Global warming is hot. You know what else is hot? Green. In case you are living under a rock (which is so in these days), there is a bit of a craze in greenwashing. While this has partially become a happy justification for cash hungry stores to implore users to return their goods or not use the stores resources, there are some surprisingly valuable products that are coming out. One of the exciting developments from Konarka is their flexible printed solar panels. The panels of solar cells are easily produced and offer a whole new range of design opportunities for new, green applications.
There are, of course, several design restrictions. While flexible, the panels aren’t terribly durable and often must be protected in some way additional to the outer coverings they come in in order to outlive their normal outdoor lifespan of around 3 years. Also, the panels cannot be freely shaped into anything desired. There are requirements of surface area of each cel within the panel being the same size and a consistant distance between each. We are free, however, to redesign the layout of these cells in order to create specially shaped cells.
Jill, Caroline, and I sat down together to discuss a group application of the new solar cells. After several ideas, we all were excited by the use of solar cells to replace stained glass. Konarka has developed several shades of semi sheer solar panels that collect energy while still allowing some of the light through. This is ideal for stained glass where part of the goal is to create an ambiance of awe that comes with the filtered light. This way, however, that filtering would generate energy for different purposes.
The solar panes would be sandwiched in between pains of glass, which would inprove the durability of the panels without harming the design and purpose of the windows.
All three of us had different interests that we wanted to explore that all implamented Helios, our proposed solution to stained glass. I was fascinated by the idea of designing a rose window out of the solar glass as a virtuosic expression of solar powered glasses’ potential. Aside from being arresting and beautiful, the rose window structure works well with the solar glass in that it is patterned so that the same piece can be used several times and the leading sections can be designed as tributaries to hold the wires that are connecting the windows to whatever they are powering. The sketch at the top illustrates this tributary wireing structure for two pains.
Caroline proposed implamenting Helios as part of a memorial or nondenominational house of reverence and introspection. The stained glass pains of the building would be collecting energy that was stored in batteries in the day and then released as night came on to light the inside of the monument. This would maintain a constant level of light in the monument, regardless of time of day, in a type of eternal flame.
Finally, Jill was intrigued by the potential narrative aspect of Helios. Many stained glass windows tell a religious story in pictorial form. Jill wanted to coopt this style to tell a story about evolution. This would be additionally interactive by using smart glass, which is opaque but becomes transparent when a current is run through it. These transitions would be powered by the solar cells so that the interactive narrative is completely self sustained.
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