The Vitra Design Museum presents 'Transform! Designing the Future of Energy', an exhibition running from March 23rd to September 1st, 2024. As energy stands as the cornerstone of modern society, the subject encompasses political, social, and environmental dimensions. The exhibition aims to highlight design’s role in the effort to transform the energy sector into a more efficient, reliable, and sustainable one, relying more on renewable sources, smart mobility systems, and moving towards self-sufficient cities.
Through the lens of design, the exhibition showcases a spectrum of transformations in the energy sector: from everyday products utilizing renewable energy to innovative designs for solar houses and wind power stations. It prompts questions regarding the criteria for crafting energy-efficient products and explores the design's potential to bolster renewable energy adoption. In this context, design is understood as a mediator between scientific research and end users.
Structured in thematic sections, the exhibition delves into various facets of the energy transition. 'Human Power' initiates introspection, inviting visitors to gauge personal energy generation potentials. Transitioning to 'Energy Tools', prototypes and experiments illustrate off-grid living solutions, from solar-integrated apparel to speculative projects capturing incidental energy flows. The narrative unfolds further into 'Transformers', spotlighting innovative architectural and mobility solutions driving energy efficiency. The category is exemplified through buildings such as Snøhetta’s Powerhouse Brattørkaia in Trondheim, recognized as the world’s northernmost energy-positive building
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The Future of Energy: Can Buildings Become Reservoirs of Power?The last section of the exhibition is devoted to ‘Future Energyscapes,’ exploring new typologies for energy storage such as CarloRatti’s proposal for the intermediate storage of thermal energy in the city of Helsinki, or the hypothetical ‘Eneropa’ conceived by Rem Koolhaas’ think tank AMO. The exhibition also showcases examples of historic predecessors, Buckminster Fuller’s ‘World Game’ and the notion of centrally managing the world’s entire energy reserve.
Overall, the exhibition aims to demonstrate how architects, urbanists, and designers can positively contribute to addressing the challenges of energy consumption and help move towards a more sustainable future. The shift of energy sources has been a key concern of architects over the past years, investigating ways in which buildings can become reservoirs of power, turning to vernacular systems to devise climate-adapted passive cooling, and pushing for policy changes to help support the change.
