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D4s Design for Sustainability Negative Carbon Shelter

This project investigated sustainable design paradigms for public bus shelters and produced an optimal design, the ‘D4S’, which answered a 2008 Transport for London (TfL) competition call to replace London’s 11,000 ‘Insignia’ shelters (estimated contract value £44M). The design proposal was selected by the TfL Technical Review Panel as one of nine finalists from fifty-three entries. From this panel review the D4S design proposal was awarded a 10k concept development contract. Once realised the D4S shelter was Life Cycle Assessed by the industry leading product ecology consultants, Pre (SimaPro). From a quantifiable Bill of Materials Pre reported D4S as having one tenth of the ‘Insignia’s’ environmental impact and, by surpassing zero carbon in related emissions, having a negative carbon footprint.

Materials research demonstrated the suitability of West Sussex Sweet Chestnut; the wood absorbs and stores CO2 as it grows. The modular design accommodates material ‘Upcycling’ as, depending on the configuration, London-wide implementation of the ‘DS4’ reuses approximately 60,000 glass panes from ‘Insignia’ shelters. ‘DS4’ shelters affix to existing ‘Insignia’ foundations, leading to a material savings of ±3000M3 of concrete foundations and use ‘Prompt’ minimal lime cement foundations (containing 80% waste wood chip). Back-to-grid solar panels on shelter roofs would act as a small power plant in London; research determines that the shelters would ‘refund’ the energy cost of their manufacture within 10 years, 1/3 of the ‘DS4’s’ lifespan.

The design proposal passed a stringent technical review committee consisting of the TfL engineering team and external experts, and was awarded development funding. This project led to TfL's main shelter client 'Clear Channel’ to commission the design team to work on a SmartBike 2.0 strategy, for their worldwide network of cities.