At Design Indaba’s 25th edition, Global Graduate Catalina Lotero presented her speculative project Raiki, a plant-based energy system that shifts the source of power from machines to living systems. Her work explores how nature itself can become infrastructure.
Raiki, a speculative yet scientifically grounded project that proposes generating electricity from trees. Developed with a multidisciplinary team, the concept harnesses the triboelectric effect, a form of static energy created when leaves rub against each other and the trunk. This friction produces small electrical charges that could be captured and converted into usable energy.
The implications are significant. With one in eight people globally lacking access to electricity, most of whom live in rural areas, Lotero’s approach offers a decentralised, off-grid alternative that could power homes using existing natural systems. Raiki positions trees as potential micro power stations embedded within everyday landscapes. Lotero’s work aligns with a broader shift toward biomimicry and regenerative design, which is approaching nature not only for inspiration but as an active participant in solving global challenges. Extending beyond design, Lotero also raised ethical questions about working with living organisms, ‘if we begin to design with nature at this level, where do we draw the line between collaboration and manipulation?’ Her speculative work is a provocation that the future of energy may lie in learning how to live mutually with nature and generate power with it responsibly.
