Concept

PHOTOVOLTAICS FOR SHAPING PERFORMATIVE LANDSCAPES.
06 September 2011, Hamburg CCH Congress Center, Germany

a parallel event of
26th EUPVSEC

The deployment of photovoltaics continues to increase rapidly, with the total power installed doubling every year. Today most of these installations are on roofs, and this will slow the rate of cost reduction since even if module prices decrease substantially, installation costs are almost constant.

Achieving the needed large scale integration of photovoltaics into our energy system will therefore require large-scale deployment beyond the building scale. Large scale “open-field” installations, in the multi-MW size (at least one squared kilometre of photovoltaic modules), will become part of our landscapes.

This represents a new kind of “productive” land-use, which is currently not encouraged and even discouraged in some cases. In fact, today, photovoltaic systems are just “added” on the landscape, using land suitable for other traditional societal uses (agriculture being the obvious example), and this way to use photovoltaics in the landscape is not accepted by the public.

How to make in the future photovoltaic large open field installations acceptable or even desirable, also in comparison with other traditional land uses? What if these installations are seen as a new form of “integration”? What if we think of photovoltaic systems as elements of a new “performative landscape”?

This approach leads to the challenge: «How to design a thousand of square kilometres of photovoltaics?»
If we want to avoid that such systems are just “put” on the ground and risk of rejection by the public, we have to re-think how to do open-field deployment in the 50 to 100 MW scale. In fact, these installations will have to be designed as an integral part of a “performative landscape”, requiring a truly multidisciplinary approach.

The event highlighted the interaction of photovoltaic systems with buildings and landscapes, by showing how architects intend to take up this challenge.

Four keynote presentations on the transition from photovoltaic architecture into urban and non-urban landscapes have been followed by a round table discussion.

PRESENTATION

Heinz A. Ossenbrink
Chairman of the 26th European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition | European Commission | JRC | The Netherlands & Italy

INTRODUCTION
Alessandra Scognamiglio
Scientific organiser of the event | ENEA | Italy

WITH
Mason White
Director | University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design | Partner | Lateral Office, Toronto | Canada
NEW ENERGIES, NEW ARCHITECTURE. DESIGN AND THE ENERGY REVOLUTION

David Nelson
Senior Partner joint Head of Design | Foster+Partners, London | UK
SOLAR ENERGY AND CITY MASTERPLANS

Walter Hood
Director | Hood Design, Oakland | Professor | College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley | USA
PHOTOVOLTAICS AND FORMS OF LANDSCAPE. STRANDS AND PATCHES: UB SOLAR ARRAY

Simone Giostra
President | Simone Giostra & Partners, New York | Associate Professor PRATT Institute, School of Architecture, New York | USA
LANDSCAPE INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAICS

ROUND TABLE

moderator
Joseph Grima
Editor | Domus | Italy

Photos