For October’s Dutch Design Week, a pair of architecture firms banded together to prove that solar power can be just as beautiful as it is functional.

When she got the commission to build the central pavilion for northern Europe’s largest design event, Dutch architect Marjan van Aubel immediately looked for collaborators to help her highlight the power of the sun.

“Marjan van Aubel called us in May, asking: can you help" …Of course, it was short notice, so we had to move quickly,” explains Michiel Raaphorst, co-founder of V8 Architects. “Three days later, we met with Marjan and Miriam van der Lubbe, the Creative Head of DDW. While sketching, we came up with a surface that allows you to harvest solar energy but also forms a meaningful part of the environment.” “We use technology to represent a natural phenomenon, and to do so, we harvest the energy from that natural phenomenon itself. So the solar pavilion represents the energy of the sun and cooperation,” Raaphorst adds. “All these parties worked together to realize this project because we all believe in Marjan van Aubel’s message: the time for a solar revolution is now.”

The two groups came up with a gazebo whose shape followed the slope of a cloth beach chair. Supported by four steel masts, the roof was fashioned from 380 wafer-thin glass solar panels in happy shades of red, orange, yellow, and blue. From above, it looked like a sun rising in ...