Seattle-based Olson Kundig has released details of their second-place winner from the 2018 Land Art Generator competition, set in Melbourne, Australia. The “Night & Day” scheme combines solar energy with a hydro battery, generating enough power for 200 Australian homes, 24 hours per day.
The St Kilda-situated infrastructure proposal doubles as an artwork and pedestrian bridge, with a flagship 5,400-square-meter solar sail suspended above the St Kilda Triangle in Port Phillip city. After sunset, further electricity is generated through two turbines capturing the kinetic movement of water released through them.
The scheme seeks to combine “the best of public art and creative placemaking with the integration of community-scale renewable energy infrastructure into important public places.” The combined solar and hydropower provide the day and night capacity to meet St Kilda’s peak and off-peak energy needs while providing a “dynamic, safe, and intimate experience of the energy-production process.”
We’ve long admired Olson Kundig’s work and the range of projects they engage in. Their work has a global reach and we’re thrilled that the firm found value in working on a Land Art Generator design. The outcome is profoundly beautiful and perfectly functional, incorporating solar with energy storage—such a critical component of a successful energy transition—in a way that is playful and educational.
-Land Art Generator Jury commenting on Olson Kundig’s proposal
The top 60 submissions from the LAGI 2018 competition have been collated in an “Energy Overlays” publication exploring the “role of art and culture in the great energy transition.”
News via: Olson Kundig
