Designing Modern Utility
Most people don’t give much thought to design, but they subconsciously gravitate toward good design. Clearly design is important, but what defines it?
Good design is about taking function and delivering it in delightfully simple form that, in turn, drives adoption of the function. iPhone. Tesla Model S. Nest. Dyson. It’s hard to define “good design” precisely, but borrowing from Justice Stewart’s quote, you know good design when you see it. Conversely, you instantly know bad or mediocre design too.
As noted in my previous post, I started giving thought to solar and design, and I started background research on solar installations, particularly those that are freestanding, that live in the public eye.
Turns out that New Jersey actually has a lot of solar that lives in the public eye. New Jersey incentives motivated deployment of solar panels about 20 feet up a slew of the old, wooden utility poles.
Unfortunately, it’s not very attractive. We need to give NJ credit for pushing adoption of solar, but it’s impossible to not dock a few points on style.
I pressed on in my research.
It turns out that Spotlight Solar, a firm in North Carolina, is working to solve the “visual blight” problem. With an architectural orientation, they are working to make solar more sculptural, and thus more viable, in public spaces. They are doing good work, and they offer meaningful progress. There are a couple examples of Spotlight installations below.
I’m impressed by Spotlight’s focus and commitment to design, but it doesn’t go far enough in my view. More needs to be done visually and functionally to bring solar and renewable utility into the community.
James Cameron is getting in on the action too. Yes, that Jim Cameron. The director Terminator and Avatar.
James designed a freestanding solar installation with a design that is derivative of a sunflower. Though the installation somewhat favors surface area (for the panels) over design, Cameron is doing amazing work and demonstrating the potential for freestanding solar… His sunflowers are powering a school in Malibu. (You can read more about Cameron’s sunflowers on Gizmodo here.)
Work is being done outside the US too.
In Dubai, entrepreneurs are developing a solar installation reminiscent of a palm. I’m not a huge fan of the look, but they’re doing more with the units than just generating power. The units include a wifi hot spot, information kiosks, and security features. That’s really smart and an important innovation, even if the unit falls short on design.
As a matter of visual design, the best work is being done in France, though with power generation driven from wind, rather than solar. These units are beautifully and cleverly constructed. But, as nice as these wind trees look, they also lack the utility of the solar palms.
As noted above, good design is not just about fashion, but about elegant integration of function as well. For this class of product, I’m convinced that function is more than just generation of power from solar or wind. There’s an evolution in the making… one that delivers energy generation, adds incremental smart utility, improves on the look and elegantly integrates the functionality.
We need something that ignites delight and delivers new, modern value to communities and public spaces. Modern utility.
