Solar-powered nudi arches mimic St Phillip Bay's colorful Nudibranch

The nudibranch is a soft-bodied marine gastropod, otherwise known as a sea slug. With over 2,000 species, nudibranchs are ubiquitous throughout the world’s oceans, including dozens of species in Port Phillip Bay.

Given their wide distribution, nudibranchs have developed an immense diversity of adaptations resulting in stunning colors and forms. Using these vibrantly-colored miniscule native marine creatures as fun symbols of regional and cultural adaptability, the artwork essentializes the nudi as a simple arched slug shape. The arched form maximizes solar gain, makes an eye-catching canvas for renewable energy production, and is easily scaled up and down.

Thin-film solar can be utilized in a number of shapes and sizes. It can also be manufactured in various colors and transparencies, making it an excellent candidate for deployment in urban landscapes. 

Ten colorful nudi arches, made with recycled high density polyethylene plastic and embedded with thin-film solar cells, lure visitors to the site during the day with their character and interactive elements, showcasing batteries on their undersides that are viewable through translucent recycled plastic skin. These notify viewers about the amount of solar energy production and storage and turn the arches into whimsical glowing beacons.

Play brings Nudi Beach to life. Three different scales of structures provide different interactive elements. The smallest nudi functions as an arched double-swing. Allowing children to play safely in immediate proximity to solar energy production normalizes renewable energy for the next generation. A mid-sized nudi serves as a pedestrian pass-through where visitors walk through colored light as the sunlight penetrates the nudi’s translucent colored plastic skin, creating shifting patterns on the concrete below. The third typology, and the largest, passes over Jacka Boulevard, visually bridging the park site to St Kilda Beach. This jumbo nudi arch hosts a sign welcoming visitors to Nudi Beach. As a new St Kilda landmark, people quickly begin to say, “Meet me at the giant pink nudi!”