Bauhaus.Solar 2012 awarded to Felix Heisel / Jonas Klock
At the 5th International Congress Bauhaus.SOLAR 2012 in Erfurt on November 13, the Bauhaus.SOLAR AWARD was awarded to the project “Solar Forest Tempelhof” by Felix Heisel and Jonas Klock from Berlin. Felix Heisel is a current working at FCL Singapore as a Researcher at the Assistant Professorship Dirk E. Hebel.
This prize for young scientists is being offered by SolarInput e.V. and Solarvalley Mitteldeutschland e.V. all over Europe and is aimed at students and young graduates. It honours outstanding architecture and design projects showing innovative dealings with renewable energies, using solar energy.
According to Michael Frielinghaus, Head of the Jury and President of the BDA Association of German Architects, the winning project offers an important contribution to the debate on how to deal with historically important sites like the former airport Tempelhof in Berlin. “The project translates the history of its location in an exemplary and emblematic way.”
A public park, surrounded by a dense urban ring emerges on the area of the former airport Berlin Tempelhof. Forming a “Solar Forrest”, this open space is planted with trees, partly natural, mostly however artificial “solar trees”. Together, they comprise an innovative power plant, which also spends shade to Berlin’s inhabitants for their recreational activities on the field. The main element of the tree design is its “crown”, a solar balloon using the sun’s energy for buoyancy. Solar cells on its transparent shell and black PVC-Foils on the inside produce electricity and heat. The layout guarantees productivity, regardless of the behavior of the balloon. These solar trees not only produce energy and offer shade to the users of the park, but also work as charging stations for electronic devices and act as individual light sources in the evening hours.
The central interest of the Bauhaus Solar Award 2012 was to put the design and functional demands made of architecture, urban construction, landscape planning and product design into line with the ecological and energetic necessities. Interdisciplinary cooperation and experimental dealings with materials and technical possibilities are to lead to the development of new visionary ideas and the creation of innovations combining new technologies gentle on resources with modern design.
More information can be found on www.bauhaus-solar-award.de
