This CAF Newhouse 2011 project (#426) has been awarded Second Grand Prize
i need to come up with a bus stop that accommodates the needs of people. i am leaning towards a bus shelter that provides the main needs of what the majority of people ask for and also incorporate a visual friendly design that is viewed as something that goes along with the site that the bus shelter will be placed on.
i decided to pick the location for the bus shelter to be the one on Addison and Western.
this particular bus shelter is like many in Chicago which can accommodate 6 to 8 people at most. 100 students access this bus stop at a time in some cases. this causes a lot of uneasy feelings when it rains or snows as everybody wishes to have shelter from mother nature. Two different buses pass during through this shelter, the western express and western bus.
elira1's work for the Collect Information step:
i have gone around different neighborhoods in the city asking people what they believe is important to have in a bus stop and also what they would like it to have.
i started to just concentrate on asking students of Lane Tech since i am creating the design for a bus stop that will be used by these students the most.
"entertaining and informative"
"it should have a heater like the train stations have"
"it would be cool and useful if you have a bus tracker"
"it should be bigger with more seats"
These are very common views shared by students whom feel strongly towards the Western/Addison bus stop. being a frequent user of public transportation i can relate to the feelings of frustration with the many bus stops.
many of the bus stops are displayed as only a pole with a sign. this can be very troubling when it is winter and one has to wait on average of 15 minutes. then there is another type of bus stop available which has a bench along with the pole. this bus stop is better than the first bus stop because it seats people. the best of the of the bus stops is the shelter which provides some shelter and seating. even though it is the best available bus stop it still has some significant problems.
Main problems with Bus Shelter
1. it is to small
2. it does not have enough seating for students
3. does not protect against weather
4. lacks information
5. its not green-friendly
elira1's work for the Brainstorm Ideas step:
1st Bus Stop Idea- smooth edged
1st sketch up model-front- longer shelter
1st- side- wider shelter
2nd- added glass in front and less in the back
LED lights allow for more colors
Rainwater collection- concept i want to incorporate into shelter
Bus tracker- another incorporated concept
Glass that does not get recycled- material i want to use
there were many flaws to the current bus shelter and a few ideas that still pertain important
i liked the roof of the bus shelter because it made sure that in the winter snow could not pile up making sure the shelter would not collapse. the only problem i saw with it was that it used up unnecessary material.
the bus shelter also has voids which allow for wind to channel through to make a breeze. its all good during the summer when one wants a breeze but during the winter months its not to smart.
the bus shelter provides a map of Chicago and even has the ideo locator, but it is to small. with current technology i think we can make it better than just having a map
the shelter although its relatively big it is still not quite big enough for the always growing city of Chicago. the shelter does not have much room to accommodate more than one handicapped person at a time.
i liked how the current bus shelters have a glass window facing towards the direction of where the bus is coming from and on the other side it is covered by an ad. i am going to leave that alone because i think they did a good job with it.
i thought of making the bus stop into something that people do not usually associate as a bus stop, such as having unnecessary objects that will please the majority of people. as i thought of many different ways to make the bus stop elegant and comfortable, i took a giant step back and asked myself is it really needed. the matter of fact is that the current bus stops have been here for a long time and for good reason. they are interchangeable and can accommodate many locations. the majority of people do not spend more then about 15 minutes at a bus stop. so it is not essential to make a bus stop as comfortable and entertaining as possible because it can cause many to get distracted from what their task was. what we need to do and what i am aiming to achieve is make them environmentally friendly. also making the shelter sustain itself using the natural elements and if possible help out its surroundings. that is the main focus i have when it comes to creating a new bus shelter. making them more comfortable and visual friendly is something i hope to be able to execute while not losing focus.
some rough solutions
1. make the bus shelter bigger
2. more seating
3. tinted glass to protect from sun
4. digital display system, with
a) time
b) bus tracker
c) temperature
d) map
5. automated heater
6. tank to gather rain water
a) it will keep the shelter cool during summer
b) help water the campus
7. automated LED lights
8. use recycled glass
elira1's work for the Develop Solutions step:
aluminum is the antenna for bus stop- both front and back view are shown
Water Tank underground-
rain water-->sloped roof-->tubes-->tank-->distributed to plants
dimensions front view- sorry about the small text but whenever i tried making it bigger it didn't all come out
dimensions side view
i decided to make the bus shelter 10 feet longer in order to accommodate more people. i thought of making it longer than that but then ran into the problem of the shelter not being able to protect all the passengers from the weather. as well as making it longer i made it wider for the reason of sheltering more people.
the shelter being longer provided for more space for seating and as well as space for handicapped passengers thanks to the extra space that will be provided by the width expansion
the bus shelter will be recessed three and a half feet from the street in order to allow a passage for people to walk through.
i liked the idea of the tinted windows but thought of a problem that can occur due to them. the bus driver might skip a bus stop because of the assumption that no one is there because of the dark colored glass, especially in the night.
the display system will be like the very popular touch screen technology that everyone seems to be so obsessed with. the touch screen will be for the map that will be displayed which will allow passengers to search and find the most accurate directions to their destination. it will work very much like google maps. the temperature and weather will be provided by WGN which is located closely to Lane Tech. the display system will also be synced with CTA website in order to get the bus tracker application to work efficiently.
for all this to work i made part of the exoskeleton into an antenna in order for the display system to get all the information via wi-fi.i thought of making the display system more sophisticated and complex but thought of all the recent problems with the current technology which make people unaware of their surroundings which may cause problems and for that reason i decided to keep the display system rather simple. another reason why i wanted to keep it simple is due to the increased demand of smart phones. every day more and more people get smart phones making it irrelevant as to having a touchscreen that does to much.
along with that many people are plugged in to their ipods or mp3 players and do not pay much attention to anything other than that. they would cost more to upkeep such luxuries than the actual benefits from them. for these reasons i have decided to not add anything else such as televisions or a touchscreen music player. as for they may also cause more trouble from arguments of what to have displaying on such systems.
there will also be heaters available during the months of october to march since those are the colder months of the year. the heaters working months could change if deemed necessary. all the heaters will be turned on based on sensors and not all of them will turn on only those closest to the person.
the top of the shelter will have a material which will allow for water to seep through but keep leaves and other objects from falling through. once the water passes through the first material it will go on to another that will be at a slope and move it to tubes which will lead the water to an underground tank.the tank will be at least 2 feet below the freezing line of chicago in order to make sure the water in the tank does not freeze. the tank will store the rainwater for further use which the school will be able to use, to water the large vegetation across its campus. i wanted to come up with a way to have the water moving within the the shelter to keep the shelter cool during the summer but could not come up with a way without using more energy than the benefits of the circulating water, so i ended the idea.
i also wanted LED lights to light up the shelter. one can make a lot more colors with LED's and that is one reason why i wanted to have them.the LED's will also allow for a more festive look when necessary such as christmas time, new years and more holidays. also the lights will turn on automatically as a person enters the shelter, a lot like the heaters.
elira1's work for the Final Design step:
heater formation-bigger span of heat emission due to it
lighting formation & type of encasement of light- in order to light the inside as well as using the light to highlight the front
Display System- temperature, time, bus tracker, and 'google map"
Seating for passengers- made from recycled aluminum cans and glass
lights on side of bus stop-green means no people--> turns red when there is a person waiting
solar panels under a glass layer next to the bus stop to power components inside
bus stop
emergency station- in case of need to contact police
proportional view of bus stop
Features that the bus shelter will have...
i tried to make the bus shelter modern but at the same time keep it simple like the current bus shelter. instead of the rough edges and sharp turns i tried to make the model as smooth as possible as well as having the sharp turns turn into gradual ones.
Both length and width were made longer to accommodate more people as well as making it handicapped friendly.
i decided to bring back the tinted windows idea. i did this because after contemplating whether to do it or not, i had a realization when i saw my friend in his glasses and then it hit me that i can make the glass photo-chromatic, glass that changes shade depending on the amount of UV light that hits it.
as for the problem of the bus driver skipping a stop, i fixed that problem by placing a relatively thin and long light which will work like a traffic light. it will glow green until the same sensors that activate the lights and heaters are activated by a person entering the shelter, then it will turn red letting the bus driver know he needs to stop at that location.
i kept the display system, antenna, heaters and LED lights the exact same way as i stated in the "developed solutions" portion
the heaters are in the alternating formation in order to cover a larger area of the shelter using the minimal amount of energy
i made the top portion of the front view a translucent material as an extra precaution to make sure the bus driver doesn't pass a waiting passenger. the automated LED lights will brighten up the side front side of the shelter letting the bus driver know there is a passenger.
the top of the bus stop will be slightly sloped to ensure that snow does not accumulate and as an extra precaution will be slightly heated in the winter months which will allow for it to be stored in the water tank.
the bus stop will not have voids like the current bus shelters. there will only be the front entrance and back entrance. the back entrance is there for both as an entrance and to act as a cross breeze during the summer. it has the two glass protectors on the front, one being longer than the other for more protection during the winter while allowing a cross breeze during the summer.
i added an emergency station in which all you have to do is press the red button and the blue siren will go off along with immediate two way audio connection to the police station and in which they will be informed with your location upon pressing the button.
i knew that i would need electricity in order to power many of the components for the bus stop and the first thing that came to mind where solar panels of course. the problem i ran into was where would i put them without harming the visual affect of the bus stop. the top of the bus stop came to mind again, but i was already using the top to gather water, one feature that i did not want to go without. so i thought of throwing away that idea and that is exactly what i did. i could not figure out how to do it until i was almost done with the project that i realized why not put them underground. weird idea but if one was to place below the bus shelter and to the side and put on top of it a thin but strong glass it would keep them from getting damaged from the public. it will still be able to gather solar energy along with not harming the visual of the bus stop, but instead adding a different look to it never before seen. i also decided to place the solar panels on the north and west side of the bus stop due to the sun's path. i did not put it on the west side due to the sidewalk and street.
Green Materials used for the bus stop...
the glass will be made from recycled glass and will then be dipped in a chemical in order to make it photo-chromatic.
the antenna exoskeleton will be made from recycled metal and aluminum
recycled metal will be used as much as possible to make the infrastructure of the bus shelter
the seats will also be made from recycled metals and glass.
Personal Notes...
i enjoyed doing this project because in the past few weeks i have learned a great deal of the design process and the benefits of it. i learned a lot from my peers through the constructive criticism. this project really made me think about what is beneficiary to all and not just my own personal goals. it also put into perspective a lot of things that people take for granted now a days and made me appreciate them all. i look forward to reading every comment anyone may have. i would like to be able to continue learning as much as possible from both positive and negative feedback alike.
Comments
You have a very good concept so far! I think it was a good idea to interview people and see what they would like for their bus shelter.
Besides that 1st sketch everything else needs work Edwin.
Edwin you are lagging behind.
How about adding some people for proportion? How about a "bus scene"? Midnight 5-18-11.
Thanks for entering the 2011 CAF Newhouse Architecture Competition! Until the judges have completed evaluating all student projects, you are temporarily blocked from accessing your account or working on this project. Please check back sometime after May 26 for the competition results. Good luck!
You've got a lot of really good concepts here, and it's clear that you thought each of them through several times. I really like the idea of having a light-up strip that indicates when there are riders waiting, as well as the idea of having cross-breeze ventilation. A couple small points:
-You speak of using translucent glass. Won't that make it difficult for the waiting people to see when a bus is coming? Why not use transparent glass instead?
-The idea of putting the solar panels on the ground is an innovative solution, but it comes with its own problems. I think it'll just be too tempting for people to damage them.
-This is a small thing, since your roof will be heated, but a slightly sloped roof (anything less than about 30 degrees) won't keep snow off on its own.
Overall, you've done a great job, and your final sketches/models look great. Well done.
Great work - really enjoyed the sketchup diagrams, and think you have a lot of terrific ideas. Well done.
What a thoughtful design! I really enjoyed reading about your process and the critical analysis you went through to reach your final design. Beautiful renderings. The idea of introducing a red or green strip light to indicate if someone is in the shelter is very innovative, but I would also consider using transparent glass as well. Good work!
Great research and communication about your project! You have shown a nice development from initial ideas through the final design. Good work!
Congratulations! Your project has been awarded a Second Grand Prize by the 2011 Newhouse Architecture Competition jury yesterday. To celebrate your awesome work, we’re including this project as a ‘Featured Student Project’ on the website. It will now appear in the sidebar of the Student Gallery and on the homepage in the rotating queue.
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Share this link to your project with your friends on your Facebook page!
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Don’t forget to bring your family with you to the awards ceremony and exhibition opening on the evening of Thursday, June 2. (Details will follow in an email.) You can also visit the Robert Morris University Gallery between now and June 11 to see your project on display along with all the student projects. Congrats again!