Monday, October 10, 2022

CUS - Convertible Urban Shades


This semester we will search for new and innovative ways to make life on the streets a bit more comfortable. In short: We will fight the effect of the climate change.  

 

After a record summer this year we don’t think that we have to bring the extreme weather changes to your attention anymore. Especially in the Netherlands the summer was extremely hot. In the city we have noticed that people are looking for shade if there was a choice people gathered in colder places. 

 

So while we are able to choose the comforting shade on an umbrella while we are enjoying an ice cream to cool down, many stays home to avoid the heat at all. Especially the elderly suffer from these extreme temperatures. But in general we need to think about ideas how to cool down the cities and especially our streets. 

 

So the assignment in short will be as following: 

 

Imagine and Design a convertible urban sunshade (CUS) – that is able to provide shade in public streets, courtyards, parks or city squares. The CUS has to be convertible which allows to be stored, or folded away during the night or in extreme storms. 

 

In general you are free to define your CUS further but we would like to recommend to pick a place or a location that at least offers some aspects you are developing it for. 


Up to now this topic is quite new, Prof. Matthias Rudolph from the ABK in Stuttgart started this topic with a symposia - so we are thrilled to join this challenge