Overview
Seems we can't get enough of giant floating ducks. But this one could power an entire city.
Hoping to make the city of Copenhagen carbon neutral by 2025, a crack team of British artists and designers (Hareth Pochee, Adam Khan, Louis Leger, Patrick Fryer) have pitched one quacker (sorry) of a multipurpose, sustainable energy-producing tourist attraction. Shaped like a giant sea duck and geared up to dabble in Copenhagen Harbour, the proposed 12-storey high structure has been envisioned in lightweight steel, covered top-to-webbed-toe in solar panel plumage.
This futuristic duck's not just a planet-saving device though, it has public art aspirations. Collecting the sweet, sweet sunshine during the day for conversion, the 'energy duck' would become an art installation at night with LED lights snuggled within the solar panels. The LEDs are designed to march in time to the hydro turbines within the duck, choreography that reminds the city that sustainability is working while they promenade. Art-meets-sustainability design at its most novelty, the duck is one of the resulting proposals from the Land Art Generator Initiative, a genuinely great project fusing art and design for alternative solutions to renewable energy production.
But why a colossal sea duck? First and foremost, the design gives a big nod to the city's local wildlife, whether the local ducks accept their new oversized friend or not. But there's science afoot in this ducked-up idea. According to designboom, the entire design hinges around the different H2O elevations within and without the floating vessel. The duck will store that sweet collected energy in its belly. When the city needs a little power boost, the base of Ol' Quacky is flooded to trigger the necessary amount of electricity for a national grid.
Want to get a little closer to the supercharged aquatic adventurer? You'll be able to board, wander through and chill out in the duck's innards, checking out those wondrous PV panels and enjoying the fact that you're hangin' in a duck. Of course, the duck is still just a proposal, but as far as giant floating ducks go, this one seems the most permanent and planet-saving we've seen yet.
Via Time and designboom.