Bjarke Ingels Seeks Kickstarter Campaign for His “Steam Ring Generator”
Star architect Bjarke Ingels recently launched a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter to realize a “steam ring generator”, in Copenhagen – a steam chimney for the world’s “cleanest power plant in the world”. The project follows BIG experimental approach on sustainability-related projects. The 40-year-old Amagerforbraending power plant will be conversed to incinerate trash in order to generate power. Each steam ring released from the chimney will represent a ton of CO2 burnt in the plant – a symbol of our carbon emissions. Moreover, this unusual project will also feature a ski slope fitted on the roof!
Kickstarter Campaign Video
The steam-ring project is based on a proposal by realities:united, a group of Berlin-based artists. It started out a few years ago as a collaboration with Danish Technical University and Peter Madsen’s Space Lab – Rumlaboratorium. Hopefully, the ambitious project will be completed in 2017. Until then, the designers teamed up with rocket scientists and combustion engineers to construct the “steam ring generator”, as they call it. Two prototypes have already been successfully realized and now the third (and final) one is on its way – if all depends on the Kickstarter campaign.
Courtesy of BIG
It is a first for a star architect to seek crowd funding for their project. The reason? It all began when Ingels gave a talk at Kikstarter’s headquarters in Brooklyn. According to him, it is form of activism and a way for them to realize their project without corporate funding. The project’s aim is noble: raising environmental awareness and public participation. However, its completion will also turn Copenhagen’s skyline in a constant reminder of pollution. Thus, BIG consider public contribution as an agreement for the completion of this project and, implicitly, for this uncomfortable reminder.
Previous Prototype From April 2014
By: Ana Cosma