Forget about ‘Grease’. Today, ‘Sustainability’ is the word, is the word, that’s got groove and got meaning! With the climate changing fast, we all must be ‘greener’ all the time and everywhere.
So why not also in the club? Three TU Delft students are part of a revolutionary new project . the Sustainable Dance Club . that aims to transform clubs and festivals into more sustainable places for having fun.
In addition to reducing the heavy ecological footprint of the club scene, the goal the Sustainable Dance Club (SDC) is to introduce sustainability to a larger and younger audience by making the concept of sustainability fresh, trendy and profitable.
The Sustainable Dance Club project was recently started by two organizations in Rotterdam: Enviu (Innovators in Sustainability), and Doll (Studio for Architecture). It’s hoped that this new concept, which is based on integrating sustainable design, technologies and entrepreneurship in a club environment, will revolutionize our vision of nightlife: while dancing and having fun, people will also be contributing to a sustainable society.
Up to this point, serious research has been conducted in sustainable awareness, energy, water, waste, clubbing, festivals, communication and, of course, how to make this venture profitable. This is just the beginning. In the near future, consultancy services will be available to club owners, which will provide physical and design solutions, as well as advise on running sustainable dance clubs. Supporting the SDC’s primary concept is the ‘On Tour’ feature: a mobile concept that will carry the ‘green concepts’ message to all the young people attending festivals around the world.
Anouk Randag, an SDC team member and recent MSc graduate of Delft’s Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) Faculty, designed the SDC’s ‘FluxFloor’, which is an adjoining modular of energised dance floor tiles. The first test was conducted using two models measuring one square meter, on which people dance while creating their own energy. This energy is visible in the form of lights flashing around the dancer’s feet. The floor also features several interactive effects; for instance, dancers can dance light around them, dance light towards each other (into other modules) and blend colours. The kinetic energy in the (moving) floor parts is converted by means of electro-mechanic conversion in small generators.
The ‘FluxFloor’, which is still under development, is the symbol of the Sustainable Dance Club. Although there are many conflicting opinions about the project’s outcome, Randag is pleased that so many people are enthusiastic about the project and welcomes criticism, such as those that say the dance floor doesn’t save enough energy or is too expensive.
Cool
“It’s not a sustainable dance floor, but rather an energy converting dance floor,” Randag says. “Sometimes I’m scared of what people just want to believe.” Energy conversion in the floor has a huge constraint: human physics, and this won’t change much in the coming years. Because people want to dance, and not perform some kind of fitness dancing, the floor must be comfortable to dance normally on. Although rapid, fitness-like dances would generate much more energy, a club cannot become like an aerobics studio. But with continuing improvements in LED lighting, it should be possible in future to generate more light with the same power.
“This floor is something new, cool and attractive,” Randag says. “It’ll attract the public and hopefully change people’s mindset about sustainability. The danger however would be if the floor was used as a ‘greenwashing’ product; that is, the clubs use the floor as a ‘green tag’ to show they’re being sustainable without really being sustainable.”
Project team member Elmar Stroomer, also a recent IDE MSc graduate, has developed an SDC toolbox, which is a search tool for providing green solutions that make clubs and festivals more sustainable in inspiring ways. By going to the SDC website and answering questions about waste and (energy) consumption at their clubs, club owners can find out in which areas it’s necessary to adopt green solutions. Moreover, club owners can also learn about short- and long-term benefits and how to create unique selling points that add value to their dance clubs.
Stroomer also designed a ‘personal cup’ for club-goers, which combines the designs of a cup and a tray to hold peoples’ empty glasses when they aren’t drinking. In this way, clubs aren’t littered with plastic cups, which reduces waste and costs. And when glasses are used, not as many glasses need to be used and washed, and no ‘glass-pickers’ need to be hired to retrieve the empty glasses.
The sustainable cup also encourages people to drink more responsibly and controlled, as drinkers have the option of keeping their empty cups instead of leaving them on the bar or dropping them on the ground. The cups can be refilled with the same drink, so that water needn’t be wasted washing them. This small, easy-to-use product is one of SDC’s simple yet sustainable accessory solutions.
The project’s third aspect is a sustainable bar, which he is currently developing with SDC as part of his IDE MSc graduation project. The sustainable bar is an important feature for reducing energy, water and/or waste in the sustainable club. Taken together, the Sustainable Dance Club is expected to become one of the permanent tents at festivals around the world, where inside people experience all the fun and various ways of partying sustainably. Raising peoples’ awareness is the key to sustainability’s future success.
In Spring 2008, the former Rotterdam club, ‘Night Town’, will reopen as ‘Mytown’ and has agreed to become more sustainable in cooperation with SDC. All of the above concepts will be integrated in this club. Graduate students and volunteers are also now starting many other sustainable concepts for the Sustainable Dance Club project.
The SDC’s progress can be followed via the websites, and the organisers welcome anyone who has good sustainable idea they want to develop to join the project.
In addition to reducing the heavy ecological footprint of the club scene, the goal the Sustainable Dance Club (SDC) is to introduce sustainability to a larger and younger audience by making the concept of sustainability fresh, trendy and profitable.
The Sustainable Dance Club project was recently started by two organizations in Rotterdam: Enviu (Innovators in Sustainability), and Doll (Studio for Architecture). It’s hoped that this new concept, which is based on integrating sustainable design, technologies and entrepreneurship in a club environment, will revolutionize our vision of nightlife: while dancing and having fun, people will also be contributing to a sustainable society.
Up to this point, serious research has been conducted in sustainable awareness, energy, water, waste, clubbing, festivals, communication and, of course, how to make this venture profitable. This is just the beginning. In the near future, consultancy services will be available to club owners, which will provide physical and design solutions, as well as advise on running sustainable dance clubs. Supporting the SDC’s primary concept is the ‘On Tour’ feature: a mobile concept that will carry the ‘green concepts’ message to all the young people attending festivals around the world.
Anouk Randag, an SDC team member and recent MSc graduate of Delft’s Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) Faculty, designed the SDC’s ‘FluxFloor’, which is an adjoining modular of energised dance floor tiles. The first test was conducted using two models measuring one square meter, on which people dance while creating their own energy. This energy is visible in the form of lights flashing around the dancer’s feet. The floor also features several interactive effects; for instance, dancers can dance light around them, dance light towards each other (into other modules) and blend colours. The kinetic energy in the (moving) floor parts is converted by means of electro-mechanic conversion in small generators.
The ‘FluxFloor’, which is still under development, is the symbol of the Sustainable Dance Club. Although there are many conflicting opinions about the project’s outcome, Randag is pleased that so many people are enthusiastic about the project and welcomes criticism, such as those that say the dance floor doesn’t save enough energy or is too expensive.
Cool
“It’s not a sustainable dance floor, but rather an energy converting dance floor,” Randag says. “Sometimes I’m scared of what people just want to believe.” Energy conversion in the floor has a huge constraint: human physics, and this won’t change much in the coming years. Because people want to dance, and not perform some kind of fitness dancing, the floor must be comfortable to dance normally on. Although rapid, fitness-like dances would generate much more energy, a club cannot become like an aerobics studio. But with continuing improvements in LED lighting, it should be possible in future to generate more light with the same power.
“This floor is something new, cool and attractive,” Randag says. “It’ll attract the public and hopefully change people’s mindset about sustainability. The danger however would be if the floor was used as a ‘greenwashing’ product; that is, the clubs use the floor as a ‘green tag’ to show they’re being sustainable without really being sustainable.”
Project team member Elmar Stroomer, also a recent IDE MSc graduate, has developed an SDC toolbox, which is a search tool for providing green solutions that make clubs and festivals more sustainable in inspiring ways. By going to the SDC website and answering questions about waste and (energy) consumption at their clubs, club owners can find out in which areas it’s necessary to adopt green solutions. Moreover, club owners can also learn about short- and long-term benefits and how to create unique selling points that add value to their dance clubs.
Stroomer also designed a ‘personal cup’ for club-goers, which combines the designs of a cup and a tray to hold peoples’ empty glasses when they aren’t drinking. In this way, clubs aren’t littered with plastic cups, which reduces waste and costs. And when glasses are used, not as many glasses need to be used and washed, and no ‘glass-pickers’ need to be hired to retrieve the empty glasses.
The sustainable cup also encourages people to drink more responsibly and controlled, as drinkers have the option of keeping their empty cups instead of leaving them on the bar or dropping them on the ground. The cups can be refilled with the same drink, so that water needn’t be wasted washing them. This small, easy-to-use product is one of SDC’s simple yet sustainable accessory solutions.
The project’s third aspect is a sustainable bar, which he is currently developing with SDC as part of his IDE MSc graduation project. The sustainable bar is an important feature for reducing energy, water and/or waste in the sustainable club. Taken together, the Sustainable Dance Club is expected to become one of the permanent tents at festivals around the world, where inside people experience all the fun and various ways of partying sustainably. Raising peoples’ awareness is the key to sustainability’s future success.
In Spring 2008, the former Rotterdam club, ‘Night Town’, will reopen as ‘Mytown’ and has agreed to become more sustainable in cooperation with SDC. All of the above concepts will be integrated in this club. Graduate students and volunteers are also now starting many other sustainable concepts for the Sustainable Dance Club project.
The SDC’s progress can be followed via the websites, and the organisers welcome anyone who has good sustainable idea they want to develop to join the project.
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