Urban Eco-Bus Line System
Sustainable Provocations: Urban Eco Bus System proposals for London, 15th and 16th January 2009 - a bus stop in the wardrobe?
On 15th January (11am-5pm) the No 19 bus stop at St Mary’s Church in Islington became a Kite-Clothed London Bus Stop. For a day at least, one bus stop became temporary, sustainable, flexible and reusable – just like a coat. The London bus stop of glass, steel and plastic was replaced by a garment that expands or contracts according to the site and context, and which could be returned to the wardrobe for later use. Its design was as ‘viral’ as fashion: it could spread quickly along the cities bus routes to inhabit all the pockets of the city’s vital bus routes.
Students at Brighton University and the Estonian fashion designer and a Ph.D. student at The Estonian Academy of Art Reet Aus collaborated to design a lightweight, portable, and flexible carbon-fibre structure, dressed with three types of re-used materials: old jeans collected in Tallinn from citizens, old hotel sheets from the Tallinn Viru Hotel, and textiles from studio leftovers. The structure also provided a screen on which provocative designs, animations, texts, videos and films produced of the students and designer were projected. Dr. Ivana Wingham, who supervised the students and organized the project, said, “In the context of eco-friendly bus systems, the traditional London bus stop no longer fits. We should start to think of bus stops as a temporary re-cycled garments that can be stored away when not needed”.
The students were enrolled in the MA in Architectural and Urban Studies at the University of Brighton. The collaboration was part of their MA project, Sustainable Provocations: Urban Eco Bus System Proposals for London. A discussion based on the project was held at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) on 16th January 11am-17.00pm in CETLD Bene Room. The project was sponsored by Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD) and University of Brighton.
