ELEONORA NICOLETTI

What if solar panels could display the colours of sunlight rather than being merely dark blue or black? The American company Prism Solar produces innovative solar panels with integrated strips of holographic film that create beautiful rainbow effects. But the holographic film doesn't simply add aesthetic value to the solar panels: it effectively acts as a planar concentrator, diffracting the light and partly guiding it to the cells. As a result, these colourful solar panels a

Architectural surfaces can be transformed with minimal resources by breaking white light into its colours and redirecting them to walls, ceilings or floors. This can be achieved by using materials and components with particular optical properties. We are all familiar with the rainbow pattern of CDs and DVDs. When positioned near a light source, a CD can cast rainbow effects onto architectural surfaces, as shown in the photo. In fact, the structure of a CD surface, with its cl

Would we still need urban street lights if architectural surfaces could emit light with no need of electric power? The luminescent façade frame of the Media-TIC building in Barcelona already suggests the possibility of illuminating cities with smart coatings as a zero-energy, outdoor lighting solution. Photoluminescent coatings are also referred to as phosphorescent, luminescent, illuminous or luminous paints. I have had the opportunity to try STARGLOW Paints by GLOWTEC, whi

The installation Crest by Zaha Hadid Architects looks like a simple gesture, something that you could almost draw in the air with an arm movement. It shows “how little” it can take to an architectural object to be a communicative presence: in fact, it approximates a single curved surface reflecting natural light. Its challenge was to look like an abstract surface with no thickness while being self supporting. This was made possible by an experimental process involving the use