1-12-2011

Cows wearing methane shorts: meet the winner of IF Lab

An enormous flying house using methane gasses from cows for fuel. The winning idea of the IF Lab competition is the project ‘Cloud CH4’ from Me Architect You. In the project, cows play an essential role. A house would be located in the middle of a field with cows, and the cows would wear special shorts that intercept the emissions they produce. Methane gas (CH4) will then be transferred to the house where it will be used as fuel.

Project team member Konradas Zakauskas: ‘The idea of the house appeared at the time of working on local Lithuanian competition called "ECO House For An Optimist". We wanted to find something unique with an extra dose of optimism. And the keywords, which gave birth to the house, were: unusual place for living, friendly to animals, energetic freedom and mobility.’

After presenting their project to the audience and the IF Lab jury, the people of Me Architect You weren’t sure what their chances were. Konradas Zakauskas: ‘We felt the sympathy of the audience. All the smiles of the people, a loud applause…  We just weren’t 100% sure whether the audience and jury took our idea seriously or that they thought of it as a silly joke. After the announcement of the winner we realised that Europe liked our idea, even more than at home, in Lithuania.’ In the ECO House competition in Lithuania, the project reached the third place.

Winning the IF Lab competition was a good stimulus for Me Architect You to continue working on other projects. Unfortunately, putting the Cloud CH4 into practice needs to wait. ‘We still think we need to make it more attractive to society, especially to those people who think that the idea is too crazy to be true’, Zakauskas says. ‘That means we need to develop the visual presentation, and of course to work on numbers and figures before we start materializing the idea.’

And how would the future heroes of the project react? ‘We got one request from the cows: we need to  guarantee the methane shorts will be easy and comfortable to wear. All the rest was accepted with joy!’

See what it will look like >>

More information about the process >>

www.mearchitectyou.lt