Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI)

Join us as we delve into the beautiful world of renewable energy and discover how art and design can play a vital role in making the clean energy transition inclusive, engaging, and visually inspirational.

Building on the 2025 Georgetown Steam Plant Science Fair theme “Break the System” we're excited to invite you to the first event in our new series, An Evening at the Steam Plant. On November 13th, 2024 we'll be joined by Elizabeth Monian and Robert Ferry from the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) for a captivating discussion on how "Renewable Energy Can Be Beautiful."

The Land Art Generator Initiative is a powerhouse for creative solutions envisioning a post-carbon world through the lens of art and design. Together, let’s explore the fascinating intersection of art and industry, community resilience, and creative place-making.

Cover Image: Arch of Time, a Land Art Generator artwork by Riccardo Mariano unites the terrestrial and the celestial. As a time measuring device the artwork engages park goers with a magical light display each hour within a comfortably shaded outdoor space. As a community solar installation it generates 400,000 kWh each year from an integrated 350 kW solar array. A submission to LAGI 2019 Abu Dhabi, Arch of Time is currently in development for Houston Texas.

Abstract

The great energy transition will have an impact on our built environment and our visual landscapes like no other technical shift since the automobile. This presents an opportunity to design our new infrastructures with intention not just for their sustainability but also for how they provide aesthetic, social, and cultural co-benefits to communities. The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) presents new energy infrastructures co-designed as cultural icons for important sites. LAGI artworks are energy-generating placemaking tools, economic development drivers, and cultural/educational venues that inspire the public about the future while they help to cleanly power the grid of today..

About the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI)

The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) non-profit organization was founded in 2008 by Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry to leverage the power of art and design to accelerate the global response to climate change. LAGI works with communities around the world to design sustainable infrastructures for energy, water, and other human support systems as beautiful places for people — works of public art, creative places, cultural sites, and public parks.

Through eight open-call international design competitions, three invited design competitions, and participatory design projects with communities, LAGI has developed a portfolio of thousands of design solutions through a collective of tens of thousands of innovators who are passionate about bringing forth a post-carbon future that is beautiful, equitable, and prosperous.

LAGI 2025 Fiji is the ninth LAGI open-call design competition, following LAGI 2010 Dubai/Abu Dhabi, LAGI 2012 NYC, LAGI 2014 Copenhagen, LAGI 2016 Santa Monica, LAGI 2018 Melbourne, LAGI 2019 Abu Dhabi, LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch, and LAGI 2022 Mannheim.

As the world works together to meet the climate challenge, vast new sustainable energy and other infrastructures will quickly become a ubiquitous part of our landscape and culture. LAGI provides exceptional solutions that inspire people about the beauty of our post-carbon future. LAGI design competitions are opportunities to re-think conventional ideas and put forward exceptional solutions for sustainable systems designed to double as beautiful places for people ­— regenerative works of art for landscapes, cultural sites, destinations, and public parks ­— creating shared land uses and co-benefits for healthy communities. Land Art Generator installations are regenerative monuments to this most important time in human history.

Partners and supporters include City of New York, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, City of Copenhagen, 24th World Energy Congress, European Union Commission on Climate Action, Zayed University, City of Santa Monica, J.M. Kaplan Fund, Masdar Abu Dhabi, National Endowment for the Arts, Capital Region of Denmark, Danish Design Centre, the City of Glasgow, the State of Victoria (Australia), Carbon Arts, Creative Carbon Scotland, Climarte, Royal Commission for AlUla, Burning Man Project, Arizona State University, the GermannFederal Garden Show, and more.

The LAGI archives are collected by the Nevada Museum of Art, Center for Art + Environment.

Bios: Elizabeth Monioan and Robert Ferry

Elizabeth Monoian is the founding co-director of the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), where she develops and implements social strategies to address climate issues through the lens of creativity. She works closely with cities, universities, corporations, arts organizations, and community groups in complex private and public partnerships to deliver customized solutions for sustainable infrastructures that provide a range of social co-benefits. Elizabeth has published, exhibited, and presented globally on the aesthetics of renewable energy and the role of art and design in providing solutions to climate change and the energy transition. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and is the recipient of several global awards such as the JMK Innovation Prize, the Premio Brote Artístico, the Nick Reeves Award for Arts and the Environment, and the Zayed University Provost’s Research Fellowship.

Robert Ferry is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a LEED-accredited licensed architect. Before co-founding the Land Art Generator Initiative in 2008, he worked on design teams delivering sustainable development projects ranging from custom single-family residential to $500 million CAPEX mixed-use projects. With a passion for environmental architecture, net-zero building, biomimicry, regenerative systems, and sustainable expressionism, Robert is always looking for new ways to bring buildings and cities more in sync with a thriving and biodiverse natural world. As co-director of LAGI he has received multiple National Endowment for the Arts grants and has been awarded the J.M.K. Innovation Prize, a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

Their publications include Land Art As Climate Action (Hirmer Publishing), Land Art of the 21 st Century (Hirmer Publishing), Return to the Source (Prestel Publishing), Energy Overlays (Hirmer Publishing), New Energies (Prestel Publishing), Powering Places, (Prestel Publishing), Regenerative Infrastructures (Prestel Publishing), The Time is Now: Public Art of the Sustainable City (Page One Publishing), and A Field Guide to Renewable Energy Technologies.

To learn more about their incredible work, please visit:

Tickets for this event are free. If you would like to make a donation to the Georgetown Steam Plant CDA, please visit:

Please dress warm. Refreshments, including light snacks, beer, and wine will be available.

The Land Art Generator Initiative and Burning Man Project partnered to launch a multi-disciplinary design challenge—LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch—that will create the foundational infrastructure of Fly Ranch.

Video includes interviews with LAGI co-founders, Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry; Burning Man Cultural Founders, Will Roger and Crimson Rose; Fly Ranch Operations Manager, Zac Cirivello; and wetland ecologist and Burning Man Project Land Fellow, Dr. Lisa Schiele-Beers.
Video by Profiles in Dust. Learn more about this project at https://lagi2020flyranch.org.

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