The most modern idea seems to be a Dyson swarm, which is not solid and consists of solar panels and habitats orbiting at a comfortable distance. Power is relayed using microwave transmitters and receivers and conceptually a large portion would be fed into particle accelerators for the manufacture of Anti-Matter on industrial scale.

I thought you'd build a sphere or swarm at a radius from the sun that got enough solar radiation to be at a comfortable temperature. Then you'd live on the inside surface.

Pewpew it as lasers?

That YouTube K-animation channel I can't spell (Kurdurkistan?) has an episode on it: https://youtu.be/pP44EPBMb8A?si=b8qssNFtMDAqUyE_

There's also the great engineering/factory game Dyson Sphere Program: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1366540/Dyson_Sphere_Prog...