Solar powered urban trees for sustainable lighting
This idea is inspired by a tourist construction project taking place in Singapore where massive man-made statuesque lamps are coated with photovoltaic cell and designed in the shape of trees. These “tree lamps” shown in the attached image, are powered by their solar panels, are also made of wiry and porous allowing local epiphytes and vines to grow around structure. The results is an absolutely stunning living, sustainable, energy producing lamp. My concept is to take an urban neighbourhood which lacks both greenery and sufficient lighting and replace or accentuate current light fixtures such as lampposts or park lights with scaled down, simplified versions of these “lamp trees”. Since poor communities are simultaneously associated with a lack of green space and insufficient infrastructure, this would be elegant method for improving the ascetics, safety and sustainability of a community.