Design Imitates Nature in 'SunShade,' Winner 2008 Dutch Design Week!

Update: October 15, 2008, The Sunshade design WON the 2008 Dutch Design Award first prize, the Golden Eye!

Original posting, September, 23, 2008 below:

Like a flower opening to the sun, Lianne van Genugten's SunShade design opens at daylight and closes at dusk. Its power comes from the sun, like the flower, but the SunShade's solar cells propel its automatic functioning. Van Gnugten's elegant design, patterned after Nature herself, has been selected as one of 64 finalists for the Golden Eye, the top award at Dutch Design Week in mid-October.

SunShade's parasol is intertwined with flexible solar cells that receive power from the sun during the day, while providing shade to its owners or to portions of a house in need of protection from heat or bright light.

Wouldn't you love to be sitting under this lamp at night? It's the SunShade lit up by the solar cells charged by the sun during the day.

And a view from outside...

The Sunshade was one of 700 applicants to the Dutch Design Awards; it is now one of 64 finalists that range in scope from interior design products to large-scale architectural project to electronics and communication. Awards will be announced on October 18, 2008.

"Like a mechanical flower, it reacts to day and night." Lianne van Genugten.

There's nothing more perfect than nature, is there?

Sources: Dutch Design Awards, Lilianne van Genugten Studio