The Wind Lift
Art installation for Folkestone Triennial
The Foord viaduct, which brought the railway, and prosperity, to Folkestone in 1844, is the kind of monumental infrastructural project that was typical of the nineteenth century. During the 2014 Folkestone Triennial, The Wind Lift project uses one of the viaduct’s nineteen arches as a wind funnel. A wind turbine large enough to fill the entire upper section of the arch produces energy, which is stored in batteries and powers a construction passenger lift.
The lift operates on an occasional basis. When enough wind energy has been collected, the lift is able to ascend. The new infrastructure becomes part of the old one: The Wind Lift is attached to the viaduct. Here, two different infrastructural projects meet, one from the past and one from the future. Developing a sustainable energy infrastructure is one of main challenges of the twenty-first century. The Wind Lift, essentially, becomes a lookout onto the future.
Location
Folkestone, UK
Area
20
Year
2014
Project by
OOZE (Eva Pfannes & Sylvain Hartenberg) and Marjetica Potrč
Event
Folkestone Triennial 2014
Curator
Lewis Biggs
Commissioner
Creative Foundation
Collaborators
Structure: Atelier One; Project Manager: Jonathan Wright; Paula Martinez Sancho (Ooze)
Status
Realised
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