Photovoltaic panels

An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about photovoltaic panels

NewsDetail • 12 Dec 2023

Detail: Media facade of the Novartis Pavillon, Basel

AMDL Circle has designed a torus-shaped exhibition building for the pharmaceutical company Novartis on its campus in Basel, Switzerland. The pavilion is enveloped in a complex ‘media facade’ programmed with digital art shows. The zero-energy facade is capable of generating the electricity it consumes, with each of its 10,680 photovoltaic cells containing a layer of organic substrate that converts sunlight into electricity. The Novartis pharmaceutical headquarters is home to 8000 employees as well as the offices, labs, restaurants, cafés and shops that support them. The campus is generously sized with green spaces located along the river Rhine in central Basel. It has been constructed within an urban grid according to a p... More

NewsArchello Awards • 8 Dec 2023

Public selects SunStyle Solar Roof as 'For the Planet Award 2023' winner

Archello Awards 2023 has revealed its winning products. For each of the 17 categories, one product was awarded by jury vote, and one product was awarded by public vote. The public has selected the SunStyle Solar Roof by the Swiss company SunStyle to receive the overall For the Planet Award, which honors a recently-launched product supporting sustainable design and building.  The SunStyle Solar Roof is a system of photovoltaic roof panels with a refined and unique form and texture. The tile was developed as an energy-efficient, long-lasting construction element. The design of its triangulated form was inspired by the slate roofs of the Swiss Alpine region. As a roofing system it offers sustainable weather protection... More

Project • By AR Design StudioPrivate Houses

The Woodland House

Woodland House is a private, bespoke replacement dwelling located in East Devoncompleted in late 2022 by award-winning Winchester-based Architects, AR Design Studio. The clients approached AR seeking to relocate from the hustle and bustle of London to the tranquillity of rural Devon. Their children had left home, meaning that they were able to downsize, and so they were presented with the opportunity to pursue their lifelong dream and create their dream contemporary home. Martin Gardner Martin Gardner Martin Gardner Having previously lived in Grade II listed London properties they were keen to create a high quality new build house that was warm, air tight and most importantly, energy efficient. With now grown up children th... More

NewsSpecification • 6 Jun 2023

10 buildings designed with integrated PV panels

Photovoltaic (PV) panels convert solar energy from the sun into electricity. Recognized as a source of natural and clean energy that is helping to reduce carbon emissions and address climate change, the use of photovoltaic power is expanding rapidly across many sectors. PV panels are commonly integrated into a roof’s structure — however, they can also be fitted as part of a building’s facade. PV roof tiles are solar panels designed to look and function like commonplace roofing materials. Their design ensures they are seamlessly combined with a roof’s standard tiles. Read more about photovoltaic roof tiles on Archello.   Embracing and harnessing solar energy, this list provides a selection of residential build... More

NewsNews • 25 May 2023

Mixtura completes the uniquely contextual convent of the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany in Brazil

Designed by Mixtura, a practice of young architects from Italy, the new convent of the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany is now complete. The 5,300 square meter project includes large spaces for prayer, hospitality, and areas for residents from the surrounding local community of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, to meet. Cesare Querci The design concept comes from an extensive participatory design process between the architects and the community. The resulting complex features primarily low-tech buildings where locally derived wood textures inform the structure and the cladding. The classic typology of the convent, which is oriented around a single closed cloister, is reinterpreted here by multiplying the number of cloisters. In tota... More

NewsNews • 7 Apr 2023

Vilalta Studio transforms a warehouse into a dynamic, light-filled workspace

In Barcelona, Vilalta Studio Architects have rehabilitated and transformed a former warehouse building into a dynamic, light-filled workspace. Kolya Popov Visitors are welcomed off Jaume Brossa Street into an angled entrance garden where people can socialize and be in contact with nature. The entrance garden leads directly to the upper-floor workspace, which is completely open and without partitions or hierarchy. The lower level is dedicated to meeting and social space, with a large classroom and central area where staff and visitors can congregate. Kolya Popov The two floors are connected by a 6 x 6m open courtyard furnished with steel and bamboo furniture and a large bamboo plant in the centre. This double-height space... More

Project • By SunStyleHousing

Single-family house in Bern

The roof of a house is not only a durable protection against wind and weather. As part of the dream home, it also acts as an eye-catcher and rounds off the architectural design of the entire property. This is what the owners of this home thought, too, who took the opportunity to upgrade their house aesthetically and in terms of energy technology as part of a roof extension to gain living space. Conventional solar panels were out of the question for them. The visual appearance of the house and the most ecological building style possible were the top priorities for the owners. At the same time, optimal energy generation was to be achieved by covering as much of the roof surface as possible with solar tiles. A clear case for the products from... More

NewsNews • 31 Oct 2022

llabb architects complete light and contemplative retreat in stunning Val Trebbia

With initially only its entrance door visible, the Hermitage by llabb in Val Trebbia is a rectangular volume approached from the northwest of the property. The walls on three sides of the volume are clad with horizontally oriented plywood boards. The fourth side opens up to the valley with expansive views made possible by four full-height glazed panels. Anna Positano, Gaia Cambiaggi, Studio Campo The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of Okoumè marine plywood panels, a wood that was selected for its resistance to weathering. The facades are attached to spacer battens to create an air space between the facade and the walls, an assembly which improves insulation performance.  Anna Positano, Gaia Cambiaggi, Studio Ca... More

Product • By SunStyleSunStyle Solar Tile bottom 67WP (Europe)

SunStyle Solar Tile bottom 67WP (Europe)

SunStyle Solar Roof is also available in the Americas.   FunctionAs we continue to expect more when it comes to the energy performance of our buildings, we must work to move away from fossil fuels and nuclear energy and towards renewable energy sources. A fully integrated solar roof that converts clean and unlimited solar energy into electricity helps us do both.The SunStyle solar roof harmoniously connects these two objectives: first, as a high quality construction element, it offers sustainable weather protection; and, second, it enables efficient electricity production over the entire roof surface.   Manufacturing and QualityThe SunStyle solar tile was developed as an energy-efficient, long-lasting construction element. The... More

Project • By Park AssociatiOffices

Brisa 5

Park Associati's retrofitting project concerns both blocks of a building by Pietro Portaluppi situated in the centre of Milan. The complex consists of two buildings of three and five floors respectively, completely different in style, having been designed almost twenty years apart. Portaluppi intervened for the first time in 1919, creating smooth facade with influences of the Viennese secession, and then a second time, in the mid-thirties, when he designed a volume, enlarged with two floors in the second post war period, decidedly modernist. The total refurbishment has enabled the redistribution of the volumes of the existing complex and all its interior spaces, which were made more fluid and functional and better suited for use by at leas... More

Project • By BatlleiroigOffices

Headquarters of Doctors Without Borders

The proposal for the Corporate Headquarters for Doctors Without Borders transforms an existing building in the 22@ district into a new functional and biophyllic space designed for people. The existing building was a ground floor plus four and rooftop industrial building that had undergone several transformations along its lifespan. The most relevant transformation took place in 2003 when the building experienced a total renovation shifting its use from industrial to office space. The communications and service cores were modified to fulfill the standing regulations disregarding the resulting conditions in the workspace. The building occupied almost all of the lot's surface generating very deep spaces with hardly any natural lightning nor v... More

Project • By line+Watch Towers

Guizhou Longtang Targeted Poverty

For traditional villages, protection is for better development, and development can realize its real protection. In the background of changes in the building system and building materials, we hope to provide exemplary renovation strategies for Miao Village dwellings while maintaining a good relationship between the new life needs and the traditional context. In addition, we take the opportunity to revitalize its culture and handicrafts, and establish a good commercial system. In the future, it will grow up organically at its own pace, thus realizing a real poverty alleviation.  -MengFanhao   Longtang village is located in Leishan County, southeast Guizhou Province, where the tea terraces are shrouded in clouds and mist, and the... More

Project • By Bertola architectureHousing

65 Degree Group Housing

Context Following the development of West Bussigny in the suburbanity of Lausanne is planned for 3,000 inhabitants by 2030, the project is developing an alternative to densification and to the individual house by "grouped" type housing while avoiding a morphology of housing segmented only on the verticality. A mix of simplex and duplex typology while keeping a clearly distinct identity of housing units.   Concept Ten volumes of 3 levels are deliberately oriented at 65° in order to optimize the orientation of the facade to the southwest. This volumetric play also makes it possible to create a privatization of each exterior space of the dwellings. This offset means that the corners of these volumes are home to independent winter... More
Mobile Hut
Interior
Interior

Project • By ARTIKUL ArchitectsHousing

Mobile Hut

Mobile hut is the result of the search for a new form of mobile living. It is a designer house providing complete comfort for living with one difference – it is possible to “pack” and transport it anywhere you want. The aim of this product which is halfway between architecture and design is to open new ways of temporary living in exorbitantly expensive cities and in places where it is usually not possible to build. The dwelling is in harmony with the current trend of nomad lifestyle trend and offers its users the possibility to escape from stereotypical habits of the consumer society and get closer to the nature. The form of the house follows the shape of archetypal house with gable roof. Glossy aluminium covering is a pe... More

Project • By Ramos Castellano ArquitectosHotels

Aquiles Eco Hotel

Located in the main square of a small fishermen village, Aquiles Eco Hotel aims to be integrated in the architecture and in the social structure of the surroundings. The architecture is simple, raw and flexible, and it talks with the other houses and the small buildings all around. The structure is composed by 13 wooden container sized rooms, set in a beton brut structure and painted with lime putty. The tropical dry climate and the strong Aliseum winds make the island of Sao Vicente very fragile concerning its avaliable material. Only stones and sand can be found on the island, but still they are protected by local laws and not renewable in the short term. For this reason we chose the certified wood to build the rooms, choosing renewabil... More