FEBRUARY 2013
The academic project aimed at coming up with a concept for "solar coffee shop" and the integration of
solar energy into the construction of a building, by replacing passive construction materials with
more active materials like solar panels without compromising the visual appealing of the building
using materials found in the current solar market.
The idea was to created a coffee shop that represented what solar energy was and create a
space to relax enjoy a good coffee as well as to have a space where people could educate themselves
and have workshops to spread the knowledge about solar energy.
The concept for the solar coffee shop we came up (Tse-yu Chen and myself) was the form of a
crystal, since very deep inside is what forms a the more popular solar panels: silicon.
