Dezeen Magazine

Movie: Daan Roosegaarde discusses his Smart Highway project

Here's a movie we filmed with designer Daan Roosegaarde about his concepts for glow-in-the-dark roads and responsive street lamps to make highways safer, one of five projects honoured at last week's INDEX: Award.

Smart Highway project triumphs at INDEX: Award 2013

Dezeen spoke to Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, where he presented the Smart Highway project earlier this year.

The concepts proposed by his studio to make road infrastructure safer and more energy efficient include photo-luminescent paint to mark out traffic lanes, temperature-responsive road paint to warn drivers of icy conditions and interactive street lamps that come on as vehicles approach then dim as they pass. Find out more about the project in our previous story.

Announced at a ceremony in Denmark last Thursday, the INDEX: Awards are presented annually to projects that address world challenges.

The Smart Highway project was one of two recipients in the community category, along with a climate adaptation plan for Copenhagen.

Other winners across the four other categories include spice-infused paper to keep fruits and vegetables ripe, a tiny computer to teach young people about computer programming and a birth simulation learning kit in a ruck sack. Read more about this year's winners here.

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