The Site

The area is at the Spazio Flaminio, near the lower part of the Villa Borghese park and only 500 meters away from Piazza del Popolo. The site was occupied by the former public transportation warehouse, operated by the municipal government of Rome.

The project proposes to transform this large complex of buildings into an exhibition space and multi-purposes area for the new Children's Museum of Rome. The structure of the main exhibition hall is the steel and cast-iron shelter built in 1920 from a patented design of the French engineer Polenceau.



Description of the PV- structure

The aim of this project is to encourage the retrofit application of PV-systems as part of the restructuring and maintenance costs of older industrial buildings. In particular, the project proposes to improve the quality of the natural lighting and to decrease the heat load of the building with the innovative design of a grid connected 15 kWp PV plant, located on the south pitched roof of the main building.

The PV installation is divided in two industrialized systems for shading devices and skylights, to become an integral part of the industrial pavilion. The 12 kW PV system will work as movable "curtain," shading the southern facade, and attached to the lower part of the roof. The 3 kW PV system will be used as a movable shading device on the skylights.

The motors, and all the mechanic parts of this industrially produced PV building components, will be visible and recognizable for the following reasons:
* to simplify the mounting technology
* to reduce the costs of production, assembly and installation
* to reduce the maintenance costs
* to introduce a playful configuration of the system, for a friendly introduction to PV technology.

The photovoltaic polycristalline cells will transform sunlight into a 15 kWp plant that will supply the energy required to operate 30% of the museum's exhibits, or 60% of the total artificial lighting of the pavilion.