A few people in our town have complained about the looks of an enormous solar field that powers the entire school district, but also about a small residential two-panel solar installation alongside a country road. While many residential solar rooftop applications disappear into the roof design, the larger solar installations are usually purely functional and not particularly attractive.
Yet aesthetics is important because beautiful things enhance the quality of life. Wouldn’t you rather look at something attractive than at something ugly?
When it comes to renewable energy applications and their architectural expressions we are still in virgin territory because these technologies are relatively new. But if the expression of say a solar installation matches its environmental benefits by being skillfully integrated into the architecture, we are creating a whole new aesthetic, whole new sense of what we call beautiful or attractive. Instead of form following function, then function follows form.
Note about illustrations:
1 – solar façade in downtown Anchorage – photo by SMF
2 – solar louvers at Hotel Augustus in Montegrotto Terme/Italy – photo by SMF
