UNDER THE SUN an outdoor exhibition of light

Commissioned by The Cooper Hewitt / National Design Museum, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, Kiss + Cathcart designed this major exhibition on solar technologies and the built environment. Staged in the museum's gardens on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Under the Sun introduces the principles and uses of solar energy, and advocates integration of solar technology into everyday life.

Photovoltaic (PV) pavilions and kiosks are the focus of the plan. These structures demonstrate integration of PV systems into temporary and permanent shelter, and incorporate the major solar module technologies: glass, metal, and flexible film.

The pavilions provide shade, display surfaces for images and text, and projection screens for lights and film. The glass pavilion incorporates a thin-film PV medium laminated between glass sheets. These composite modules are simultaneously structure, enclosure, and power source. Energy from the modules powers the pavilion's fan by day and lights under the glass floor at night. The tensile structure pavilion incorporates flexible, thin-film photovoltaic material.

visit Under the Sun: an outdoor exhibition of light

 

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