The structure was designed by former Afghan refugee Massoud Hassani, who was inspired by the hand-made toys -- like the one pictured above crafted from paper and plastic straws -- that he and his friends would fashion when they were kids growing up in Afghanistan.
What started life as his final graduate design project has since undergone strength testing at the hands of the Dutch military. This year, a full-scale mock-up was tested in the deserts around Morocco and Hassani hopes to fundraise $100,000 so he can engineer the design to mass produced, industry standards.
However, some are skeptical about Mine Kafon's chances of ever meeting the official International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) -- considered to be the minimum grade of delivery for responsible mine clearing operations.
"There are many citizens who live in mine-affected areas who carry out their own DIY clearances, and while this is noble it is also very dangerous," explained Adam Komorowski, head of operations at the UK-based Mine Advisory Group.
"For any mine clearing technology to be adopted by a serious mine action organization, it needs to conform to IMAS.
"As much as I welcome all new ideas -- and I think this is a nice concept with great potential to raise awareness and perhaps inspire other solutions -- I can't see it meeting those standards in anything like its current form," he said.
Komorowski, who stresses that his assessment is based solely on what he has read and viewed online, believes that Hassani's creation is undermined by its dependence on the "serendipity of random gusts" -- making it a haphazard option in a field traditionally characterized by highly methodical techniques. "Every square centimeter of land should be properly checked," he said.
"I'm also not convinced that the device can be relied upon to necessarily detonate every mine it crosses," said Komorowski, who argues that if a couple of its spikes are blown off during a clearance, then the holes in its structure could cause it to miss other mines as it rolls on.
"It looks to me that there is also a huge limitation in terms of terrain," he added. "I can't see it working on hills or areas with dense vegetation."
As a student at Design Academy Eindhoven, Hassani began remaking the paper orbs of his youth but at 20 times the scale and weight -- with the hope that such a structure could be used to detonate some of the 10 million or so undetected mines that the United Nations says still cover his home country.
Hassani says he is aware of these limitations, and claims to have a number of solutions in the pipeline.
"We are developing a remote-controlled model with a motor and a metal detector -- so that even if it fails to detonate a mine, it should map-out the presence of metal structures underneath," he said.
Whether the Mine Kaffon can be engineered to overcome the criticisms of industry insiders like Komorowski, the strikingly-designed structure with its poetic symmetry has already brought the issue of landmine clearance to new audiences in the design world.
It was recently showcased during Dutch Design Week and the Lodz Design Festival, and in March of next year will enjoy a run at New York's prestigious Museum of Modern Art.
"The design industry is perhaps too focused on tables and chairs," said Hassani. "I think we can use our talents to find design-based solutions to more serious problems."
The Mine Kafon is a low-cost wind-powered mine detonator with the appearance of a giant, spiky-armed tumbleweed. 
The resulting design has been under testing by Dutch military and development groups for the past few years. 
The recycled rubber feet ensure maximum contact with the ground as the Mine Kafon tumbles with the wind across areas known or suspected to contain anti-personnel landmines.
