Spotted: Analysts think that 2030 global renewable energy capacity goals are reachable, with the caveat that much still needs to be done, particularly as the volume of power needed by the rapidly growing number of data centres is unknown. California greentech company Ubiquitous Energy’s solution is to make it possible to generate power via a patented transparent solar coating, called UE Power, which could turn almost any window into a solar panel.
The coating is made from naturally occurring sustainable materials, with no toxic ingredients, that capture the energy from ultraviolet and infrared light. The light that is visible to the human eye, meanwhile, passes through the coating just as it does with a standard, uncoated window. The transparency of the coating means that any surface, from high-rise commercial buildings to car windshields and personal device screens can generate solar electricity without interfering with the look and functionality of the original material.
An average-sized window of three feet by five feet, coated in the UE Power glazing, offsets up to 200 watt-hours of electricity per day, which is equivalent to charging a smartphone 13 times daily. What is more, the coating offsets up to 30 per cent of the building’s electricity use, and for residential homes and certain commercial locations, solar-powered windows can provide a direct charge to smaller devices such as security cameras and motorised blinds – without requiring connection to the grid.
Right now, the glazing is available on new or replacement windows only, and Ubiquitous Energy works with a number of leading glass and window manufacturers to make the technology as accessible as possible. The company plans to make retrofitting of older windows available in the future.
As demand for renewables increases, so too does the versatility of its applications, with innovations spotted in Springwise’s library including floating solar panels and flexible versions for rooftops unable to hold the weight of traditional arrays.
Spotted: Windows have remained functionally the same since their invention; providing natural light and perhaps a level of aesthetic beauty to a home. However, this has meant that while the home has undergone technological smart advancements with heating, storage, electricity, and other things, windows have fallen behind.
Windows account for about 30 per cent of heat loss in a home, and during hot periods, they often let in too much solar heat, which is often compensated for with energy-intensive cooling systems. And even with the right window insulation, it’s rare that lighting is “just right” for the occupant’s comfort when dealing with shifting natural light sources.
This is where Tynt comes in. The concept is simple: windows that can regulate the amount of light that is let in based on what’s available and also the desire of the operator. This is accomplished by using patented Reversible Metal Electrodeposition (RME).
The technology uses a small electric current to influence the properties of a metal film that rests in between the windowpanes – affecting how opaque the window appears and how much energy it absorbs. By either regulating the current up or down, the opacity of the window will range from completely transparent to truly blacked out. With this system the heat regulation of the house is also far more efficient – requiring just 1 volt to function, according to the company.
Tynt is not in the commercial phase just yet, but you can sign up to be alerted when the first product becomes available, which the company predicts will be in 2024.
Windows are a central part of all modern buildings, but if they’re poorly designed, they can rapidly increase the heat losses and greenhouse gas emissions of a property. In the archive, Springwise has also spotted shade screens that provide renewable sources of energy as well as this company that can retrofit entire buildings with net-zero glass to reduce heating costs.
Spotted: Despite all pledges to reduce emissions to reverse the worst effects of climate change, scientists believe that even if we fully implement all 2030 nationally determined contributions, pledges, and net-zero targets, global warming of nearly two degrees Celsius is still expected later this century. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) operational costs will naturally rise alongside temperatures, and use of those systems further exacerbates environmental damage.
One way to help reduce reliance on traditional HVAC systems is to retrofit existing structures with energy-neutral solutions that reduce indoor heating during the summer while allowing the sun’s rays in during winter. French technology company Immoblade has taken inspiration from the space industry to create low-cost, quick-to-install, custom sunshade blades on windows and roofs.
The blades are available in a range of shapes and sizes, from the barely visible designs of the Immoblade Mini to the wide, closely fitting stripes of the Immoblade Serigraphy. Installed in the same way as regular double glazing, the blades allow light into the building while blocking heat when the sun reaches a certain angle. Similarly, when the sun is below a certain angle during the winter, the blades allow heat to enter the building.
Each solution is custom designed for the location and the structure, with the Immoblade team conducting a full thermal review of the building’s façade and local environment. The design of each set of blades meets the exact heating and cooling requirements of each piece of glass, and performance is monitored throughout the duration of the lifespan of the blades. Maintenance costs are zero as the designs and applications are fixed.
Immoblade was first spotted by Springwise in 2021, and was one of the featured solutions at ChangeNOW 2023.
Glass bricks that collect solar energy and nailable solar shingles are two other recent innovations in solar energy that Springwise has spotted helping to make renewable power more accessible and widespread.
British fashion brand JW Anderson has opened a flagship store in Milan that was designed by British studio 6a Architects and draws on the local atmosphere as well as Soho sex shops.
The 53 square-metre-store is located on the Via Sant’Andrea luxury shopping street in Milan’s Quadrilatero shopping district. It is set across a single floor and comprises two rooms.
JW Anderson’s first Milan store was designed by 6a Architects
While the boutique primarily draws reference from its “bourgeoise” Milanese surroundings, the retail space also pulls from designer Jonathan Anderson’s first JW Anderson store in Soho and from the 2017 exhibition Disobedient Bodies, which was curated by him.
It was designed by 6a Architects, who Anderson began working with in 2017 after selecting the studio to design the set for Disobedient Bodies at The Hepworth Wakefield.
It draws on a Milanese atmosphere
“I thought [6a Architects] really grasped how to take my visual language and turn it into something which was able to be educational,” Anderson told Dezeen.
“They’re very good at hybrid, old or new. They’re very good at this combination, they’re great architects.”
“The store actually is a combination of Disobedient Bodies and a store. It’s a little bit more elevated,” he said. “The front of the building feels Soho, and as you go in, it feels more kind of domestic Milanese.”
It carries over elements from the Soho store
In a nod to the store frontages of the sex shops found in London’s Soho area, the windows of the Milanese store were decorated with neon lighting and rainbow-slatted curtains.
Anderson and 6a Architects used the design as a juxtaposition against the more typical Milanese interior.
“For me, there is something very sexual about neon lighting,” said Anderson. “I think we associate it with grand gestures and I felt like a window is kind of like a television set. There’s something with neon that it does, it kind of tricks you.”
Traditional Italian furnishings and finishes fill the interior
“There are little alleyways and they have all these amazing sex stores on and these curtains,” Anderson continued.
“I liked the idea that we have this in Milan and then suddenly you enter into a kind of Milanese setting, something which is very bourgeoise.”
Inside, gridded handmade terrazzo covers the floor and visually divides areas of the interior through bespoke contrasting tones of grey and sand.
Brassy, metallic curtains ripple along the rear walls of the store, in a similar way to 6a Architects’ use of curtains in the exhibition design for Disobedient Bodies.
Jonathan Anderson selected furniture and artwork for the interior
Aluminium scaffolding, which was also carried over from Anderson’s Soho store, was translated into display shelving and brought an “angst” to the interior that contrasts against traditional Italian furnishings, such as fluted walnut panelling that envelops two curved walls.
“There is something slightly more underground in terms of the construction of a JW Anderson store, whereas, I think Loewe [for which Anderson is creative director] is about a heightened perfection,” said Anderson. “With JW Anderson, there’s always a bit of slight angst to it.”
“It’s softer inside, and then you have this harshness with the windows where there’s neons and sex curtains and it’s kind of like a theatre. It has moveable parts and in a weird way the store becomes a giant window.”
It has furniture by Mac Collins
Furniture and artworks personally selected by Anderson fill the interior.
Designer Mac Collins’ black Iklwa chair was paired with matching side tables, while a Cardinal Hat pendant light by Lutyens Furniture is suspended from the ceiling of the main space.
Oil paintings by Chinese artist Hongyan appear to float on the ripples of the brass-coloured curtains, and images by photographer Wolfgang Tillmans sit on the walls of the store’s fitting room.
An image by Wolfgang Tillmans is placed in the fitting room
“I don’t believe that stores should be completely cookie-cutter,” said Anderson. “I feel like the key is to make sure that each store has a different universe because there’s no point in having something which is just a duplication, duplication, duplication.”
Jonathan Anderson founded his eponymous label JW Anderson in 2008 and was appointed creative director of Spanish luxury house Loewe in 2014, which recently announced the winner of its sixth annual craft prize.
During London Fashion Week, JW Anderson presented a “parallel world of people trapped in their computers” for its Spring Summer 2023 collection.
Industrial-looking living spaces with Crittal-style windows and doors are the focus of this lookbook, which includes an apartment in Israel and a rural Chinese house.
Crittal-style windows and doors are characterised by their gridded metal frames, traditionally made of steel with a bold black finish.
They are modelled on the iconic Crittal windows by ironmonger Francis Henry Crittall, which were developed in the late-19th century and became a feature in many art deco and modernist buildings.
Today they are seeing a resurgence in popularity, with their clean graphic lines bringing an industrial quality to contemporary homes around the world.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring striking accent walls, stylish bookshelves and tranquil sunken baths.
Photo is by Felix Mooneeram
Ghost House, UK, by BPN Architects
This double-height Crittall-style window doubles as the wall to an open-plan living and dining room in an industrial concrete house in Warwickshire, England.
It is one of several steel-framed windows that enclose the home, which was designed by BPN Architects to have an “ethereal presence” – leading to it being named Ghost House.
Find out more about Ghost House ›
Photo is by 181
Tel Aviv apartment, Israel, by Maayan Zusman and Amir Navon
Interior designer Maayan Zusman and architect Amir Navon opted for gridded black window frames when renovating this apartment in Tel Aviv.
Complemented by other delicate black furnishings, the windows form part of a wider design strategy that centred on creating an interior that felt “airy yet framed”.
Find out more about the Tel Aviv apartment ›
Photo is by Wu Yong-Chang
Returning Hut, China, by Xu Fu-Min
The Returning Hut is a two-storey home just outside the city of Xiamen in China, designed by Xu Fu-Min to offer their client a peaceful retreat where they can connect with nature.
Among its key features is an open living room with a giant wall of glazing. Lined with gridded metal frames, it slides open to create a seamless connection to the garden.
Find out more about Returning Hut ›
Photo is by Johan Dehlin
Ditton Hill House, UK, by Surman Weston
Surman Weston honoured its “client’s love for all things industrial” when creating the Ditton Hill House, a London residence with an exposed steel frame that nods to mock-Tudor homes nearby.
This steel framework enabled the studio to create spacious, column-free interiors, such as this open-plan living area. Here, Crittal-style windows overlook the garden and are paired with exposed steel floor decks for a warehouse-like aesthetic.
Find out more about Ditton Hill House ›
Photo is by Greta Rybus
Little Peak, USA, by Berman Horn Studio
Black gridded windows and doors puncture the facade of Little Peak, a holiday home that the founders of Berman Horn Studio, Maria Berman and Brad Horn, built themselves on an island in Maine.
According to the duo, they were chosen for their industrial look and to help “bring focus onto the textures and colours of the stone, huckleberry, bay and lichen that surround the house”.
Find out more about Little Peak ›
Photo is by Ståle Eriksen
Burnt House, UK, by Will Gamble Architects
These Crittal-style windows and doors help to create a minimalist aesthetic for the Burnt House, a residential extension that Will Gamble Architects has modelled on a Japanese tea house.
They are intended to evoke a shoji screen and were complemented by a large window seat finished in blackened wood that sits up against the glazing.
Find out more about Burnt House ›
Photo is by Trieu Chien
Binh Thuan House, Vietnam, by MIA Design Studio
MIA Design Studio used white gridded frames on the sliding doors at the Binh Thuan House in Vietnam.
The steel frames were complemented by its industrial all-white structure, which is modular and designed for easy modification or expansion in the future.
Find out more about Binh Thuan House ›
Photo is by William Abranowicz
Harrison Residence, USA, by Jeffrey Dungan Architects
These black Crittal-style windows form the focal point of the living space at the Harrison Residence, a home in Florida designed by Jeffrey Dungan Architects.
Framing the surrounding tall trees, the windows help bring colour into the otherwise monochrome interior, which features black shelving and a coffee table, and white walls and sofas.
Find out more about Harrison Residence ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring striking stylish bookshelves and tranquil sunken baths.
British startup Water-Filled Glass has developed panes of glass filled with water that use sunlight to power a “crazy” energy-saving heating and cooling system.
Founded in 2020 by Loughborough University architecture lecturer Matyas Gutai and his colleagues Daniel Schinagl and Abolfazl Ganji Kheybari, Water-Filled Glass (WFG) aims to use patented technology to make heavily glazed buildings significantly more sustainable.
Its windows contain a thin layer of water between glass panes, which absorbs heat from sunlight or other radiation, such as heat leaving a room.
The warmed water is then pumped through sealed pipes at low pressure to colder areas of the building, through an underfloor system or into thermal storage.
Water-Filled Glass estimates its system can reduce energy bills by around 25 per cent
By absorbing thermal energy in this way the water-filled glass also limits how much solar heat gain enters the building through windows, reducing the need for air-conditioning in hot climates.
“We know that putting water in the window sounds like an outright mad idea,” Gutai told Dezeen.
“But we believe this is important because when you think about the energy of buildings and cutting carbon emissions, there’s still great potential and opportunity to think about glazing. Glass is responsible for a great part of heating and cooling energy consumption, and it’s a ubiquitous material, it’s on almost every building.”
Water House 2.0 in Taiwan is an experimental project testing the heating and cooling system
“And if you think about that potential, I think even crazy ideas are somewhat warranted,” he continued. “Even if the idea sounds a bit mad off the bat, I think it’s important to think of alternatives to what we have. So we have crazy ideas, but we’re not crazy.”
WFG estimates that, depending on climate and a building’s window-to-wall ratio, its technology can reduce energy bills by around 25 per cent compared with standard windows.
The startup’s first commercial projects, an industrial building in Hungary and a residential development in the US, are now under construction.
It has completed two prototype buildings using the technology, named Water House 1.0 and Water House 2.0 (pictured) – the former a small cabin in Hungary and the latter a pavilion at Feng Chia University in Taiwan.
The technology prevents solar heat from entering through windows, reducing the need for active cooling
Gutai said water-filled glass allows buildings to be heavily glazed without compromising sustainability.
“The whole idea comes from the recognition that moving energy is much, much cheaper than heating or cooling the space,” said Gutai, who previously worked for prominent Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and in Kengo Kuma’s research lab at the University of Tokyo.
“That really excited us about water-filled glass,” he added. “We wanted to actually give architects the opportunity to build even completely fully glazed buildings if they want to without any compromise on sustainability.”
Because the system uses off-the-shelf glass and parts, WFG claims it does not greatly increase the embodied-carbon impact of construction as well as being easy to manufacture.
The company also insists its system has no impact on the aesthetics of the building inside or out, since water absorbs most energy from the part of the light spectrum that is invisible to humans.
A monitoring device is fitted to clean the water automatically, with maintenance checks required once a year.
A thin layer of water sits between panes of glass and absorbs heat from sunlight
In colder climates, the water-filled glass system uses triple-pane windows, the outer cavity filled with argon insulation to prevent the water from freezing during winter.
Capable of heating water up to temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius, the technology can be connected to a conventional heat pump or boiler.
WFG has also developed a retrofit version of its product, where the system can be fitted behind existing glazing without having to destroy the windows already in place.
British startup Water-Filled Glass has developed panes of glass filled with water that use sunlight to power a “crazy” energy-saving heating and cooling system.
Water-Filled Glass (WFG) aims to use the patented technology, which it estimates can reduce energy bills by 25 per cent, to make heavily glazed buildings more sustainable.
Twelve architecture projects to look forward to in 2023
Other stories in this week’s newsletter include a roundup of architecture projects to look forward to in 2023, Sony’s reveal of its first-ever electric car and an attack on Oscar Niemeyer’s government palaces in the Brasília riot.
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US company Ubiquitous Energy has invented a thin coating that turns windows into transparent solar panels, providing other ways to harvest renewable energy in buildings beyond rooftop panels.
Ubiquitous Energy describes its technology as being the only transparent photovoltaic glass coating that is “visibly indistinguishable” from traditional windows.
Any surface could become a solar panel
The company was founded in 2011 by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Michigan State University (MSU), who engineered a transparent solar panel by allowing the visible spectrum of light to pass through and only absorbing ultraviolet and near-infrared light to convert to electricity.
Standard solar panels look black because they absorb the full spectrum of light, and because of their appearance, their deployment has been typically limited to roofs, walls and large rural solar farms.
With Ubiquitous Energy’s coating, which it calls UE Power, potentially any surface can be turned into a photovoltaic panel.
Ubiquitous Energy’s transparent solar windows (above) are installed at Michigan State University (top)
“The mission is to turn all these everyday surfaces around us into essentially renewable energy generators,” Ubiquitous Energy VP of Strategy Veeral Hardev told Dezeen.
“Windows is where we’re focused first, but beyond that, think about vehicles, transportation in general, portable consumer electronics devices, sustainable farming like greenhouses – these are all things that see sunlight to some degree,” he continued.
“Why not improve them so that they can actually generate renewable energy themselves without changing their appearance?”
Hardev said the company’s modelling shows that with broad adoption of the technology to the point that in 30 years the coating is as standard as low-emissivity (or low-E) coatings on windows are now, it could offset 10 per cent of global carbon emissions.
All components are completely transparent
The solar window works in the same way as any other solar panel. It contains cells of a semiconductor material that create an electric charge in response to sunlight.
Wiring hidden in the window frames connects it to the building’s energy management system to direct power to where it’s needed in the building or to store it in a battery.
The coating is made using light-absorbing dyes
The innovation with Ubiquitous Energy is that all of its materials are transparent to the human eye, including the semiconducting compounds, which take the form of light-absorbing dyes.
To achieve its thinness – the coating is about one micrometre thick, or about 80 to 100 times thinner than a human hair – it is made with nanomaterials, similar to those used in display technologies.
The semiconductor layers are deposited onto glass using vacuum physical vapor deposition (PVD) – a standard coating process using in the window industry – and Ubiquitous Energy plans to license its technology to existing glass manufacturers so that they can incorporate it into their product offerings.
Transparent panels only half as efficient
Ubiquitous Energy estimates the windows would provide about 30 per cent of a building’s electricity needs, depending on factors such as geographical location, elevation and tree cover, and imagine them being used in conjunction with rooftop solar panels to reduce the building’s reliance on the electrical grid.
Because some light is allowed to pass through, the transparent solar panel is only about half as powerful as a typical rooftop solar panel of the same size. But Hardev claims their potential scale of deployment compensates for this loss of efficiency.
“A few years ago, we reported the highest-ever performance for a transparent solar device, with near 10 per cent efficiency,” said Hardev. “Although there are options that are 20 per cent efficient today, we’re making this conscious trade-off of being transparent so we can put it in places where you can’t put traditional solar panels.”
Cities would theoretically be able to produce substantial amounts of solar power locally without changing in appearance, reducing the need for land for large solar power plants.
First factory to open in 2024
Applied in other ways, the coating could be used to make mobile phones that don’t need to be recharged, more energy-efficient cars and self-powering greenhouses, Hardev says.
Ubiquitous Energy has completed a number of demonstration projects, including at Michigan State University and at the Boulder Commons apartment community in Colorado.
The company is working to expand the coating’s applications beyond windows
The company plans to open its first factories producing floor-to-ceiling solar windows in 2024. It also hopes to grow its partnerships, which have so far included window companies Asahi, Pilkington and Andersen.
Past aesthetic solutions to the issue of intrusive solar panels have come from designer Marjan van Aubel, who created colourful skylights reminiscent of stained glass, and Tesla, which released camouflaged Solar Roof tiles.
Architects have also been creatively integrating the technology into buildings, with designs such as BIG and Heatherwick Studio’s “dragonscale solar skin” on the roof of Google’s Bay View campus in Silicon Valley and Shigeru Ban’s sail-like moving wall of photovoltaics at La Seine Musical near Paris.
This article is part of Dezeen’s Solar Revolution series, which explores the varied and exciting possible uses of solar energy and how humans can fully harness the incredible power of the sun.
