This summer we are highlighting Distributed Design talent! This time: solar designer Marjan van Aubel through her practice, she strives to redefine our current relationship with solar technology and accelerate its transition to ubiquity. On August 20th, she will be our main guest in the WeMakeThe.City Reset LIVECAST. So tune in then to hear her vision on a post-pandemic future.

Marjan van Aubel is an award-winning solar designer whose innovative practice spans the fields of sustainability, design, and technology. Her studio researches a solution for two of the largest problems of our time: food and energy issues. In collaboration with scientists, engineers, and institutions, she works to promote extreme energy efficiency through intelligent design. Marjan aims to turn solar cells into an invisible and naturalised technology. Right now, solar cells are a technology that is often placed upon an object but is not integrated in it. Marjan wants solar cells to feel natural – because good design is invisible.

From working with expandable materials to domestically integrating solar cells that mimic the process of photosynthesis in plants, she adds a double function to objects and puts them to work. A table shouldn’t be just a table, but also a producer of electricity. Through her practice, she strives to redefine our current relationship with solar technology and accelerate its transition to ubiquity. Her aim is creating a solar democracy: thinking about how to integrate solar cells into daily life and make them available for as many people as possible.

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