Urbanize LA’s Post

The retractable roof of Toronto's Rogers Centre isn’t just a roof - it’s a masterpiece of modern engineering! 🏟 In just 20 minutes, four motor-powered panels, spanning an impressive 345,000 square feet, open or close to reveal the skies (or shield you from the rain)! Here’s how it works ⤵️ The two middle panels gracefully slide over the north semi-circular panel. Meanwhile, the south panel rotates and snugly nests inside. This ingenious design transforms the stadium from an open-air experience to a fully enclosed arena in the blink of an eye-well, almost! 👀 Fun fact: When it opened in 1989, Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome) was the world's first fully retractable roof stadium, setting the stage for innovations in sports architecture! 🏟️ Check out this epic time-lapse video of the roof in action - it’s as mesmerising as it is efficient! ✨ Now let’s get imaginative: How do you think technology like this will influence the future of stadium design? Maybe AI-controlled weather forecasting or solar-powered roofs? Drop your thoughts below! ⬇️ #Engineering #StadiumDesign #RogersCentre #Innovation #Tech #Toronto

Sometimes breaking things down into smaller chunks makes it easier to work with them. Engineering, governance, and business might all consider this concept. #science #simplification #engineering #governance #business #tools #smallermodels #problemsolving #incrementalinvestments

Reading the #Guardian’s article on the Old Street roundabout’s recent transformation (https://lnkd.in/dKhG5sWs), I am stunned by how much time has passed — it’s been almost 20 years since I worked with #TonkinLiu on this scheme.  The client was TfL, London Borough of Islington, and Hackney, consulting with the GLA. Tonkin Liu's team conceived and proposed the idea of the peninsularisation of the Old Street roundabout at the design stage of the 2004 “Any Old Street” competition run by the Architectural Foundation.  Tonkin Liu, who won the competition, delivered the design for the Promenade of Light in 2006, which proved an immediate success, winning several prestigious awards. We were then commissioned to develop it to RIBA Stage 2 in 2008, with a full team including structural engineers at #AKTII, services engineers from #Mecserve, and #Gleeds cost consultants. The area subsequently went through rapid regeneration and, with the influx of digi-tech, became dubbed the Silicon Roundabout.  Our proposed peninsularisation, closing off the least-used arm and introducing a centralised tube entrance as a public hub, featured a layered public realm both above and below ground.  Extensive crowd and transport modelling proved the peninsularisation viable and aided the design of widened footways for improved pedestrian safety.  We integrated the vent shafts and advertising into a cohesive above-ground public green space,  bringing natural lighting and cooling for the tube station. Based on our study of all the urban approaches, as well as the lease and revenue of the billboard,  we retained the advertising space by integrating it into the new tube entrance, held up by a structural tree (see image). This ‘Tree in a Well’ concept was a key element of the design, symbolising a new light well rising from the station below, with a canopy acting as a visual marker for the broader urban area. Now that I look back at it, it was an aspirational, integrated, engineered scheme that aligned well with the area's evolution and the  vision of the partners. We would have loved to have taken our scheme forward to completion and can see a kinship between our team’s proposal and what has been completed today in 2024.

The Strong Towns approach is not about telling you what to do, but instead how to think about what to do. This comic from Ian Lockwood of Toole Design is a simple visualization of walkable streets, and happens to also apply to a core tenet of our approach: Rely on small, incremental investments (little bets) instead of large, transformative projects. Which staircase would you rather climb? Which intersections would you rather cross? Which approach feels right: big jumps that are difficult to land, or in smaller, immediately actionable steps?

The trouble with square meter rates. How do you know which one is right for your project? Book a chat with Sharon to talk about how a Design Consultation can help you. https://lnkd.in/g5Xme6F7 #newhome #renovation #realestate #newzealand

What is Wayfinding?🔎 Wayfinding is the art and science of helping people navigate and orient themselves in physical spaces. It involves creating intuitive signs, symbols, maps, and environmental design elements to guide people from point A to point B effortlessly. It’s about making navigation simple, whether in a city, a building, or a public space. 📍SETU, Granary Campus, Waterford. #Wayfinding #DesignMatters #NavigateYourWorld

Collaboration and Innovation are truly the key to a successful precast parking structure solution.

The trouble with square meter rates. How do you know which one is right for your project? Book a chat with Sharon to talk about how a Design Consultation can help you. https://lnkd.in/g5Xme6F7 #newhome #renovation #realestate #newzealand

This is a work-in-progress design study for a West London local authority. We are using vertical reference markers to create a sense of mass, solidity and intentional craftsmanship to assist way-finding in the wider neighbourhood. The space is connected to an established housing estate. What would you like to see as part of a child-centred public space as it develops?

Have you ever walked around your neighbourhood, seen a space that you don’t like that much (it could be a plaza, footpath, or just a wall), and imagined how that space could look better?    At ZTP we do this all the time! Sometimes it is difficult to put our ideas into words and that’s when using visuals becomes a great option. We use before and after visualisations to better communicate our vision in diverse transport strategies and plans.     This kind of visualisation also helps us test how our plans would look in real life, considering other crucial aspects that make active and public transport modes more attractive and inviting, such as urban design and overall built environment. We can (literally) see how a new planned bike path would interact with the current land use. We can also identify the need for landscape upgrades and other facilities that would encourage people to choose active and public transport. What do you think about this before and after?