Archinect - News

MIT startup creates camouflage solar panels

2017-02-24T14:17:00-05:00

Founded at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Sistine creates custom solar panels designed to mimic home facades and other environments, with aims of enticing more homeowners to install photovoltaic systems. Sistine’s novel technology, SolarSkin, is a layer that can be imprinted with any image and embedded into a solar panel without interfering with the panel’s efficacy. Homeowners can match their rooftop or a grassy lawn.

The product caters to the growing "aesthetic solar" market which tries to attract homeowners that are considering going solar but fear the aesthetic impact of the traditional, bleak-looking dark solar panels on their home's appearance. Just last fall, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed a line of glass, photovoltaic cell-embedded roof tiles that mimic (currently) four common roof covering styles.

Here a few more examples of Sistine's SolarSkin technology that allows—so the company claims—the panels to either completely blend in with the existing roof or display any desired image, like business logos or advertisements.

All images via Sistine Solar's website.

BUREAU A's Swiss alpine cabin lets you camp out inside a boulder

2014-12-17T14:49:00-05:00

Up in the slopes of the Swiss village Verbier in the Alps, BUREAU A's "Antoine" is a little wooden cabin hidden inside a concrete rock that camouflages with its environment. Inspired by Swiss cultural elements like the literature of iconic writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, hidden bunkers, and the unique experience of living in an alpine landscape, "Antoine" looks like one comfy, cool space to get away from it all — with a hint of adventure.

BUREAU A provided more detail into their latest project:

"The mountains have the power to call for feelings of fascination and fear at the same time. Switzerland has a strong tradition of observing the Alps, living with them, hiding inside them. The awe and the anxiety that this monumental landscape appeals is reflected in the writings of Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, one of the most important Swiss writers. His novels, Derborence, describes the massive rock fall that covered the pastures of the valley of Lizerne in 1714. Antoine, the main character, surv...

A passion for color and taxonomy

2014-08-22T01:03:00-04:00

The two were commissioned, along with other artists including Chris Burden and Cindy Sherman, to create site-specific works dealing with Charleston’s history...The pair ended up painting the outside of an old house in colors approved by the city’s Board of Architectural Review — but in a camouflage pattern, which was hardly what the preservationists had in mind.

Back in July, Frank Rose reviewed a "poignant" exhibition at Galerie Perrotin on Madison, of the work Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler. For those interested in learning more, there is exactly one more day to visit, as the exhibit runs through August 22 - 2014.

Anti-Surveillance Camouflage for Your Face

2014-07-24T13:53:00-04:00

The idea behind CV dazzle is simple. Facial recognition algorithms look for certain patterns when they analyze images: patterns of light and dark in the cheekbones, or the way color is distributed on the nose bridge—a baseline amount of symmetry. These hallmarks all betray the uniqueness of a human visage. If you obstruct them, the algorithm can’t separate a face from any other swath of pixels.