Wallpaper 11

PHOTOGRAPHY: PETR KREJČÍ WRITER: NICK COMPTON

aan Roosegaarde is a tall,

exuberant man with big, exciting ideas (the

Dutch often are). Since establishing his

design studio in Rotterdam a decade ago,

he has created energy-neutral street lighting,

energy-generating kites, an on-demand

aurora borealis to illustrate the threat of

rising water levels and, most famously, a

smog-sucking tower. His latest mission is to

dam or divert orbiting streams of space trash;

29,000 satellite bits and rocket pieces which,

if left unchecked, threaten to block escape

routes out of the Earth’s atmosphere. Or at

least wipe out your Wi-Fi for a good while.

In October, his studio launched Space

Waste Lab, the irst move in a long-term

efort to take down, or better upcycle, as

much of this orbital junk as possible. To

kickstart a space waste expo and symposium,

Roosegaarde and his team set up camp

at the KAF cultural centre in Almere in the

ABOVE, STUDIO SWINE’S SPECIALLY

COMMISSIONED IMAGE OF SMOKE-FILLED

BUBBLES, PART OF THEIR ONGOING

ALGORITHMIC AND EPHEMERAL MEDIA

Inspired by creative thinkers with stratospheric ambition, we launch

our very own Wallpaper* Moonshots Division, a design lab

with extraordinary objectives. Watch this space for Earth-shaking

new products, prototypes, experiences and immersions

European Space Agency, includes workshops

or ‘living labs’. Amateurs and professionals,

scientists and schoolchildren alike are

encouraged to come along and throw in their

own ideas and sugestions.

Like all of Roosegaarde’s projects, Space

Waste Lab’s opening gambit is an alert

and call to arms. His studio is dedicated to

speculations, prototypes and provocations,

spectacle designed to galvanise (and

certainly not the gazillioneth reiteration

of an everyday object). But this isn’t

showmanship selling high ideals and sloppy

science. Roosegaarde is clear that much of

his team’s work is done in collaboration

with academics and research scientists.

The aim isn’t to get product trundling of

production lines or keep craftsmen busy

(though this may happen), but to change

thinking and policy at the highest level –

or every level that matters. (^) »
Netherlands and aimed high-powered LEDs
at scrap metal orbiting at altitudes of
anywhere between 200 and 20,000km (they
had spent over a year working with space
agencies to develop tracking technology and
obtain the requisite safety approvals).
This spectacular light show, with monthly
repeats through to January next year, is an
efort to illuminate and pinpoint just one
per cent of space trash more than 10cm long
(pieces much smaller than this, some
travelling at a speed of 25,000km/h, can
also cause catastrophic damage to satellites
but they are almost impossible to map).
The three-month-long space waste expo,
put together with advisors from Nasa and the
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