View AGENCY’s submission to the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) 2012 Competition below on the AGENCY blog and on the competition website.
The organizers of the competition describe the objectives: The Land Art Generator Initiative brings together artists, architects, scientists, landscape architects, engineers, and others in a first of its kind collaboration. The goal of the Land Art Generator Initiative is to see to the design and construction of public art installations that uniquely combine aesthetics with utility-scale clean energy generation. The works will serve to inspire and educate while they provide renewable power to thousands of homes around the world.
The project brief asked participants to propose a clean-energy installation and public artwork for Fresh Kills park on Staten Island (NY), as part of a new masterplan to re-imagine the historic landfill as an urban park.
AGENCY’s proposal, entitled “Skyfill” activates the site’s dual character, through the imaginative restoration of the park as an engaging and productive public space, and the conservation of the collective memory of an industrial and wasteful past. Since the end of landfill operations at Fresh Kills , the skies above the land are empty and quiet, voided of their former activity, where circling seagulls were once prescient harbingers of the city’s effort to rid itself of waste.
The project proposes a new occupation of the sky plane, welcoming back the area’s lost avian ecology and restoring visual energy to the local skyline, reconnecting the city to the spaces of consumption and waste increasingly outside its consciousness. An inter-related series of flexible tetrahedral kites transfer every delicate movement into usable energy, powering entire neighborhoods. The project’s tetrahedral branching geometry simulates natural branching of trees, providing new habitats for migratory birds, and offering bird-watching opportunities for visitors.
The responsive and ever-changing structure provides a dynamic focal point for new activities and gatherings in North Park, paired with unique participatory programming to foster an understanding of contemporary energy needs and urban waste. The project also functions as a repository for publicly-available kites, providing recreational entertainment and technical guidance for kite enthusiasts, craftspeople, and children. On any given day, users may borrow kites to fly, understanding the dynamics of wind patterns while seeing it reflected by the amplified movements of the energy-generating superstructure.
Winners from the competition will be announced at an exhibit in coming weeks.
250 proposals from the competition are viewable at the LAGI 2012 Portfolio page.
