Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Michael Jantzen's Solar Wind Pavilion

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.23.07
Design & Architecture, Treehugger.com

Michael Jantzen of the Transformation House and the Wind Shaped Pavilion proposes yet another wind and sun powered structure, this time for the California State University at Fullerton.

A vertical axis turbine and four rings of photovoltaics generate electricity that is stored in batteries, or as Jantzen says "Some of the electrical energy gathered by the wind turbine and the photovoltaic cells can also be stored in the form of hydrogen gas. This gas is formed from the wind and sun energy gathered by the structure and from rainwater that is collected from the canopy roof."

"Aesthetically, the structure was conceived of as a large umbrella that is symbolically shaped by the rotation of the wind turbine. Conceptually, as the turbine rotates and gathers energy from the wind, this energy is sent down into the surrounding campus landscape in the form of concentric rings of energy. These rings can also be thought of symbolically as a magnet that works in reverse to draw people toward it."

No comments: