Segev Kaspi, a graduate of the Department of Industrial Design, was a winner in the “Workspace” category of the 2022 Green Product Award for his 2021 graduate project “Forest Ranger Druids”.

The international Green Product Award is given annually to young designers for design and architecture projects with potential for considerable environmental impact.  

Around 1,500 contestants from 56 countries participate in the competition, which is held in collaboration with the Ikea Foundation. Segev joined the award ceremony, held in Munich, via Zoom.

According to UN data, forests are home to over 80% of all plant and animal species on Earth

As the world's population grows and modernization takes hold, more and more forests are being cut down to serve humanity's needs. Forests and wild landscapes are the lungs of the Earth, storing and sequestering excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The project addresses three of the UN's 17 Sustainability Development Goals: "promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation," "take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts," and "sustainably manage forests and halt biodiversity loss."

For this project, which aims to spark public discussion about the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the importance of rehabilitating the world’s forests, Segev developed a range of robotic forest rangers, responsible for reforesting and sustainably managing forests. Each robot has a defined role in managing and preserving the forest.

The roles and formal language of the robots were derived from a long process of learning about common forestry activities and seeking an in-depth understanding of the needs of the world’s forests. The robotic forest rangers operate in different arrangements depending on the needs of the forest. They can function either as separate units or as work groups. The visual and conceptual power of the project stems from the hybrid connection between nature and technology – two worlds often perceived as contradictory. The project offers a possible solution to a pressing issue. 

The three robotic forest rangers are represented with sketches, computer simulations, and models:

Chunk: in charge of sawing, thinning, and trimming plants and trees

Dixon: in charge of reforesting and planting cuttings and seedlings

Rikko: in charge of gathering, monitoring, and analyzing information from the forest