The United Arab Emirates can get too warm for people to spend days outdoors, but Abu Dhabi is looking to challenge the norm by using art to provide adequate shade and sustainably generate power supply.
Instead of relying on artificial air conditioning, Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, with its ambitious aim to become the first “zero-carbon” city in the world, has sponsored the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) competition for artists to propose the city concepts of public art that also act as a sustainable energy source – a word that translates to “Masdar” in Arabic.
LAGI’s founding directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry say, “The local climate presented opportunities for solar energy production and the integration of passive cooling strategies to make a comfortable environment year-round.”
LAGI is an organization that aims to prove that “renewable energy can be beautiful,” and has been hosting a competition in different cities internationally every two years since 2010, to present concepts of artistic sculptures that generate power.
Monoian and Ferry say that several of their 1,000+ entries are in the works of becoming a reality, with more to come.
