Dragonfly vertical farm is a concept urban farm specially designed for the Roosevelt Island of New York City which will reduce the problems associated with food shortage, mileage and connection between the producers and consumers. Because of the densely packed city civilization, this farm has been designed vertically, spanning 132 floors and 28 different agricultural fields for accommodating dragonflies aiming to produce fruit, grains, vegetables, meat and dairy. This Dragonfly wing shaped superstructure features wind and solar power producing capability and includes housing, offices, research labs and communal areas separated from farms, orchards and production rooms. Throughout the glass and steel set of wings, animal and plant farming is arranged as well as soil nutrient levels are maintained properly.
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Usage of green energy is the top most priority for people who are conscious about their responsibility towards the nature and environment. Keeping this in mind the mPower system has been developed which generates huge energy at minimal effort. The slender body of the device and leaf like tip resembles the structure of a large leaf. The color is green to enhance its organic nature. The steppers at the bottom are also shaped like leaves with the similar designs. Using this unique product you can save the natural resources and a large amount of money spent on electricity at the same time.
mPower consists of 2 units: Generation and Collection.
mPower Generation is a plant-shaped human-powered unit that produces electricity for immediate and future use. Users access their account using fingerprint recognition, stand on two pads at the base of the unit, and shift their weight from one pad to the other every ten seconds. The system, developed to take up the least amount of a user’s time and effort, can be adapted for the handicapped. A small portion of the electricity generated is used to power the interactive touch-screen at the top of the unit, which offers a broad range of informational services pre-customised by each user. The remaining majority of the electricity generated is sent to the city’s main power plant, to be used or stored. At their convenience, users receive payment for the electricity they generated by accessing their account at mPower Collection.
mPower Collection is a unit that, using the same fingerprint recognition technology, distributes payment and allows for account customisation to users of mPower Generation.
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Today with lot of environmental developments happening world over like global warming, energy crisis, lifestyle changes, it’s become even more difficult to design houses meeting all these requirements. More and more architectural designs are using digital technologies with respect to modeling, simulation, evaluation and fabrication resulting in complex shaped buildings which incorporates the above challenges. One such project is coming up in Tel Aviv whose primary resources are sun, wind, and land and these are fairly distributed amongst these complex structures thus making an optimum utilization of all. It’s of course high quality housing complete with latest gadgets but run on the natural resources. Architect Yiftach Ben Meir, the designer, is a recent graduate from The Faculty Of Architecture and Town Planning at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (IIT). His final project SeaO2 was conceived under the framework of Tecnion Computer Oriented Design Studio, T_Code with the instruction of dr. Yasha j. Grobman.
Text from Yiftach :
SeaO2 is an experimental ecological housing project. The project poses an alternative to current plans for Tel Aviv North West coastal district. SeaO2 demonstrates vast use of cutting edge computer software, some being used in the aerospace industry, in order to improve building performance and to ensure the existence of a sustainable urban environment with a minimal ecological footprint. The project final form is a consequence of a scientific approach that calculates numerous of elements: the sun orbit, wind conditions, maximum open scenic views, very high density and more, all in a free-form organic manner.
Advanced Computer Simulations ensure the project’s credibility. The project’s unique morphology enables: optimized solar reception for heating at winter time, self-shadowing and solar reception for electricity generation at summer time, natural lighting, optimized natural ventilation, open looks to the natural coastal environment, public green spaces, rain collection and more. Various passive mechanical systems complement the basic morphology, enable better performance and create an energy efficient, environmentally friendly housing project
Designer : Yiftach Ben Meir
With increase of vehicles on roads, it is but naturally shrinking the parking and the road space available for cars. Add to that the depleting natural resources, auto makers are trying to make concept cars that addresses both the problems. The 2-seater CityAnt seems to be a derivative of this thought as the vehicle runs on electricity. As per the designers it is an amicable solution for short distance rental service which can run on self service model which shall be controlled with membership. Looks wise it’s cute and the addition of alloy wheels is a boost in the overall look and feel of the car.
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The new bonsai like PhotonSynthesis designed by designer Vivien Muller is a device which seems straight out of designer text books. The device consists of 54 mini photovoltaic leaf panels which are needed for charging various gadgets. The connecting power cords are hidden beneath the tray that holds the overall plant. The so called branches of this tree consist of solar panels which store the electric energy from the sun in the battery which can be produced at the time of recharging the electric device. Thus it’s a nice utilization of natural resources to take care of our daily needs though it’s tempting enough to say that power does grow on trees.
Designer : Vivien Muller via IGreenSpot
