Golden Roots
Submission to the 2014 Land Art Generator Initiative Copenhagen design competition
Artist Team: Ronny Zschörper, Franziska Adler
Artist Location: Münster, Germany
Energy Technologies: biomass, piezoelectric paving
Golden Roots contrasts the urban environment of Copenhagen with the experience of unspoiled nature, suggesting a childhood walk through golden fields of grain. The installation recalls Denmark as a sparsely populated, agrarian country, where its inhabitants maintained a close relationship with nature. A system of paths and bridges guides visitors through a constellation of crop circles, bringing the calm countryside to life in the city.
The experience of being enveloped by nature is achieved through circular fields of rye, which has a natural maximum height of two meters. Red poppies, so familiar in the region, provide a splash of color and biodiversity. The fields are periodically harvested to generate high-energy biomass as well as to provide materials for the construction of observation towers, which change every season. Rye bales coated with potassium silicate are used to create towers of up to 18 meters tall when maximum crop yields are achieved.
Paths and bridges allow visitors to walk within and to rise above the circles of rye. In addition to the energy production through biomass, each crop circle (connected by the paths) contains a piezoelectric floor, transforming the kinetic energy of people into electric energy.
