The College of Arts and Creative Enterprises (CACE), Zayed University (ZU), organized a workshop in collaboration with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) to provide a platform for students to interact with their current environment, and redefine it in the coming decades as a place that thrives economically, culturally, and sustainably.

LAGI, based in Seattle, USA, aims to accelerate the transition to post-carbon economies by providing models of renewable energy infrastructure that add value to public space, inspire, and educate—while providing equitable power to thousands of homes around the world.

The Land Art Generator provides a platform for artists, architects, landscape architects, and other creatives working with engineers and scientists to bring forward solutions for sustainable energy infrastructures that enhance the city as works of public art.

The organization of the workshop comes in line with the UAE Vision 2021 National Agenda that is based on learning skills, mathematics, science, and Art, to improve the quality of air, preserving water resources, increasing the contribution of clean energy, and implementing green growth plans.

During the one-day workshop, interior design students at CACE utilized an open public area in the UAE as a design site and the Land Art Generator Initiative as a design platform. Students sketched ideas for a regenerative artwork that integrates renewable energy and possibly water harvesting technologies.

The initiative aims to understand the relationship between human culture and energy and the energy portfolio of the UAE, both existing and planned. It also seeks to gain further understanding of creative approaches to climate solutions and build knowledge of historical and contemporary examples of art in public space and art as public infrastructure.

Students following the lecture should feel empowered to design creative solutions for sustainable infrastructure for the UAE landscape. They demonstrated an understanding of the design process starting with empathic awareness of the end-user and multifaceted design context. They used design principles to develop a regenerative artwork unique to the landscape, resources, and environment of the UAE.