Freshkills Park is a new public park in New York City. It was once the world’s largest landfill (formerly called Fresh Kills Landfill) but will eventually become the city’s biggest park, almost 3 times the size of Central Park. The park will be transitioning into its final farm in stages over the next 20 years, and will be designed to be a symbol of sustainable natural ecology within the context of the constructed city environment.
The park already is providing sustainable energy, and there are plans for more. The landfill below the park is currently generating methane gas, which is being sold to a local utility at an amount, which is enough to heat 22,000 homes. Due to the proximity to residential areas, the wildlife, and its role as a public park make it a unique site that requires sustainable energy that also can provide a visual, educational, or unique experience while conserving the natural environment
Got any artistic ideas of how renewable energy can be installed at the site? In partnership with New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation, the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition is being held for a site within Freshkills Park. The competition is free and open designers, artists, engineers, architects, landscape architects, university students, urban planners, scientists and anyone else can enter with public art installation proposals. There is $20,000 in prize award money, and also a $1000 contest for high school students
The website promotes artist doing solution –based art and says, “The time is now for artists to go further and take an active role in solving the problem through their own work: solution-based art practice.”
All proposals should be pieces that are large scale clean energy generation which will continuously distribute clean energy into the electrical grid, with the potential to provide power to thousands of homes. Got an idea? You need to register with the website, and submit your final proposal by July 1, 2012.
To read more, you can check out the Design Brief and competition information on LAGI’s website.
Image Source:
Land Art Generator Initiative
Links:
Design Brief for Fresh Kills LAGI Competition
New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation