RE.SO.L.AR: environmental application research for solar landscape and architectural design

The paper presents three interdisciplinary design case studies that integrate not only architecture and landscape, but also materials technology, structures, technological systems, information technology, urban planning and economics to explore Solar Design. Solar Design is considered a common research objective and a field of comparison and experimentation, which has guided the general principle of the three ‘configurations’, the approach to the existing and the strategy of inclusion in the three projects. The case studies concern three solar power plants: an urban photovoltaic e-station with charging for electric vehicles; a photovoltaic plant on a former production site; and an agri-voltaic plant in the countryside for energy market production. The three case studies cover a wide range of applications, but their outcomes, tools and methods can be considered recurring and therefore methodological. The comparison of these three case studies is based on the recognition of differences in terms of functional program, scale, context and location, clients and end users, and cost. Reflection on the three case studies is also an opportunity to explore the potential of Solar Design in theoretical and operational terms, to explore new languages of solar architecture and to explore new themes of landscape design in relation to large-scale photovoltaic installations.