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Energy Objects: Solar Series
2023–





The future is electric, but Australia still has a heavy reliance on fossil fuels. The majority of our transport relies on oil imports, and 68% of our energy generation comes from coal and gas. As Saul Griffith states in his book ‘The Big Switch”, “Thermodynamics tells us that we can run the same country we do today using less than half the energy, just by electrifying all our machines”. As we look to transition to renewable energy by electrifying the transport, manufacturing, residential, commercial, agriculture and construction sectors we still need to scrutinise how and where we generate electricity.

Each chair, table, bench and daybed in the broader series can charge a phone, hotplate or light, demonstrating a viable form of standalone energy generation. Far from a solution, this set of furniture asks us to consider how we generate and consume energy in our everyday lives. The project draws on two principal influences — Charles and Ray Eames’, Solar Do-Nothing Machine, and Superstudio’s ‘Misura’ series.




100 Watt folding portable solar panel




Designed in the early 1970s, Superstudio’s conceptual furniture series based on gridded histograms formed a broader social critique of design as merely an inducement to consume.

"In those years, it became very clear that to continue to design furniture, objects, and similar household decorations was no solution to [the] problems of living.”
— Superstudio, 1968

Here, the furniture is no longer a form of consumption but one of production with the ‘Histogram’ translated to a grid of solar cells.




FIG 01. FIG 02. FIG 03. FIG 04. FIG 05. FIG 06.

    1. Chair
    2. Bench
    3. Bench in charging mode
    4. Bench with backrest
    5. Dining table with chairs
    6. Daybed



In 1957, the Eames Office was invited to participate in an advertising initiative for Aloca. For this Charles and Ray Eames created one of the first uses of solar electricity, a device which they called, The Solar Do-Nothing Machine. At the time no one understood the capabilities of this novel form of energy generation which prompted the need for a visual demonstration of the technology’s capability.








In contrast, our project recasts a set of functional objects as small-scale power generators, arguing for a distributed network of generation directly where energy is needed.




Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Adolfo Natalini, and the Superstudio team; unknown photographer







Simulaa is an architecture practice based in Naarm, dedicated to both built commissions and research projects. The work of the practice is defined by considered analysis and a research-based approach that prioritises a time-based design thinking that recognises architecture’s inherent entanglement with social, economic, aesthetic, political, and environmental concerns. The practice has a particular interest in reconciling architecture’s relationship with technology, energy, waste, and ecology through critical experimentation. As architects and design professionals we must demonstrate the social and economic advantages of new and better ways of thinking about the built environment. It is critical we re-evaluate and reset our priorities on a more empathetic and resilient path. 
Simulaa is an architecture practice based in Naarm, dedicated to both built commissions and research projects. The work of the practice is defined by considered analysis and a research-based approach that prioritises a time-based design thinking that recognises architecture’s inherent entanglement with social, economic, aesthetic, political, and environmental concerns. The practice has a particular interest in reconciling architecture’s relationship with technology, energy, waste, and ecology through critical experimentation. As architects and design professionals we must demonstrate the social and economic advantages of new and better ways of thinking about the built environment. It is critical we re-evaluate and reset our priorities on a more empathetic and resilient path.