The following images are part of a piece of work completed for the Rumford club on sustainable city infrastructure. I decided to study how the infrastructure of the city of London has developed and imagine how it might function and look like in the future.
Classical Architecture
Surface Road Transport System
Classical Architecture + Residential Highrise + Retail
Surface Road System + Underground
Classical Architecture + Residential Highrise + Retail + Office Skyscrape
Surface Road + Rail System + Underground + 'Skyride'
The 'Skyride' could incorporate a roof that provides shading, shelter and the ability to generate electricity via photovoltaic cells
The 'Skyride' could act as a crucial extra layer of infrastructure and could integrate vital services to surrounding buildings. I believe the following systems could be integrated into a transport system like the skyride.
1) An easily installed and maintained district heating system
2) Or to reduce heat transmission losses from a district heating system, a refrigerant loop connected to surrounding buildings to enable them to share and swap unwanted energy using heat pumps. This is particularly applicable to buildings of differing energy demands, such as, data centres with all year cooling demands and ageing building stock with high heat demands.
3) Feed electricity generated from integrated photovoltaic panels to surrounding buildings and utilities
