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michael jantzen

michael jantzen

Santa Fe, NM, US

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The Solar Electric Pavilion

The Solar Electric Pavilion

 

The Solar Electric Pavilion is a public, functional art, gathering place structure that makes and stores electricity from the sun for the local community in which it is installed. The design of the pavilion explores the relationship between art, architecture, and alternative energy gathering and storage technologies. The pavilion attempts to merge these together into one aesthetically exciting, and cohesive amalgamation.

The entire structure is made of curved and straight steel box beam components. Forty-one photovoltaic solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity are mounted onto the curved and straight beams. Most of the electricity made by the solar panels is sent into the local power grid, and some of it is used to charge batteries that are contained inside of eight cylindrical shaped seats mounted under the canopy of the pavilion. That stored electricity is used to light the pavilion at night, and/or to charge visitors electronic devices.

A circular shaped observation platform located at the center is supported by the frame of the pavilion and accessed by a spiral staircase. Five curved and straight concrete walkways lead from the perimeter landscape to the center of the pavilion under the canopy to a circular concrete pad and the eight seats.

The Solar Electric Pavilion is just one in a series of public functional art projects I have designed that celebrate the use of alternative energy gathering and storage technologies in the built environment, in an attempt to promote their further use.

 
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Status: Unbuilt