• In Short
  • Installation art
  • Spatial

Kim van den Belt

‘so that nature can also benefit’

Kim van den Belt’s hanging sculptural lamp turns out to be research. The lamp is developed with new sustainable and living CO2 filters made of the stone type olivine, the mineral struvite and photosynthetic algae. Kim van den Belt investigates the possibility of creating new solutions in an energy-neutral system with natural, local ingredients.

The project Kaia is about the big challenge and the incredibly complicated topic: CO2. The research is about the development of new sustainable CO2 filters using algae, specifically the species diatoms. CO2 is absorbed in the object and oxygen is released through photosynthesis. After two months there is enough to harvest on the object. With the end product, the biomass, new material, biodiesel or even glass can be made.

‘For me, a design would never be successful if we, in the final product, only took from nature, exhausted nature.’  Kim van den Belt wants to find a way to also give back to nature in new developments. This can be done by thinking about the development process in advance, about how you can make a product CO2 neutral or CO2 negative. But you could also develop products that enter into a symbiotic relationship between man and product, where nature also benefits.

@kimvandenbelt