By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: A Sydney student’s entry into the 2008 Australian Design Awards’ Dyson Student Awards aims to help save the planet by using solar light-absorbing OLED window louvers to light a room.
Sydney student Damian Savio’s entry – Lightway – is based around Breezway louvers, but replaces the traditional materials with customisable light-absorbing OLEDs, which charge by absorbing light during the day and emitting it at night. The light emitted is equivalent to a 60w light bulb.
The design is one of many at this year’s awards, which also include a new type of exhaust emissions filter, a collapsible surfboard and the “Project Eden’ indoor agricultural device.
The Lightway design’s announcement comes a week before Sydney, along with other major cities in the world, switches its lights off tomorrow at 8pm in a symbolic gesture about helping to save the planet.
The finalists will all go into the running to win the Australian International Design Awards, announced Friday 30 May.
The complete list of project entries can also be viewed online at http://www.student.designawards.com.au under ‘Entries’.