anchor
Image credit: Reiju Construction Co., Ltd.
The MVRDV-designed Sun Rock project has topped out in Taiwan. Designed for one of Taiwan’s largest public utility companies, the operations storage facility is intended to play a leading role in the country’s transition to a green energy economy.
As Archinect reported back in 2022, the project is envisioned by its creators as a “manifesto in a building,” with the scheme’s large dome and sloping southern front shaped to support a layer of solar panels. Inside, the building will include a maintenance workshop, gallery spaces, a roof terrace, and a special data display room.
“Of course, we aim to make all of our projects as sustainable as possible,” MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas said at the time of the design’s unveiling. “Yet we see that projects can go beyond just being sustainable in themselves. This project has unique and fascinating potential.”
“The user is an energy company, which has allowed us to do more than usual,” Maas added. “We clad the entire façade with photovoltaics, maximizing the energy gains to make it not only self-sustainable, for its own usage, but also allowing the building to become a tool of energy production, exporting electricity to the rest of the grid. This is achieved through a maximally efficient positioning of the panels. As a result, our design is completely data-driven. It’s always fun to see the results when you let analysis be the determining part of the design.”
