Competitions → Project Plantbus


editorial pick


Non - Architcture competition: RE-NATURE ROME

Team: Aphra Das Gupta, Henry Westphal-Reed, Lenka Rajmont




Brief in short:
Come up with visionary concepts to reinvent an urban hotspot for biodiversity, within and beyond urban parks – only 2 drawings, absolute freedom of scale, or program. 
Participants are asked to imagine a new urban model, to promote biodiversity into the specific context of the city of Rome, Italy. 

Our Response:
Rome’s bus system is one of the major ways for people to travel round the city of Rome, but for the past 5 years a strange phenomenon where the buses of the city have suddenly caught fire due to the suspected age of the bus. The locals have named this Phenomenon “Flambus”. 
Our project looks to use the inherent obsolescence of these old petrol buses to create living art for the city. So instead of clearing the bus away when one of these incidents occur, we encourage nature to take over the skeletal remains of the bus and for it to take advantage of the small amount of damage caused by the fire to the streets. 
It highlights that although fire can cause damage to human structures and city infrastructure, it can also lead to the growth and nourishment of nature allowing small pockets of it to inhabit the heavily urbanised city to the benefit to the city.