POWERleap

project description

concept installation

energy and design

development

press

Red Eye: Chicago

Pretty darn cool, I think. The city could light up the entire lakefront path with all the runners and walkers that pass over it each day. Or we could light up the room if a dance floor was filled with them. Oh, the possibilities.

4.28.08 Designing to Natural Rhythms

Design Continuum

Nature has rhythms, people have rhythms. In fact, we ought to remind ourselves every so often that people are part of nature, too. Our interactions with nature are choreographed by our designs, so when we embrace natural rhythms, the outcomes can be delightfully compelling.

4.25.08 Alison Arief's Earth Day Post-Mortem

Apartment Therapy, re-nest

She suggests that instead of gnashing our teeth over greenwashing, we "instead celebrate two very personal — and very plausible — projects that aim to reduce our collective carbon footprint.

4.24.08 After Earth Day

New York Times

Now that Earth Day 2008 has come to a close, it’s easy to be cynical. I won’t even begin to list all the examples of crass commercialism/brand opportunism/greenwashing/totally missed-the-point-ism that transpired.

That being the case, I want to instead celebrate two very personal — and very plausible — projects that aim to reduce our collective carbon footprint.

POWERLeap is an urban flooring system that harnesses exerted kinetic energy to generate electricity.

Pruned: Landscape Architecture

"These other projects include a Japanese train station whose ticketing gates are embedded with piezo pads and Elizabeth Redmond's PowerLeap, both of which also investigate the potential of piezoelectricity and, in the case of these two, how can be spatialized on an urban scale."

11.16.07 Crowd Farm II: Piezoelectricity Potential

"An example is POWERLeap created by a sustainable designer Elizabeth Redmond. It is essentially a scaled-down version of the crowd farm concept. When pedestrians walk across a sidewalk in Ann Arbor, Michigan, four decorated glass tiles containing LED lights light-up beneath their feet. The power is generated by the movement and pressure of the people’s feet on the tiles. Redmond is now working on a more in depth design for POWERLeap thanks in part to a grant from the flooring behemoth Mohawk Industries."

11.14.07 Turning Poetry into Material

Metropolis Magazine- Web

"SensiTile makes an ideal material for POWERleap, a Next Generation design by Elizabeth Redmond that uses piezoelectric technology to generate electricity and light up a surface in response to human motion."

10.03.07 Shaping the Future: Elizabeth Redmond Speaks @ ICFF 2007

Metropolis Magazine- Web

Elizabeth Redmond: "I want to begin by reminding you of a very simple concept we learned in high school physics, the law of thermodynamics that states- energy can neither be created nor destroyed. This project is exactly about that."

9.26.07 Power harnessed one step at a time

Christian Science Monitor- Magazine & Web

By Chris Gaylord

Elizabeth Redmond of Chicago, is a scaled-down, but glammed-up, version of Mr. Graham's scheme. When pedestrians trot across one of the flooring system's four decorated glass tiles, LED lights flicker to life underneath their feet.

9.21.07 Power-Generating Tiles

Move: Do it Green

"One of the designs was runner-up at the 2007 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition, and is called “POWERLeap.” The floor picks up kinetic energy coming from the pressure exerted by people who are walking on that floor."

9.20.07 The PowerLeap: Harnessing Human Energy With Floor Tiles

Groovey Green

This type of technology is intended for high-traffic areas; sidewalks, playgrounds, school hallways, etc. Obviously, you could do away with the LED lights and incorporate the idea into flooring that makes the whole thing less obvious. We love the concept, however, and hope Elizabeth and Ruben keep pushing to make it a reality. Hit the jump for more!

9.12.2007 Human Movement Seen As New Electric-Power Source

Engineering News Record- Magazine & Web

By William J. Angelo

One such researcher is free-lance designer Elizabeth Redmond, Chicago, who is working on Project POWERleap, which uses urban floor tiles made from material that compresses to generate and distribute electricity.

By Daniela Morell

"I am not working on this and putting my ideas out there for money or fame. I am instead seeking opportunities for collaboration and am hopeful that this idea (that many are talking about) can go somewhere..." Now, if as Redmond suggests, these smart, inventive people could find ways to collaborate, they’d surely help us make a powerful leap into a new world of energy sources and uses.

5.18.07 Power of Youth

Metropolis Magazine- Web

With Redmond’s innovative flooring system, this vision of a human-powered energy source may be close to a reality… Envisioned as a flooring system for high-traffic areas such as sidewalks, public-transport platforms, and gymnasiums, PowerLeap proposes to give pedestrians an active role in offsetting their energy consumption. “I am calling on all humans,” Redmond says, “to become responsible and sustainable self-generators for the communal grid.”

Treehugger

5.01.2007 The Piezo Array

Pruned: Landscape Architecture

...conceptually similar is Elizabeth Redmond's PowerLeap, which as described by ArchNewsNow is a “piezoelectric urban flooring system that saves the energy used as people walk across it, and lights up the nighttime sidewalk."

4.27.07 Metropolis Next Generation® Design Prize

ArchNewsNow

Elizabeth Redmond (Dexter, MI): “Project Power Leap,” a piezoelectric urban flooring system that saves the energy used as people walk across it, and lights up the nighttime sidewalk.

4.26.07 The 2007 Next Generation® Design Competition Winner and Runners-Up Announced

Metroplis Magazine- Web

Elizabeth Redmond: PowerLeap, a piezoelectric urban flooring system.

SELECTED WORKS