Imagine: It’s not the Future, It’s Now

2011
12.21

Imagine if we didn’t need to rely on artificial lighting to get around at night? What if clean and efficient energy were free? What if the future power plant is “no power plant”?

It’s possible based on research at Corning which has already been able to show how new Display Glass Technology- a pliable, transparent (clear) material that can turn ordinary windows into heat trapping devices (for winter) and heat deflecting during summers. While that technology is already out in the market, there are also many other new discoveries with nanotechnology that enable energy to be converted into electrons and into energy again, making all sorts of things possible.

A Simple but Brilliant Solution

2011
08.02

Social entrepreneur Iliac Diaz does it again as he introduces the simplest of technologies developed by friends from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Using a simple plastic water bottle which is readily available in any trash can, simply fill it up with water, add in some chlorine/bleach to keep it clear, and then insert it into your zinc roof and wala, 50-60 watts of diffused light spreads inside a room.

Why not just put a hole in the roof and place a plastic sheet or bottle? Why is the water necessary? For the simple reason that light, when it enters a hole, comes out as a shaft. But when it passes through water, it is magnificently diffused.

Solar Sintering: Sun & Sand

2011
07.05

Using the sand as raw material and the sun as the source of power, Markus Kayser creates utilitarian goods that double as pieces of wonder and art in an emerging technology called “sintering”.

In the experiment shown below in the video, “sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process” to make us rethink how we can use everything around us instead of just dismissing them.

Markus Kayser – Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.

THE POINT OF THE EXPERIMENT?
Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and triggers dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource – the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers, this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.