25 mesmerizing land-art projects have been shortlisted for the fifth edition of Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) competition at St. Kilda Triangle in Melbourne, Australia. 

The Land Art Generator Initiative design competition called designers, landscape architects, artists to create large-scale public art projects that will be able to produce clean energy for St. Kilda Triangle in Australia. After receiving entries more than 50 countries, the 2018 LAGI jury has narrowed down the competition to a shortlist of 25 entries. 

The competition, sponsored by the State of Victoria as part of Action 13 of the Victoria State Renewable Energy Action Plan, was open to landscape architects, engineers, artists, designers, and other international renewable energy enthusiasts encouraging participants to envision a clean energy landscape for a post-carbon world—a public artwork that will help to power the city and inspire the future.

"We’ve never had so many local and regional teams dominate the shortlist before. It’s a testament to the passion that is held locally for the St Kilda Triangle site and the value placed on design and art in the context of climate solutions for Australia," said Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, co-founders of the Land Art Generator Initiative. 

"Wouldn’t we all want to live in a city in which the sustainable energy systems that support our lives exist as creative and educational forms in our landscapes and public spaces?."

"The LAGI 2018 shortlist gives us a glimpse into this possible future. Each proposal demonstrates how existing and emergent clean technologies can accelerate an elegant transition to a new circular economy powered by renewables," they added.

All participants were tasked with superimposing an energy and art design onto a masterplan that has been developed since 2010 in concert between the City of Port Phillip Council and a deeply engaged community for this year's competition. "For Monoian and Ferry, this is especially exciting since the competition could lead to LAGI 2018 entrants being invited to form part of a larger consultant team moving the City’s development forward."

Each public art project is not only designed to produce emissions-free electricity, but also creates a creative educational experience for visitors to the historic bayside destination, in keeping with the City’s environmental, social, and cultural goals, according to the competition's statement.

"We really need things that will link people between the world we know and the world we know we need," said Guy Abrahams, CLIMARTE co-founder, board member, and former CEO, a jury member for LAGI 2018. 

"My hope is that the winning design will display imagination, creativity, and technical know-how, but also is something which, given the appropriate support, could actually be built," he added.

See the full 25 shortlisted projects below (in no particular order):

Sentinel: Marking Energetic Flows Through Time

Team: Anna McCuan, Jamieson Pye. 

Team Location: Atlanta, GA, USA. 

Energy Technologies: dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC. Annual Capacity: 2,500 MWh)

Glass Boulders

Team: Luis Guzmán, Cody Anderson, Natalia Bezerra, Andrew Ioannou, Jiao Di, Rebecca Sutton, Mungki Dewi, Audrey Yeo 

Team Location: Edinburgh, UK 

Energy Technologies: luminescent solar concentrators 

Annual Capacity: 690 MWh

Unwind

Team: David Donley, Michael Cinalli. 

Team Location: Toms River, NJ, USA. 

Energy Technologies: high altitude wind power (kite HAWP). 

Annual Capacity: 1,900 MWh

Chrysalis

Team: Ruxandra Iancu-Bratosin, Rodrigo Rubio Cuadrado, Alessio Salvatore Verdolino, Alessandro Mattoccia. 

Team Location: Madrid, Spain. 

Energy Technologies: concentrated photovoltaic, kinetic wind harvesting, microbial fuel cell. 

Annual Capacity: 30 MWh

2000 Murnongs 

Team: Azin Emampour, Xiao Lin, Qidi Li. 

Team Location: Melbourne, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: spring-type piezoelectric generators, aerostatic flutter (Windbelt™). 

Annual Capacity: 150 MWh.

Wind Blossom

Team: Joo Hyung Oh, Jae Ho Yoon. 

Team Location: Glendale, CA, USA. 

Energy Technologies: micro wind turbines, kinetic energy harvesting pavers. 

Annual Capacity: 960 MWh

Stealing Fire

Team: Lendell Ervin, Jiawei Hou. 

Team Location: Muncie, IN, USA. 

Energy Technologies: thin-film multi-junction solar, piezoelectric energy harvesting. 

Annual Capacity: 850 MWh

The Rainbow Serpent

Team: Arthur Stefenbergs, Lucian Racovitan, Keith Mc Geough, Ovidiu Munteanu. 

Team Location: Sydney, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: luminesce

EN-Visible Wing

Team: Binghua Chen. 

Team Location: Springfield, PA, USA. 

Energy Technologies: organic photovoltaic (OPV). 

Annual Capacity: 550 MWh

Solar Orbs

Team: Kaitlin Campbell, Chad Grevelding, Bridget Snover, Kyle Stillwell. 

Team Location: Latham, NY, USA. 

Energy Technologies: dual-axis tracking concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPV+T) (similar to Rawlemon®). 

Annual Capacity: 550 MWh.

Rotor 

Team: Louis Gadd, Aimee Goodwin, Danny Truong. 

Team Location: Melbourne, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: vertical axis wind turbines. 

Annual Capacity: 105 MWh.

Breathing Totems

Team: Rafael Sánchez Herrera, Laura Camilla Mesa Arango. 

Team Location: Bogota, Colombia. 

Energy Technologies: thermal chimney with vertical axis wind turbines. 

Annual Capacity: 800 MWh

Head in the Clouds

Team: Yuxun Emmeily Zhang, Alexandra Siu, Liyang Zhang. 

Team Location: Cambridge, ON, Canada. 

Energy Technologies: transparent silicon solar mesh Sphelar®, aerostatic flutter wind harvesting Windbelt™. 

Annual Capacity: 260 MWh

Swings

Team: Lu Chao, Weng Shenxia 

Team Location: Guangzhou, China 

Energy Technologies: thin-film photovoltaic, kinetic wind harvesting (with human assist) 

Annual Capacity: 1,200 MWh

Sun Ray

Team: Antonio Maccà. 

Team Location: Padova, Italy. 

Energy Technologies: linear Fresnel reflector. 

Annual Capacity: 1,100 MWh

The Canopy

Team: Kieran Kartun, Sonni Jeong, Matthew Wang. 

Team Location: Allawah, NSW, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: horizontal axis wind turbine, kinetic energy harvesting, concentrator photovoltaic (CPV), concentrated solar-thermal power (CSP), ocean tidal energy. 

Annual Capacity: 2,200 MWh

Dreamtime

Team: Kyle Taveira. 

Team Location: Langhorne, PA, USA. 

Energy Technologies: triboelectric energy harvesting fabric, piezoelectric stack actuators. 

Annual Capacity: 100 MWh

Soundscape

Team: Jordan Pulling, Patrick Alexander, Eric Bischof, Ryan Mackerer. 

Team Location: Syracuse, NY, USA. 

Energy Technologies: aerostatic flutter (Windbelt™), thin-film photovoltaic, kinetic energy harvesting pavers (Pavegen™ or similar), high-capacity sodium-sulfur battery. 

Annual Capacity: 800 MWh.

Ngargee

Team: Soren Luckins, Ashleigh Adams, George Thompson, Kate Luckins, Alan Pears, Erin Pears, Peter Bennetts, Jasmine Sarin, Elder Arweet Carolyn Briggs, Rae Fairbairn, Dave Stelma. 

Team Location: Melbourne, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: amorphous silicon thin-film photovoltaic. 

Annual Capacity: 400 MWh.

Light Up

Team: Martin Heide, Dean Boothroyd, Emily Van Monger, David Allouf, Takasumi Inoue, Liam Oxlade, Michael Strack, Richard Le (NH Architecture); Mike Rainbow, Jan Talacko (Ark Resources); John Bahoric (John Bahoric Design); Bryan Chung, Chea Yuen Yeow Chong, Anna Lee, Amelie Noren (RMIT students). 

Team Location: Melbourne, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: flexible mono-crystalline silicon photovoltaic, wind energy harvesting, microbial fuel cells. 

Annual Capacity: 2,220 MWh.

St Kilda Halo

Team: Pete Spence, Hiroe Fujimoto, Sacha Hickinbotham, Michael Richards, Alison Potter, Jason Embley (Grimshaw Architects). 

Team Location: Melbourne, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: silicon photovoltaic thin-film (Sphelar®). 

Annual Capacity: 2,000 MWh.

PITCH!

Team: Bryan Fan, Shelley Xu. 

Team Location: Melbourne, Australia. 

Energy Technologies: luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) photovoltaic (ClearvuePV® or similar). 

Annual Capacity: 100 MWh.

Night & Day: St Kilda Hydro-Solar Generator

Team: Kevin Kudo-King, Annie Aldrich, James Juricevich, Evan Harlan, Vikram Sami, Erin Hamilton, Gabriela Frank, MacKenzie Cotters, Lauren Gallow, Jonathan Nelson (Olson Kundig). 

Team Location: Seattle, WA, USA. 

Energy Technologies: mono-crystalline silicon photovoltaic, pumped hydro storage. 

Annual Capacity: 1,000 MWh

A New Citizen of Melbourne Who Lives at a Piece of Sea in the Sky 

Team: Zhang Hao, Chen Bocong, Zhu Jing, Yang Qiurun. 

Team Location: Shenzhen, China. 

Energy Technologies: thin-film photovoltaic, vertical axis wind turbines. 

Annual Capacity: 400 MWh.

Sol Tower

Team: Tae Jung, Amit Vajaria, Pauline Sipin, Kevin Cheng, Yong Lee, Glenn Sanford, Javier Oliu. 

Team Location: Rockville, MD, USA. 

Energy Technologies: solar updraft tower, solar thin-film photovoltaic, Vortex Bladeless™ wind turbine. 

Annual Capacity: 450 MWh

The winning entry will be announced during a LAGI exhibition launch at Fed Square in Melbourne on October 11, 2018. 

All images courtesy of LAGI

> via LAGI