- Title: JERUSALEM: Israeli art students design greener future
- Date: 19th July 2008
- Summary: CLOSE OF BUILDING BLOCK FREIDMAN OPERATES 'CAN IT' MACHINE DURING EXHIBITION
- Embargoed: 3rd August 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Environment / Natural World,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVABR87HA2N0F41Y15XJGZQC1CSX
- Story Text: Israeli art students design environmentally friendly vehicles, street lighting in graduation projects.
Israeli art students presented environmentally friendly products in an annual exhibition that concludes their four years of studies.
As visitors flocked the annual exhibition of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem they found that many of the graduates chose to focus on the environment in their final projects.
Adam Zerbib who recently completed his studies in the academy's Industrial Design department, named his project -- a motorcycle that uses hydrogen instead of petrol -- 'Zero', which means 'green' in Italian.
"This motorcycle is a very light compared to normal motorcycles today. It doesn't have an internal combustion engine. It uses an electrical engine to directly move the rear wheel and to get the current it uses fuel cell engine that uses hydrogen to receive electricity," Zerbib told Reuters.
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its on-board fuel for motive power, and has power plants that convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy.
Zerbib added that his main aim in designing 'Zero' was to enable motorization that will not depend on petrol and will help lower emissions of greenhouse gas and ozone precursors.
But since there is no infrastructure to support mass use of hydrogen vehicles, Zerbib said he believes it will take years before his graduation project will become economic for production and use.
"The biggest problem is that we don't have fuelling stations for hydrogen so that will be the biggest downfall for this stage, but hopefully in five or six years we will have the infrastructure to be able to bye one and not worry 'Where can I fuel'," he said.
Another project presented in Bezalel's exhibition was 'EcoTreeCity', a street lighting poll that in the shape of a tree, with solar panels as branches that collect energy for LED (light-emitting diode) lightballs.
The LEDs can be programmed to change colours according to the weather changes and special events, designer Doron Andre Hadar said. He added that his main consideration in designing EcoTreeCity was sustainable development, a concept that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment both in the present and in the future.
"Basically this tree can save up to 90 percent of the energy like because of the leds and also because of the maintenance of the.. so the idea was to make like something totally free standing like an object that can stand by himself, doesn't need to take care of him, just can stand by himself and work and flow with our life," he said.
Hadar added that he hopes his vision of an urban boulevard decorated with real trees along side EcoTreeCity will be realised in the near future.
While Zerbib and Hadar's projects introduced innovations that could save electricity and fuel, Amir Freidman concentrated on a new way to use the most common energy -- the one produced by the human body -- in order to recycle and reuse drinking cans.
Freidman designed and built a machine called 'Can It' that uses 'human energy' to smash drinking cans into building blocks. The building blocks are designed in such a manner that enables the consumer to combine them and form any new product.
Freidman said he wanted not only to recycle drinking cans, but also to force the consumer into the process.
"The consumer is forced to sit on a chair in the machine and to spin the wheels for about ten minutes. It's like an ecological workout, he has to pressure the Coca Cola can or whatever drinking can he has into a module, into this building block," he said.
"I think that my main idea was to take the consumer and to relate to him, to make him work, like not in a punishment way but in a ... maybe tutor way. To make him understand how much work does recycle means, or reuse," he added, adding that he hopes one day Can It machines will be stationed in each and every city centre, where people will bring their used cans and take an active part in recycling them into new products. This way, he said, a lot of money and metal waste can be saved. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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