Why you should listen
Marjan van Aubel is an award-winning solar designer whose innovative practice spans the fields of sustainability, design and technology. In collaboration with scientists, engineers and institutions -- such as Swarovski and ECN.TNO, the Dutch Energy Centre -- van Aubel works to promote extreme energy efficiency through intelligent design. From working with expandable materials to domestically integrating solar cells that mimic the process of photosynthesis in plants, she adds a double function to objects and puts them to work: a table is not just a table, but also a producer of electricity.
Van Aubel strives to redefine our current relationship with solar technology and accelerate its transition to ubiquity. Graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2012 and the Rietveld Academy DesignLAB in 2009, she has since exhibited at world-class institutions, including the V&A (London), the Design Museum (London) and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam). Her work is also part of the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York, the Vitra Design Museum, Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, The Montreal Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia.
