Atelier dna
Designed for Site #3 in Abu Dhabi, adjacent to Masdar City Site.

Concept and Design: Darío Núñez Ameni and Thomas Siegl, with Atelier dna
Narrative and Poetics: Gabrielle Jesiolowski
Structure and Engineering: Radhi Majmudar PE, with ISSE Innovative Structural and Specialty Engineering
Ecology and Renewable Energy Strategy: Ian Lipsky, with eDesign Dynamics

Design Submission for the 2010 Land Art Generator Initiative Design Competition
Second Place Mention from the Jury

Artist’s descriptive text:
MASDAR/WINDSTALK

Our project starts out as a desire, a whisper, like grasping at straws, clenching water.

Our project takes clues from the way the wind caresses a field of wheat, or reeds in a marsh; our hair on a gusty afternoon.

Our project consists of 1203 stalks, 55 meters high, anchored on the ground with concrete bases that range between 10 to 20 meters in diameter. The stalks are made of carbon fiber reinforced resin poles, 30 cm in diameter at the base and 5 cm at the top. The top 50 cm of the poles are lit up by an LED array that glows and dims depending on how much the poles are swaying in the wind. When there is no wind–when the poles are still–the lights go dark.

The bases that support the poles are arrayed along the site following a logarithmic spiral, the kind we see in the center of a sunflower. The bases all
touch each other, forming a kind of carpet, a kind of fabric.

The bases are shaped like vortices–no two vortices are identical–When it rains, the rain water slides down the slopes of the bases to collect in the spaces between, concentrating scarce water. Here, plants can grow wild.

You can walk on the bases of the poles, you can traverse the whole site by walking from base to base. You can lean on the slopes, lie down, stay awhile and listen to the sound the wind makes as it rushes between the poles.

But our project isn’t just desire.

Within each hollow pole is a stack of piezoelectric ceramic discs. Between the ceramic disks are electrodes. Every other electrode is connected to each other by a cable that reaches from top to bottom of each pole. One cable connects the even electrodes, and another cable connects the odd ones. When the wind sways the poles, the stack of piezoelectric disks is forced into compression, thus generating a current through the electrodes.

Within each concrete base is a hollow chamber that houses a torque generator.

The generator converts the kinetic energy of the swaying poles into electrical energy by way of an array of current generating shock absorbers, which convert energy produced by the forced movement of fluid through the shock absorber cylinders.

The electricity that our project generates isn’t constant, it depends on the wind.

To compensate we make a kind of battery, a capacitor, a way to store energy:

Below the field of poles are two very large chambers, chambers as large as the whole site. The chambers are shaped like the bases of the poles but inverted, then inverted again, and again and once more.

There’s upper chamber and a lower one beneath. When the wind blows, part of the electricity generated powers a set of pumps, the pumps move water from the lower chamber to the upper one. When the air is still–when there is no wind– the water from the upper chamber flows down again turning the pumps into generators.

Our project is conceptual, yet It is based on a set systems that already exist and work. Our project attempts to combine these systems into a coherent synergetic
whole.

Notes:
The shape of our Windstalks should be optimized to behave as chaotically as possible, they should flutter, oscillate, vibrate. Computer generated simulations can aid in determining and optimizing the best profile for maximizing movement and variation.

We roughly estimate that the overall output of our project is comparable to that of a conventional wind turbine array. While a single wind turbine that is limited in height to 55 meters may produce more energy than one of our Windstalks, our Windstalks can be packed in denser arrays.

low-res version PDF of submitted boards

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By Antonio Maccà and Flavio Masi
Designed for Site #3 in Abu Dhabi, on Airport Road adjacent to Masdar City.

Design Submission for the 2010 Land Art Generator Initiative Design Competition

Artist’s Descriptive Text:
The Photovoltaic Solar System on December 2nd 1971: The Day of Birth of the United Arab Emirates

The project is an artistic interpretation of the Solar System as well as an ideal symbol of the United Arab Emirates: the position of the planets corresponding to the configuration of the Solar System on December 2nd 1971, the day in which the United Arab Emirates were founded.

The environmental installation is a metaphor of the Seven Emirates, represented in form of a Sun with six planets guided by the spiritual sphere (the Crescent): in a work that ideally puts art at the disposal of the history, both past and present, of the Country it aims to celebrate.

The artwork is also meant to create a new iconic sun for the City of Abu Dhabi: the astronomic Sun radiating energy to the new photovoltaic sun, which will generate light and electric power for the future urban area of Masdar.

The PV sun works as the attracting element and symbolizes the unity and infinity of the cosmo: the endless geometrical pattern of the golden surface, with its timeless perfection and purity, represents the starry sky and creates a spherical motif of both light and shade, thus dematerializing the sun and emphasizing its transparency. The PV sun is to be completed by means of LEDS that will light up its skin throughout the night.

The project suggests a contemporary landmark defining a unique relationship between nature, art and science. It is structured as a scheme made of circles that defines the entire area according to one single principle. The almost concentric traces, drawn with natural stones on the land, symbolize the orbits described by the planets around the Sun and will be easily recognizable from great distances, also by the landing planes of the nearby airport.

The land artwork is positioned in the plane barycentric area of the almost triangular site, with the largest trajectory tangential to the boundary limits of the roads, thus establishing an optimum relationship with the surrounding open spaces.

The static concentric structure of the project is vitalized by the planets, ideally seeming to roll all around the site on the orbits, thus creating a complex of dynamical sculptures. The spheres are all different, varyingin structure, dimension, colour, transparency degree and photovoltaic technology. The dimensions of the planets will depend on construction costs and on the required amount of energy to beproduced.

The Earth is the only place in the universe where life is known to exist: life on earth is therefore symbolized by an already existing tree,around which will be constructed a photovoltaic greenhouse with the serigraphy of the continents. The Moon, its satellite, is endowed on the surface with an opening in shape of a Crescent.

The founding conceptsfor the other planets are suggested by astronomic phenomena, such as: the presence of atmosphere in a planet for the double concentric spheres, the impact craters on the surface for the sphere composed by circles, the ring system for the split globe, the cloud bands of a gas giant for the photovoltaic solar shading sphere and the eclipse for the black planet.

The planets, like pavilions, can host entertaining and educational facilities, such as temporary exhibitions or public activities, in order to create a new place of collective identification and a fascinating cultural site.

In this way, uniting the rationality of the concentric orbits with the multiplicity, the differentiation and the interaction of the planets, the art installation will become an open system in dialogue with the environment.

The structure of the complex will offer a flexible constructive system, composed by geodetic steel structures to which photovoltaic panels will be applied.

The installation is a representation of the Solar System composed by photovoltaic solar systems. It will capture energy from the sun and convert it into electricityusing innovative typologies of polycrystalline thinfilm photovoltaic technologies: thin film with an active layer of copper, indium, gallium and selenide (CIGS) and thin film solar cells with multycrystalline silicon (mc-Si). The photovoltaic panels are different for each planet, according to their different materials, shapes, colours and textures. They have maximum outputs even in high ambient temperatures and with diffuse light, and convert all the surfaces of the sculptures into energy generators.

The land artwork itself represents an astronomic macro-nature in the landscape. The strategy of creating stony orbits on the natural surface and superposing the photovoltaic planets on them defines a soft intervention that doesnothave any negative impact on the natural surroundings and doesnot produce any effect at all on the ecosystem of the site.

The aerodynamic sculptures communicate a sensation of weightlessness, both visually and physicallytouching the landscapelightly. Each sculpture has an extremely limited contact zone on the ground, thus preserving the nature of the site and integrating itself with the local ecosystem.

The technical solutions and the environmental compatibility establish the future sustainability of the park, creating a scientific artwork that will produce effects of wonder and peacefulness in harmony with Nature, for a future of renewable energy.

low-res version PDF of submitted boards

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We are very pleased to announce:
The prize for the winning design of UAE Land Art Generator Initiative’s (LAGI) first international design competition will be sponsored by Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted initiative advancing the development, commercialization and deployment of renewable and alternative energy technologies and solutions.

The winning team will be awarded the prize at the 2011 World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi (January 17-19). The award ceremony will take place as part of the Land Art Generator exhibition at Masdar stand at WFES.

A select jury panel consisting of 20 local and international artists, architects, academicians, industry leaders and writers have reviewed the entries and a winner has been decided. The winning artist will be notified on Monday, August 9th, but the decision will remain unannounced until the ceremony at the World Future Energy Summit. All the designs will be posted here on the Land Art Generator Initiative blog site—about three per week during the autumn.

LAGI is a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary collaboration that has brought together global artists, architects, scientists, landscape architects, and engineers to design energy-generating public art installations to be considered for construction in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The international competition, which closed on June 4, 2010, received entries from over 40 countries. Each sculpture will continuously distribute clean energy into the electrical grid with the potential to provide power to thousands of homes.

We live in a world that cross-culturally puts a high emphasis on design. As energy generation necessarily comes in closer proximity with the real estate that it powers, issues of aesthetics that drive public acceptance are becoming more and more debated. We believe that it is not only possible, but also necessary that renewable energy generation be integrated into the fabric of our constructed environments. In so doing, these installations must react responsibly to their role as permanent additions to our shared experience. In their most lofted role, they will also serve the more cultural function as works of art that can inspire and educate.

The residents of the communities in which these artworks are constructed will be pleased to know that some percentage of the power that is being used by the lights in their home has been generated cleanly by works of art. Sustainability in communities is not only about resources, but it is also about harmony.

Masdar is Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted initiative advancing the development, commercialization and deployment of renewable and alternative energy technologies and solutions. Masdar is driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), a wholly owned company of the government of Abu Dhabi through the Mubadala Development Company.

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News this week from the Renewable Energy International Exhibition in Yokohama, Japan highlights some visually and technologically interesting new turbine designs for offshore wind power.

The hoop that surrounds the blade structure acts like a magnifying lens to increase the speed of the wind at the center of the circle. We can’t claim to understand the physics behind this effect, but the news reports cite verifications experiments that have been conducted and it appears that the project is getting support for construction in Japan.

The addition of more blades and a hoop around them makes the turbines look just a little bit more like the London Eye than your standard three blade HAWT. Will this aesthetic appeal to more people and lead to a greater acceptance of wind turbines that are located in view of highly populated areas? Perhaps if they can offer rides in gondolas that run around the hoops…

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In the UAE and in many parts of the world, these public water fountains are found everywhere. There are tens of thousands of them in cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. They typically pull water from the domestic line of a villa or public building such as a mosque. They provide people on the street with access to clean potable water and are an important amenity for cities, especially in hot climates.

But what if they didn’t have to pull from the municipal water supply? What if they could be mass-produced as stand-alone units? By using off-the-shelf technology available now for water-from-air systems and combining it with a simple solar power generation system, we could remove these from the city’s water supply infrastructure. This would mean hundreds of thousands of gallons per day in savings from desalination systems and depleting aquifers and would do far more than any water conservation strategy aimed at personal water use behaviors of consumption (such conservation messages are of course still vital and indispensable).

Water-from-air systems such as those available from companies like Liquid of Life and others could be integrated very easily into city-funded replacement units for these street-side fountains. They work great, especially in humid climates like those in the GCC. This is something that could be accomplished within two years time and could save cities like Dubai from having to add capacity to the desalination systems which do great harm to the fragile marine ecosystems when their super-brine wastewater outfall over time increase the salinity of the gulf waters. See here and here.

Thanks to Richard Wagner, who showed me some of his great photos of these fountains the other day which got me thinking about this subject.

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We are thrilled this week to have received coverage in the Arabic Language press. It is the first time that we have. A very big THANK YOU goes out to Lisa George, the director of Iris Public Relations here in Dubai. She has been very generous with her time and support, providing in-kind PR services to the LAGI project. She also booked our appearance on Emirates News and arranged for us to be on the “Tonight with Richard Dean” talk show Dubai Eye 103.8 this Wednesday at 7pm. We hope that you’ll tune in!

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The exhibit at DIFC is generating a lot of interest in the LAGI project!
Watch this video of our recent appearance on Emirates News.

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