Lawn furniture is meant, for the most part, for function and comfort – with some fun and interesting designs thrown in. But the SOFT Rocker, designed by Professor Sheila Kennedy and architecture students from MIT, takes garden furniture and the timeless rocking chair one better.
Installed at the Institute’s Killian Court for the Festival of Art, Science, & Technology (FAST), these cool-looking, tear-drop shaped lounge chairs include solar panels on top to provide power for up to 3 USB devices. They also include lighting for after-hours relaxing.
The rockers are able to rotate on their bases and are positioned horizontally with the handle in front. They’ll give the person sitting inside full shade, depending on how they’re positioned. Once inside these rockers, the person can adjust the seating higher or lower, which causes the solar panels to adjust – acting as a secondary solar “tracker”.There’s also an LCD panel inside the rocker to tell you how well you’re optimizing the solar available energy.
Fun, efficient and able to power all those oh-so-important electronics we’ve come to depend on. Can’t get any better than that!
