Abstract:

The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) project is a part of a global conversation on the design of sustainable infrastructure for cities. As solar and wind energy installations are becoming more prevalent in urban environments, the conversation about their aesthetics is becoming increasingly important. LAGI seeks to advance the successful implementation of sustainable design solutions by integrating art and interdisciplinary creative processes into the conception of renewable energy infrastructure.

One of the ways that we are doing this is through the open call design competition model. We’re custom-developing design guidelines with specific cities, neighborhoods, and institutions in order to bring forth hundreds of design proposals that accomplish the following primary goals:

• support and celebrate local and regional heritage of the place
• provide community amenity in public spaces within the genre of public art
• generate megawatt-hours of clean renewable energy for the community
• create local cultural landmarks that can bring renewed attention to communities
• address local and regional ecological issues
• create enlivened places for people to gather and learn

The talk will provide an overview on the background of the initiative in the context of ecoart history, urban planning, and the carbon-neutral movement (with particular attention on the notion of “positive impact” construction). Both the 2010 LAGI competition for the United Arab Emirates and the 2012 competition for Freshkills Park in New York City will be highlighted.

In conclusion, the potential for LAGI to create proposals for the Al-Balad area of Jeddah will be presented. Artworks that will result from a LAGI competition in Jeddah will be capable of providing the city utility with hundreds of megawatt-hours per year of clean energy and will be an educational and cultural amenity proclaiming the values of tradition, heritage, ecology, and art. The project will bring positive international attention to the Al-Balad district and help stimulate economic development. And it will provide a great opportunity for local and Saudi artists, designers, and architects to participate in an interdisciplinary process that celebrates the role of creativity and the arts in sustainable development.

Short Profile:

Robert is the co-founder of the Land Art Generator Initiative and of Studied Impact Design. His focus is on designing buildings that go above and beyond current popular notions of sustainability to achieve complete harmony with their local and global environments and with the people that use them. His designs of “positive-impact” buildings that double as renewable energy power-plants have been featured in Superlative Emirates (Daab Publishing), several Popular Science Magazine articles, and have been shown at international exhibits. In the UAE he has consulted on Masdar City and ADNOC HQ projects.

The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) is an international initiative activating interdisciplinary teams to conceive of large-scale public artworks for specific sites that artfully provide utility-scale clean energy to the city grid. The project combines renewable infrastructure design with international cultural exchange and community educational outreach. The project has been featured in articles in numerous international press outlets, including The New York Times and Dwell Magazine. The 2012 edition of the design competition, a partnership with the City of New York and NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, has recently closed for submissions and will announce the winner on October 25, 2012 at an event in Manhattan.

http://landartgenerator.org