Powered by Public Art: 10 Stunning “Aesthetic Power Plants” for Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Once the world’s largest landfill, Freshkills Park will soon be transformed into New York City’s biggest new green space in a century.

But the park is also poised to become a pioneer in what have been dubbed “aesthetic power plants.” These visually striking pieces of public art create utility-scale renewable energy from wind, solar, or wave power.

Inspiring functional and beautiful renewable-energy generation is the goal of the ambitious Land Art Generator Initiative, which is working with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation on a 2012 design competition for energy-generating artworks on a site within the 2,200-acre Freshkills Park.

The second in what LAGI founders Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry hope will be biennial worldwide events, the Freshkills competition follows the inaugural 2010 competition in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which drew more than 200 entries from 40 countries for three sites in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

As design teams rev their creative engines to propose projects for the Freshkills site, we present 10 of the most striking designs from the 2010 UAE competition to serve as inspiration.