Social Energies // Final Presentations

The Introductory studio Social Energies aimed to explore the ambiguous links existing between energy and society. The course proposed to systematise the research from a design and make methodology, getting in touch with fabrication logics and design strategies.

Each group of students built a machine capable to manage sunlight while activating new social spaces, strategic engagements or community-making processes.

Each project had a specific space and mode of deployment, but all of them consisted in systems able to generate their energy using the sunlight as their main base-field, beyond photovoltaic and thermal capacities, to have a wider panorama about solar based machines.

Thermal Urban Acupuncture is a solar heating system that consists of flexible structures and portable heating units that together form an outdoor canopy, not only providing thermal comfort for the community, but also rejuvenating the social interaction in public spaces.

ALMIGHTY uses solar energy and natural filters, such as oysters and moringa seed, to solve the water problem through desalination process. The whole prototype is set up in a specific site on the coastal area of Besos, where students propose social farming to create employment, maintain the area and activate the space.

Sound Dial – Social Energies

Solar Blossom is a passive, solar inspired solution with a meaningful social impact. The project is a thermo-reactive structure using the energy of the sun to change its shape as per change in temperature. The idea is the materialisation of a dome-like structure that is a life umbrella, opening in warmer days and closing when it becomes cooler.

SoundDial: memory found in a photonics sound wants to activate a public space through the use of solar energy with a machine that generates sound through photonic means. The combination of this prototypes compose an installation were people are able to interact depending on the sun light.

Catalysis is a solar machine, designed for the Poblenou districto of Barcelona, based on the use of a photocatalyc coating of TiO2 on different mediums.

Light Computer uses the landscape of the color spectrum and solar based technologies to create visualisations of life as it unfolds. The installation goes beyond the color intervention, enhancing users interaction to entirely represent the complexities of the real time city.

Light Computer – Social Energies