Energy Overlays

Follow this link for more information about Energy Overlays, the LAGI 2018 publication.

Energy Overlays provides a glimpse into our post-carbon future where energy infrastructure is seamlessly woven into the fabric of our cities as works of public art. Fifty designs use a variety of renewable energy technologies to arrive at innovative site-specific solutions. Power plants of the future will be the perfect place to have a picnic!

On the foreshore of St Kilda with the skyline of Melbourne as a backdrop rises a new kind of power plant – one that merges renewable energy production with leisure, recreation, and education. Energy Overlays provides a roadmap to our sustainable future with essays about the energy transition and beautiful renderings and diagrams of more than fifty designs. The result is a city where the infrastructures that power our world are designed to be reflections of culture, where public parks provide clean electricity to the city grid, and where the art that makes our lives more vibrant and interesting is also part of the solution to climate change.

WSLR: Sarasota’s Own Community Radio

Micro-Macro-Enviro Radio with host Shawn Robbins on 96.5 FM Sarasota, Florida.

LAGI Directors, Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, talk with Shawn about the Land Art Generator Initiative and the importance of merging culture with renewable energy infrastructure.

Listen to the conversation, which took place live on air on September 4, 2018 (it follows the Tracy Chapman song):

IMPACT Insights & Inspiration for Social Innovation

IMPACT Insights & Inspiration for Social Innovation
Let There Be Art
Edition 25
July–September 2018
By Ian Jamotillo

"For architect Robert Ferry and designer Elizabeth Monoian, both from the U.S., the answer was a competition that reimagines renewable energy as art. Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) conducts an eponymous
competition every two years, geared toward encouraging people across the globe to become sustainable through renewable artworks and infrastructure. Back in 2008, Ferry and Monoian were living in Dubai and were inspired by the ambitious nature of development
in the city."

read more >

World Architecture: Land Art Generator Initiative Shortlist Shows How Renewable Energy Can Also Be Beautiful And Artful

World Architecture
Land Art Generator Initiative Shortlist Shows How Renewable Energy Can Also Be Beautiful And Artful
August 4, 2018

"25 mesmerizing land-art projects have been shortlisted for the fifth edition of Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) competition at St. Kilda Triangle in Melbourne, Australia.

The Land Art Generator Initiative design competition called designers, landscape architects, artists to create large-scale public art projects that will be able to produce clean energy for St. Kilda Triangle in Australia. After receiving entries more than 50 countries, the 2018 LAGI jury has narrowed down the competition to a shortlist of 25 entries.

The competition, sponsored by the State of Victoria as part of Action 13 of the Victoria State Renewable Energy Action Plan, was open to landscape architects, engineers, artists, designers, and other international renewable energy enthusiasts encouraging participants to envision a clean energy landscape for a post-carbon world—a public artwork that will help to power the city and inspire the future."

read more >

Landscape Australia: Australian teams shortlisted in 2018 Land Art Generator competition

Landscape Australia
Australian teams shortlisted in 2018 Land Art Generator competition
August 3, 2018

"Eight Australian teams are among the twenty-five teams whose designs have been shortlisted in the 2018 Land Art Generator design competition. Participants from more than fifty countries world-wide submitted concept proposals for large-scale works of public art capable of producing clean energy for Melbourne’s St Kilda Triangle site."
read more >

Archinect: Twenty-five land art designs shortlisted for 2018 LAGI St. Kilda Triangle competition

Archinect
Twenty-five land art designs shortlisted for 2018 LAGI St. Kilda Triangle competition
August 2, 2018
By Justine Testado

"The biennial LAGI competition seeks the most innovative proposals for large-scale, public art installations that are capable of producing clean energy in sites across the world, from Copenhagen and Glasgow, to Santa Monica, California and Willimantic, Connecticut. In this latest edition, hundreds of participants from over 50 countries submitted designs for St. Kilda Triangle in Melbourne. Now, the LAGI jury has narrowed down the competition to a shortlist of 25 entries.

“The submissions for LAGI 2018 have met with our extraordinarily high expectations,” commented Jodi Newcombe, Carbon Arts founder and LAGI 2018 regional director." read more >

Inhabitat: This massive Sun Ray could sustainably power 220 homes in Melbourne

Inhabitat
This massive Sun Ray could sustainably power 220 homes in Melbourne
July 17, 2018
By Lucy Wang

"What if renewable energy infrastructure could be both functional and beautiful? Exploring that notion is Italian architectural practice Antonio Maccà, who designed ‘Sun Ray,’ a massive solar collector that could generate enough energy to power 220 Melbourne homes — with approximately 1,100 MWh of electricity produced annually. Shortlisted for this year’s Land Art Generator Initiative Melbourne design competition, the conceptual design was conceived as a symbol for the future of sustainable energy that also doubles as public artwork." read more >

LAGI Lecture / St Kilda Town Hall

Join us in a discussion about the design of our new energy landscapes!

DATE Thursday, May 24
TIME 6:30–8:30 pm (Doors open at 6:00)
LOCATION St Kilda Town Hall, Council Chamber (City of Port Phillip, Australia)

The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) will be holding a public discussion focusing on our transition to a post carbon future and how public art can facilitate this conversation with the wider community. The event will include a panel from varying disciplines including art in public space, renewable energy, and members of our local community.

LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry will be joined by:

Guy Abrahams:
Co-founder and CEO of CLIMARTE and Director of the Art+Environment consultancy. Guy was a lawyer prior to becoming Director of Christine Abrahams Gallery, one of Australia’s leading contemporary art galleries, a position he held for 22 years. He has held numerous arts positions including President of the Australian Commercial Galleries Association, and Board member of the Melbourne Art Fair and the National Gallery of Victoria Art Foundation.

Trevor White:
a strategic adviser and former CEO of University Services at both the University of Melbourne and at RMIT. He has been an strong advocate for St Kilda Triangle for many years and has worked on behalf of the Port Phillip community as a committee member of the unChain incorprated association.
.
FREE AND OPEN TO ALL!

This lecture is a part of LAGI 2018 Melbourne programming. LAGI 2018 invited interdisciplinary teams around the world to imagine renewable energy as a public art for St Kilda Triangle. Read more about LAGI 2018 here >

Shimmering Solar Arch to generate power for a post-industrial Connecticut town

Inhabitat
Shimmering Solar Arch to generate power for a post-industrial Connecticut town
April 25, 2018
by Lucy Wang

"A giant gleaming arch clad in solar panels is set to transform the waterfront of downtown Willimantic. This spectacular energy-generating artwork, called Rio Iluminado, was revealed today as the winner of Land Art Generator Institute’s most recent design competition. Designed by Pirie Associates Architects in collaboration with architect Lindsay Suter and sculptor Gar Waterman, the public artwork is capable of generating 25.5 MWh of clean energy a year for a 3.4-acre remediated brownfield." Read More >

Imagine Austin Speaker Series: Power Up! Placemaking Through Art and Renewable Energy

LAGI Directors will be speaking in Austin, Texas!
Imagine Austin Speaker Series: Power Up! Placemaking Through Art and Renewable Energy
Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Time: 6pm - 7:30pm; sign-in begins at 5:30pm
Location: Zach-Topfer Theater, 202 South Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX

Description: The great energy transition will have an impact on our built environment, our parks, our culture, and our visual landscape like no other technical shift since the automobile. By presenting examples of utility-scale renewable energy infrastructure as public art, the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) is inspiriing the public about the beauty of our sustainable future and showing policy makers and city planners that distributed energy resources can be placemaking tools, economic development drivers, and educational venues while they help to power the grid and implement a clean energy revolution. Recreational spaces like Seaholm Waterfront and parkland at the former Holly Shores Power Plan have the potential to tell the stories of power generation past and present through public art.

Learn More >

Corriente Eléctrica

Corriente Eléctrica
Cuando las energías renovables se convierten en arte
March 2018

"Las infraestructuras para generar energía limpia pueden integrarse armoniosamente en el paisaje urbano e incluso embellecerlo. Es la filosofía de Land Art Generator Initiative." Read More >

Biennale Architettura 2018

Artists & Climate Change
Biennale Architettura 2018
By Joan Sullivan
March 15, 2018

"Imagine the positive impact that large cultural events like the prestigious Biennale di Venezia could have if they encouraged all future pavilions and exhibits to address the critically important role that artists and architects, in collaboration with engineers, scientists and city planners, can and must play to reduce carbon emissions and increase resiliency of the built environment. The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), which organizes a biennial international competition for renewable energy art and architecture, has already been doing this for 10 years."
Read More >

The Architectural Review

The Architectural Review
Competition: Land Art Generator Initiative, Melbourne
March 5, 2018
By Merlin Fulcher

Read more about LAGI 2018, an interview with the LAGI 2014 winning designer Santiago Muros Cortés, and an interview with LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry in The Architectural Review.

Read More >

How Arts and Culture Can Accelerate Environmental Progress

FARTHER, FASTER, TOGETHER
How Arts and Culture Can Accelerate Environmental Progress
By Helicon Collaborative, Commissioned by ArtPlace America
2018

We're thrilled that the Land Art Generator Initiative is included as a case study in ArtPlace America's report on "How Arts and Culture Can Accelerate Environmental Progress" Read more here >

Environmental sustainability is at its root about the health, safety, and long-term integrity of the places where we all live, work, and play. It is with this in mind that ArtPlace is releasing the fourth in our series of creative placemaking field scans: Farther, Faster, Together: How Arts and Culture Can Accelerate Environmental Progress, researched and written by Helicon Collaborative.

This investigation touches on the environmental areas of energy, water, land, waste, toxic pollution, and climate resilience and adaptation.

LAGI Willimantic Community Placemaking Forum

LAGI Willimantic Placemaking Forum
January 17, 6:00 pm
Willimantic, Connecticut
Location: Johnson Room at the Eastern CT State University Library
Members of the three finalist design teams will be on hand to engage with the Windham community and brainstorm ideas for the LAGI-Willimantic Project.

LAGI Presentation: Boston Architectural College

Lecture by LAGI Directors
Boston Architectural College
January 16, 2018, 6:00–7:00 pm
San Francisco, CA

LAGI Presentation: Stantec

Lecture by LAGI Directors
Stantec, SF Office
January 9, 2018, 5:00 pm
San Francisco, CA

LAGI Presentation: SPUR

Lecture by LAGI Directors
SPUR
January 9, 2018, 12:30
San Francisco, CA

Streetsblog SF

Streetsblog SF
SPUR Talk: Making Renewable Energy a Beautiful Part of the City
By Roger Rudick
Jan 9, 2018

"Power plants used to be located in the middle of cities. Back in the start of the 20th Century, there was no such thing as a high-voltage distribution grid, so small generators were placed right in downtowns. They were often ensconced in beautiful, art-deco buildings that blended with the rest of the street. “But once we were able to raise voltages, we got rid of central locations for power plants, because they were pretty polluting,” explained Robert Ferry, co-founder of the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), a Seattle-based non-profit, during a presentation this afternoon at SPUR’s Urban Center in San Francisco. “And we got the power plants we think of today.” Read More >

LAGI 2018 Melbourne

What will you design?

LAGI 2018 is free and open to anyone around the world, and invites you to design a large-scale and site-specific public art installation that generates clean energy by incorporating renewable energy technology as the primary media for the art.

The project is sponsored by the State of Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning, and hosted by the City of Port Phillip.

Partners include: Carbon Arts, Fed Square, and Climarte.

The theme of the LAGI 2018 competition is "Energy Overlays—the superimposition of energy and art onto an emerging master plan for urban regeneration."

The design brief has been carefully crafted with local partners to align with the strategic plans and cultural context of the local site, the city, and the region. The outcomes will demonstrate creative and engaging approaches to urban community energy and resilient microgrids—part of a comprehensive solution to climate change that makes our cities more beautiful as it also makes them more sustainable.

Victoria is setting an example for the world with a goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050. Melbourne, already one of the most sustainable cities in the world, is targeting net-zero by 2020.

How much of the clean energy infrastructure required to attain these goals will be implemented within urban areas, and what is the impact of these new installations on our constructed and natural environments? How can solar and wind energy (and other clean technology) be integrated into public spaces in ways that educate, inspire, and are responsive to the history, culture, and nature of place?

Melbourne has a rich tradition of ambitious and creative public projects aimed towards advancing sustainable development. The LAGI competition, which brings together multiple disciplines to take on complex problems, is a perfect fit for Melbourne, a vibrant city of arts and culture.

The design site, St Kilda Triangle and foreshore, is the ideal canvas for the 2018 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition!

PRIZES

1st Prize $16,000 USD
2nd Prize $5,000 USD

One representative of the first and second place winning teams will be flown to Melbourne, Australia for the award ceremony and exhibition opening.

EXHIBITIONS

Award ceremony, exhibition, and book launch held at Fed Square in Melbourne, Australia in October 2018. Satellite exhibitions and workshops will be programmed throughout St Kilda, the City of Port Phillip, and the State of Victoria.

PUBLICATION

The LAGI 2018 publication, Energy Overlays, featuring the top 50 submissions will be released in October 2018 by Hirmer Publishers.

Inhabitat

Inhabitat
Here’s how much land area we’d need to power Bitcoin with solar
December 14, 2017
By Lacy Cooke

"Bitcoin isn’t exactly environmentally friendly right now. The Bitcoin network is largely powered by coal plants in China, according to Digiconomist. Bitcoin transactions in total emit as much carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases as some of the biggest coal-fired power plants in the world, according to LAGI. The Bitcoin network consumes more energy than many countries do. Digiconomist said Bitcoin could power 3,029,126 American households, and the country closest to Bitcoin when it comes to electricity consumption is Denmark." Read More >

Texas Public Radio

Texas Public Radio
'World's First' Solar Panel Mural Revealed
November 13, 2018
By Jack Morgan

"A solar panel went up in downtown San Antonio on Friday, and it's one that's unlike any other."
Read More >

Inhabitat:

Inhabitat
World’s first solar panel mural unveiled in San Antonio
November 17, 2017
By Nicole Jewell

"In a world where solar farms are shaped like giant pandas, there’s certainly room for some solar butterflies. Determined to beautify our cities by converting solar panels into creative works of public art, the Seattle-based Land Art Generator Initiative just unveiled the world’s first solar mural installation, called La Monarca, by San Antonio artist Cruz Ortiz with creative direction from artist Penelope Boyer."
Read More >

ArchitectureAU

ArchitectureAU
St Kilda Triangle named design site for international sustainable energy infrastructure ideas competition

"Melbourne’s St Kilda Triangle, the beachside block home to the historic Palais Theatre, has been named as the design site for international sustainable energy infrastructure design competition organized by the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI).

The competition will seek the best designs for large-scale, site-specific public art installations that are capable of generating clean energy on the site, which is currently undergoing development, to an ARM Architecture masterplan.

Architects, landscape architects, artists, designers, scientists, engineers and others will be invited to submit design proposals from 5 January 2018.

With the slogan 'renewable energy can be beautiful,' LAGI is an initiative that aims to 'accelerate the transition to post-carbon economies by providing models of renewable energy infrastructure that add value to public space, inspire and educate.'

Run every two years, the competition has previously been held at sites in Dubai/Abu Dhabi, New York City, Copenhagen, and Santa Monica. Melbourne was named as 2018’s host city in July."

Read More >

Visual Resource Stewardship Conference

LAGI will be presenting at:

Visual Resource Stewardship Conference:
Landscape and Seascape Management in a Time of Change

Argonne National Laboratory: Argonne, Illinois
November 7 – 9, 2017

More information about the conference >

LAGI Willimantic Connecticut Information Session

LAGI Willimantic RFQ
invited competition for energy generating public artwork

The full Request for Qualifications (RFQ) can be found here >

RELEASE DATE: September 26, 2017
RESPONSES DUE: November 10, 2017

Join us for a public presentation of the LAGI Willimantic RFQ and question and answer session
October 11, 2017 in Willimantic
5:30–7:30 p.m.
J. Eugene Smith Library
Eastern Connecticut State University
Willimantic, CT 06226

A recording of the session will be made available online.

LAGI Workshop at EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology

Want to be a part of designing Toronto's clean energy future?
LAGI will be giving a full day workshop at EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology. Join us on Saturday, September 30 2017 at EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology.
See http://editdx.org/events/workshops for more information.

LAGI Exhibition at Chatham University

Chatham University is hosting a Land Art Generator Initiative exhibition this autumn at the Art Gallery in Woodland Hall on the Shadyside campus.

Please join us at the reception on October 13th.

You don't have to wait until the reception to see the show. The gallery will be open to visit during normal hours during the fall semester.

Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)

LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry will be speaking at:
Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)
Panel: Solar + Storage, Microgrid BeaUtilities
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Room: Bryant Park
Thursday, October 12, 2017
TKP New York Conference Center, 109 West 39th Street, Manhattan

Inhabitat: LAGI announces location for 2018 renewable energy design competition

Inhabitat
LAGI announces location for 2018 renewable energy design competition
July 19, 2017
By Lacy Cooke

Energy infrastructure of the past, like oil refineries and rigs, aren’t typically considered to be beautiful. But as the world transitions towards renewable energy, what if utilities could double as art installations? That’s the dream pursued by the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), which holds a design competition every two years to present visions for energy-generating artworks able to power hundreds of homes. 2016’s winners included ethereal sailboats that harvested wind for power and fog for water, and a whale-inspired design that generates wind, solar, and wave energy. LAGI just announced the location for their 2018 competition: Melbourne, Australia.

Read More >

Landscape Australia

Landscape Australia
International design competition to reimagine renewable energy infrastructure in Melbourne
July 19, 2017
By Ricky Ray Ricardo

One of the world’s most followed sustainable design events, the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), has announced that its next international design competition will be sited in Melbourne.

Run in partnership with the Victorian government’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, the competition will be open to artists, designers, architects, landscape architects, scientists, engineers and others to submit proposals for large-scale, site-specific public art installations that are capable of generating clean energy for a site in Melbourne.

The competition forms part of the Victorian government’s $146 million Renewable Energy Action Plan, which was launched by former United States Vice President Al Gore on 13 July 2017. The plan outlines twenty-three actions to advance Victoria’s renewable energy sector – the LAGI competition is included in Action Thirteen, “Supporting important artistic and cultural sustainability events.”

According to the LAGI, design proposals should transform public spaces into productive landscapes for green energy and “inspire the public to be a part of the [clean energy] solution and help Melbourne grow sustainably.”

Founded in Pittsburgh by artist Elizabeth Monoian and her architect husband Robert Ferry, the LAGI’s goal is to accelerate the transition to post-carbon economies by providing “models of renewable energy infrastructure that add value to public space, inspire, and educate,” as well as providing equitable power to thousands of homes around the world.

The LAGI’s slogan is “renewable energy can be beautiful.”

The initiative has staged four competitions since 2010, with sites in the United Arab Emirates, Freshkills Park in New York, Copenhagen and Southern California.

The Melbourne design brief is currently being drafted with local partners to align with the strategic plans and cultural context of the site, the city, and the region.

The competition will be launched in January 2018 with submissions due in May 2018.

Greater & Greener 2017

LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry will be joining a panel discussion at:
Greater & Greener 2017
PARKS CONNECTING CITIES, CULTURES, AND GENERATIONS
AN INTERNATIONAL URBAN PARKS CONFERENCE
July 29, 2017 — August 2, 2017
MINNEAPOLIS & SAINT PAUL
http://www.greatergreener.org/

UNFCCC Newsroom

Celebrating the Beauty of Renewable Energy
#Art4Climate
June 23, 2017

"Under the slogan “Renewable energy can be beautiful,” the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) has showcased more than 800 innovative designs from countries ranging from India to the United States since its inception in 2010. While fostering creativity, the initiative also contributes to raise awareness on renewable energy as a way to meet the central goal of the Paris Agreement, which is to hold the global average temperature rise to as close as possible to 1.5°C."
Read More >

Africa Energy Forum

Africa Energy Forum
LAGI / Maasai Solar Exhibition and Lecture
June 7–9, 2017
Copenhagen

Powering the Planet with Regenerative Art

The Land Art Generator Initiative would like to see a world in which the aesthetic influence of clean energy technologies has been intentionally designed to be a reflection of our culture. Working with cities and communities around the world LAGI is bringing forward site-specific solutions for renewable energy infrastructure that is designed as public art. In doing so, we are shifting from the “gloom and doom” narrative of climate change to inspiring examples of the beauty of our sustainable future, showing policy makers and city planners that net-positive energy installations can be placemaking tools, economic development drivers, and educational venues while they help to power the grid.

These are the questions asked by Tereneh Mosley, the founder of Idia'Dega, when she learned of the electrification needs of her Maasai collaborators in Olorgesailie, Kenya. She reached out to LAGI in 2015, and less than six months later a participatory design workshop in Kenya led to the founding of Maasai Solar.

Attendees to this presentation will learn about creative ways of integrating renewable energy infrastructure within specific cultural contexts. How can we get past the not-in-my-backyard response that so often comes with proposals for clean energy generation near culturally-sensitive and unique places? Can design create a win-win scenario for people and the planet? What are the natural sources of energy in your community, culture, country – how might that shape your renewable energy solutions?

Tereneh Mosley will talk about the work of LAGI and the Maasai Solar collaboration of LAGI + OMWA: Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans of Kenya + Idia'Dega. Attendees will take part in an interactive sessions brainstorming and designing their own ideas for how to bring solar and wind power to the contexts of their communities so that our energy landscapes and accessories are an integral part of our cultural heritage.

Binghamton, NY: Land Art Generator Workshop

Binghamton, NY
May 6, 2017
Land Art Generator Workshop
in collaboration with Souther Tier Solar Works

LAGI Lecture & Exhibition

Engineers for a Sustainable World conference
Austin, Texas
April 7–9
LAGI Lecture & Exhibition

Willimantic Connecticut: Land Art Generator Workshop

Willimantic Land Art Generator Workshop

On March 3, 2017, the Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) at Eastern Connecticut State University and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Office of the Arts hosted the Land Art Generator Initiative for a workshop in Willimantic.

Participants in this afternoon “think tank” put their heads together around the design challenges of the WWP site.

During the workshop, community members investigated how renewable energy technologies can be incorporated into public art and creative placemaking opportunities so that the intervention on this exciting site will bring the greatest benefit to the city and its people.

Design Site
Willimantic Whitewater Partnership (WWP) has recently remediated a prominent site in the heart of Willimantic, Connecticut and prepared it for development. Soon it will be home to a new whitewater park and other public amenities that WWP would like to power with on-site renewable energy.

LAGI is working with WWP in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE) at Eastern Connecticut State University and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Office of the Arts.

Together we will be launching an invited design competition to bring forward the best ideas for how to utilize the parcel to generate clean energy while contributing to the creativity and beauty of the development.

The WWP site offers the perfect opportunity to integrate renewable energy, with a richness of resources, including hydro, solar, and wind. The site, in such a prominent location in downtown Willimantic, is ideally situated to be a catalyst for economic and community development.

Interestingly, there is a history of energy around the property. Hydro power provided much of the energy used to run the Smithville cotton mills. Two generations of dam expansions provided increases in power output. There still remains the option to bring small scale run-of-the-river hydro power generation back to the site.

More here >

San Antonio: Land Art Generator Workshop

Land Art Generator Community Workshop
San Antonio, Texas

On April 6, 2017, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) hosted the Land Art Generator Initiative for a workshop in San Antonio in partnership with the Land Heritage Institute, LiftFund, and AIA San Antonio.

During the day long workshop, community members investigated how renewable energy technologies can be incorporated into public art and creative placemaking opportunities around San Antonio. The event was an open forum for the exchange of ideas within a variety of contexts to address multifaceted issues around the environment and social equity through a design lens, and without constraints on individual creativity.

Over the next decade as San Antonio continues to build on its rich cultural heritage through exciting developments around the city, it will be important to maintain a focus on how the outcomes of economic growth will bring benefits to everyone and not only to those who live in more affluent districts. It will also be important to consider the environment and incorporate sustainable infrastructures for energy, water, and food.

Perhaps there are opportunities to bring site specific design solutions to key sites around San Antonio that can proactively address these issues and serve as an example and catalyst for equitable development throughout the region.

This is the challenge that the participants in the workshop set out to solve with artful and creative proposals for speculative design interventions in public space.
The discussion brought out many ideas for potential applications in San Antonio, including vacant lots, the Mission Reach, and major development projects where a public art component could also add to sustainable development goals by generating clean energy on site.

Conversation pointed to how such projects could involve the school systems to invigorate science, technology, engineering, and math education by inspiring creativity and supporting STEM to STEAM initiatives. Sites could serve as destination field trips for learning about closed-loop systems, sustainable technologies, ecology, and biomimicry.

More here >

Community Art Workshop, Yakima, WA

YNHS Community Art Workshop
Saturday, April 22
1–4 p.m.
Washington Middle School
510 S. 9th Street, Yakima

The Land Art Generator Initiative will be facilitating a community art workshop in Yakima, Washington!

Come share your stories about the neighborhood, draw your vision for a mural, and be creative! Your ideas will be incorporated by local artists Cheryl LaFlamme and Richard Nicksic as they design a mural that incorporates beautifully colored solar technology to grace the exterior of the building formerly known as Roy’s Market. The building is being renovated into a beautifully landscaped and environmentally friendly apartment complex with a café and laundromat. All designs from the workshop will be displayed in a special exhibit inside the building soon after it opens.

Community members of all ages are invited to this unique event.
We supply the materials and you bring your ideas!

¡Venga a compartir sus historias sobre el barrio, dibuje su visión para un mural, y sea creativo! Sus ideas serán incorporadas por un artista local que diseñan un mural que incorpora tecnología solar de colores brillantes para adornar el exterior del edificio anteriormente conocido como Roy’s Market. El edificio está siendo renovado en un complejo de apartamentos muy bien cuidada y respetuosa con el medio ambiente con una cafetería y lavandería. Todos los diseños del taller se mostrarán en una exposición especial dentro del edificio poco después de su apertura.

For more information / Para más información
leah.ward@ynhs.org 509-853-2357

snacks provided / Estaran ofreciendo bocadillos

Landscape Architecture Magazine

Landscape Architecture Magazine
The Art of Infrastructure
March 2, 2017
By Timothy A. Schuler

"For the past six years, Godfrey has had her students participate in the biennial competition held by the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI). This year, two of her graduate landscape architecture students, Keegan Oneal, Student Affiliate ASLA, and Colin Poranski, took second place. LAGI was founded by Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian in 2008 to inspire new forms for alternative energy generation. Competition sites have included Copenhagen, Denmark; New York City; and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This year, the competition site was 2,000 feet off the shore of Santa Monica, California. It was the first time LAGI had selected an offshore site, and it raised the bar for aesthetic considerations considerably. Despite the absence of any literal backyards, there is little more fraught territory than nearshore environments, especially in affluent areas like Santa Monica. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have long served as unique magnets for contemplation and artistic interpretation within American culture, and coastal areas are, statistically speaking, scarce: While the United States has 3.8 million square miles of land, it has just 95,471 miles of shoreline."

Read More >