Creative flows

Terrorists now unleashed on streets, gunning down people at random. New evidence of glaciers in the Himalayas melting even faster than predicted. Lot of doomsday scenarios closing in!

Let’s take a break from serious stuff and see what creative innovation is doing in the world of sustainable architecture.

It looks like a huge bubble or a big blob of mercury perched on the alpine slope but is a retreat for nature lovers who want to feel the environment and still enjoy safe comforts! Powered by solar panels and a vertical axis wind turbine, the off-grid alpine retreat features a shimmering glass skin with a reflective coating that allows individuals to sleep under the stars while admiring a 360-degree panorama of the beautiful landscape.

The capsule is designed by Ross Lovegrove, a Welsh architect. The Alpine Capsule is an 8-meter wide structure with a double-glass skin that is covered with a special reflective coating. The coating meant to reflect the structure’s surroundings and blend in with the environment. Focussing on sustainability and self-sufficiency, it will be off-grid and powered by a “power plant,” which integrates a vertical axis wind turbine and solar panels.

Lovegrove’s has come up with unique ideas for travel and lighting. Like a four passenger vehicle, another transparent bubble in which the four passengers sit in a circular fashion. There is no driver, as the vehicles are controlled by satellite and GPS navigation. The vehicles are powered by solar panels installed in the roof. The innovation comes in his proposal to stick each vehicle at night on top of a pole in order to both save space at the ground level, and to illuminate! It looks like a UFO as you can see from the picture.

Some call it neat, others call it impractical with no front or back to the cars posing dangers, besides the problem of space for many of these on the lamppost!

Solar plant like trees for illumination designed by Ross were inaugurated at Vienna recently.
Are these meant for the drawing board? Are they really sustainable? Or mere hype? While they use natural lighting and renewable sources, what about the materials used? How much of embodied energy do they carry?