Bamboo "Flow Lights" are Powered by the Wind!

from inhabitat.com

How do you create effective lighting when there’s no way to get to the grid? Leave it to a couple of ingenious designers to come up with a beautiful and self-sufficient bamboo lighting system! Designed by Ingendesign, the ‘Flow’ light is powered by constant prevailing coastal winds and is built to be almost completely biodegradable.

Expansive, dazzling and bustling during the day, the Colombian seaside quickly becomes a desolate and dangerous destination at night. The inability to channel electricity to the shore has created serious problems keeping beaches well-lit and safe past sun down.

Ingendesign’s ‘Flow’ light offers a self-sustaining public lighting solution that is based on the principle of vertical wind power plants. Taking the shape of a spiral, not only does the form make for a compelling aesthetic, but it is able to capture wind from any direction. Each of the blades’ tips have been incised angularly in order to project light downwards to passerbys and so that the motion can be seen at a distance. With light sources positioned at the ends of each of the wind blades, depending on the force of the wind, the play of light is abundant, ranging from continuous lighting to more deliberate waving movements.


In a simple construction made from bamboo and recyclable electronic components – LEDs, wires and dynamo – the lamp is relieved from any major eco-impact. Bamboo itself is one of the most ample and cheapest materials found in Colombia, and by using this as the base material, the lamps are almost completely biodegradable (sans the electronics) and can be locally sourced, making for easy manufacturability by the native population.

This spring, Ingendesign will start building 1:1 prototypes to be placed along Lake Balaton in Hungary, where wind-conditions are comparable to those along Colombian shores. If the tests are deemed successful, the team plans to install the lamps next summer.