What will the future of energy look like? Vitra Design Museum seeks the answer

There is an increasing awareness that design can play a vital role in the transition away from fossil fuels and carbon emissions, as we seek to reduce humans’ harmful impacts on the natural environment. In a new exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, ‘Transform! Designing the Future of Energy’ (until 1 September 2024), the topic of energy is highlighted as a key area in which design can bring about changes – from solar-powered products to city-scale power infrastructure. 

The future of energy at Vitra Design Museum

‘The energy transition and a reduction of our energy consumption is urgently needed,’ says Jochen Eisenbrand, curator of the show. ‘I am absolutely convinced that design, architecture and planning will need to play an essential role.’

Energy is generated by an array of sources, from the sun’s rays to burning fossil fuels. We need some form of energy to power daily activities, whether that’s working on a computer, heating our home, switching on the lights or travelling on public transport.

Energy from renewable sources such as wind, water and sun is being harnessed by designers in inventive ways that provide alternatives to carbon-intensive processes. In the exhibition, projects featured include the Papilio streetlamp by product designer Tobias Trübenbacher, a sculptural wind turbine-meets-streetlamp that is fully powered by wind turning its green rotor blades. Although designed as off-grid, the lamp can be connected to a power grid to feed surplus energy into the network during strong winds.

Sunne, by Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel, is a solar-powered hanging, horizontal lamp that imitates the quality of natural sunlight. When hung in a bright spot by a window during the day, the lamp harvests and stores energy from the sun; by night, it exudes light into the room.

Solar Shirt, by Dutch fashion designer Pauline van Dongen, integrates photovoltaic cells into a T-shirt, generating electricity to charge the wearer’s smartphone. Photovoltaic cells are also used on the Covestro Sonnenwagen, a solar-powered race car, while Sono Motors installs solar panels on large buses and trucks in order to help reduce their carbon emissions.

But ‘Transform!’ looks beyond the expansion of renewable energy sources alone, highlighting ways in which multiple designs can work together to reduce energy consumption and harmful emissions. Architecture is a key field where this plays out, as buildings are responsible for roughly a third of global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

The exhibition presents Germany’s Plus Energy Quarter P18 in Bad Cannstatt, developed by Werner Sobek in collaboration with AktivHaus, which features a self-sufficient heating system comprised of heat pumps, photovoltaic thermal collectors, and the controlled ventilation of interior living spaces.

The Powerhouse Brattørkaia in Trondheim, Norway, designed by architecture practice Snøhetta, is an energy-positive building, producing more energy than it consumes over its lifespan, feeding the surplus back into a local microgrid. This is achieved by designs including extensive solar panels, optimisation of natural daylight, efficient insulation, high thermal mass, heat recovery systems, and using seawater for heating and cooling.

District- or city-wide designs – what the exhibition calls ‘future energyscapes’ – includes the Energiebunker in Hamburg, a former air raid bunker converted into a power plant using renewable forms of energy, with a large heat reservoir, to supply the local area with sustainable heat, while feeding renewable power into the Hamburg distribution grid.

Hot Heart is Italian architect Carlo Ratti’s pioneering proposal for Helsinki featuring an archipelago of heat-storing basins with the dual function of storing thermal energy and providing space for recreational activities.

Throughout the show, historic examples of innovative energy designs are also presented, including German architect Herman Sörgel’s ‘Atlantropa’ project from the 1930s, an idea for a land mass supplied with hydroelectric power.

Energy ‘is one of the forces that keep our society running’, says Eisenbrand, ‘and the types of energy sources we use have great consequences for our natural and built environment.’ Nevertheless, he adds, ‘even though it is hard to stay optimistic these days, I think we have to.'

‘Transform! Designing the Future of Energy’ is on view at Vitra Design Museum until 1 September 2024

Charles-Eames-Straße 2
79576 Weil am Rhein
Germany

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