Daan Roosegaarde’s Projects
SMOG FREE PROJECT
SMOG FREE PROJECT is a campaign for clean air led by Daan Roosegaarde to reduce air pollution and provide an inspirational experience of a clean future, including a series of urban innovations such as the SMOG FREE TOWER which provide a local solution of clean air in public spaces.
It is combined with workshops with governments, students and the clean-tech industry to work together and make a whole city smog-free.
Recent SMOG FREE PROJECTS campaigns have been launched in South Korea, China, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Poland. Daan Roosegaarde: “We are on a mission for clean air”.
SMOG FREE TOWER
The SMOG FREE PROJECT is a long-term campaign for clean air in which Daan Roosegaarde and his team of experts have created the world’s first smog vacuum cleaner. The 7-meter tall SMOG FREE TOWER uses patented positive ionisation technology to produce smog free air in public spaces, allowing people to breathe and experience clean air for free. It is equipped with environment-friendly technology, cleans 30,000 m3 per hour and uses a small amount of green electricity.
The SMOG FREE TOWER provides a local solution for clean air such as in parks. The function of the SMOG FREE TOWER has been validated by the results compiled by the Eindhoven University of Technology. The recent SMOG EATING BILLBOARD was launched at UDEM University in Mexico by students in collaboration with visiting professor Daan Roosegaarde which provides clean air for 104,000 people each day. Professor: Daan Roosegaarde, assistant professor: Ricardo Contreras Marcos, students: Ana Cecilia Álvarez Moreno, Frida Leal Parra, Karen Savinneh Tellez Castillo, Ana María Peñúñuri García.
Daan Roosegaarde: “True beauty is not a Louis Vuitton bag or a Ferrari, but clean air and clean energy.” Creating a tangible souvenir, Roosegaarde designed the SMOG FREE RING of compressed smog particles. By sharing a SMOG FREE RING you donate 1000 m3 of clean air to the city.
SMOG FREE RING is in the permanent art collection of the National Museum Zurich and Stedelijk Amsterdam. Recently Roosegaarde presented a new addition: SMOG FREE BICYCLE.
The innovative bicycle inhales polluted air, cleans it, and releases clean air around the cyclist. Clients such as green companies or cities can commission a SMOG FREE PROJECT campaign which includes a SMOG FREE TOWER, SMOG FREE RINGS, project management and innovation workshops.
GROW
Daan Roosegaarde’s latest artwork GROW is an homage to the beauty of agriculture. In the world film premiere GROW appears as a luminous dreamscape of red and blue waves of light over an enormous field. GROW is inspired by scientific light recipes which improve plants’ growth and resilience.
Most of the time we hardly notice the huge areas of the Earth which are literally feeding us. GROW highlights the importance of innovation in the agriculture system: How can cutting-edge light design help plants to grow more sustainably? How can we make the farmer the hero?
GROW consists of a design-based light recipe which shines vertically across 20,000m2 of farmland with leek (Allium porrum). You experience the artwork as ‘dancing lights’ across the huge agricultural field. The light is poetic, and inspired by photobiology light science technologies which have shown that certain recipes of blue, red, and ultraviolet light can enhance plant growth and reduce the use of pesticides by up to 50%.
The film GROW shows the development of this luminous dreamscape and how the beauty of light can help plants. It is also a call for enlightenment during these dark times. GROW can be good for nature but also sends hopeful light to people. It gives a new meaning to the word ‘agri-culture’ by reframing the landscape as a living cultural artwork.
Wiebe Draijer, Chairman of the Managing Board, Rabobank: “It is really inspiring to work with an artist like Daan Roosegaarde on how to grow a better world together.”
Daan Roosegaarde: “GROW is the dreamscape which shows the beauty of light and sustainability. Not as a utopia but as a protopia, improving step by step.”
Prof. Dr. Wargent, PhD, Chief Science Officer at BioLumic, a world-leading expert in plant photobiology: “The project GROW is a fascinating project and supported by scientific research which shows specific light recipes can enhance growth and reduce pesticide use up to 50%.”
GROW is part of the artist-in-residence program of Rabobank. Daan Roosegaarde and his team of designers and experts developed GROW over two years, informed by expert knowledge sessions at Studio Roosegaarde, Wageningen University & Research, Springtij Forum, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. It is the first in a series of dreamscapes by Studio Roosegaarde which show the beauty of combining art and science to create a better world.
