Architect designs new London bus
Not content with building gherkin-shaped skyscrapers and luxury yachts, Lord Foster has now turned his attention to another type of design challenge: the humble London bus.
Foster + Partners has won joint first prize in Transport for London鈥檚 competition to design a 21st-century routemaster to replace the capital鈥檚 much-maligned bendy buses. Salisbury-based transport specialists Capoco Design was the other winner.
The practice teamed up with Aston Martin to produce an environmentally-friendly Routemaster decked out with timber floors and reconstituted leather upholstery.
Rather like the practice鈥檚 celebrated revamp of the Reichstag, the bus has a glazed roof which incorporates solar cells and filters daylight to control the temperature inside.
Passengers will be able to gaze up through the roof at London鈥檚 skyscrapers 鈥� including Foster鈥檚 own 30 St Mary鈥檚 Axe, or the Gherkin as it is popularly known.
Foster and Aston Martin鈥檚 design keeps the Routemaster鈥檚 classic open access platform at the bus鈥� rear, but adds a side door to provide access for the mobility-impaired.
Foster said: 鈥淚 am delighted that we have won joint first prize with the Aston Martin/Foster + Partners design. This project has really captured my imagination. London鈥檚 buses are so much a part of the essence of this city 鈥� functionally, symbolically and geographically.
They help us draw a mental map 鈥� their destinations are London鈥檚 historic places, often green: Shepherds Bush, Islington Green, Hampstead Heath, Green Park. Our design seeks to combine contemporary innovation with timelessness.鈥�
It is not Foster鈥檚 first attempt at transport design 鈥� his Yachtplus 40 Signature Series boat is available to buy at the knockdown price of 鈧�1.8m, plus upkeep costs of roughly 鈧�200,000 a year.
