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Solar-Powered Café With Flexible Multilevel Seating

Authors:
Tony Saghafi, Eric Gross
Solar-Powered Café With Flexible Multilevel Seating

Project in-detail

A solar-powered café with a pop-out design and flexible multilevel seating, it adapts to urban settings to enhance community interaction while serving high-quality coffee and gelato.
5 key facts about this project
01
A solar panel system allows for energy independence.
02
The café features a flexible seating arrangement to adapt to various group sizes.
03
Pop-out design enhances outdoor seating capacity and community interaction.
04
Insulated shell provides thermal comfort year-round.
05
Compact footprint designed for easy placement in urban environments.

The Transcafè is a mobile coffee and gelato shop designed to adapt to different urban settings across Europe. It aims to strengthen social connections and provide a space for community interaction. The café combines practicality with a focus on sustainability, offering high-quality products while engaging with the public.

Design Concept

The Transcafè features a multi-functional design that allows for three configurations: fully closed, partially open, and fully open. In the fully closed state, it occupies a small footprint on busy sidewalks. This is convenient for customers who want to grab a drink quickly. The partially and fully open configurations create more seating options, inviting people to linger and interact while enjoying their refreshments in a welcoming atmosphere.

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is a central theme in the design of the Transcafè. It is equipped with solar panels, making it capable of reducing dependence on external power sources. This design choice enables the café to operate independently. Seasonal energy use is carefully planned; in the summer, it focuses on cooling and preparing cold beverages, while in the winter, it adjusts to meet heating and hot water needs. This versatility allows the café to maintain consistent services throughout the year.

Structural Features

The café's insulated shell is one of its most important features. It helps regulate the internal climate, ensuring comfort regardless of outside temperatures. Alongside this insulation, multi-level seating and movable furniture provide flexibility for accommodating various customer groups. The pop-out design increases seating capacity, encouraging spontaneous gatherings and making the café feel lively and dynamic.

The Transcafè also includes folding doors that serve multiple purposes. When closed, they create a barrier for easy access. When opened, they allow light to flood the space, connecting the inside with the outside. This design element enriches the experience of the café, drawing in passersby and fostering an environment for conversation and community.

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MICROHOME 10: Celebrating Small-Scale Living with €100,000 Prize Fund and Kingspan’s Innovation

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Competition organisers

The MICROHOME 10 competition invites participants to submit visionary designs for off-grid, modular microhomes that push the limits of sustainable, small-scale living. Organised by Buildner in partnership with Kingspan and Hapi Homes, this tenth edition sets the challenge of designing a dwelling for two people within a maximum floor area of 25 m², encouraging bold solutions adaptable to any urban or rural location. The competition continues Buildner’s mission to foster innovative approaches to compact, energy-efficient housing that can address pressing global challenges.

This year’s edition offers a generous total prize fund of €100,000, including the Kingspan Award for designs that integrate high-performance Kingspan products and the Hapi Homes Award for a project selected for real-world construction. In addition to cash prizes, the winners gain international exposure through Buildner’s media partnerships, publications, and a dedicated MICROHOME magazine, further amplifying their ideas to the wider architectural community.

Key dates for MICROHOME 10 include the closing date for registration on 25 September 2025, the submission deadline on 29 October 2025 (11:59 p.m. London time), and the announcement of winners on 9 December 2025. These milestones ensure participants have clear timelines to develop and present their concepts, with early registration discounts available to support students and emerging designers worldwide.

MICROHOME

Design a new small-scale home concept in the 10th edition of MICROHOME — 100,000 € prize + construction

100,000 € Prize Fund / Kingpsan Edition #10 ideas COMPETITION
Prize 100,000 € + Potential realisation
Eligibility Open to all
Final registration deadline 25 September 2025

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