Windflower is a 50m long decommissioned wind turbine blade, upcycled into a family of urban furniture and street planters for the Discover South Kensington festival and the Goethe-Institut on Exhibition Road, London. The project proposes alternative uses and raises awareness about the lifespan of these large pieces of our infrastructure, which end up buried in landfills as their composite materials are not easily recycled.
Today the UK is one of the largest producers of offshore wind energy in the world. This produces a large amount of waste turbine blades that currently end up buried in landfills after a typical 25 year lifespan, as their composite materials are not easily recycled.
While it is encouraging that renewable energy continues to gain ground over fossil fuels in Europe and beyond, it is also predicted that by 2050 we will be dealing with more than 43 million tonnes of blade waste, which will contribute to serious environmental problems, unless proper solutions can be found.
Windflower aims to offer a glimpse into the future of wind energy, to educate the public and the wider community visiting the major museums, cultural or academic institutions on this historic London boulevard on circular economy, and to ultimately offer a solution for the afterlife of these large, impeccably crafted, power-producing structures.
The project was part of 3 public installations commissioned by the London Festival of Architecture for the Discover South Kensington and Great Exhibition Road public festivals, and part of a walking trail connecting exhibits from Hyde Park to the museum district, as part of a run-up to the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow.
The commission brought together leading design and current research in biodiversity, sustainability and the impacts of climate change, building connections with work and research taking place within the South Kensington based institutions of Goethe Intitut, Imperial College London, V&A and Science Museum.
Wildflower planters slowly growing over the installation’s lifecycle celebrated the launch of London’s Bee Superhighway, forming a biodiversity corridor of raised pollinator habitats to attract wild pollinators such as wild bees and hoverflies from the neighbouring Hyde Park along Exhibition Road and further into the city.
The blade was cut into 6 pieces and transformed from its infrastructural mega-scale, into planters and street furniture for the urban landscape. Cork-lined seats encouraged visitors to pause and sit.
The 2050 global climate action foresees a clean and efficient future in the way we build our cities. Not only do we need to follow new protocols for building infrastructures and homes, but we also need to radically re-think how we are able to re-use our existing buildings and how to upcycle and extend the life of existing construction and infrastructural components.
Windflower aims to raise awareness and pose questions as to how we can help imagine and achieve circular economies in our environments, while demonstrating the importance of looking at products which have reached the end of their lifecycle as resources rather than waste.
As part of the public engagement and legacy for the project, we run a days workshop at Goethe-Institut London, with our artist friend Andrew Kerr, called Catching the Wind!
Following the end of the festivals, the structures were donated to Bousefield Primary School to serve as pollinator hubs as well as inspire conversations about sustainability and urban biodiversity. Following the success of this project, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is developing plans for longer term planting in Exhibition Road.
Type: Object
Location: Exhibition Road, London, UK
Size: 18m2
For: Goethe-Institut, Discover South Kensington, London Festival of Architecture, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Status: Completed
Featured in; Wallpaper, ICON, Design Week, V&A, London Architecture Diary, Discover South Kensington, New London Architecture
Collaborators: Adam Harris urban rewilding architect
Fabrication: Design and Making
With thanks to: Goethe Intitut, V&A , Science Museum, Imperial College London, ORE Catapult , Royal Commission for the Exhibition 1851
Photography: Luke O’Donovan