July 24, 2023 | Julia Fowler

How Pvilion helped provide students safe outdoor space on campus to recharge between classes.

Texas A&M University Central Texas’s Needed Some Shade

Texas A&M University’s Central Texas campus needed an outdoor space where students could rest in the shade outside, enjoy the charming comfort of campus, hangout with one another, and of course charge their phones and laptops in between classes. The Central Texas location of the Texas A&M University System was founded in 2009 and has a beautifully landscaped campus where students can enjoy their free time while attending one of the largest systems of higher education in the country.

The Challenge

The university faced the challenge of providing shaded space that solved all of these needs, while meeting the campus’s sustainability goals, and without taking away from the attractive layout of the campus’s thoughtfully executed landscape architecture design. They turned to Pvilion to design and provide a fully turn-key solution to address all of these needs.

Our Solution

Pvilion designed, manufactured, and installed a 12-foot by 12-foot solar fabric canopy with adorning tensile fabric shade sails for added shade and attractiveness. The canopy itself is semi-permanent and can be relocated if desired.  The shaded space was completed with hammocks, picnic benches, and of course solar powered battery kits for device charging. Students can now enjoy the charming outdoor views of campus with one another from the comfort of solar-powered shade!

Pvilion has created a solar pavilion that is both a free-standing, modular, self-sufficient way for community gardens to power their activities as well as a protector from rain while harvesting rainwater

Global Design News |  May 22, 2023

In collaboration with Nos Quedamos and its partners, Todd Dalland from Pvilion has designed and will build and install Pvilion’s Community Garden Solar Pavilions for Community for WE STAY/Nos Quedamos, Inc.

The pavilions are highly visible, south facing, free-standing, modular, self-sufficient solar pavilions in low shade areas of local community gardens.

Pvilion’s Community Garden Solar Pavilions for Community has recently been awarded a 2023 Green Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

They include rows of electrical outlets and USB outlets on countertops to charge cell phones, and other low voltage equipment.

The electricity that powers the outlets will be harvested from sunlight by lightweight, flexible solar cells that are integrated into the fabric of the solar pavilions.

Educational solar dashboards will be built into the pavilions to provide information regarding how much power is currently available in the batteries, how much power is currently being generated by the solar panels, and how much power is being drawn by the devices plugged in.

There will also be free, automatic wi-fi access, and routers will be built into the solar pavilions and powered by the solar energy harvested.

Wi-fi access will be available on cell phones automatically with no password required.

The design also includes low-voltage LED lights powered by the solar energy harvested to be built into the solar pavilions, to provide lighting at night.

There will be decorative lighting available to make the fabric roofs glow like urban lanterns at night and change colors for different occasions.

The solar pavilions will also feature sloped and guttered fabric roofs that will harvest rainwater, along with built-in spigots that will allow the water collected to be used for gardening to grow food and water the gardens.

The rainwater will be stored in above grade tanks.

Overall, the solar pavilions will serve as shelter from the sun and rain for meetings, presentations, and performances.

They are designed to be used as are multi-purpose outdoor rooms for community services, gallery shows, concerts, film screenings and other events.

Most importantly, the structures will be used as community resiliency hubs in the case of emergencies such as hurricanes, blackouts, and other disasters.

Fabric walls will be added to provide additional weather protection, which will be anchored to the ground and can be relocated when need be.

Project: Pvilion’s Community Garden Solar Pavilions for Community
Architects: Pvilion
Lead Architect: Todd Dalland
Partners: Nos Quedamos
Client: WE STAY/Nos Quedamos, Inc.
Images courtesy of the architects

To read from the original source, click here.

Pvilion’s Community Garden Solar Pavilions for Community Gardens

As Awarded by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.

Location: Bronx, New York, USA
Architects: Pvilion
Lead Architect: Todd Dalland
Client: WE STAY/Nos Quedamos, Inc.
Photographs courtesy of the architects

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In collaboration with Nos Quedamos and its partners, Pvilion has designed and will soon build and install highly visible, south facing, free-standing, modular, self-sufficient solar pavilions in low shade areas of local community gardens, with rows of electrical outlets and USB outlets on countertops to charge cell phones, and other low voltage equipment. The electricity that powers the outlets will be harvested from sunlight by lightweight, flexible solar cells that are integrated into the fabric of the solar pavilions.

Educational solar dashboards will be built into the pavilions to provide information regarding how much power is currently available in the batteries, how much power is currently being generated by the solar panels and how much power is being drawn by the devices plugged in.

There will also be free, automatic wi-fi access. Routers will be built into the solar pavilions and powered by the solar energy harvested. Wi-fi access will be available on cell phones automatically with no password required.

The design also includes low-voltage LED lights powered by the solar energy harvested to be built into the solar pavilions, to provide lighting at night. There will also be decorative lighting available to make the fabric roofs glow like urban lanterns at night and change colors for different occasions. The solar pavilions will also feature sloped and guttered fabric roofs that will harvest rainwater, along with built-in spigots that will allow the water collected to be used for gardening to grow food and water the gardens. The rainwater will be stored in above grade tanks.

Overall, the solar pavilions will serve as shelter from the sun and rain for meetings, presentations, and performances. They are designed to be used as are multi-purpose outdoor rooms for community services, gallery shows, concerts, film screenings and other events.

Most importantly, the structures will be used as community resiliency hubs in the case of emergencies such as hurricanes, blackouts, and other disasters. Fabric walls will be added to provide additional weather protection. They will be anchored to the ground and can be relocated when need be.

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About the Green Good Design Sustainability Awards:

“For 2023, Green GOOD DESIGN received hundreds of submissions from around the world. Members of The European Center’s International Advisory Committee—worldwide leaders in the design industry—served as the jury and selected over 180 new products, programs, people, environmental planning, and architecture as outstanding examples of Green Design.

The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design have joined forces on two continents to present an innovative and challenging new public program: GREEN GOOD DESIGN SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS.

GOOD DESIGN™ was founded in Chicago in 1950 by Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. to promote and foster a greater public understanding and acceptance for Modern Design.

Now in turn and in 2023, GREEN GOOD DESIGN‘s goal is to bestow international recognition to those outstanding individuals, companies, organizations, governments, and institutions – together with their products, services, programs, ideas, and concepts-that have forwarded exceptional thinking and inspired greater progress toward a more healthier and more sustainable universe.” (This is an excerpt from their website. Click here to read more on the original site.)

To view the award listing, click here.

August 17, 2022 | Julia Fowler

Soon Pvilion canopies will keep patrons of the Mosholu Golf Course driving range cool in the shade, as they practice directly above the Croton Water Filtration Plant.

Pvilion on the Course

Construction on this project with its fully sustainable “living roof” began again in 2015. The driving range located within the golf course features natural water elements, inspired by the native habitats found in the park. Featured on the driving range directly above the water treatment plant, will be 31 Pvilion canopies. These canopies will shade patrons that utilize the driving range in the golf course. 

What is the Croton Water Filtration Plant?

The Croton Water Filtration Plant, located in the Bronx, is the first water treatment plan located within New York’s boroughs. Not only is it the oldest water supply system in New York City, but it is also the largest underground water filtration plant in the United states. The plant stretches for twelve acres beneath the ground, located beneath the Mosholu Golf Course inVan Cortlandt Park

Fully Hidden Underground

Responsible for processing a third of the city’s drinking water, The Croton is one of the largest infrastructure projects in New York City. Fully underground, the treatment plant is 12 stories tall. You would never know it from above, though. On the surface, all that’s visible are wetlands, park grounds, and golf course. 

To learn more about the Croton Water Filtration Plant Project, click here.