Aeroflorale II Visits Brussels!

I don’t think I have ever had a weekend like this past one. It was entirely full, but full with really exciting, fascinating things. Things I had never experienced before. And all very, very different.

Now, I could tell you about everything is the order that they happened, but I am going to do it a different way and tell you first about one of the things I got to see that I found quite extraordinary. This thing is called “Aeroflorale II.”

On Sunday, May 5^th, Brussels celebrated the Fete de l’Iris (the Iris Festival), which is basically a street festival celebrating the city and all it has to offer. Much of its focus is actually on the environment and all the work Brussels has put into making the city more “green.” I learned that Brussels is actually one of the finalists for the European Green Capital Award for next year.

They also had some fun artists performing in the gardens, as well as these strange pieces of colored fabric hanging from the trees, each one with a fact about environmental challenges and how we can help improve them. They even had green headphones hanging from the trees with recordings of people telling stories about the environment playing through them.

This lady was singing opera!

Anyway, I was walking through the center on Sunday afternoon with a friend of mine, looking around at the different stands and listening to the numerous bands playing and watching giant puppets walk by when, as we waked down the stairs from Place Royal into the gardens, we saw in the distance a giant cast iron machine looking thing covered from head to toe with plants!

As we walked around it, we tried to figure out what the heck it could be. The plants had wires attached to them, which were then connected to the metal parts of the machine. Five giant white balloon looking things were on top of it. We noticed some men standing around in light beige work suits and hats. They looked like your typical researchers, ready to go wander off into the rainforest and discover something. I went up to one of them and asked him, “En fait…c’est quoi, ça?” (So…what is that?). He smiled (he was actually quite an attractive man) and started to explain. Apparently, these guys are scientists who bring this giant moveable plant structure to different places all over the world to exhibit their research on obtaining power from the photosynthesis of plants. The design is based on those from Leonardo da Vinci. He told me that the thing can actually fly, using the hot air balloons on top and the propellers on the sides (powered by the plants), and that they all live on it for weeks while it moves from once place to another. He told me they have a chef who cooks for them, and that when they run out of food supplies, they shoot birds from the sky to eat. And also, that when they run out of water, they catch it from the clouds and use a special system to make it drinkable. And he invited us to the taking-off of the thing at the airport the next day...it all sounded really exciting and I actually believed him...until I read an article online about how the Aeroflorale is just a sculpture that is made to look like it flies, but actually does not. Quite a disappointment. And that silly man was pulling my leg! Well, he told all this nonsense to a lot of people, so in the end I didn’t feel too bad about believing him.

However, the thing is still really cool, and the research these guys are doing is quite amazing. All the spinning wings and moving parts on the machine are powered by the photosynthesis of the plants growing on it. And they had other exhibits of inventions they made. For example, a typewriter powered by a plant! 

There were also these springs powered by lettuce plants which moved up and down, showing how they could power a vehicle or something similar. 

We also saw an old glass flask with this strange gray liquid bowling inside. We asked the research guy about it. He explained that he actually shouldn’t be telling people about it since it is a secret new research they are doing on finding a new bio-fuel. Not sure if I believed him, but the thing looked quite a lot like it could be a fuel, so perhaps it was. We also saw a naked man taking a shower in the middle of the square (thankfully, the shower had a skirt so it covered the lower part of his body). We were quite curious about why this man was simply taking a shower in the middle of a quite busy festival, and went closer to check it out. We overheard him explaining to a woman that he had set up some solar panels which were heating water, and he was now taking a showing using this water heated by the power of the sun. He explained that it is another one of the inventions they have been working on. I guess he found a good way to advertise it!

Later on, they even had musicians come up to the top of the Aeroflorale and play. There was a pianist, trumpet, cello and accordion players and two violinists, all sitting way up high in the iron bars among the thousands of green plants, just playing away!

If you are interested in learning more about Aeroflorale II, just check out this link! http://inhabitat.com/aeroflorale-ii-la-machine-erects-an-animated-hanging-garden-inspired-by-da-vinci/