Case Study 2 – Sustainable Dance Floor
Case Study 2 – Sustainable Dance Floor
Areas of impact: Environmental and social
Social enterprise location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Short description of activities:
The Sustainable Dance Floor is the first dance floor that captures the energy of dancing. The energy produced by movement is converted into electricity that makes the dance floor light up. The total energy generated by dancers on the floor is shown on a two meter high ’energy meter’. The more people that dance, the more energy is produced and the higher the meter reading displayed.
Why it is a social design:
- The Sustainable Dance floor combines technological innovations in the field of sustainable design with sensory design
- It creates an attractive, interactive clubbing environment that makes clubbers aware of their own energy, their interaction and the impact on the ‘environment’
What is its design aspect?
The dance floor utilises electronics, embedded software and smart durable materials. It consists of modules (floortiles) that measure 65 x 65 cm. Each tile experiences vertical movement of up to 1 cm when danced on. These movements are transformed by an advanced electric motor into electric power. Every person is able to produce 5-20 Watts of power, depending on his or her weight and activity on the dance floor. The generated energy is used to power the interactive elements of the floor.
Main actors and interactions (including stakeholders, networks, services and revenue streams):
The Sustainable Dance Floor is the creation of a number of multidisciplinary partners:
- Overall concept: Sustainable Dance Club™
- Basic concept: University of Technology Delft, Industrial Design
- Design and interaction: Studioroosegaarde.net
- Technical implementation of the basic concept: Advanced Electromagnetics BV in collaboration with University of Technology Eindhoven
- Electronics and software engineering: Ymif Engineering, The Hague, The Netherlands
- The SDF involves the club owners, the clubbers and the wider public in an interaction that visualises the nature of energy consumption and production
- Sustainable Dance Floor is a collaboration between the green-entrepreneur consultancy Enviu, architect Doll-Atelier voor Bouwkunst and Prof Han Brezet of the Delft University of Technology
Social Impact:
- The SDF builds awareness for energy consumption and generation among the general public in a fun and interactive way
- This fun approach has captured the imagination of many stakeholders including one of Europe’s largest energy suppliers, EDF which is working with the Sustainable Dance club to promote energy conservation
- Similarly the SDF concept is touring the world and featuring in exhibitions such as The Exhibition Climate Change: Our Future, Our Choice at the Australian Museum, Sydney
Economic Impact:
- While the SDF is a sustainable eco-technology business, its greatest potential may be yet to come as similar technology is being developed by project partners for use in gyms, airports and other contexts to capture human power to reduce energy consumption
- There are cost-savings linked to reduced consumption of other forms of energy in the ‘powering’ of the clubbing environment (including lighting)
Environmental Impact:
- A night club uses 150 times more energy than the average household. The SDF helps to reduce this consumption
- It makes clubbers aware of their own energy, their interaction and their impact on the environment
- The generated energy is used to power the interactive clubbing environment
- The technology of the dance floor is continuously being developed so that it is possible to use the generated energy for wider uses leading to greater reductions in energy consumption and associated environmental impacts
Links:
www.sustainabledanceclub.com