The University of Utah, the third-ranked university in the U.S. for renewable energy use, has launched their publicity campaign for Solar Ivy!

The idea of bringing Solar Ivy to the University of Utah was initiated by senior Environmental Studies major Tom Melburn.  Two-thirds of funding for the project will come from the University’s Sustainable Campus Initiative Fund, supplemented by donations from the community.  Visit the SCIF’s fundraising page for more information about how to support the project!

Funding has been approved through the University’s Sustainable Campus Initiative to install Solar Ivy on the south-facing facade of the Orson Spencer Hall building.

Each year Utah’s Campus Sustainability Initiative Fund takes proposal submissions from students for projects that can help reduce the University’s dependence on fossil fuels.  Tom Melburn, a student from the university, reached out to SMIT in January to explore the possibility of developing a proposal to install Solar Ivy on one of their buildings.  The proposal was accepted on April 15.

The Campus Sustainability Initiative Fund and the University’s Office of Sustainability will collaborate with SMIT on the installation at Orson Spencer Hall, above.  Check back in here to see how the project progresses.  We will be sure to provide updates as we reach major milestones.

SMIT is excited to be working with Science World Vancouver to develop an innovative new exhibit space.

Science World Vancouver opened to the public in 1990.  For the most recent renovation and expansion of the museum’s facilities they are building a new structure to house a Rube Goldberg machine and exhibit.

The engineers behind the project reached out to SMIT to express interest in cladding the facade of that building with Solar Ivy.  Since then SMIT has worked with the museum’s team to develop a design for an application of Solar Ivy that will provide power to the space enclosed within the tower.

Check back in to see how the project advances over the coming months!

SMIT is very pleased to announce that Solar Ivy will be installed at the Environment Museum of the Montreal Biosphere!

The Montreal Biosphere’s Environment Museum is housed in a Buckminster Fuller dome originally constructed for the 1967 World’s Fair.  The museum presents exhibitions and installations focusing on issues related to conservation, biodiversity and sustainability and is an important environmental education institution.

The installation of Solar Ivy will add diversity to the museum’s platform of educational exhibits and features around renewable energy.  Solar Ivy was selected for its unique aesthetic and analysis-driven design.  Solar Ivy will challenge visitors’ preconceptions of how solar panels look and the spaces they occupy.

SMIT is excited by the opportunity this installation presents: to engage larger communities in conversations about renewable energy technology and the role it plays in our lives and societies.

Stay tuned for images of the final installation!

Spanish doctoral candidate Nacho Zamora has created a collection of art based around solar renewable energy.  This week and next he is highlighting Solar Ivy and SMIT.  Mr. Zamora identifies public art, specifically projects that utilize sources of renewable energy as fundamental to developing and elevating public discourse and understanding of alternative energy sources.  He will be presenting his research at the European Union Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels this spring.

www.randyduchaine.com

SMIT’s CEO Samuel Cochran offered a view into the evolution of Solar Ivy and SMIT’s business approach at TEDx Brooklyn on Saturday, November 13.  TEDx, independently organized events that mirror the theme and mission of the annual TED conferences in California, came to Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, where SMIT co–founders Samuel Cochran and Ben Howes met and laid the groundwork for a nascent partnership.

Sam’s presentation discussed the theoretical and designed ancestry of Solar Ivy, from inspiration through the hybrid wind and solar device, GROW.  Emerging out of the powerful response to that prototype, Sam, sister Sita and Ben distilled their work into foundational beliefs in sustainability, technology and design and set out to develop a business model that ultimately led to the currently commercialized Solar Ivy and SMIT’s innovative business model.

This Friday, December 4th, SMIT continues its TEDx tour with an appearance at the TEDxPrincetonU event alongside One Laptop Per Child founder, Nicholas Negroponte.  Check back in next week to read all about it!

Though it has been up for a couple months, we thought we would urge any and all who have not yet visited to be sure they catch this excellent exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.  Paola Antonelli and the Department of Architecture and Design curated this sweeping survey of design from the perspective of time, selecting pieces that represent both the short and long views.

Make sure you check it out, as well as the other great exhibitions at MoMA.

Grow and Solar Ivy were featured in the exhibit Kitchen Ecology at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles, 2009.

(image via designboom)

In October 2008, SMIT was commissioned by Elizabeth Oliver, formerly of Minima, to build a bus shelter using Solar Ivy for A Clean Break, an exhibition of low-impact, prefabricated urban design in conjunction with Design Phildelphia and National Design Week 2008.  The final shelter was realized with the help of Ferra Designs.

SMIT’s GROW is installed at the Green Haus as part of Greensburg Cubed, the design-build project by Kansas State University, Greensburg, May 2008.