Park of Tomorrow
The Park of Tomorrow is the first park in the world to be lit with energy generated by plants.
Walk along the boardwalk once the sun has set, and magically twinkling lights will illuminate your route. The plants in the park generate electricity for the lighting.
This technology allows us to combine nature with lighting in the same place. And this, in turn, ensures we make the smartest possible use of the space in the city. We want to use Living Light - Park to demonstrate how we can provide our park visitors with a sense of security without removing any greenery and harming the park’s plant and animal life. Light pollution is also reduced, as the lights only come on if someone walks across the boardwalk. As an added bonus, plants are CO2 negative as a source of energy, so this power source is genuinely green.
If you can’t see the lights, nature may have come to a brief standstill, possibly due to frost or a period of drought. But don't worry, nature always recovers automatically, and the lights will twinkle once again.
Watch the video 'Park of Tomorrow' (Dutch) below (November 2019).
How does it work?
Plants release energy, and we can harness this energy without disturbing nature. How do we do that?
- Plants produce nutrients using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
- Plants use some of these themselves, while some goes into the ground via their roots.
- Natural bacteria in the soil break down these residues, releasing electrically charged particles.
- These particles are captured by a biological battery (microbial fuel cell).
- This green energy is subsequently used to keep the special lights on when you walk across the boardwalk.
The healthier the nature in the park, the more power the plants will generate. You can read all about how this technology works on Plant-e's website. Link opent een externe pagina.
Location
The Park of Tomorrow can be found in the Reyeroord district in IJsselmonde. The municipality has designated Reyeroord as a model district for the future. All kinds of new inventions will be tried out and tested here. Read more on the Reyeroord page.
Learning together
We’d love to hear about our visitors’ experiences. What did you think about the lighting and the park? Was there something in particular you noticed? Please let us know via our Reyeroord e-mail address. Link opent een externe pagina.
Park 2.0
The first Park of Tomorrow was constructed as a pilot in 2019. This allowed us to gain a great deal of experience from technical, social, sustainable and organisational perspectives. The lessons learned from that period have been used to further develop the park, and they’ll be tested out in practice in the new 2.0 version.
The Park of Tomorrow 2.0 can serve as inspiration and an example for sustainable and innovative lighting for city parks. And it’s really fun too! It’s a park where Rotterdam’s residents use the energy which nature can provide and simultaneously take care of that nature.
Collaboration
This magical route was developed by bio-design studio Nova Innova in collaboration with outdoor lighting company In-lite, biotechnology company Plant-e and the Municipality of Rotterdam.
Nova Innova. Link opent een externe pagina, led by designer Ermi van Oers, is an award-winning bio-design studio in Rotterdam. The studio combines nature, science and design to develop important, sustainable solutions, which effectively allow people and nature to work together. Together with In-lite. Link opent een externe pagina they developed lighting elements which are suitable for large scale applications.
"My dream for this project is that the next generation will ask us: 'Wasn't it normal back then for plants to generate electricity?'" says Ermi van Oers, creator of The Park of Tomorrow.
Plant-e. Link opent een externe pagina researches and develops products in which living plants generate electricity. Plant Microbial Fuel Cell (P-MFC) technology is used for this purpose.
Guided tour
Would you like a guided tour and hear the creators explain how it all works? And how this innovation could be used in the future? Then please get in touch with Nova Innova. Link opent een externe pagina of Plant-e. Link opent een externe pagina.
