Braelyn Hamill

Atmospheric Pressures: Reimagining latent conditions within the London Underground is a study in the near future environment of the London Tube System within the context of a highly densifying and overcrowding urban population, poor air quality, flooding ground water and increasingly high latent temperatures. The project produces a mechanism for harnessing these latent negative atmospheres, directing them towards the cultivation of a more healthy and enjoyable environment. Creating ‘something from nothing’, it turns negative existing conditions into power sources for a new paradigm of urban transport. 

This new environment is achieved by capturing and utilising the forward pushing air pressures of incoming trains for a passive braking system. Once the train has been stopped, the pillow of captured air is diverted through two systems. The first system, a reimagined wall tile made of Himalayan salt, is designed to filter and ionise air consumed while traveling through the station. The second system, is designed to pull existing ground water through a series of plant watering nozzles and fresh water bottle filling stations located in redesigned air vent shafts. These air outlets provide a direct surface to underground connection - functioning as exposed urban garden Oasis’ and way finding markers for the path of the tube. Plants lining the walls of the air vents simultaneously filter air and facilitate development of a new ecosystem. While at street level, a dynamic ‘parachute installation’ illustrates the coming and going of trains through its reaction to intake and outtake of air from the stack opening.  This concept begins to understand future solutions London might develop in response to new demands put upon urban transport infrastructure.