Innovation and Public Space
- Submitting institution
-
University of East London
- Unit of assessment
- 13 - Architecture, Built Environment and Planning
- Output identifier
- 21
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- Doha
- Open access status
- -
- Month of production
- -
- Year of production
- 2020
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This interdisciplinary research-led project was a collaboration between Carlo Cappai and Maria Alessandra Segantini, with the Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning of the Politechnic University of Marche (SIMAU) and Bellitalia, an Italian producer of conventional concrete conventional urban furniture.
Between 2016 and 2020 the research achieved a novel material (now a registered trademark for Bellitalia), UTC© Ultratense Concrete, which, thanks to a grid of steel filaments provides the potential to produce super-thin concrete shapes. Cappai and Segantini established a series of design parameters around geometry and operating thickness, developing with engineers a series of prototypes and tests to establish the materials potential for extreme slenderness within a commercial and safe public environment.
The innovations in form were made possible through the design of technical processes and verifiable tests that resolved ductility issues through defining the capacity to achieve very thin layers of material and steel fibre reinforcement within thin sections, whilst maintaining superior structural stability. Through an iterative process the maximum dimension of the cantilever elements, slenderness, angles of folding and maximum smoothness of the surface (thanks to the use of a new polymer casting form) was achieved.
Following a 6 months process of design iterations and testing, the UTC© Ultratense Concrete was approved to be used to produce a new line of products. The first use of this design-led material was the participation in the competition for the urban furniture of the new metro train infrastructure in Doha, Qatar, which the firm won. Cappai and Segantini presented their research-led project in Qatar to the municipality. The final product was completed in March 2020 with the opening of the Doha metro lines with the state-of-the-art furniture laid out.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -