Emergency Response Studio in Prospect 1 New Orleans Exhibit

It’s great to be able to write about a project like this. I wish there were more of them.

Paul Villinski turned a salvaged FEMA-style trailer into a solar-powererd, mobile artist’s studio. According to Paul, the “sustainably re-built, off-the-grid living and work space is designed to enable artists to ‘embed’ in post-disaster settings, and respond and contribute creatively.”

This innovative living space project, known as Emergency Response Studio, is powered completely by a 1.6 kilowatt photo-voltaic solar system that features nine large solar panels tilting upward from the roof to face the sun. More power is provided by a micro-wind turbine turning on top of a 40-foot high aluminum mast. Eight large batteries (each weighing as much as an average man) store the power, and they may be seen in the floor through a clear Lucite section.

Paul says, “Symbolically, the structure is expansive, both opening outwardly and inviting the outside in, enabling free exchange between artist and environment in a collaboration of reinvention.”

And, not to mention, it’s sort of beautiful too!

The Emergency Response Studio will be shown at Prospect 1 New Orleans — the largest exhibition of international contemporary art organized in the US. It opens on November 1, 2008.

Other posts at Junk Creation about Paul Villinski’s projects:
Emergency Response Studio
Things You’d Never Imagine From Beer Cans, Gloves and Chairs

Images provided courtesy of Paul Villinski.