9th December 2025

This webinar series was developed by SUPSI (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland) within the European project INPERSO. Source: SUPSI.

With SOL(AR)CHITECTURE – VOICES, the new initiative launched by SUPSI within the European project INPERSO, a fresh space for open reflection on the future of solar architecture has taken shape. Designed as a fast, interactive, and visionary format, VOICES brings together researchers, designers, and industry leaders to imagine cities as true solar machines.
Through three episodes – Innovation First, Beauty & the Building, and Material Revolution – the series traced a journey across the past, present, and future of integrating photovoltaics into architecture, revealing the evolving directions of this rapidly advancing field.

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1. Innovation First – 40 Years of Photovoltaics as building material
Speaker: Pierluigi Bonomo, Head of the BIPV Team at SUPSI

The opening episode featured Pierluigi Bonomo, head of SUPSI’s BIPV team, who guided the audience through forty years of photovoltaics in architecture.

He explored how solar technology evolved from rigid, standard panels into a flexible architectural material. Early projects from the 1980s and 1990s showed a raw, uncompromising aesthetic: PV used as tiles, bricks, and entire façades. Despite limited formats, these pioneers proved that architecture could absorb a new material language and unlock concepts such as plus-energy buildings long before customization became possible.

He described the sector’s early tension between two extremes: sustainability as “medicine” to be tolerated, and an ideology of “PV everywhere.” Neither approach works. Instead, Bonomo argued for a design-driven balance, where technology and architectural character meet on equal terms. Over time, this has led to a second wave of projects focused on dialogue — PV interacting with wood, stone, concrete, and landscape, becoming a natural part of buildings rather than an imposed element.

Today’s third wave pushes further: customized surfaces, unconventional formats, lightweight and organic PV, and “solar machines” — architectures in which energy production shapes the very form of buildings and even urban spaces. Yet, even with advanced solutions, Bonomo warned that technology alone is not enough. What is missing, he emphasized, is knowledge and awareness: the cultural understanding required for cities to embrace solar as a design opportunity rather than a technical problem.

Bonomo’s contribution set the tone for the entire series, emphasizing collaboration between architects, engineers, and technology providers as the foundation of future solar architecture.

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2. Beauty & the Building – The Art of Making Energy Invisible
Speaker: Jean-Didier Steenackers, Founder of SUNSOAK Design and Architecture

The second episode explored the real-world challenges of integrating photovoltaics into existing urban environments, with Jean-Didier Steenackers offering insights drawn from fifteen years of practice in European cities. Rather than presenting a long list of projects, he focused on what makes solar architecture complex: most interventions take place in dense, historic contexts, where buildings are old, protected, and structurally varied.

He highlighted a common misconception: solar architecture is often reduced to PV glass. In reality, only a small portion of the work concerns the panels themselves; the majority lies in engineering, structural design, cabling, logistics, curtain walling, and ensuring that solar elements seamlessly interact with roofs and façades. His examples included heritage-sensitive roofs in Bruges, color-matched PV surfaces in Paris, and complex high-rise installations designed with Renzo Piano.

Steenackers described the evolution of solar design from simple add-on applications, to BIPV as functional building skin, and finally to today’s solar-machine, where shape and orientation are intentionally designed for energy generation. Several case studies—ranging from UNESCO sites to expressive solar “sails” and rooftop canopies—illustrated how solar can enhance both performance and architectural identity.
Cultural factors emerged as a major influence: cities like Paris, Monaco, Masdar, or US regions adopt solar in very different ways, shaped by local attitudes and governance.

Episode 2 ultimately highlighted how solar architecture in existing cities requires technical expertise, cultural sensitivity, and a strong design vision—transforming constraints into opportunities to redefine the urban landscape.

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3. Material Revolution – New Materials and a New Aesthetic for Solar Architecture
Speaker: Algirdas Balezentis, Head of R&D at Metsolar EU – Custom Solar Solutions

The third and final episode, led by Algirdas Balezentis, Head of R&D at Metsolar EU, explored the cutting edge of material innovation in BIPV.
He highlighted how the future of photovoltaic integration lies in full customization: modules that adapt to architectural form, color, texture, and transparency. Today’s lightweight and flexible PV modules make it possible to reduce structural loads and expand solar integration even into sensitive historic contexts.

Key insights from the session included:

• leveraging urban surfaces for energy production to avoid additional land use;
• customization as the key to true architectural integration;
• the central role of architects in designing tailored solar solutions;
• prioritizing aesthetics over peak efficiency in heritage or visually sensitive projects;
• the importance of education throughout this field.

He closed the final episode with a forward-looking reflection, thanking speakers and participants and emphasizing how innovation emerges from shared experimentation and dialogue.

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Conclusion – A Starting Point for the Future of Solar Architecture

Across its three episodes, SOL(AR)CHITECTURE – VOICES revealed how solar architecture is moving from technical integration to cultural transformation. From forty years of innovation, to the challenges of upgrading existing cities, to the rise of customizable materials, the series showed that photovoltaics are becoming a true design medium—one shaped by collaboration, education, and a shared vision for more energy-intelligent buildings.

Thise serie has become more than a webinar format; it has grown into a collective space where ideas meet and new perspectives emerge. And the conversations sparked by the audience’s “impossible questions” showed how much still remains to be explored.
The journey does not end here, the field is expanding quickly—and so are the questions worth asking. This wrap-up marks not a conclusion, but a beginning: a foundation for future dialogues and new chapters in the evolving story of solar architecture.