Merel Karhof

Urban wind power

‘Wind Knit­ting Fac­tory’ is a wind powe­red knit­ting machi­ne that is atta­ched to the faca­de of a buil­ding. The bla­des embra­ce more than a meter in dia­me­ter, and the wind that is cached by this mill dri­ves the machi­ne to work. Like that a long scarf gets knit­ted down­ward along the buil­ding. When it is windy the machi­ne knits fast and with less wind the machi­ne knits slowly. 

Occa­sio­nally the knit­wear gets ​‘har­ves­ted’ and trans­for­med into scar­ves. Every scarf gets a label which tells you the time and the date on which the wind made the scarf. This mobi­le wind fac­tory, which ope­ra­tes bet­ween the public and the pri­va­te spa­ce, illus­tra­tes a pro­duc­tion pro­cess and visua­li­zes what you can pro­du­ce with the pre­sent urban wind.

Windworks Furniture collection

To esta­blish the Wind­works fur­ni­tu­re collec­tion, the stu­dio initia­ted a colla­bo­ra­tion bet­ween two his­to­ric wind­mills from the Zaan­se Schans (NL) and the Wind Knit­ting Fac­tory. Each one of the­se pro­du­ces a dif­fe­rent kind of raw mate­rial. The­re is a colour mill called which has been fit­ted out to grind colou­ring mate­rials, as well as a saw­mill that saws planks from trees to old Dutch measurements. 

For the occa­sion of this colla­bo­ra­tion, the stu­dio desig­ned a series of fur­ni­tu­re pie­ces. The wood is sawn by the wind; the yarn is dyed with natu­ral dyes, groun­ded by the colour mill.

After the dyeing pro­cess, the ​‘Wind Knit­ting Fac­tory’ knits the yarns, and with each har­vest, the wood struc­tu­res are uphols­te­red. For this spe­cial event, Karhof built the new ​‘Wind Knit­ting Fac­tory 2.0’ that incor­po­ra­tes two new fea­tu­res; a pen­non, that gives the machi­ne the faci­lity to turn away from the wind when the speed gets too high, and a new mecha­nism that pulls the knit­wear down, the­re­fo­re allo­wing it to ope­ra­te independently.

Wind­works shows a pro­duc­tion triptych bet­ween three wind­mills and it makes visi­ble what can be pro­du­ced with wind power. It shows how wind­mills wor­king together can beco­me a com­ple­te and holis­tic industry.

Now we tho­roughly love Merel Karhof designs and pro­ducts! Just curious about some mate­rial trans­pa­rency! Keep us posted Merel. We love your style!

Check this upcycled coat turned into furniture