional way. We explore how to integrate the sun’s energy into our daily lives so that we can love and embrace it.’ Building the pavilion was a challenge, for which V8 Architects collaborated with more than a dozen parties. Raaphorst: “The pavilion incorporates 380 solar panels. We deliberately left all the connections, wires, and discs visible so that visitors could see how it works, and the pavilion is easy to dismantle. A practical view of the structure.”

All these parties worked together to realize the pavilion because they all believed in Marjan van Aubel’s message: the time is now for a solar revolution. The approach was also essential: Involving various parties in the process as early as possible and giving them room to “hack” a project gave everyone involved trust to use their knowledge and depend on others. It was only due to this openness that everything came together: parties who all believed in innovating, collaborating, and sometimes failing to move forward.”

The other side of the story is poetic: the sensation of the sun you feel during the day can also be experienced at night due to the light and heat generated.  Raaphorst: “We use technology to represent a natural phenomenon and harvest the energy for it from that natural phenomenon itself. So the Solar Pavilion depicts the sun’s energy and cooperation.”