University campuses function like small cities. Students move between buildings, find outdoor spots to read or work, and constantly need power for phones and laptops. Sustainability tends to get communicated through plaques, rooftop panels, and annual reports, things you don’t interact with. There’s a gap between “this campus is reducing its carbon footprint” and “here’s a place where you can sit, charge your phone, and actually experience that in some tangible way.”
Michael Jantzen’s Solar Wind Gazebos are public pavilions designed to close that gap. Intended for university campuses, they function as gathering spaces while generating electricity from sun and wind, with the power feeding into the university’s grid. The proposal treats renewable infrastructure as a place to inhabit rather than a system to install, and it makes that infrastructure legible to anyone who walks up to one.
Designer: Michael Jantzen
The roof does most of the communicating. Four commercially available vertical-axis wind turbines sit at the corners, while a large circular solar panel occupies the center. That layout is easy to read at a glance: wind at the perimeter, sun at the core. You don’t need a label to understand what’s happening because the structure’s own geometry explains its energy logic, which is something most utility infrastructure completely fails to do.
The frame is predominantly stainless steel on concrete bases, which is a deliberate choice for outdoor public installations. Campuses need structures that handle weather, seasonal temperature swings, and constant use without requiring frequent maintenance windows. Stainless steel and concrete aren’t glamorous materials, but they’re honest ones for a building type that needs to outlast a decade of students without becoming an eyesore or a liability.
Inside, four cylindrical seating spaces are attached to the support columns, each with a receptacle at the top for plugging in devices. That detail is quiet but important, turning charging into a normal part of sitting down outdoors rather than a task that sends students hunting for an outlet inside a building. A large round central platform offers a shared surface for sitting or lying down, creating a mix of semi-private individual zones and an open communal gathering area.
A circular electric light mounted above the central platform runs off the same solar and wind generation, extending the pavilion’s usefulness into evening hours. The structure essentially powers its own ambience, which gives the whole thing a satisfying sense of completion, generation, use, and light running off the same rooftop.
The gazebos are designed to be reproduced as prefabricated structures in various sizes and installed across different landscapes. The same concept fits public parks, corporate campuses, and any open space where people gather and need shade, seating, and somewhere to plug in. The broader implication is that renewable energy infrastructure doesn’t always have to hide behind fences or sit on rooftops. Sometimes it can be the very thing you sit inside of on a Tuesday afternoon between classes.
