Spotted: If you’ve ever ventured out of a city, you’ll know that transportation in rural areas is often unreliable. This leaves people immobilised, often cornering locals to purchase vehicles of their own. Having reliable, shared transportation in these areas is not only a more affordable solution for residents but a more sustainable one too: helping minimise the number of combustion-engine vehicles on the road. UK-based RideTandem decided to put this idea into action, turning local transport providers into smart shuttles for work and educational needs.
To mobilise those in rural areas, the startup has partnered up with local taxi, minicab, and coach companies. Using an app, RideTandem matches these transport partners to those wanting to book a ride into a shared vehicle. The result is an affordable shuttle-type service for commuters living in areas with poor and expensive transport links.
“Even before the cost-of-living crisis hit, public transport outside of big cities was broken – expensive, unreliable, or simply not there for people who need it,” explains RideTandem co-founder and CEO Alex Shapland-Howes. He adds: “Almost 5,000 bus services – more than one in four – were axed between 2012 and 2022. Many that remain, especially outside cities and large towns, are under threat from the recent end of the Bus Recovery Grant.”
Following a recent seed funding, RideTandem has now raised £2.3 million (around €2.7 million) with the aim of extending its reach beyond the UK.
Springwise has previously spotted other innovations in the archive aimed at increasing mobility through ride-sharing, from a company that offers ride-sharing in greener vehicles and remote-piloted shared cars in Las Vegas.
Black wood and asphalt shingles clad the exterior of the Polker housing block by architect and developer SinHei Kwok, who took cues from historic “pyramid cottages” while conceiving the project.
The historic Garfield neighbourhood – which has been undergoing revitalisation – is located near downtown Phoenix and is known for its modest, 20th-century homes designed in various styles. Of particular note are the district’s “pyramid cottages”, so named for their distinctive hipped roofs.
The Polker home aims to provide an alternative to urban sprawl
SinHei Kwok – whose multidisciplinary studio is based in Phoenix and Hong Kong – purchased a standard lot in the Garfield district and embarked on creating a multi-family development that respects its milieu.
“Inspired by the 100-year-old pyramid cottages within the historic neighbourhood, the building’s massing takes cues from the surrounding context,” said Kwok, who served as the architect and developer.
Asphalt shingles cover the exterior
One of the project’s main goals was to offer an alternative to the sprawl that characterises the Phoenix metropolitan area, which the architect described as an “unsustainable phenomenon”
“Phoenix has been infamous for urban sprawl with single-family housing developments since the 1950s,” the architect said.
“This project served as a prototype of urban infill development to help build a sustainable, walkable city.”
It contains six housing units
For the rectangular property – which measures 140 feet by 50 feet (43 by 15 metres) – the architect conceived a long, two-storey building that contains six rental units. The building’s pitched roof is meant to reference the historic pyramid cottages.
Slightly different facade treatments were used around the building.
Stucco covers one elevation
On the north- and south-facing elevations, the roof and exterior walls are wrapped in variegated asphalt shingles. The east wall is clad in black wood, while the western facade is covered in vanilla stucco and features a horizontal window.
“Inspired by Chinese landscape paintings, the horizontal shape of the window facing west captures the constantly changing skyline of downtown while limiting heat gain from the summer sun,” said Kwok.
The entire building totals 4,250 square feet (395 square metres). Within the units, one finds fluid layouts and a restrained material palette.
Interior elements include concrete flooring, concrete-block walls and a steel staircase. For the bathroom shower, Kwok used exterior-grade, aluminium-composite panels to eliminate grout joints and “provide a clean, modern look”.
Different materials were applied to different facades
All of the apartments have two levels, with the public area located on the ground floor. The upper level – traditionally used as an attic in the historic cottages – holds either a single loft-style room or two bedrooms and a bathroom.
In addition to a small parking lot with permeable paving, the site offers pockets of private and shared outdoor space.
The home has concrete block interior walls
All units have covered patios accessed by sliding glass doors, enabling a connection between inside and out.
Along the eastern elevation, which faces a street, Kwok carved out an outdoor space that serves as a reinterpretation of the iconic front porches found in the historic neighbourhood. The flooring is a 30-foot-wide (nine-metre) concrete slab that cantilevers over the ground.
The studio added a steel staircase
“Our approach kept the same front-porch concept, encouraging dwellers to meet and interact with their neighbors,” said Kwok.
“During nighttime, it becomes a floating porch, with LED lights that light up below the slab.”
This is the second project by SinHei Kwok in Phoenix’s historic Garfield neighbourhood. For a compact site there, the architect and developer created a pair of apartment buildings that have M-shaped roofs and asphalt-shingle cladding.
Design architect, developer and owner: Sin Hei Kwok Associate architect: Yin Pang Structural engineer: Struktur Studio MEP/FP engineer: Otterbein Engineering Contractor: Beckett Construction
There are few things more therapeutic than bathing under an open sky. In this lookbook, we collect 10 outdoor showers from around the world.
A grotto-like house in Hawaii, a brutalist surfer’s refuge and a Swedish villa feature in this list of projects that demonstrate different approaches to the outdoor shower.
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring sunken baths, hammocks and indoor trees.
Photo by Rafael Gamo
Villa Pelícanos, Mexico, by Main Office
Villas at this seaside holiday complex in Sayulita, renovated by architecture studio Main Office, feature outdoor showers cut into the coastal rock.
Tropical flora and the thatched roofs overlook the pale concrete walls and pebbled terrazzo floor.
Find out more about Villa Pelícanos ›
Photo by Douglas Friedman
Kua Bay Residence, USA, by Walker Warner Architects
Kua Bay Residence by Walker Warner Architects is perched on a mountainside in Hawaii among volcanic rock formations.
Taking advantage of the dramatic surroundings is a private outdoor shower that looks up to the mountains and feels like a rocky grotto, with the adjacent shallow water feature designed to mimic molten lava.
Find out more about Kua Bay Residence ›
Photo by Luis Young
Litibu house, Mexico, by Palma
This semi-outdoor shower in a Mexican holiday home by architecture studio Palma opens up to the backyard through slatted wooden doors.
The effect of the sunlight streaming in is enhanced by the bathroom’s long, narrow form, high ceiling and dark concrete walls.
Find out more about this Litibu house ›
Photo by Ana Paula Álvarez
Casa Nu, Mexico, by Chris Luce
Casa Nu, also in coastal Mexico, was designed by architect Chris Luce as a functional sanctuary for surfers.
Among the outdoor spaces is a board-formed concrete block containing open-air showers for use after surfing, alongside laundry facilities and a surfboard rack.
Find out more about Casa Nu ›
Photo by Markus Linderoth
Villa MSV, Sweden, by Johan Sundberg Arkitektur
An outdoor shower sits on a patio next to the sauna and bathroom spaces at this house in Sweden designed by Johan Sundberg Arkitektur.
It is partially covered by a larch canopy but to catch the sun, it is located on the southern side of the home.
Find out more about Villa MSV ›
Photo by Andres Garcia Lachner
Casa Las Vistas, Costa Rica, by Zürcher Arquitectos and Taller KEN
The main bathroom of Casa Las Vistas opens onto a patio with an outdoor shower, nestled among large potted plants in a nod to the surrounding forests.
Weathered copper piping on the shower is one of the few rustic touches within the large Costa Rican house, designed by Zürcher Arquitectos and Taller KEN.
Find out more about Casa Las Vistas ›
Photo by Ashok Sinha
Salt Point Residence, USA, by Reddymade and Ai Weiwei
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei helped architecture studio Reddymade to design a corrugated metal extension for a house in Salt Point, New York.
At the southern end, the walls and gabled roof extend to form a porch featuring an outdoor shower fitted into a mirrored wall and looking out across the landscape.
Find out more about Salt Point Residence ›
Photo by Tolu Sanusi
Coral Pavilion, Nigeria, by CmDesign Atelier
The freestanding yellow-pipework shower outside Coral Pavilion was designed by German studio Tarantik & Egger.
Its colour contrasts with the coral-pink concrete pool terrace and simple white form of the main beach house, created by Tosin Oshinowo-led studio CmDesign Atelier.
Find out more about Coral Pavilion ›
Photo by William Abranowicz
Harrison Residence, USA, by Jeffrey Dungan Architects
A semi-outdoor double shower steps down onto a first-floor terrace at this house in the Florida Panhandle, designed by Alabama practice Jeffrey Dungan Architects.
With the paved floor, white-rendered concrete walls, arched opening and cut-out window shelf, the shower room resembles a small garden pavilion.
Find out more about Harrison Residence ›
Photo by Adrià Goula
The Voxel, Spain, by the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Students and researchers from Barcelona’s Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia built this wooden cabin in the Collserola natural park as a place for self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.
It features an outdoor shower that is both raised off the ground and positioned outside the structure’s main elevation, wrapped in charred and slatted timber panels.
Find out more about The Voxel ›
This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring sunken baths, hammocks and indoor trees.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a low-cost energy storage system that could be integrated into roads and building foundations to facilitate the renewable energy transition.
The research team has created a supercapacitor – a device that works like a rechargeable battery – using cement, water and carbon black, a fine black powder primarily formed of pure carbon.
The breakthrough could pave the way for energy storage to be embedded into concrete, creating the potential for roads and buildings that charge electric devices.
MIT researchers created a set of button-sized supercapacitors. Image courtesy of MIT
Unlike batteries, which rely on materials in limited supply such as lithium, the technology could be produced cheaply using materials that are readily available, according to the researchers.
They describe cement and carbon black as “two of humanity’s most ubiquitous materials”.
“You have the most-used manmade material in the world, cement, combined with carbon black, which is a well-known historical material – the Dead Sea Scrolls were written with it,” said MIT professor Admir Masic.
The research team included Masic and fellow MIT professors Franz-Josef Ulm and Yang-Shao Horn, with postdoctoral researchers Nicolas Chanut, Damian Stefaniuk and Yunguang Zhu at MIT and James Weaver at Harvard’s Wyss Institute.
“Huge need for big energy storage”
They believe the technology could accelerate a global shift to renewable energy.
Solar, wind and tidal power are all produced at variable times, which often don’t correspond with peak electricity demand. Large-scale energy storage is necessary to take advantage of these sources but is too expensive to realise using traditional batteries.
“There is a huge need for big energy storage,” said Ulm. “That’s where our technology is extremely promising because cement is ubiquitous.”
The team proved the concept works by creating a set of button-sized supercapacitors, equivalent to one-volt batteries, which were used to power an LED light.
They are now developing a 45-cubic-metre version to show the technology can be scaled up.
Calculations suggest a supercapacitor of this size could store around 10 kilowatt-hours of energy, which would be enough to meet the daily electricity usage of a typical household.
This means that a supercapacitor could potentially be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house for little to no additional cost.
“You can go from one-millimetre-thick electrodes to one-metre-thick electrodes, and by doing so basically you can scale the energy storage capacity from lighting an LED for a few seconds to powering a whole house,” Ulm said.
The researchers suggest that embedding the technology into a concrete road could make it possible to charge electric cars while they are travelling across it, using similar technology to that used in wireless phone chargers.
Battery-powered versions of this system are already being trialled across Europe.
Carbon black key to “fascinating” composite
Supercapacitors work by storing electrical energy between two electrically conductive plates. They are able to deliver charge much more rapidly than batteries but most do not offer as much energy storage.
The amount of energy they are able to store depends on the total surface area of the two plates, which are separated by a thin insulation layer.
The version developed here has an extremely high internal surface area, which greatly improves its effectiveness. This is due to the chemical makeup of the material formed when carbon black is introduced to a concrete mixture and left to cure.
“The material is fascinating,” said Masic. “The carbon black is self-assembling into a connected conductive wire.”
According to Masic, the amount of carbon black needed is very small – as little as three per cent.
The more is added, the greater the storage capacity of the supercapacitor. But this also reduces the structural strength of the concrete, which could be a problem in load-bearing applications.
The “sweet spot” is believed to be around 10 per cent.
The composite material could also be utilised within a heating system, the team suggested. Full details of their findings are due to be published in an upcoming edition of science journal PNAS.
Other attempts at creating large-scale, low-cost energy storage systems include Polar Night Energy’s “sand battery”, which is already servicing around 10,000 people in the Finnish town of Kankaanpää.
Spotted: As the climate becomes more unpredictable, the importance of precise weather forecasting is more important than ever. Accurate forecasting plays a vital role in industries such as transportation, agriculture, management, and insurance. Benchmark Labs is one of those working to make weather forecasting much more accurate.
Benchmark collects data from site-specific sensors and analyses it with its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) software. The result is accurate forecasts tailored to its customers’ precise locations, instead of the regional or grid level. Company CEO and co-founder Carlos Gaitan says that, unlike traditional approaches, “Benchmark Labs offers location-specific environmental forecasts to high-value asset managers to increase … operational margins.”
The company claims its platform offers an improvement in the accuracy of weather forecasts by as much as 85 per cent relative to the National Weather Service. This improved accuracy translates into better planning and reduced operational costs.
Benchmark Labs is now serving customers around the world, and over the next year will be working with leaders in the renewable energy sphere to help them obtain more accurate weather forecasts at their installations.
Climate change is leading to the creation of a wide variety of forecasting products. Benchmark joins other innovators spotted by Springwise in the archive, including a system that uses high-resolution imagery to forecast climate risk and a platform that focuses on helping financial services with climate risk.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Designing industrial buildings, particularly factories, is usually a process that is dominated by the complicated functional and logistical requirements that limit architects creatively, overpowered by the technical specifications of the machinery and the production lines that occupy the entirety of the building space and leave little space for the form to develop beyond the functional limitations.
That being said, one would ask, What comes first? Form or Function?
The Oatmeal Factory in Ningwu, Shanxi province by JSPA Design.
This question has been the topic of hot debate among architects throughout history, with contrasting perspectives among the modernists and postmodernists, among others. During the late 19th and the 20th century, particularly within the field of industrial design, architects believed that “form follows function,” as expressed by architect Louis Sullivan, which indicated that the function of the building is what generates its form and guides its design process. For Frank Lloyd Wright, that design principle has been misunderstood, because, “Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
When studying the design of the Ningwu Oatmeal Factory in Shanxi, China, which was both the Jury Winner and won the Popular Choice vote during Architizer’s 11th Annual A+Awards, one could argue that JSPA Design was inspired by Wright’s principle. This is especially evident in the way they eloquently strike the balance between both, breeding what could be described as a spiritual union between form and function. The design shows a high level of attention to the factory’s user experience, the selection of materials and the relationship with the site. In short, JSPA Design conceived of a home for production processes that is more than just a factory; the Ningwu Oatmeal Factory is a building that produces a lot more than just oatmeal.
The main entrance to the factory emphasized by the use of brick walls.
The Beijing-based French design studio produced a design that strokes the right balance between the complicated functional requirements and the humanization of the work environment, juggling the different design components while also introducing an interesting user experience that invited the public into the building while redeeming the integrity of the factory’s different operations.
From the outside, the surrounding context was challenging to work with, with the factory being located within dry and arid industrial landscapes punctured with coal mines on their outskirts. In response to this context, the design team chose to orient the building inwards, introducing a variety of horizontal and vertical boundary-demarcating elements that fostered a crisp and clean indoor environment, experientially detaching the building from the outside while enhancing the user experience and orchestrating an interesting walkthrough across the complex’s different sections. Meanwhile, visitors are spatially separated from staff for safety and logistical reasons.
An overview of the factory’s industrial context.
From an environmental perspective, the building’s relationship with the outdoors is further regulated through a network of patios and gardens that invite sunlight to enter the factory’s various spaces. These design provisions enrich the quality of the indoor environment, allowing floods of northern light to illuminate the central production space through a sequence of skylights.
A cross section through the main production space showing the skylights and the production machinery.
By using grey bricks as the main construction material, the designers establish a more materialistic connection with the surrounding context. By harnessing local construction methods to erect a series of brick walls that became the prominent design feature, the material amplifies the building’s relationship with the site and the surrounding landscapes.
Similar to the flow of production lines that transform raw oat into flour products, a variety of brick walls organize the circulation flows through the factory, starting at the entrance and leading each user group to their designated section, while also organizing entry and exit to the building, the delivery of materials and the loading of products. For the visitors, the ground floor serves as an opaque passage, with the brick walls concealing the technical spaces from the public that are lead instead to the first floor where the public spaces are located, including a café, a shop and a garden.
Brick walls guide the different users groups through the factory.
At the factory’s entrance, the public are greeted with a seating area and kids pools, mediating the relationship between the inside and the outside and softening the edge that separates the functional from the social sections of the factory. Brick makes a gradual and smooth appearance at the entrance, first appearing on the benches, before moving to the fences, and then extending vertically and becoming a series of walls that soon become the factory.
The seating area in front of the main entrance that acts as part of the public spaces of the factory.
The bricks walls that organize movement through the landscape aligned with the factory walls.
Despite how the brick walls have acted as boundary demarcating elements that organized the factory’s spaces, circulation and relation with the site, this project is an excellent example of architecture that blurs the line between form and function, with each fundamentally playing a role in shaping the other, without one necessarily needing to precede the other.
One of the interior gardens of the factory that regulate the relationship with the outside, demarcated by the brick walls .
The design team strategically chose key places to expose and conceal the factory’s different spaces, as well as varied sites where the factory is either connected or disconnected from the outside. Other binaries include rhythmic alternations between soft and hard, experiential and technical; and outward-reaching and inward-turning (click here to see plans, sections and more details from the A+Award-winning project). The sum of these complex calculations is proof that factory design need not be entirely automated. It shows that there is always a space for humans to intervene and be present within industrial sites.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
There are only three weeks left to complete your Dezeen Awards China 2023 entry!
Dezeen Awards China, in partnership with Bentley Motors, is open for entries. The entry period ends at midnight Beijing time on Thursday 24 August, after which late entry fees will apply.
Why enter Dezeen Awards China?
Dezeen Awards China will celebrate the best Chinese design talent and highlight Chinese architects and designers’ growing global influence.
Shortlisted and winning entries will receive significant recognition! They will receive a page on Dezeen’s WeChat account and on the Dezeen Awards China site.
Projects will also be featured on Dezeen’s social media, with a following of seven million, as well as in Dezeen’s newsletters to over half a million subscribers.
Find out more about Dezeen Awards China ›
Who are the judges?
Your work will be judged by a panel of 15 leading professionals from the architecture and design world in China including Ma Yansong and Rossana Hu, as well as high-profile international figures such as Ilse Crawford and Michael Young.
Our judges are not only looking for beauty and innovation but also for projects that strive to benefit users and the environment. Full details of the judging process can be found on the terms and conditions page.
See the judges announced so far ›
Who can enter?
Dezeen Awards China is for studios based in China! Entries from international firms will only be eligible if they have an office based in China that primarily delivered the project. It is open to studios large and small, with adjusted entry prices to avoid large companies dominating the categories.
Your project must have been completed between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2023 and doesn’t have to be located in China.
Read our terms and conditions ›
How do I enter?
For more information on how to create and submit your entry please click here. You can also drop us a line at [email protected] if you have any questions and someone from the team will get back to you!
For information about Dezeen Awards China in Chinese, please visit our WeChat mini program by scanning the code below with WeChat.
Dezeen Awards China is the first regional edition of Dezeen Awards, to celebrate the best architecture, interiors and design in China. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent in China.
Local studio Lab La Bla sourced diabase rock from a nearby mine and created seating from MDF and recycled cork for the interior of energy company E.ON’s headquarters in Malmö, Sweden.
Lab La Bla designed the headquarters’ reception area, coat room and lounge area, while also creating furniture, sculptures and other accessories across nine floors of the 22,000-square-metre building.
The studio aimed to create a sequence of space that had variety, while taking inspiration from sources including airport terminals.
The studio used recycled materials for the interiors
“Creating work for an office that houses 1,500 employees is both challenging and inspiring,” co-founders Axel Landström and Victor Isaksson Pirtti told Dezeen.
“It’s about creating spaces and functions that cater to the many while offering a mix of focus, creative and social environments, so it’s really about designing for the masses without making it boring or generic,” they added.
“There’s a current fascination about airport interiors in the studio, so for the reception area we drew from that source of inspiration.”
Seating was made from MDF
In the reception area, the studio created a set of sunny yellow furniture made from medium-density fibreboard (MDF) covered in nylon fiber.
“The overall project for us is sort of a reaction to dysfunctional and non-sustainable processes inherent within our industry,” the studio explained.
“For the reception area MDF and screws have been coated with repurposed nylon fiber using a technology commonly seen in the automotive industry, resulting in furniture that celebrates leftover material but without compromising on durability.”
A bench features a “melting” diabase stone detail
For the building’s central atrium, Lab La Bla designed an unusual bench that features a gloopy stone decoration resembling an oil spill.
This was created using diabase stone, which is famous for its blackness and was mined nearby in southern Sweden. The process of creating it was informed by its setting at an energy company headquarters.
Lab La Bla sourced local materials for the project
“Since electricity and magnetism are essentially two aspects of the same thing – and E.ON being an electric utility company – we thought it suitable to introduce magnetism as a modelling tool,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti explained.
“The shape of the piece comes from dropping a lump of magnetic slime on top of a conductive material,” they added. “The slime seemingly randomly slump and drapes over a metal bar before settling in its final shape.”
Lab La Bla then scaled this shape up and hand-sculpted the shape from a single block of diabase, which was finally sandblasted and polished.
“We see this process as an adventurous exploration in making a physical representation of the invisible force that shapes our world,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti added.
Mouth-blown glass panels form a three-metre-high sculpture
The studio also turned brick beams, left over from the construction of a school in Malmö in the early 1900s, into umbrella stands, and sourced mouth-blown glass panels from one of the few remaining producers of the material.
This was used, together with dichroic glass, to create a three-metre-high glass sculpture with a graphic pattern that depicts a CT-scan of a wood-fibre material.
Glass sculptures were formed inside hollowed-out tree trunks
Lab La Bla also created decorative vases and glass sculptures using molten glass blown into tree trunks that had been hallowed by fungal decay. The trunks were sourced from E.ON’s own local heating centre.
These trunks “serve no industrial purpose, but are burnt for energy by E.ON and used for teleheating for Malmö,” the studio said.
“We borrow these tree trunks to blow glass in them, before returning them to their final purpose.”
Lounge sofas were made from ground-down wine corks
In the headquarters’ lounge areas, the designers created modular sofas made from ground-down wine corks sourced from restaurants.
“The modular cork sofa uses a unique process where 100 per cent recycled cork is sprayed onto a foam structure, proudly incorporating signs of imperfection into the design while bringing superior durability and sustainability to your furniture,” Landström and Isaksson Pirtti said.
A table has an office-style glass relief with a keyboard
To the designers, the aim of the interior design was to use disused or forgotten materials, as well as ones that were recycled and recyclable.
“We took a conscious decision of picking hyper-ordinary materials such as MDF and aluminium to pinpoint and educate people about cyclic and sustainable qualities inherent in the processes of creating these materials,” the studio said.
“We often try to celebrate the beauty and intrinsic qualities of everyday, industrial materials otherwise consigned to temporary or low-cost construction solutions,” it added.
“We wanted to design objects which require significant time and skills from craftspeople, usually reserved for expensive, rare and high-quality materials – to some of the very inexpensive and found materials that we used throughout the project.”
Lab La Bla’s designs have previously been shown at the Moving Forward exhibition at Stockholm Design Week and as part of the Metabolic Processes for Leftovers exhibition in Malmö.
Spotted: We don’t often think of anaesthetic gases as contributing to global warming, but 2 per cent of the UK NHS’s greenhouse gas emissions come from anaesthetic and analgesic practices. During an operation, only a tiny percentage of anaesthetic agents are absorbed and metabolised by the patient’s body, meaning that the vast majority of this volatile anaesthetic is expelled as waste.
To address this, SageTech Medical has developed a flexible, modular system that allows hospitals to capture exhaled waste anaesthetic gas in reusable canisters in the operating theatre. The canisters are then emptied into bulk storage tanks and collected.
Captured gases are recovered and recycled to yield active pharmaceutical ingredients, which are then bottled for reuse. This process reduces the energy and carbon needed to manufacture the virgin gases, as well as the environmental impact of their release, creating a circular system.
Recent orders made by NHS trusts, including in Manchester and Hull, mean that SageTech’s circular technology will soon be in use in certain NHS hospitals. The next key milestones for the company include achieving significant UK sales and gaining the CE Mark for its SID-Dock capture machine, so that SageTech can then distribute across Europe too.
Waste anaesthetic gases are a substantial and broadly unaddressed cause of air pollution. Other recent innovations spotted by Springwise in the archive that aim to tackle causes of air pollution include concrete that cleans the air in road tunnels and DIY air filters.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Popular with hip foodies and craft beer lovers, Fenix Food Factory’s generous outdoor seating area overlooks Rijnhaven. An old industrial harbor, over decades, it has seen shipping disappear under the boot of urban development.
After docklands moved west towards, and now into, the North Sea, a new district has sprung up in this corner of Rotterdam, extending the city center. Shops, residential blocks, floating structures housing offices and hospitality have replaced redundant warehouses and cranes.
The stunning Hotel New York overlooks all of this new development. The iconic building dates to the late-19th century, when it housed Holland America’s headquarters. The ocean liner route to Hoboken, New Jersey, carried close to 500,000 passengers from mainland Europe in its first twenty-five years of operation, and some will be immortalized when the FENIX Museum of Migration opens in 2024.
At the closed end of the quay, early signs of Rijnhavenpark are materializing — if you know what to look for. A large section of the harbor is cordoned off with buoys, and machinery has arrived to start the mammoth task of filling in one-third of the basin to create a huge public park, partly built on dry land, part floating on water, connected by walkways. The scheme is just one of several remarkable undertakings by the municipality of Rotterdam, transforming how the city interacts with its riverfront.
Rijnhaven, Rotterdam by Ossip van Duivenbode/Rotterdam Partners
Artist’s impression of Rijnhavenpark by City Projects/Rotterdam Partners
A delta town, the surrounding region of the Netherlands is home to the huge Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta, and has seen vast amounts spent on flood defences as a result. Known as Delta Works, modern protective infrastructure first broke ground in 1954 and construction only finished around 1997. Rotterdam’s Maeslantkering was one of the final pieces in a jigsaw of sluices, locks and dams. An enormous floodgate that took six years to build, it remains one of the planet’s largest moving structures.
A new masterplan comprising a series of large scale City Projects for central Rotterdam, many of which actively embrace the river itself, serves as a clear reminder of how vulnerable a city is when large parts lie below sea level — however, it also serves as a source of inspiration for design ingenuity. This scheme includes planting flora at different tidal levels, meaning that green spaces change with the time of day and actively supporting aquatic life, mammals and birds in the process.
In total, eight sites have been approved, but the initial series could be the start of something far bigger — a vast ‘central park’ running down both river banks. This vision was creatively displayed on the inside of a disused shipping barge during June’s Rotterdam Architecture Month for the Liquid City exhibition. Should that ever materialize, the network of green waterfronts would line downtown and a good chunk of the former docklands that made up Europe’s largest port.
Interconnected green spaces are shown on the banks of the Meuse at Rotterdam Architecture Month by Martin Guttridge-Hewitt
“Four and a half years ago the decision was made that we need more green, and a lot more. Not just around the Meuse, but everywhere. Of course you can’t do it everywhere. So we were told there would be eight locations in the city centre, and to go away, do some homework quickly as possible, and present a study, with numbers for what it might cost,” explains Emiel Arends, urban planning specialist on City Projects who also works as part of Rotterdam’s climate adaptation programme, WeerWoord [Weatherwise]. “We only had four months to prepare, pitched it, they said OK, here’s €350 million ($387 million), go make it happen as soon as possible.”
In addition to riverside sites, City Projects also include the elevated Hofbogenpark, a narrow 1 mile (2 kilometer) micro-intervention on a former railway viaduct, and Hofplein, where urban greening will transform an already-busy square. Arends’ colleague, Pieter de Greef, senior planner and a key architect of the river-as-park masterplan, says the biggest challenge is Nelson Mendelapark. In partnership with US waterfront specialist SWA/Balsley, work has begun on an area the size of ten soccer fields at Maashaven harbour. Once complete, this will comprise hills, trees, lawns, an event space, and various tidal features, including a pathway designed to help people understand the river’s natural flow and ecosystem.
Artists impression of Nelson Mandelapark by SWA/Balsley
“If you want square meters, Tidal Park Feyenoord is bigger. But that’s all about biodiversity, greening rivers, giving nature new places in the city… it’s not for picnics and other activities,” says de Greef of the largest approved City Projects development. “Mandelapark is much more mixed. There’s a lot of social housing around there, which is good but they do not have many balconies or public spaces. The streets are narrow, filled with asphalt and stones. This project gives 16,000 households a large green space within 10 minutes walk.”
Unsurprisingly, considering the neighborhood’s urgent needs, de Greef says the most significant achievement with Nelson Mandelapark has been keeping all available land public. Other schemes in City Projects have integrated private interests to help finance. For example, at Rijnhavenpark three large residential blocks will deliver 4,500 homes, bringing in revenue to realise the vision. Elsewhere, water companies support schemes where green-blue infrastructure can ease pressure on overloaded drainage systems.
“Each part of the City Projects has a slightly different focus,” says Arends. “So within the inner city, on the north side, a little bit further away from the river, it’s about water storage and heat reduction. Tidal Park Feyenoord is all about biodiversity, but you can walk there as well. There are actions specific to each of the parks. It’s an insane programme. I’ve never seen this before, in any city.”
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