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The project initially focused on designing a visually refined balcony power plant for private use. We investigated manufacturing processes and developed early concepts that treated photovoltaic modules as individual consumer products integrated into private living spaces. Through iterative research, site analysis, and systemic mapping, this perspective shifted. We began questioning the individualization of energy responsibility and instead explored shared contexts, collective uses and ownership models. This led us away from the balcony toward the inner courtyard as a semi-public space. The project gradually shifted from a product-centered design perspective toward the conception of a spatially embedded, collectively maintained energy infrastructure. This conceptual shift resulted in a stronger emphasis on system thinking, accessibility and reduction. Research focused on standardized construction materials, connections, and norms, including scaffolding components, grid structures, steel profiles, and concrete elements commonly found in hardware stores or reuse cycles. Criteria such as availability, cost efficiency, durability, reversibility and low-threshold assembly guided the design process. Through material tests, site visits and hands-on experiments, the focus narrowed toward a combination of grid structures and photovoltaic modules, offering both structural clarity and flexibility. The inner courtyard emerged as a suitable spatial framework where energy production, everyday use and social interaction overlap. Rather than defining a fixed product, the project proposes an open-ended system capable of adaptation and user-driven appropriation. Questions of ownership, responsibility, energy distribution and long-term maintenance remain intentionally unresolved, shaping both the design decisions and the system’s limitations.

Throughout the semester, the project developed through continuous iteration, discussion and material testing. Early research into existing balcony power plants revealed a strong emphasis on technical performance with limited consideration for spatial, social and aesthetic integration. This observation informed the decision to approach photovoltaics as a visible, designed cultural object rather than a concealed technical add-on. The process required balancing conceptual ambition with practical constraints. While the intention was to create a calm and confident structure that communicates through use rather than explanation, time pressure, resource limitations, and collaborative dynamics shaped the outcome. Questions of authorship, critique and negotiation became integral to the process and shaped both design decisions and their material realization. Building the structure at full scale marked a critical transition from speculation to physical reality. Structural stability, wind load, weight, anchoring and cable routing required immediate, pragmatic solutions, foregrounding the complexity of translating systemic ideas into buildable forms. Certain aspects, such as corrosion protection, flexible module mounting, refined connection details and long-term durability, remain open for further development. Rather than presenting a finalized solution, the project positions itself as a functional prototype and an open framework for further development. It demonstrates the potential of shared energy infrastructures within urban courtyards and brings questions of ownership, maintenance, scalability, and long-term integration within collective housing contexts to the forefront.