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Power cycle: Designer power push in full swing
Guimarães, Portugal – The latest design innovation from the European Capital of Culture 2012 is Swing, conceived by design firm Moradavaga.
The installation harnesses the energy produced on a swing to generate electricity. A simple wooden framework made of re-usable wooden pallets conceals a hidden electrical system. A contraption of ropes, wheels and bicycle chains turns a dynamo that powers a light.
The project’s old-style mechanical engineering aesthetic is intended as a celebration of the city’s industrial history. The look and sound of the contraption is ‘evocative of the ones once produced in the factories of the city’, say the designers. Meanwhile, the idea of harnessing existing energy to power devices looks forward to a more sustainable future.
For more on design that aspires to be better than sustainable, read our Anarconomy Decade macrotrend.
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