A few months ago, the fabulous designboom organized a “Green Life” design competition in collaboration with Incheon Metropolitan City, Korea and the first prize winning design by Rochus Jacob has been causing quite a stir across the web.
Feast your eyes on the Murakami Chair:
Apart from being a cute rocking chair that you immediately want to curl up in to read a good book, the magic of this chair lies within its mechanics. Apparently Mr. Jacob created a way for this chair to make use of the kinetic energy created from the rocking motion one creates while using it and during the daylight hours, the unused energy gets stored in a battery pack.
In the designer’s words:
I was looking for opportunities to generate energy through activities we naturally do. The final result is a rocking chair that enables the user to experience production and consumption of electricity in a gentle and rewarding way. An abstract process becomes tangible and eventually cultivates natural awareness. Complexity is covered by simplicity. Advanced nano-dynamo technology which is built in to the skids of the chair and more efficient light sources such as the newly developed OLED generation makes it possible to build a rocking chair with a reading lamp running on electricity generated from the rocking motion. During daylight the energy gets stored in a battery pack. The construction of the flat and bendable organic light emitting diodes allows new form factors such as using the traditional shape of a lamp but instead of having a light bulb the lampshade himself turns out to be the light source. To have a drastic reduction of consumption the big challenge will be to make consuming less feel like getting more.
Amazing work, Rochus Jacob! Major congratulations go out to you! To see other competition finalists and winners, click here!
(via re-nest)
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