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Solar Biennale explores how the sun can "transform the world and generate new worlds"
The second edition of the Solar Biennale has opened at Mudac in Lausanne, Switzerland. Exhibits include an artificial sun canopy, orbiting solar panels and a time capsule for plants. The Musée Cantonal de Design et d'Arts Appliqués Contemporains, known as Mudac, is hosting the headline exhibition of the Solar Biennale, Soleil-S. The show explores our The post Solar Biennale explores how the sun can "transform the world and generate new worlds" appeared first on Dezeen.
The second edition of the Solar Biennale has opened at Mudac in Lausanne, Switzerland. Exhibits include an artificial sun canopy, orbiting solar panels and a time capsule for plants.
The Musée Cantonal de Design et d'Arts Appliqués Contemporains, known as Mudac, is hosting the headline exhibition of the Solar Biennale, Soleil-S.
The show explores our past and future relationship with the sun as a source of light, heat and energy, and highlights its cultural and political significance across history.
Many of the exhibits suggest radical ways that the sun might change the way we live going forward.
"The sun is an absolute," said curators Scott Longfellow and Rafael Santianez in their exhibition text.
"Here, we approach it in its diversity, in its ability to transform the world and generate new worlds."
An installation by Common Accounts, a studio based between Madrid and Toronto, is one of 10 new project commissions.
Have a Nice Day explores how technology might replicate the sun's qualities. This suspended net provides an artificial sun device, offering warmth, sound and light frequencies.
Spanish studio Takk has two pieces in the show. The first is a biodiversity-focused time capsule, designed to transport plants to the future, while the second is a "kaleidoscopic tent" filled with light and shadow patterns.
EFPL professor Marilyne Vraiment was also involved in two projects. The Right to Day imagines a bureaucratic process where citizens apply for the right to natural light, while Circa Diem 2.0 uses lenses to recreate circadian rhythms.
An installation by London-based EcoLogicStudio imagines a city where biocatalytic algae is integrated into architecture. A working model shows how building could use live organisms to generate their own electricity.
The orbiting solar panels form part of Greater Earth Energy Synergies, a project by think-tank Astrostrom which proposes a manufacturing plant on the moon.
An interactive digital installation called Baddance with the Badweeds invites visitors to join a trans-species music group, while Solstice is a video game that creates conversations with fictional future characters.
Other key projects include a solar-powered 3D-printing device by Vienna-based Mischer'Traxler, light reflection devices by French designer Nathanaël Abeille and a sun pattern projector by Rotterdam-based artist Nicky Assmann.
"We aimed to highlight how solar design goes beyond energy innovation, challenging us to rethink our relationship with health, politics, urbanism, and inclusivity," said the curators.
"This collaboration underscores the power of design to shift mindsets and inspire collective pathways for ecosexy futures."
The Solar Biennale was founded by designers Marjan van Aubel and Pauline van Dongen, to support the transition to a future where solar power is our primary source of energy.
The first edition took place in 2022 at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which staged an exhibition called The Energy Show.
In an Opinion article written for Dezeen's Solar Revolution series, van Aubel and van Dongen called for designers and scientists to work together to embrace the potential of solar power to solve the energy crisis.
"The current energy system has become untenable on all fronts: economically, socially and environmentally. Fortunately, there is a hopeful alternative at our fingertips," they wrote.
Both designers have work in the show – solar textiles by van Dongen feature in a section dedicated to architecture, while van Aubel's Current Table is among a series of solar objects.
The duo hope to initiate future editions of the Solar Biennale in other countries around the world.
Soleil-S is on show at Mudac from 21 March to 21 September 2025 as part of the Solar Biennale. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.
The post Solar Biennale explores how the sun can "transform the world and generate new worlds" appeared first on Dezeen.
