A new twist on an ancient technique, this subterranean refrigerator takes advantage of cooler subsurface temperatures to let you store fruits, vegetables, cheese, wine and other goods right in (or rather: below) your own backyard.

Floris Schoonderbeek of Dutch design company Weltevree crated the Ground Fridge to showcase at Milan Design Week, illustrating the power of simple insulation to store foods self-sufficiently at a stable temperature year round (around 50 degrees F).

The rounded volume is placed under excavated soil, about three feet deep, with an above-ground entry for access. Needing no plumbing or electricity, the structure is generally exempt from building permit requirements so anyone can install one with relative ease. The catch: there are still many things that will spoil in this setup, so you may need to be selective about what you keep in this system, or simply try to eliminate things from your simplified lifestyle that won’t work within it.

“The Groundfridge is an innovative take on the traditional root cellar. It meets the requirements of people with their own vegetable garden, who choose to live in a modern and self-sustaining way. Floris Schoonderbeek (founder of Weltevree) is continuously discovering and exploring new angles, chances and materials that he puts to good use in improving and enriching our habitat. With the Groundfridge, he presents a means for new world citizens who want to handle their food in an autonomous, independent way.”

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If you’re environmentally-minded, powering a little fridge just to keep your sodas cool in the summer probably seems like an unreasonable luxury. Soda giant Coca-Cola has introduced a bio-cooler that keeps cans of Coke cool without the use of electricity.

Developed by Leo Burnett Columbia and the International Physics Centre in Bogota, the cooler works on the natural biological process of evaporation. Contrary to logic, the cooler actually works better the hotter it gets outside. The cooler is topped by a small bed of plants. Watering those plants causes evaporation to take place inside of the cooler, bringing the interior temperature down. A mirror harnesses the power of the sun to convert gaseous water into liquid water, making it even cooler inside of the small soda machine.

The cooler was used as a marketing device in Aipir, Columbia – a place that is unthinkably hot and where residents travel 12 hours to fetch ice. While it may seem cruel to provide such a device in a place that would clearly be better served by technology that can help residents rather than provide them with unhealthy sugary drinks, the ad campaign focuses on providing the residents with a luxury that they otherwise would not have access to. Still, the brilliant idea – based on principles that have been known for centuries – could easily be replicated to provide natural refrigeration for food and water.

(via: Adweek)

The post Coke Introduces an Electricity-Free Evaporation Cooler first appeared on Gajitz.