The concept:
The Future Office: where our daily tasks help generate the energy needed to power the electronics that we have on our desks. The energy is generated through the pressure of the person walking on the carpet, through the body heat of the person sitting on the chair, through the plants natural acids and sugars, and through the heat from the electronics on the desk. The concept thereby moves sustainable design from the realm of demand and effort and makes it into something tailored to our everyday existence.
What is Unplugged?
Eddi Törnberg has built a prototype desk called Unplugged that uses a combination of green energy tricks to power itself. The carpet is woven with piezo elements that generate power whenever subjected to mechanical stress (walking on it or rolling your chair). A flowering plant is a microbial fuel cell, extracting energy from the sun. And the chair is designed to exploit the Seebeck effect. As one’s body warms the metal on the top of the chair, the bottom of the chair is kept cool through heatsink fins. This difference in temperature emits energy.
While Unplugged doesn’t appear to generate enough electricity (yet) to run a laptop--it appears to only power a small lamp, and not necessarily in a sustained manner--the real point is that these energy sources are invisible, self-contained and, most importantly, entirely passive. Other than its unfinished wood surface, Unplugged resembles any other desk. Check it out..
While Unplugged doesn’t appear to generate enough electricity (yet) to run a laptop--it appears to only power a small lamp, and not necessarily in a sustained manner--the real point is that these energy sources are invisible, self-contained and, most importantly, entirely passive. Other than its unfinished wood surface, Unplugged resembles any other desk. Check it out..
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