National Geographic

Daan Roosegaarde’s solar- powered bikepath glows at night from the energy it hascollected during daylight hours.PHOTO: MARC BOLSIUS``````Daan Roosegaarde—urban architect,innovator, and night diver—finds bio-luminescent plankton inspiring. “Theydon’t have a battery, they don’t have anenergy bill, they don’t have a mainte-nance contract,” he says. “What can welearn from them?”That question drives Roosegaarde’slife’s work: drawing on nature to makecities more efficient and more beautifulwithout damaging our planet.To emulate plankton that emit light,Roosegaarde and his colleagues embed-ded solar- powered stones in the bikepath seen here. The path is in Nuenenin the Netherlands—onetime homeof Vincent van Gogh—so the glowingstones were arranged to resemble theartist’s master work “The Starry Night.”The Dutch innovator considers it“weird” that people focus on vehiclesbut neglect the surfaces they drive on:“Infrastructure defines our cities andlandscapes way more than the cars.”He flips that focus with inventions forroads—paint that changes color whenthe temperature drops, lanes that chargethe electric cars driving on them, and re-flective lines powered by urban lighting.In a nation that lies below sea level,Roosegaarde takes this work personally:“Without technology and good design,”he says, “we would literally drown.”``````NATURE’S URBANINNOVATIONS``````By Natasha Daly``````A GLIMPSE OF WHAT’S NEW AND NEXTFURTHER