The arched canopy unit attempts to resolve the issue of adhoc urban street designs by consolidating the separate but integral elements that make up the street scape into a variable canopy arch.
Re-imagining the Street Condition
The urban street condition is crowded with elements that provide for the functional needs of the modern city; seating, landscape, signage, lighting, circulation, etc. These elements are typically placed on the streets through an additive but separate process, creating discordance throughout the city. The Arched Canopy Unit attempts to resolve this issue by proposing a consolidated approach to the functional needs by way of its sectional and programmatic variation.
Whether the Arched Canopy Unit is used for lighting or seating, the cavity can be filled in with vegetation. The unit hence acts as a green increment that brings landscape elements back into the urban city. As the Arched Canopy Unit is introduced from the street, to the plaza, and across the city, the increment grows into patches and then into layers of landscape that will gradually cover and redefine the urban landscape. Each Arched Canopy Unit has a drainage pipe thru its post, connected to a storm water retention tank under the ground. The reserved water is recycled for irrigating the vegetation or to facilitate the fountain units. Meanwhile, the Arched Canopy Unit acts as an effective deterrent for heat island effect by simultaneously supplying shading and vegetation.
- Date: 2011-09-30
- Client: Lissone Municipality
- Program: Urban Furniture
- Team: OCX Luke Willis, Esin Erez
- Location: Lissone, Italy
- Area: 2 m² x 100 units