Competitive Design: Re-Charging Stations
The following is a brief given to me as a first project at level six, third year, interior design studies. It is a competition brief that was created by RSA regarding the unused, non-operational and increasingly obsolete service stations. This blog entry is simply to give you an idea of what was asked of me, the following blog entry will be what I produced for this brief, including many visuals I have produced. Please enjoy.
Brief: Re-conceive or find a new purpose for non-operational and increasingly obsolete service stations by capitalising on their unique design features.
Scope: Solutions from students of transportation design, product design, architecture, interior design and service design are particularly encouraged. For the purposes of illustration only, the following would all be viable responses:
– a consumer experience associated with the refuelling time spent at service stations that increases their economic and environmental viability
– an architectural intervention that gives new life to defunct petrol stations
– a new environmental or spatial concept that changes the function of existing stations
– a means of dismantling and re-using the structural elements of the service station on other sites
– a service, club or network that requires people to think about existing petrol station sites in a new way
– a communications campaign or device that highlights the opportunities presented by station sites
– a business or service model that takes advantage of the unique design and location of existing service stations
– self-service technologies that enable the consumer to optimise their time whilst refuelling
…and many more are possible.
Background: Petrol stations are a significant feature in the urban and rural landscape, but as society migrates from fossil fuels to alternative fuels, what does that mean for existing infrastructure in and outside of cities? With a rise in alternative power vehicles such as electric cars, the traditional petrol station is becoming increasingly obsolete, yet these service stations tend to be in prime locations within the urban fabric or on the motorway. Left vacant and disused, these sites will have a big negative impact on communities and must be addressed. This brief asks you to think about how you could re-conceive defunct petrol stations or make existing stations viable again through new consumer experiences, services or spatial interventions.
There is an ever increasing demand for raw materials particularly for construction purposes which results in devastating effects on the world’s natural resources and its supplies of non-renewable energy. Landfill sites, the usual repositories of the bulk of our domestic, commercial and construction waste, are becoming scarce, leading to the need to transport waste over long distances – with additional economic and environmental cost. The demolition of a five-storey building results in four million kilograms of landfill waste.
