By now anyone living in Madrid knows that work has begun, both for the Paseo Verde del Suroeste, in which a section of the A5 in the direction of Paseo de Extremadura is being buried, and for the new Conde de Casal transport interchange. These works, like many others, affect urban roads and involve a redesign of bus routes. The underground works on the A5 alone affect up to 28 intercity bus lines, of which 17 will change their routes completely.
Sometimes the new route or alternative route is temporary, and sometimes, as in this case, it will be temporary for years. Along with these detours, precarious “temporary” solutions are carried out, such as the one shown in the figure on the right, which in some cases drastically worsen the urban experience of users from the point of view of accessibility, shelter from bad weather, etc.
Innovative design for changing cities
Almost 15 years ago, together with Los Díez (formerly díez+díez diseño), we designed the Nodal bus shelter, a self-supporting shelter designed for lively cities, where “things happen” and this influences the bus routes. We designed a self-supporting canopy that functionally met the same standards as the ground-mounted canopies, with the aim of creating a product that, while being more versatile, would not undermine the performance of the bus lines would not undermine the performance of the bus shelters.
Main features and innovations
The main characteristic of the Nodal canopy was its easy and quick installation, in less than 2 hours, and without the need for dirty work on the public road, avoiding the lifting of sidewalks and foundations. At a functional level, it provided the same services to users as the rest of the shelters, which made it possible to modify the location of the stops without affecting the waiting times of the users.
The registered design already proposed the use of solar energy on the roof to power the advertising support, with the possibility of being connected to the grid or being autonomous. The seats incorporate armrests to facilitate use by people with reduced mobility and ischiatic support both in the inner area free of benches and throughout the outer plinth.
The innovation presented by this self-supporting canopy was a concrete plinth, with dimensions and shape capable of giving stability to the whole structure, and which allowed its regulation and leveling thanks to a system of legs similar to scaffolding and adjustable feet for heavy machinery.
Although we worked mainly in an aesthetic line according to those years, the concept of self-supporting canopy allowed that the utility model could be applied to different designs for different models of canopies.
Another advantage of this innovative canopy concept was that it could be installed in any location without any incompatibility with buried installations in the sidewalks and the module could be scalable, generating solutions according to the space and passenger volume of the different lines.
The design also raises innovative aspects through the use of the material, in which concretes were used that allowed working with lesser thicknesses and with friendlier surface finishes, as well as other color finishes through the use of tinted concretes.
A design ahead of its time
All the advantages of this innovative design were advantages, but what can we who designed it say? It could even have served to create a new line of business in the companies that in those years were dedicated to urban furniture made of concrete and that were already affected by the construction crisis.
But the reality is that we arrived too early, as we were told by the three companies that at that time were leaders in the urban equipment sector linked to the urban bus network, which valued the design very positively but rejected the incorporation of a product with these characteristics to their catalog because they did not identify a demand for a product with these characteristics in the city councils or other administrations.
The now defunct magazine Diseño en la Ciudad, published in its issue number 77 in 2011 an article about the Nodal marquee, entitled: Marquesina Nodal, thinking about the city, thinking about the people.
In 2025 we talk about Smart Cities, versatile and modernized transportation networks, and technological innovation applied to public transportation. However, every time we see a sidewalk raised to install a canopy, a concrete mixer creating an island to drive a pole or people waiting without a place to sit or shelter, we reaffirm that there is still much to be done.
With our extensive experience in industrial design and engineering, we are prepared to provide innovative solutions to improve urban infrastructure and the experience of citizens.
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