Sustainable Playground
Sustainable Design
2020
Florence, Italy
Public playground capable of producing and storing green energy for the playground and the surrounding housing area.
Developed as a student project, a sustainable playground was to be designed, in the middle of a housing area where the environmental factors were taken into consideration to provide energy for the playground but also for the surrounding houses or apartment buildings. An environmental analysis was made where factors such as sun exposure, shadow casting, wind speed, and humidity index were adapted in objects to generate energy.
As a result, 5 objects were designed:
Shrooms
Battery and Lamp
Lianas
Merry-go-round
Azul
Water jet pump
Supernova
Water blade rotor
Pasto
Trampolines
Shrooms
Storage units disguised as mushrooms all around the playground that serve as energy storage units, additionally they can also be used as lighting for the playground.
Materials: Wood, frosted glass, touch sensitive sensor, liquid red stain (finish), nitrocellulose (finish)
Lianas
A merry-go-round in three different sizes, whereby the motion exerted when spinning energy is created. The energy is then stored in an inner copper battery connected to the shrooms.
Materials: Wood, natural fiber ropes, recycled tires, liquid green stain (finish), nitrocellulose (finish)
Azul
Whale like statues positioned in the lake, connected to pumps located on the shore of the lake, where kids can go and pump, the force exerted will transport water from the underground pipes to the whales, ending in the water jetting out of a tiny orifice in the upper part of the whale. The energy is created from the up and down motion of the pump, and then when the water jets out of the whale, both of these generate energy which is then absorbed by a copper core leading to the shrooms through cables hidden underground.
Materials: Wood, recycled plastic, recycled tires, liquid stain (navy blue, purple, light blue, white, green, orange)(finish), orange spray paint(finish), nitrocellulose (finish)
Supernova
A water blade rotor, where the energy is created when the water coming from rivers pushes the blades, the rotor starts spinning thus creating energy. It is located on the shore of the lake so the kids can play with it by turning the handles around, this will make the blade rotor spin, the energy created by the water crashing, and the spinning motion will be stored in a box on the lower part of the blade rotor, this part is connected via wires to a copper axis that is responsible for absorbing the motion energy when the blade rotor spins.
Materials: Wood, recycled tires, liquid stain (violet, purple, navy blue, yellow)(finish), nitrocellulose (finish), navy blue spray paint (finish)
Pasto
Three trampolines that match with curvilinear shapes and green tones, the green is to resemble the grass where they will be located. They have circular sensors underground so when the kids jump on the trampolines the hit that it receives by the jumping creates energy on the sensors which is then transported underground to the shrooms all around the park.
Materials: recycled tires, touch sensitive sensor, spray paint (3 shades of green)(finish)