Bus stops here for design competition winner
Bus stops here for design competition winner
Keywords Coating, Vandalism
A vandal-resistant bus stop made from pre-coated steel or aluminium has won a Coventry University student a national industry design award.
The competition is organised by the UK group of the European Coil Coating Association (ECCA) as part of its extensive education programme to teach the designers of tomorrow about the versatility of pre-coated metal.
The brief was to "elevate street furniture from the mundane to the delightful" and 100 entries from six universities competed for a share of the£3,350 prize fund. The designs had to be made from a minimum 60 per cent pre-coated metal and marks were awarded for innovation, practicality and commercial potential.
The winning design, a simple but innovative bus stop by Simon Elliott from Coventry University's School of Engineering, is a slim elliptical column which can be colour coded. It has a polycarbonate screen to identify the bus routes and a PVC cap on top illuminated by a fluorescent tube inside. A seat can be incorporated on each side of the column, which also has the facility to include a voice activated passenger information system.
To withstand vandalism the bus stop is a sealed unit made from two roll-formed halves of pre-coated steel or aluminium with mechanically crimped edges and is injected with expanded foam to provide structural strength and stability. The seats are fixed with adhesive which would compress and remain intact even under pressure and the polycarbonate display screen is both durable and scratch resistant but easy to replace.
Mr Elliott said:
This project presented a good balance of engineering and design issues. I think I was successful because it was a simple but practical design which suited the material and would be strong, long lasting and cheap to produce.
Runner up was the "Pyrinfo 2000" a combined map, information and advertising unit made from pre-coated aluminium. It can be colour coded to suit an urban or rural environment and features a bold pyramidal column to support the double-sided display unit.
Third and fourth places went to litter bin designs, both made from pre-coated steel. One was a simple but effective elliptical shaped bin which could blend with either shopping, town or rural environment; the other was a "Drive-by-bin"for use outside fast food outlets.
Fifth place in the competition went to a futuristic drinking fountain which features a swan's neck shape to allow easy access for children and wheelchairs. Sixth placed finalist was a lighting and display unit for use in shopping malls.
The street furniture theme severely tested the students' ability to "think big" and design large scale items. George Vyse, organiser of the competition said:
The size of the objects clearly challenged the students, presented them with structural engineering issues which some of them struggled to resolve. Those who performed best thought first about the material, its properties and appropriate uses, rather than deciding on an object, designing it and then trying to form the metal into that shape.
The competition, now in its fifth year, has won praise from lecturers. Les Mitchell, head of the design school at Edinburgh College of Art, who helped to design the original education programme, said:
It is no coincidence that the students who have won ECCA awards have invariably been more successful than their peers, particularly in dealing with clients, industrialists and retailers.
Previous winners have gone onto take an MA in design, become a freelance designer, set up a design partnership in Hong Kong, and be a finalist in three other national competitions, winning two major overseas scholarships.
Details from ECCA UK. Tel: +44 (0)1792 892782.
