Written on May 10, 2008 – 3:00 am | by Bogdan Alex |
You surely know that the next Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, China, but have you seen what special structures are being built for this occasion? The Xicui entertainment complex near the site of the games will soon be integrating a 20,000 square foot wall of computer-controlled LEDs, the largest of its kind ever built. You think they dedicated an entire energy plant for this building? Actually, the wall manages to power itself completely using only solar energy.

The gigantic structure is called the GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall and is designed by Simon Giostra & Partners and Arup. It uses thousands of solar capture cells attached to each of its glass panels to charge up during the day and then release dazzling light shows at night. The designers claim that this is the first time perforated photovoltaics laminated in glass have ever been used in a building in China, and if all goes swell, we could be seeing more of these structures around the world in the near future.

The display is built from a combination of three textured panels in low-, medium-, and high-transparency glass, employed together to create a "continuous carpet" of flowing design that's actually roughly 7 feet deep. Unfortunately, you won’t be seeing any HD content on these type of screens. The wall only showcases low-resolution LED imagery.