The SOLAR facility: a hybrid living lab
The first SOLAR facility will be our first living lab: a real place where we build, test and document sustainable, autonomous living systems. We publish what we learn there openly, so others can build on it.
Where we stand
We are currently designing the facility. It is still a plan: nothing has been approved, funded or built yet.
What is a living lab?
A demonstration shows that something works once. A living lab asks the hard questions: does it still work after a year? What breaks first? What does maintenance cost? In a living lab the infrastructure itself is the experiment: the roof that generates energy, the building that stores heat, the water that is measured and reused. People are not the test subjects; we measure how the systems perform.
Why "hybrid"?
The first SOLAR facility will be hybrid: connected to the electricity grid, but partly self-sufficient. It generates its own energy, stores some of it and can keep important things running when the grid goes down. That way we can properly test everything in practice. And because we measure everything, we can see exactly when the facility runs on its own power, how long that holds and what it costs.
Our ultimate goal goes further: we want to design a complete, fully self-sufficient off-grid facility, a true Sustainable Off-grid Living-lab for Autonomy and Research. What we learn in the hybrid facility forms the basis for that design.
The concept: living, working and learning
The concept is deliberately mixed. A living lab shouldn't be a big machine on an empty site; it should be connected to everyday life. Our proposal, "Work-Living labs", therefore combines living, working and learning on one site of 170 by 250 metres: homes, business space, shops and a restaurant, with SOLAR's own space for education, research (R&D) and pilot projects in between.
Our vision in four phases
This is a plan and a vision. The proposal has not been approved, funded or built, and no years are attached to it yet. All numbers are indicative.
Phase 1 (the centre of the site): a building with a first-aid post (floors 1 and 2) and elderly care (floors 3 to 5), and a building with 8 shops (floors 1 and 2) and apartments (floors 3 to 5).
Phase 2: 90 apartments, 15 A-frame houses and about 25,200 m³ of business space.
Phase 3: SOLAR's space. A school building with room for R&D and pilot projects, a lecture hall, shared computer labs, laboratories, metalworking and woodworking spaces, a 3D-printing room (printer farm) and a server room. Above SOLAR's space there is room for about 40 apartments and 12 A-frame houses.
Phase 4: 60 apartments, 15 A-frame houses and about 29,400 m³ of business space.
In the centre of the site there is also a restaurant.
SOLAR itself provides no care or treatment; our health theme (Asklepios) is non-clinical.
What we want to test there
Energy (Helios): solar power, geothermal heat and smart use of residual heat. Where does the energy come in, when does demand peak, how much heat can we recover, and what happens when the grid goes down?
Water (Poseidon): measuring, collecting and reusing water.
Food (Demeter): growing some of the food close by.
Materials & building (Hephaistos): sustainable, circular building materials for our facilities.
Technology (Prometheus): a workshop where broken parts are repaired, measured and written up, and where 3D-printed replacements are tested.
Waste & cycles (Persephone): repairing instead of throwing away, and putting residual streams back into the cycle.
Knowledge & education (Athena): workshops and lessons; every repair or test can become a teaching example.
Community (Hestia): answering neighbours' questions openly, such as about noise, traffic, who it is for and what happens to the data.
All results, including what fails, go into the SOLAR Archive.
Step by step
We don't build SOLAR by skipping steps. First the knowledge (archive.solar), then small, measurable experiments, and only then larger buildings. Our policy plan 2026–2029 describes three phases for the foundation:
Start-up phase (years 1–2): setting up the organisation, developing the digital archive, agreeing collaboration frameworks and starting pilot projects.
Expansion phase (year 3 onwards): scaling up research, strengthening the volunteer structure, making funding sustainable and publishing more.
Continuity phase: safeguarding quality and transparency, reviewing our policy regularly and embedding our work in society.
These are goals, not promises. The board reviews progress every year.
What we need
A location: land or a building for the living lab.
Funding: gifts, grants, foundations, sponsorship and project funding.
Partners: knowledge institutions, governments, companies and organisations that want to help think and build.
Volunteers: technicians, makers, researchers, students and anyone who wants to help.