Wind

© 2010 Designskolen KoldingÅgade 106000 Kolding+45 [email protected]

Department of Product Design Head of Department – Mathilde AggeboLecturer – Kent Laursen

Design, editorMichael Frederiksen

PhotoJens Christian Hansen

Kent LaursenMichael Frederiksen

and the student groups

ISBN 978-87-90775-20-9

wind is a project run under the auspices of Designskolen Kolding’s Laboratory for Design and Sustainability. The school’s

laboratories develop new teaching methods and forms of communication and create space to ex-periment, think in new ways and work with chal-lenging new ideas. The laboratory is supported by The European Fund for Regional Development through Vækstforum/Region Syddanmark.

yes, please in my backyard! wind power in the future

Mette Strømgaard DalbyHead of Development, Laboratory for Design, Innovation and Sustainability, Kolding School of Design

We are on a trip up through Jutland on long, straight sections of mortorway as well as on the smaller, scenic routes that tourists use to see Denmark at its very best. Everywhere we encounter tall, white wind turbines standing in straight rows making good on their promise of supplying us with energy. At a roundabout in the middle of Jutland, we wait – for a long time – for a transporter with a wind turbine section. The vehicle is so enormous that the round-about is designed so that the turbine can be driven through the green section in the middle. All cars on the adjacent roads have to wait patiently for this strange phenomenon to pass, but while it is taking place, we can ponder in awe and marvel at its size. For yes, it is enormous and, although most people would agree that renewables are the only sensible solution for our energy needs, most people’s imme-diate reaction is “Not In My Backyard” (known as the NIMBY effect). It is of course a question of size but also aesthetics. In fact, studies show that many people do not want renewable energy sources be-cause they think that they are ugly. Here is a design challenge!

There is no accounting for taste, and whether peo-ple like the streamlined, white wind turbines or pre-fer the red and white Tintin-patterned 1970s version made famous by the Tvind organisation in Denmark is different from person to person. Nonetheless, the wind turbines you encounter everywhere in Den-mark – and worldwide – are generally typified by three-blades with an off-white tower. In 2009, Ves-tas was the world’s largest producer of wind tur-bines. Visible experiments could be a next step for them, perhaps with “customised” local or regional wind turbines that make a virtue of their location – just like every city has a football team with their own game jersey design. Designs will eventually make a difference!

The history of Danish wind turbine production is comparable with Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of the ugly duckling that became a beautiful swan. In the 1970s, the focus on renewable energy sources as alternatives to nuclear power led to a series of vi-sionary, “longhaired” pioneers beginning to devel-op wind energy. Today, we would call them innova-tive, because they had an idea, it was implemented and indirectly it helped to create one of Denmark’s export successes; a success which today is under great threat from players from the USA, India, Chi-na and Spain. Thus, we have – again – a need for fresh thinking.

At a global level, Vestas has been one of the pio-neers of wind energy. Kolding School of Design greatly appreciates working with such a major play-er around the challenges encountered in the design and development of new, improved types of wind turbines. Cooperating with Vestas builds on the school’s strategy of working with sustainability in the energy and transport sectors, including the de-velopment projects carried out in the Laboratory of Design, Innovation and Sustainability. We think that design and designers have much to offer in rela-tion to the further development of attractive energy solutions including turbines, both through the de-signers’ involvement of users in the design process and in relation to future cradle-to-cradle thinking, involving the entire wind turbine cycle from when it first sees the light of day until it is recirculated in an eternal cycle. For this reason, cooperation with industry, in this case with Vestas, is crucial for the Kolding School of Design. Therefore, we find it im-portant to draw attention to what design can do for people and societies, so we can help make renew-able energy a success in the landscape. In other words, in the future we want people to say: “Yes, please in my backyard!”.

Source: ”Vindmøller i Danmark” – report from Energistyrelsen, 2009

I have created a sculptural wind turbine designed to give Vestas the opportunity to place their wind turbines closer to cities. The values of architect and engineer Santiago Calatravas have played a de-fining role in my design. Through their dynamism his constructions disseminate their function while elegant, bionic aesthetics appeal to the people in-teracting with them.

This mindset is pivotal to the wind turbine industry, because in the future, placing wind turbines solely in rural areas will not be possible. Wind turbine en-gineering will have to be pushed in new directions for the wind turbines to become better integrated in urban settings.

For the same reason, I believe that the original white Vestas colour fits my design. The wind turbine car-ries a strong message of sustainability and could easily be erected as a quartet near a city boundary, much like the sculptures “Man by the Sea” by artist Svend Wiig Hansen, creating a green brand for the city. In this case, a clear white colour would very much accentuate the wind turbine as a sculpture in motion rather than a machine.

I regard my wind turbine as a completed design but also as a concept for a new approach to wind tur-bine design.

signe mårbjerg twist




The design emphasises the muscle (the gear box) of the wind turbine, visualising the force of the wind. The robust but simple lines of the wind turbine stand out and call to mind the insect, the beetle, Saint Worm, or the firefly. The small, hard, muscular head and thorax, the long, elegant wings, and the larger, soft abdomen that the firefly carries around like a precious treasure are all distinctive features reflected in this wind turbine.

The abdomen, or the nacelle, is formed of large plates that form angles in relation to each other.

Not only to create flicker and make the surface more interesting but also to absorb air in the na-celle, thus cooling the gear and generator down during periods of optimum wind. In other words, the wind determines the angle of the plates.

A source of light can be placed inside the nacelle giving the spectator an understanding of the wind direction and the wind speed because during strong wind, the body will open up entirely and al-low light to escape through the plates; almost like a firefly in the dark of night.

nikolaj lorentz firefly




V90 Dynamics is an onshore wind turbine based on Vestas’ patented passive cooling system from the V112 and is designed to make the system more aesthetically appealing and transport friendly.

The design of the wind turbine is intended to ap-peal to the general public and create more visual recognisability, thereby giving Vestas a head start compared to its competitors. The aesthetics are developed by shaping the wind turbine into a more fluent and complete design, underlining its aerody-namic appearance as well as the way it is generally perceived.

A visually strong and easily recognisable trait that might serve as a future distinctive feature of Ves-tas’ wind turbines are the two triangular air cooling elements with characteristic Vestas blue edges on each side of the nacelle. They are the main feature of the wind turbine and work by popping out of the sides of the nacelle like a pair of wings whenever the wind turbine needs cooling. This means that it is able to regulate its passive cooling and in addition

sends a visual message to the spectator about its current productivity.

The idea of the triangle is evident in several ele-ments of the design. Inside the nacelle, the pointed and round spinners lead into a triangle that is com-pleted by a convex surface, and inside the tower of the wind turbine, the triangular bottom leads to a circle at the top where the tower and nacelle con-nect. This transition between tower and nacelle is designed as a soft, concave curve, which ensures a fluent design and relieves the material strain on the ring of the nacelle as well, since the force of the wind is best diverted by curves.

Finally, the two dynamic air cooling elements ensure that the nacelle becomes more transport friendly, since the air cooling system is integrated in the na-celle and does not need to be transported sepa-rately. The wind turbine is manufactured according to current principles with fibreglass blades and a steel tower, but with the exception that the coach-work of the nacelle is composed of fibreglass.

kasper schwartz v90 dynamics



the challenge for the students from kolding school of design

John K. Grevsen, Director Nacelle & Hub R&D, Vestas Technology R&D

The challenge for the design students was to re-conceptualise wind turbines, moving beyond the traditional tall, white structures that Vestas make today.

These innovative students have created designs that challenge our view of what wind turbines should look like and how they should be integrated into the environment around them. These innova-tive designs incorporate novel shapes, materials

and finishes not found in traditional turbine design.

This collaboration benefits both Vestas and the stu-dents. For the students, it generates a considerable amount of new design knowledge and understand-ing of how to collaborate with industry.

For Vestas, some of the concepts imagined by these young designers may be incorporated into future wind turbine designs.

I have worked on making the wind turbine a more visible and sculptural part of the landscape. Wind turbines are added into the context of nature by us and we decide what they should look like. There-fore, we might as well turn them into wonderful ar-chitectural vision.

My design draws attention to the wind turbines by making them beautiful to look at. The shapes and colours of the wind turbine form different patterns depending on the weather. On some days, the grey colour is more visible, and on others, the white.

The angular shapes produce shade and help form new patterns. Some shapes are more visible during cloudy weather, others during sunshine. Thus, the

wind turbine fits the light condition of every country. In Turkey, where the sun sits high in the sky every day, the wind turbine has a certain appearance that is very different from the way it presents itself in Denmark, where the weather is often grey. Making a wind turbine that looks beautiful in grey weather has been particularly important to me.

Putting Gradient into production is a realistic ambi-tion in that it might be made as a shield that can be fitted on to the existing wind turbine. The tower and the spinner are not any different from an existing Vestas wind turbine.

Production-wise alterations are few but experience-wise, the difference is significant!

julie madsen gradient




christina hansen urban

I designed an urban wind turbine intended for the parks of large cities around the world. My main fo-cus lay in bringing people closer to the wind tur-bines, physically as well as mentally – to invite peo-ple to experience them. My wind turbine consists of a stem surrounded by clusters of platforms that vary in height to encourage people to sit down and spend time with them.

I found my inspiration for the wind turbine in city parks - a very structured and designed kind of na-ture with large trees and grass areas; a setting that I believe fits this wind turbine. Just like the trees, this wind turbine grows producing new shoots for fu-ture wind turbines.

I concentrated on giving the wind turbine a more appealing look both when it comes to material and form in order to bring them closer to the people and present a positive experience of the wind turbine as being part of our everyday lives.

The city wind turbine is designed as a monument and a visible brand of wind energy, educating and informing to make people relate to the abstract concept of energy.

My intention is to plant a new idea of what defines a wind turbine. An idea that will give people new ideas about wind turbines and wind energy and prepare the way for even more of them around the world.



I believe that a better understanding among the general public of the concept of energy is an impor-tant prerequisite for solving the energy crisis. Ener-gy, in this case electricity, is invisible and intangible.

By utilising daylight, V.EVE (Vestas Energy Visuali-sation through Emotions) becomes a visualization of the function of the wind turbine. A soft, delicate light falls on the nacelle from underneath the ”hat”, pulsating in time with the speed of the turbine. This helps the spectator understand the function of the wind turbine and thus makes way for an emotional relationship with it.

”The hat” works as a passive cooler by taking in upwind cool air and releasing heat at the rear. Fur-thermore, “the hat” represents a visual brand and is intended to be a distinctive Vestas sign.

Basically, the design correlates with Vestas’ method of construction but with a few aesthetic changes.

Today’s wind turbines consist of multiple modes of expression. A round tower meets an angular house connected to organic blades. I have tried to bal-ance this in order to give the wind turbine a more harmonic appearance.

christoffer hjorhöy v.eve





wind turbines of the future,what should they look like?

Mathilde Aggebo, Head of Department of Product Design Kent Laursen, Study Coordinator, Industrial Design

Kolding School of Design, both in teaching and re-search, focuses on how design can contribute to the development and diffusion of sustainable prod-ucts in our society. Sustainable solutions must be the solutions you cannot help but choose because they are the best in terms of technology, functional-ity and economics. But no less important is making the form and expression of the product part of that choice.

Denmark has long been a leader in developing wind power and today enjoys a world-leading role. About half of all the wind turbines in the world are produced in Denmark. Further to this, Denmark is also one of the countries where wind power rep-resents the greatest share of total electricity pro-duction. According to the Danish Energy Agency, in 2009 20% of the total amount of energy was pro-duced from wind. In the theme issue “Wind power to combat climate change” published by the news magazine “Green thinking in Denmark” it is stated that Denmark has a defined goal to increase ca-pacity to 50% by 2025.

Today, there are approximately 5,200 wind turbines in Denmark. Modern wind turbines are reliable, fine-ly tuned and engineered machines made of steel and plastic. They are more streamlined and elegant in their design than the grain mills on hilltops of pre-vious generations. But they are also designed to appear as futuristic efficient, foreign elements in the areas and cultures they are situated in. Efficiency is always central to the design of wind turbines, but if they do not visually communicate with the context they are part of they will always appear to be un-integrated with our natural and cultural landscapes.

The great interest in developing wind energy and wind industries in Denmark combined with the fact that we see design as one of our core competenc-es makes it ideal to explore the potential of combin-ing wind turbines and design.

In the autumn of 2009, second-year students from Industrial Design were given the challenge of de-signing wind turbines. Vestas helped to formulate the task and provide the necessary background knowledge for the students. An information course at Vestas and visits to a wind turbine gave the stu-dents knowledge of engineering, production engi-neering and the daily routines of working with the turbines. The students were challenged to develop wind turbines based on three standard blades with a focus on the design of the tower and tur-bine house and not least how to integrate the wind turbines in their given context. The students could choose to work with urban, onshore or offshore wind turbines.

The students focused on how design, concept, form, colour and material selection can make wind turbines more attractive and add value to the function, while making sure that their choices corresponded with Vestas’ values and production methods.

The result of the project is the design of 12 new wind turbines presented here in this publication. The publication has been developed in cooperation with Vestas and we look forward to continuing our pro-fessional relationship with the company in order to strengthen the role design can play in the further de-velopment of wind energy in Denmark and abroad.

emil søgård shimmer

Shimmer challenges how a wind turbine can look and how it can be perceived. The conventional wind turbine is one of the most optimised constructions in existence. Therefore I chose to explore the space that engineers and builders had left untouched. The space where one tries to distance the wind turbine from the landscape that we inhabit; the space that tries to remove the construction that embodies the wind.

Another concept that Shimmer touches on is ”sun flicker”. The phenomenon occurs when the wind turbine is between the setting or rising sun and the spectator. Briefly the blades block out the sun, giv-ing the spectator the sense that the sun is flickering.

These are the elements that Shimmer builds on. The result is a hexagonal wind turbine and nacelle that provide an entirely new perspective on the experi-ence of a wind turbine. The hexagonal shape gives a “pure” reflection of the actual surroundings with-out distortion.

You will see Shimmer transform during grey/cloudy weather and reflect its surroundings, thus disap-pearing into the monotonous terrain. During days of bright sunshine, it will become a sculptural monument transforming it into a new kind of wind turbine that will attract positive attention, as opposed to regular wind turbines that seem uninspiring and dull to peo-ple who do not have any personal relation to them.



Sandstorm has an integrated, aerodynamic design.Designing the tower I was inspired by the image of placing a large limestone pillar in a desert for a thou-sand years and letting nature grind the pillar into the perfect aerodynamic shape, namely the shape of a drop appearing in the horizontal intersection of both the tower and the nacelle.

Blowing a strong wind on a round pipe will cre-ate a wake effect on the back of the pipe making the pipe unstable, but doing the same thing with a drop-shaped pipe will not.

The wind turbine is designed to make the wind help yaw the entire wind turbine. Yaw gear and techni-cal gear are moved to the ground to create easy access for service engineers as there is not much room inside a wind turbine. This creates a greater volume at the bottom and thereby integrates with the natural surface surrounding the wind turbine.

The wind turbine is painted in RAL 9013, an organic pale sand shade to fit the location near a beach. The wind turbine is designed to fit locations near the sea, the beach and fields close to larger coastal cities.

jacob bro sandstorm

jacob bro sandstorm

jacob bro sandstorm

I have tried to bring personality and character to the wind turbine by focusing on shape and the inspira-tion found in the sunflower. Hence, the name Mira-sol - Spanish for sunflower. Just as the sunflower follows the journey of the sun across the sky, the wind turbine follows the journey of the wind. The turbine head is designed to tip up and down de-pending on the wind speed. During strong wind, the wind turbine will lift its head, and during little or no wind, it will lower its head.

Ten per cent of all wind turbines are privately owned and this wind turbine is intended for private use. It is to be located near cities and as close to its owner/owners as possible.

The wind turbine comes with a small computer to

be installed on the owner’s house for easy reading of the power production of the wind turbine. To many people electricity is an inexplicable phenom-enon and kWh can be hard to relate to. Therefore, the display tells you how many homes are currently powered by the wind turbine. This way, the wind turbine gives you a clear image of what it does for you.

The wind turbine is made from concrete and fibre-glass and generally applies the same manufactur-ing techniques as the existing Vestas range. How-ever, the coral ring is moved further down the pillar in order for the wind turbine to turn. In addition, the turbine head is more organically challenging than regular Vestas wind turbines; an important design element adding personality and character.

lena hammelev mirasol




The wind turbine Maple takes its starting point in an urban setting. The inspiration for the design comes from the seed of the maple tree and contemporary architecture inspired by nature as well as artists fo-cusing on the sculptural aspects of the city space.

Maple complements urban architecture and gives the spectator a new experience of the wind turbine as a more sculptural object. The large rear of the house functions as an absorber making the house turn more steadily and also as a cooling surface to take heat from the en-gines. Contrary to the angular shapes and dis-tinct transition points of the present day Vestas range Maple’s design is more organic and fluent.

Usually, you find wind turbine towers to be com-pletely vertical, but Maple challenges this percep-tion by presenting a forward-looking and organic shape. This makes the turbine house and the tower interact providing a better overall impression.

Maple is intended for limited manufacture. This en-ables Vestas to show that they are willing to think outside the box and look to the future. The Vestas logo is enlarged leaving no doubt in the mind of the spectator that this is indeed a Vestas wind turbine and separating it from the wind turbines of other manufacturers.

naija hovind maple

naija hovind maple

naija hovind maple

wind turbinesa valuable design task?

Tore Kristensen, Professor of Strategic Design, Copenhagen Business School

A classic history of design could be said to have started with the English “Crystal Palace” buildings at the World Exhibition in 1875. That the buildings no longer exist may be a symbolic expression that the idea represented a misguided view of design – design history did not begin either with “Skøn-virke” (Danish Arts and Crafts movement) or clas-sic Danish furniture design. In contrast, researchers such as John Heskett have gone a hundred thou-sand years back in the archaeological records to try and find the origin of design. We are not speaking specifically about industrial design but about how the man-made artefacts at this time may have been realised to create functionality and meaning in the lives of their users. It is believed that it was in con-nection with the development of ‘mirror neurons’ and human language that design came into being – at the same time as when our ancestors left the coasts of Africa and eventually ended up with us. So, we are talking about a much more comprehen-sive design concept than the media use when they talk about “designer clothes”, “design policy”, “designer hotels” and so on.

It is obvious that wind turbines, just like under-ground pump houses and other machines we rarely see, should be designed to fulfil their tasks as being easy to understand.

In his article from 2009, Jacob Ladenburg examines the general populace’s assessment of offshore wind farms. It asks what sea areas wind turbines should be positioned in and if so, how far from the coast they should be. Distance is of major impor-tance when it comes to accepting offshore wind farms because of their visual nuisance (Ladenburg 2009). They are an example of design which most people think is important to society but do not want near themselves because of their noise and their

size. “While there probably will be a tendency to link arguments for the final locations from a purely investment and business management perspective, it is worth noting that from a socio-economic per-spective, the costs that may be associated with the visual arguments are in principle equally important“, Jacob Ladenburg writes.

This makes the issue of design even more impor-tant. What if you could find design that could both reduce the nuisance aspect (both of noise and vis-ibility) and be able to create wind farms that are, at worst, less obtrusive and at best something of which the neighbours would be proud?

As Ladenburg’s calculations show, you can put a price on the inhabitants’ (negative) experience of wind farms. What he has not included in the equa-tion, though, is the huge amount of money you could suddenly juggle if design was taken into con-sideration. I have not made these calculations but in principle, by using the same analysis as Ladenburg, one can let the wind turbine design be included as a measurement variable. I estimate we are talking about societal gains of many millions measured in terms of population welfare, or as it is called in aes-thetics, “(dis) pleasure of the mind.”

I congratulate Kolding School of Design on being so visionary that they have identified a major social problem to which design represents a valuable an-swer. In the future, you might see design students working with “conjoint analysis” to argue for the economic aspects of their design. This will result in economic effects of a whole new scale than we have seen so far regarding design economy.

Source: Jacob Ladenburg (2009) Spørgeskemateknikken Choice Experi-ments anvendt til værdisætning – Hvor skal danske havvindmølleparker pla-ceres? Metode og Data No. 95 2009 Dansk Dataarkiv Statens Arkiver

On the Ever wind turbine, nacelle and tower melt together, creating a soft transition for the eye and between the wind turbine and the background.

A general challenge concerning wind turbines is their size, which threatens everything around them. This confirmed by the wind turbines of today with a 13 metre housing on top, blocking your view when you gaze up the long tower saying, “This is how tall I am!”

In my design I have placed the housing upright making the long side vertical instead of horizontal.

In this way the view is not blocked when you gaze up the tower.

Rotating the house 90 degrees means that the ma-chinery inside the house is lined up vertically rather than horizontally. The curves of the house are soft and create room for the wind turbine’s machinery while ensuring a soft transition between the wind turbine and the sky, which is the wind turbine’s real background when you see it up close.

Ever is inspired by the image of the white-tailed eagle spreading its wings preparing to land.

osmund olsen ever

osmund olsen ever

osmund olsen ever

osmund olsen ever

stine weigelt triangle

Triangle is designed based on the idea that a wind turbine must work in a group as well as alone.

The idea is to design a new wind turbine for a wind turbine “sculpture” park; a park that has an inner force and invites the spectator to approach the wind turbines and explore their shapes. This gives the spectator a more personal impression of what a wind turbine is and can.

I have focused on creating a soft, cohesive expres-sion in which the transitions from the bottom of the tower through the nacelle and all the way to the spinner melt together.

My work is inspired by investigating how to make the circular and triangular shapes meet and melt together in a way that is both harmonic and beauti-ful. Working with the triangle has been interesting; both creating the flat, new surfaces and lines that can generate light and shadows, but also rethinking

handling and installment, since it is easier to install something that is flat rather than round.

The parks are intended to be placed strategically in the landscape. The wind turbines should be placed with the tower rotated 30 degrees relative to each other, which will give an interesting expression and interplay with light and shadow. The option of ex-perimenting with the perspective by putting three wind turbines of different height together is also an exciting idea to explore in relation to the “sculp-ture” parks.

Triangle is Vestas’ wind turbine of tomorrow! A new design focused on achieving smoother transitions between tower, nacelle, and spinner. At the same time, it is a wind turbine created to form part of a whole and thus creates many architectural oppor-tunities.

The materials are fibreglass and steel.





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