Architects GilBartolome ADW win the first prize in the competition Smart Future Minds Award with the project Lighting Device.
The competition aimed at anticipating technological and environmental aspects for the future of the city. The jury was conformed by personalities from Spain and valued this project for its viability, its vision for the future and the exclusive use of renewable energies. Besides, it recognized its potential as a social activator in the urban realm.
The competition is organized by Smart and it is exhibited in a stage that has already toured Berlin, Rome, Zurich, Paris and Madrid.
Description of the Project
The Project Lighting Device has several aims. The first one is to function as a tool for social enhancement of a public space. The second is to work as a device to obtain energy at the same time that it expresses the culture of sustainability and renewable energies. In summary, it is an installation that transforms wind power into electrical energy for the several activities that take place in the square.
A device for an active social life.
The proposal envisages a place that is vibrant of everyday life activities, that is astonishingly illuminated, that not only gives service but celebrates and enlightens the diverse situations that are going to take place in it. In this sense, we consider citizens as active participants and creators of the public space, and this proposal wants to be an instrument that allows them to organize situations such as: improvise a jam session, organize a theatrical representation, represent a performance, have lunch, celebrate a puppets show, make a PowerPoint presentation in a public screen, play in a soft area or sit and wait comfortably.
The instrument for activation is basically a series of tables-artifacts that hang down from a network of stainless steel cables above the public space. These artifacts have different parts that allow the previously described activities to take place and are connected to the wind responsive device and the batteries to provide electric supply to speakers, projection screens, music instruments or any other electric equipment required.
The culture of sustainability.
The potential to inform thousands of people about environmental issues is an opportunity that should not be neglected. Through the creation of a device that converts wind energy into electric energy to lighten the square people will be able to establish the relationship between the strength of the wind and the intensity of the light that is locally produced. Also, this device would be the first major application in the world of a new system of capturing the energy of the wind called Windbelt.
Wind responsive device and the urban chandelier. . This device consists of a series of frames that support Windbelt panels. Each panel is connected to a battery which gives supply to : a lighting device of 25W linear fluorescent lights, an audiovisual system, a system to recharge electric cars and other equipments for the different social activities in the square where is placed.
The variable intensity of the wind will be visible through the intensity of the light that is emitted in the square, signaling the areas that are more stricken by the wind. The low energy fluorescent lights are suspended from the steel cable network and are protected with an anti vandalism case. The color of the light of each fluorescent lamp will vary according to its relative position to the system of Marguerite Daisies that are positioned, also according to their color in the square, creating an abstract relationship between light, color and smell.
The Windbelt™ technology is based on a tensioned membrane undergoing a flutter oscillation to pull energy from the wind. This relies on an aerodynamic phenomenon known as aeroelastic flutter. Each panel has a series of membranes that oscillate with the power of the wind and transform the energy of the wind into electric current.
