Students' Eco Innovations
by Bonnie Alter, London on 02.21.08
Students at the Royal College of Art had an exhibition of works in progress and some of them were addressing environmental issues in novel and creative ways. Verticulture (pictured) addresses the need for urban gardens in limited space. It is a stacked frame system that is free standing and can be organised in different combinations. It is designed to act as a plant holder for urban city dwellers and includes an irrigation system.
Severe flooding has become a problem in England, with the destruction of homes and loss of possessions. The Zoas ball ("power in the flood") recognises the emotional trauma of losing one's things, and is a floating waterproof ball with windows that can hold small and important memorabilia. Yumi is a food packaging system that tries to inspire students to cook from scratch, instead of buying fast food. The paper packaging includes the food and gives step by step explanations on how to make it.
The Knitted Shields were irresistible, bringing together ideas about traditional domestic skills such as knitting and new domestic technologies that are taking over our lives. The "shields", knitted of wool and copper wire, ground the electric discharges from the objects and bring domesticity into the kitchen. A booklet outlining how to knit the shields is part of the piece. There were shields for the microwave, the oven, and the toaster--a tea cosy for appliances.
The Artica is a low energy cooling device that addresses the need for air conditioning due to the warming of our planet. The suspended pod stores cool energy during the night and use it to cool interior spaces during the day. :: Royal College of Art
I do worry that these items represent news worthy examples of Eco-Innovation in the UK?
Particularly worrying are the Knitted Shields... how does knitting completely useless decorations improve the ecology of our planet? I still have quite a lot of living to do but I have not yet had an electrical appliance spontaneously discharge into me, I've had socks stick to a tumble drier...
Another point of concern to me is the description of the Artica, in which you write "[the] pod stores cool energy"? I hope this statement is one of the author's imagination rather than the designer's.
I realise the ideas TreeHugger presents are not always particularly serious, however, when a moderately serious term like Eco-Innovation is mixed in with ideas such as these I begin to worry that genuine innovations will not be properly appreciated.
I do apologise if this comes across as an un-civil comment but a certain about of cynicism is required to express my disappointment and anger.
I'd like to know more about the artica. I like the idea of this cooling device as well as the way it looks. I'd like to know if there's a website.