Balmori Associates with their proposal of “Public Power Park“ was chosen as one of three finalists out of 20
artists invited to compete for the design of a new ‘Solar Park’ by the
university of Buffalo with the New York Power Authority (NYPA). The
installation was required to use 5,000 solar panels within a landscape to
produce energy for the student housing and proposed one of the largest on any
campus in the United States. Balmori’s proposal addresses the nature of
technological infrastructure, where nature and technology intersect and
proposes a new kind of public space, one that is a programmed response to
producing power, and powering public space.
Modeled after the lake effect, Solar
Effects captures weather to produce power and public space. The lake effect
marries wind, humidity, temperature and topography creating a powerful weather
machine that shapes our collective experience of landscape. This phenomenon
drifts through the sky painting the land with rain and snow. The solar grid is
pixilated and reordered along the flows of wind and people. The drifting arrangement
and varying heights of the panels form a solar topography, optimized for peak
power production. Solar education and demonstration are embedded in the
project. Water collects in the gently undulating meadows. Mirrors dot the
underside of the panels, sparkling in the sun and moonlight, further increasing
the solar efficiency of the system. Snow cones register snow and ice in
playful sculptures embedded into the structure of the system and an interactive
Solar Iceberg glows with the latest solar technology.
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