Exciton Light Ideas Competition: Flinders Street Urban Canopy

Flinders Street’s Urban Canopy “The intergration of new technology as a catalyst to reinterrogate outdated architecture.”

Innovation in the technology industry should come with a social responsibility to improve public goods and services. The tram stop is a small yet vital piece of this city’s urban infrastructure which have seemingly been neglected by designers alike. Architecturally, the traditional archetype of the tram stop fails to consider how spaces may be utilised differently by Melbourne’s diverse population. Contextually, because the typology is often modular and duplicated across the city, it is unreceptive to its immediate urban context.

With these issues in mind, we think that the integration of luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) into the flinders’ street tram stop can be more than just a statement about renewable energy alternatives. Experimenting with the idea of the “urban canopy”, the built form draws inspiration from nature and the different ways that a forest canopy can open and close its aperture, to create enclosures and to foster a bio-diverse ecosystem. A key aspect of the biophilic design is the PV cellular roof and its ability to harness solar energy, which is synonymous with the process of photosynthesis. The light distilled from the roof is manipulated through the modular panels and material opacity to produce a hierarchy of private to public spaces.

Model Study

Cellular System

Module were made using ivory card, mount board and polypropolene sheets to test different opacities and different types of uses. It was also an opportunity to assess the constructibility and the process of unfolding panelised geometry.

A series of diagrams at different scales that explains the intergration of LSC panel type 1 and 2, the primary functions of different modules and the extension of a design language that is adaptable.

A TRAM STOP FOR . . .

Way Finding

Privacy

Storage

Interactions

Landmark

Silence

Comfort

Dispersal

Capacity

Design Iterations Using a theme to describe the tram stop, different iterations based on the structural logic of a framing system and a series of modules begin to explore the possiblies of user functions. For example, the “tram stop for silence” as a fully enclosed, greenhouse-like structure to improve conditions of noise and pollution.

Flinders Street Final Design An exploded perspective view of the proposed design situated in the context of Flinders Street Station. To focus on a larger scale, the different components of the foliage design. Intergration of all three LSC panel types at different levels of the proposal.

SITE PLAN: 1:50 @ A3 N

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1. Bathroom 2. Generator Room 3. Private Outdoor Seating 4. Collective Indoor Seating 5. Collective Outdoor Seating 6. Standing Structures/Drainage

FLOOR PLAN: 1:50 @ A3 N

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SECTION: 1:50 @ A3 0.5

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Plans and Section

Elevation Shots (Day vs Night)

Rationalising the built form through the allocation of different aperture, enclosure and structural modules. The programme consisting of indoor - outdoor spaces, bathroom and generator room.

Visualisation of the tramstop in different lighting conditions. In the day time, the tram stop’s foliage is light and responsive to the sun. In the night time, the circuitry frame ontop of the modules produce LED lighting that illuminate the stop as a form of safety and way-finding tool.

Hero Shot

Birds Eye Shot

The massing and scale of the surrounding context of Flinders Street in relationship to the tram lines on both sides of the stop. Suggestions on how the proposal may contribute to a change in movement patterns and occupancy.

LSC energy collectors installed on top of the modular grid system connecting to the generator room. The distillation of light onto the ground floor through the different levels. The foliage working as a complex but rationalised system to create different shadows.