THE POLLINIFEROUSED CONTAINER
Artist as innovator
A project of an artist and the TU Delft Technical scientists, marketers, entrepreneurs and different cultures meet each other under the direction of an artist. In the project ‘The Polliniferoused Container’ a sea container is equipped with new inventions to make it possible to live and work self sufficient within all climates, from theSaharato the Pole regions.
80% of the costs is already sponsored. This project currently still needs 10% of the total cost to finish the building of the container…
Sustainable Cross Pollination
The project is an initiative of artist Hans Kalliwoda. The purpose of the project is to develop the world’s most compact mini-grid system, a self-sufficient living and working unit able to fold out and function as an artist laboratory at 11 locations in rural environments around the world. The title of the project, Polliniferoused Container, comes from the field of biology and means producing and carrying the pollen. It is also the aim of the project to have different cultures, artists and scientists exchange and inspire each other, hence the name Polliniferoused.
Collaboration with the TU Delft
This project was initially implemented as an artist intervention into the research system of theUniversityofTechnologyatDelft(TU Delft) in 2001. The first phase both research and design resulted in creating many bridges between different university ‘islands’. All faculties of the TU have been involved ranging from Aerospace engineering to Industrial Design. More than 50 students from a variety of Dutch universities and high schools completed their assignments working on many different aspects of the unit in its developmental and research phase.
A Variety of Practical Applications
This architectural unit is built as a standard sea freight container, which is designed to be totally independent and mobile, able to function in any climatic and geographical condition. It is a hightech, self-loading unit with an auto-generated energy system for modular living and working situations. It can be used as a research laboratory but could also be used as an office and temporary housing for offshore, dredging companies or organizations such as the Red Cross in places where there is no infrastructure or in disaster situations like the Tsunami. The container is equipped as a complete self sufficient living and workspace for one or more persons, the space will be heated, lighted and equipped with running water without the use of fossil energy sources. The development has resulted in a high tech low cost housing and working location that can be transported world wide by truck of vessel. Showcase for
Sustainability
The container has been developed into an ecologically friendly self-sufficient and living-andworking unit. With the growing world population and more and more environmental pollution, there is a need for new concepts on the level of living and working in compact surroundings. The research and development carried out in the container project will contribute to this, offering new solutions at a sustainable level. The container concept has the potential of becoming a showcase for sustainability: renewable energy, efficiency of energy, water and space are a natural spin-off of this multifunctional concept. Attention for material selection, technology relevancy for visiting cultures, impact on host site and the impact of travelling will further lead to materializing its potential for sustainable innovation and education. Last but not least all the solutions on board make the use of polluting fossil fuels obsolescent.
Starship Earth- travels around
The project was presented at “Designmai Symposium2005”in Berlin, “Blueprints of Tomorrow, Starship Earth - Designing the Environment” at the International Rotterdam Architecture Biennale and got nominated for the ‘Ode aan de Techniek’ Price at NEMO, the Science Museum in Amsterdam. The project is also supported by the commission of Dutch Higher education, by Mr. Fokkema, Rector Magnificus and patron of the project at the TU Delft and by Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, General Director of UNESCO. After completing the building phase of the unit, it will travel for a period of five years around the world and be placed at 11 UNESCO locations. It will function as an art laboratory for intercultural projects and Hans Kalliwoda will map cultural diversity around the world, which should strengthen the UNESCO Convention on Protection of Cultural Diversity. The first two locations will be Ilulisset in Greenland (400 kmnorth of the Polar circle) and Qurna nearLuxoron the edge of the Egyptian Sahara. Sponsoring At this moment, the second part of the production and practical building is about to be completed. A wide range of engineering offices and manufacturers around the world are supporting the production phase, while numerous (more than 50, including De Baak) sponsors and official institutions contributed significantly. Examples are companies like Ciserv (a Wartsila company), GTI and Victron Energy, who have seen the benefits of sponsoring this project. At this point 80% of the costs for the building phase and 100% of the development costs are covered which add up to the overall amount of 1.25 million euros. The project currently still needs 10% of the total cost to finish the building of the container. If you want to know more about the project, sponsoring or commercial opportunities: E-mail:polliniferoused@tudelft.nl Website:www.blindpainters.org/polliniferoused/index.htm orwww.blindpainters.org Source: HSB international May 2006