Before change can occur, it must be imagined!
Founded in Dubai in 2008 by Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) helps design renewable energy infrastructures that are also beautiful places for people. Works of art in civic space distribute clean energy and provide other sustainable services while beautifying the built environment.
Read more about their programs and open competitions around the world at landartgenerator.org.
Learn about their latest competition LAGI Mannheim 2022.
The Land Art Generator Initiative and Burning Man Project partnered to hold a multi-disciplinary design challenge—LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch, to create the foundational infrastructure of Fly Ranch, a 3,800 acre ranch in Northern Nevada. This includes creative and circular design solutions for energy, water, food, shelter, and regeneration (zero waste).
500 people on 185 teams submitted proposals. The proposals were reviewed by 200 technical advisors who left 2,000 comments. 50 members of the shortlist committee picked 52 shortlisted projects. 33 jurors selected the top ten projects. flyranch.burningman.org
Below are the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Top 10 Projects
Lodgers: Serendipity in the Fly Ranch Wilderness
by Zhicheng Xu and Mengqi Moon He brings together composting toilets, reclaimed timber waste, traditional thatching methods using local materials, computational script-generated parametric design, and native species shelters to provide an environmental education venue, soil replenishment, sustainable waste management, and habitat enrichment for Fly Ranch.
The top-ranked submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
Nexus
by Antoniya Stoitsova, Nicolo Bencini, Ben Naudet, Avi Greene, Alex Ogata, and Tom Kendrew explores the design capabilities of Ferrock, a sustainable alternative to concrete that absorbs CO2 through the curing process of building components. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
SEED
symbiotic coevolution by Samantha Katz, Woody Nitibhon, Henry O'Donnell, Lola Lafia, Eric Baczuk, John Hilmes, Max Schwitalla, and Colin O'Donnell incorporates solar, geothermal, passive cooling, composting, greenhouses, aquaponics, biodigesters, and greywater recycling. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
The Source
by Mateusz Góra and Agata Gryszkiewicz (Tamaga Studio) uses solar photovoltaic, battery energy storage, water cistern, rammed earth thermal mass, fruit trees, fruit walls, and compost to contribute 250 kg/year of food, 2.2 MWh/year of electricity, 9,000 liters/year of water, habitat enhancement, environmental education venue, and soil replenishment. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
Kiba paa'a: Mountains of Water
by Javier Irigaray, Josien Visser, Mara Equisoain, Deyo Maeztu-Redin, and Silvia Larripa proposes a series of conservational, minimally intrusive, and reversible interventions to provide sustainable water collection based on the concept of islands of hydrologically enhanced biotic productivity inspired by traditional Indigenous technologies. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
The Loop: How Pee and Poo Creates a Regeneration Service Station
by Mathias Gullbrandson , Anna Johansson, Per Dahlgren, Julia Andersson, and Olle Bjerkås incorporates dehydration toilets, handwashing stations, straw bale construction, solar photovoltaic, natural water filtration, a hydroponic greenhouse, composting, and rainwater harvesting technology to contribute fertilizer, fruit trees, vegetables, greens, and 1.5 million liters/year of irrigation water. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
Solar Mountain
by Nuru Karim and Anuj Modi uses solar photovoltaic, and recycled materials to contribute 300 MWh of electricity per year and interactive spaces for play and exercise. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
Coyote Mountain
by Dusty Michael, Jane Maru, and Anna Meloyan brings together 5,256 MWh/year of low-temperature geothermal energy, luminescent solar concentrator photovoltaic, bladeless wind turbines, lithium-ion energy storage, and rammed earth construction to contribute 340 MWh of solar electricity per year, 120 MWh of wind electricity per year, and a large climate-controlled multipurpose space for creative activities. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
Veil: An Armature Containing Void
by Jamieson Pye incorporates walipini greenhouses and gravity fed water filtration within an innovative construction using local materials to provide food and to create spaces of cohabitation while generating zero waste. A top ten submission to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge.
Ripple
by Matthew Lagomarsino, William Jacob Mast, Pierre-Yves Bertholet, Xiaojin Ren, Scherwyn Udwadia, Bas Kools, Israel Orellana, and Melika Tabrizi integrates electrochromic glass, a bioceramic dome (Geoship SPC), seed bank, solar photovoltaic, cisterns, drip irrigation, composting toilets, and native restoration plants to provide shelter, food, medicinal herbs and teas, habitat enhancement, water harvesting, 36 MWh/year of electricity, and 40,000 liters/year of harvested water. A top ten proposal to the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge
The video above includes interviews with LAGI co-founders, Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry; Burning Man Cultural Founders, Will Roger and Crimson Rose; Fly Ranch Operations Manager, Zac Cirivello; and wetland ecologist and Burning Man Project Land Fellow, Dr. Lisa Schiele-Beers.
More about The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) landartgenerator.org
LAGI works with communities around the world to design public art installations that cleanly generate renewable energy, water, and provide other human support systems at a variety of scales.
As the world works together to rise to the climate challenge, vast new sustainable energy and other infrastructures will quickly become a ubiquitous part of our landscape and culture. LAGI provides exceptional solutions that inspire people about the beauty of our post-carbon future and innovate the integration of zero-emission energy and water systems into cultural venues and civic spaces— regenerative monuments to this most important time in human history.
Educational programming and community collaboration are fundamental to all LAGI projects, beginning with early concept generation and continuing on site after each project is installed.
Open design competitions for Dubai/Abu Dhabi (2010), New York City (2012), Copenhagen (2014), Santa Monica (2016), Melbourne (2018), Abu Dhabi (2019), and Fly Ranch (2020) have brought in over 1,300 designs from 80+ countries.
What if we re-imagined our renewable energy landscapes as large-scale works of art?
What if we lived in a world with zero carbon emissions, powered entirely by sun, wind, and water?
What if the clean energy systems that power our cities were also places of beauty and wonder for people?
Eight international design competitions for cities such as Copenhagen, Santa Monica, Melbourne, New York City, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, have resulted in more than a thousand innovations in the design of large-scale clean energy systems. LAGI is bringing positivity and hope to conversations around climate change by engaging the world’s most talented artists and designers in imagining the greatness and beauty of a clean energy future.
Land Art Generators are places of wonder and awesome beauty. They are inspired by the traditions of Land Art—ancient and contemporary—which merge natural beauty and local context into the conception of creative installations and experiences. They are also large-scale power plants that generate clean electricity at the scale of hundreds or thousands of homes. They will leave a lasting legacy for generations to come, celebrating this important time in human history.
Confronting the challenge of global climate change requires the communication of a positive vision of a sustainable future that can inspire people everywhere.