Sustainable Art Blooms in London

Photo by Edmund Sumner

I love it when art and sustainability meet and create something wholly unexpected, something that’s fun, and gets us to think a little differently than we did before. The London Oasis is a flower-shaped sculpture, which, like a real flower, absorbs the sun’s energy (with photovoltaic cells); it’s also powered by a wind turbine and a hydrogen fuel cell. The energy goes to power five pods that you can walk into to get away from the stress and heat of the city. Inside the pods you can enjoy cool, clean air, relaxing sights and sounds.

Rainwater is collected by the petals to irrigate a garden below the flower and the flower puts on a light show at night.

Architect Laurie Chetwood told edie:

“This is all in the knowledge that their enjoyment is not costing the planet as the Oasis is self-sustaining; harnessing and recycling natural resources.”

Can you imagine a whole city filled with such flowers in different shapes and sizes? (Maybe NYC could use this as the basis for installing street-toilets!! Wouldn’t that be nice….)

See more in stories here and edie here. Thanks to Remy C for the link.

Energy, garden, London, News, NYC, oil, PETA, Recycling, resources, sculpture, sustainability, sustainable, water, wood

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin's Press). A problogger and oft-quoted green living expert who has been featured in the NYTimes, Elle, Glamour and Whole Living, she is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, and Hearst's The Daily Green, and is currently editor-at-large for Coco Eco Magazine. An active ecofashionista, she has style edited for Plenty magazine and coordinated runway shows. She splits her time between Connecticut and NYC and calls Sydney, Australia her second home, even though it was her first (as that's where she was born and most of her family resides). When not writing, blogging, or researching her next book, she is trailrunning, trying to cook, or snowboarding.

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4 Comments on “Sustainable Art Blooms in London”

Barry
I cant believe this didn’t get more coverage in the media (only in the architectural mags).
I saw the video on their website, it was amazing.
http://www.thelondonoasis.com/view_film.html
So I went and visited the site in Clerkenwell on Sunday 25 June (nice and quiet because the footie was on) because on Saturday it was crowded. It was breath taking, apparently you can buy one if you have £100,000 GBP handy.
According to the guy at the site it will probably go on tour to Leeds etc to promote Chetwoods arhitectural company.
06/25/06 » 1:52 pm »
susan anderson
I love this site!
Finally Art and sustainability merged!
I have been looking for this for some time and you built the site!
I would love to contribute with fibre arts.
what do you think? maybe build a link so that kids could find a way to recall on nature as their source.
Susan
08/17/06 » 2:27 pm »
onedotzero
Wind to Light | Jason Bruges Studio
15 June – 1 September 2007
Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof
Southbank Centre
London, SE1
Come down to the Southbank to see Wind to Light, a brand new installation that beautifully illustrates alternative, sustainable ways of harnessing energy.
Hundreds of tiny wind turbines generate the power to illuminate hundreds of mounted LEDS, creating firefly-like clouds of light.
Jason Bruges, the creator says: “Wind to Light is an experimental piece, an investigation into the viability of wind power. I hope it will prove thought-provoking as well as being an art piece that can be enjoyed by people of all ages”.
Wind to Light by Jason Bruges Studio is a onedotzero / RIBA London commission in conjunction with Southbank Centre Lightlab for Architecture Week 2007.
If you want to find out more please come down to a FREE talk 7pm, Thursday June 21 2007, Wren Room, RIBA, 66 Portland Place, W1B, where Jason Bruges, XCO2 and DIY Kyoto, all creatives working in this area will be presenting ideas and answering questions. Email Kate.Waymouth@anderselite.com to save your place!
You can also see more details, including work in progress pictures, on the Wind to Light blog.
06/15/07 » 4:10 am »
Eco-Chick » Blog Archive » Wind to Light in London
[...] Wind to Light is another London-based installation that I wish I could hop the pond to see (but can’t really justify, considering the CO2 emissions of a flight from NYC to London!); These gorgeous images will have to suffice until they bring it closer to home. Wind to Light is a brand new installation that beautifully illustrates alternative, sustainable ways of harnessing energy. [...]
06/18/07 » 12:38 pm »