September 2014

THE KYST
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Janka Paulovics, Annika Janthur
Artist Location: : Berlin, Germany
Energy Technologies: piezoelectric discs and fibers

THE KYST is positioned between the poles of the natural, technical, and cultural history of the site, and the visionary all-encompassing and sustainable impetus of Copenhagen.

The form of the installation is inspired by the “phragmites” or reeds that are a very common part of Denmark’s coastal flora. Just like a field of reeds in a natural setting, THE KYST Energy Park consists of many densely placed stems in a wide swath along the water’s edge. They draw energy from their surroundings: the wind, the sea, the rain, and from their interaction with humans. Scaling the stems up to the size of a tree places the visitor in a fairy-tale environment, like Alice in Wonderland.

THE KYST consists of 1400 single stems that merge into a sculptural landscape installation. The installation occupies the water and the land at the same time, placing one-third of the stems in water and two-thirds on land. Concentrating the stems at the edge will have the effect of an iridescent installation with a moiré of alternating views as the beholder approaches the site.

As an ode to nature and a calligraphic element, the stems have leaf-like structures added to the stems to harvest energy as they move with the wind, water, or rain. Even more importantly, the leaves enable and encourage human interaction with visitors.

Piezoelectric Fiber Composites (PFCs) are placed inside the hollow structure of the stems to collect the energy from the leaves and swaying stems. The highest output can be generated when the stems catch their own resonance frequency and vibrate like a flagpole in the wind.

Ripple
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Junfeng Wang, Qiyao Li
Artist Location: New York City, USA
Energy Technologies: piezoelectric generators
Annual Capacity: 5,000 MWh

Bridging from water to sky, Ripple settles on a curved surface creating a harmonious conversation between two parallel worlds. It embodies a rhythmic, unitized shape inspired by the form of water, generating electricity by harvesting kinetic energy.

The light, aluminum panels reflecting the surrounding colors of the sky and water blend into the environment, flickering in the wind or resting in stasis. The process of energy production is displayed as a pleasant experience for visitors, blurring the line between the artificial and the natural.

Ripple employs natural power as well as human engagement as its kinetic power source onsite. Movements in the surrounding environment—prevailing wind, birds’ intermittent resting, people walking, or activities above the panel—trigger the panel’s vibration, which is passed down to piezoelectric generator cells. The spring at the bottom of each rod helps to regulate the vibration cycle and confine the movement of panels, on which visitors can walk.

Specific panel installation and material varies slightly depending on the energy input. Side-wind panels are mainly located at the area close to the water frontage and are placed parallel to the ground plane. They are driven by wind power coming from the side of almost all directions. Front-wind triggered panels take advantage of prevailing wind from the southwest. Flat panels define the common pedestrian flow path on site, which is distributed around the entrance and connects to the water taxi terminal. Flexible event panels have various degrees of curvature for mixed uses.

Zephyrus Park
A submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Mike Sollenberger
Artist Location: Philadelphia (PA), USA
Energy Technologies: wind turbines within acceleration vaults
Annual Capacity: 250 MWh

Zephyrus Park harnesses the power of available wind that blows across the harbor of Copenhagen. Wind vector and sun angles form vaults that funnel wind into an array of wind turbines, amplifying wind speed, and increasing the efficiency with which each turbine produces energy for the city of Copenhagen. On the surface, a park provides community space along with semi-private areas created with the topography.

The vaults are set up to collect wind as much as possible throughout the year. The five intake vaults are positioned to take advantage of the abundant west wind. The funnels significantly increase the wind speed so that each turbine produces much more energy, allowing for a lower number of turbines.

The connection between surface and interior is made at the harbor bus dock, which allows a view deep into the vaults to see the turbines at work. This will be the most heavily accessed entry to the site and so will give users an idea of what is happening below as they inhabit the park above.

The By-Cycle
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Kenneth Ip, Joey Yim
Artist Location: Hong Kong
Energy Technologies: wind microturbines from repurposed bicycle rims

A well-known and widely discussed feature of Copenhagen’s sustainable development is its bicycle infrastructure. Over one third of people living in Copenhagen commute to work or school by bicycle, and bicycle ownership in the city is upwards of 90%.

Bicycles produce no pollutants when they are being peddled around the city, but what becomes of the bicycle when it has passed its usable lifespan? And what becomes of the abandoned bicycles that amount to approximately 13,000 each year?

What if old and abandoned bicycles were reintroduced back into the sustainable ecosystem of Copenhagen? Although they may no longer be suitable to be used on the road again, their basic framework and structure allows them to be recycled for another purpose. Instead of disposing of them as waste, these bicycles could be transformed into a meaningful part of Copenhagen’s ambitious plan to be carbon neutral by 2025.

THE BY-CYCLE transforms old bicycles into a wind farm, harnessing the natural resources of the city while making use of what would otherwise be wasted resources. The bicycle is deconstructed into its basic elements—its frame and its rims—and the individual parts are reassembled into a tree-like structure. Each rim is then fitted with polycarbonate fins to catch the wind, thus allowing the disused bicycle to be readapted as a windmill. Waste becomes useful again.

Windshape
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Manon Robert, Martin Le Carboulec, Marc Antoine Galup
Artist Location: Seoul, South Korea
Energy Technologies: piezoelectric fabric, rotating electromagnetic generators

Wind speed is transformed into energy with Windshape. The 302 poles, each supporting several piezoelectric textile banners, reshape and transform the site according to the natural wind direction.

As the wind can come from any direction and change quickly, the site will never look the same from one visit to the next. To engage the public in the process, the dimensions of each sail panel are imagined at human scale. Visitors will enjoy getting lost in the changing spaces and observing others as they pass between the sails.

Some sails are intentionally fixed in order to create a passage through the site to the entrance and water taxi terminal. The others are completely free, but can be temporarily fixed by users who would like to modulate the space. These outdoor rooms created by the sail rotations can be both intimate and public.

Several factors inform the design of the sail. The main inspiration was a study of windsurfing sails and their fabrication. A succession of different types of layers on the surface of the sails (aramid fiber scrim and mylar protection) provides tensile strength and protects the piezoelectric fabric layer.

The fabric provides an estimated output power density in the range of 1.10–5.10_W /cm2 at applied wind pressures in the range of 0.02–0.10 MPa. In addition, the dynamo system at the base converts rotational energy with an estimated peak output power of 3.5W. LED lights located in the poles softly illuminate the area at night, making it visible from the opposite shore as a reminder of the power of Copenhagen wind.

Lightfoam
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: ByungEon Song, SooHyun Kang, John Song
Artist Location: : Seoul, South Korea
Energy Technologies: : Piezoelectric Disks

View Design Boards

Long poles standing on artificial wind slopes continually move like a field of reeds according to the direction of wind. Daylight reflections and dim lighting at night invite visitors to imagine a scene from the Little Mermaid.

Lightfoam is an array of 2,400 polished, white bending poles that harvest the energy of the wind with piezoelectric generators. The 20-meter high poles naturally respond to any change in wind direction. Each is embedded with stacks of piezoelectric discs set between rigid backup plates. To increase the intensity of wind, these piezoelectric structures protrude through a platform shaped to form a valley. The framework of poles is free to bend and respond to all forces, such as wind or people. The more they bend, the more electricity they generate.

At night, LED light sources inside each pole allow the structure to glow or dim depending on the amount of energy they generate. As the wind moves, the fiber rods softly sway to create a dynamic effect and memorable scenery.

The site is transformed into a public park where children can shift or climb between poles, people can ride bicycles, or walk alone along vantage points on the slope. As they are enjoying the park, their activities generate additional energy through the poles and pavements.

As families come together on the playground, this active and energetic atmosphere will influence the surrounding island.

The Place of Tomorrow // Aesthetic Representation of Copenhagen’s Future Plan
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Amir Shouri, Fereshteh Tabe
Artist Location: New York City, USA
Energy Technologies: piezoelectric fabric, piezoelectric discs

The Place of Tomorrow is a new type of public garden—a poetic, natural space that demonstrates the future of clean energy.

Oscillating textures of fabric shades are framed in homage to Copenhagen’s future energy-plan. As they wave in the wind, the shades make visible the wind’s forces and aesthetically display the real-time production of electrical energy.

As a reflection of the 8,000 workers who once worked in the Sønder Hoved shipyard, the garden is designed under 8,000 linear fabric shades of different lengths. The energy fabric dances freely in the air, while below park visitors enjoy swimming in the clear blue water. Bicyclers move between lounging couples, enjoying the rippling effects of the sun through the fabric above.

The longer fabric shades produce more electricity and are representative of the future (when most of Denmark’s electricity will be produced by wind), and the shorter shades represent the early 21st century (when only 22% of electricity was produced by wind). Overall, 8,000 pieces of electricity-generating fabric benefit from the movement of electrons in nanowires to produce enough energy to power the LED lights of the project and to offset 900 households on a windy day.

Windbrator
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Chanin Sheeranangsu, Pattra Wongsantimeth
Artist Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Energy Technologies: piezoelectric ceramic discs

Windbrator is a work of land art for the regenerative metropolis, providing electricity to the city through the natural force of wind. The key is to generate renewable energy from the vibrations caused by the infinite, yet ever changing, supply of wind.

Kinetic force is captured and turned to electric power by the use of piezoelectric ceramic discs that are arrayed around 220,000 piezoballs—the primary module of the artwork. The structural housing consists of 552 sectional 3-meter square quadrate poles that vary in height from 15–35 meters.

The towers are arranged in a plan to reflect the prevailing wind direction at the site throughout the four seasons. At the center is a serene and monumental public gathering space.

Piezoballs—each 30 centimeters in diameter with a transparent outer skin—adorn the top 10 meters of each pole to harvest electric power. Vibration sensors light up LEDs that function as a seasonal calendar as well as a nighttime spectacle.

Driven by the Wind, towards a green horizon
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition

Artist Team: Guido Zeck, Ingrid Ackermans, Peter Twisk
Artist Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Energy Technologies: UGE VisionAIR3™ vertical axis wind turbines

The form of Driven by the Wind is based on the shape of the Sealandia, the first large diesel ship in the world that was built on the site of Burmeister & Wain at Refshaleøen. The design is a reference to the site’s history and a symbol of the path to new horizons.

Its composition of vertical axis wind turbines creates a soft moiré pattern that offers a beautiful fairy-tale background for the Little Mermaid. The dense pattern of turbines allows for a greater efficiency of power production as the turbine rotation is augmented by wind vortices created by the adjacent units. The wind-ship “sails” forward to a green horizon and a clean energy future.

An ecological park is incorporated into the design, with a riverbank rich in biodiversity. The rough vegetation and trees provide an attractive public space, and the ecological design contributes to the spatial experience of the area as a whole.

The ship uses a space frame structure, which supports 750 helical Darrieus-type vertical windmills that have their own inherent beauty. A combined staircase and ramp leads visitors to a recycled wood ship platform on the top of the space frame where they can experience unique views over the city from the 32-meter high bow of the ship.