Six innovative tech schemes designed to enhance the experience of visitors to Croydon town centre, have been shortlisted in the Croydon i-Street competition.
The teams were challenged to come up with a state-of-the-art piece of tech that as well as being a useful directional tool for visitors, was interactive and easily adaptable to accommodate Croydon’s rapidly changing streetscape.
Proposals from six multi-disciplinary teams beat entries from 55 other groups to make it through to the final stage of the competition. They will now each receive an honorarium of £2,000 to further develop their concept design for the outlined route between West Croydon and Fairfield Halls.
The shortlisted teams are Atkins London; Connected Space, Rise Gallery, Tate Harmer & Lighting Partners; CW Studio with Falconer Chester Hall, Chris Mullany Creative Technologist, Light Collective, Vestre Street Furniture & Hardscape; McGregor Coxall (UK) with Denton Corker Marshall, 18 Degrees, Wolfströme, Momentum Transport and Intellectsoft; Tyréns with HawkinsBrown, Jason Bruges Studio and Fourth Street; vPPR.
Ideas put forward among the shortlisted entries include large sculptural lettering integrated with tech, interactive booths, curtains and stages in public spaces, cognitive paving and Halo displays.
“We had a range of fascinating entries, all of which were of a high standard and made shortlisting quite a difficult task.
“We are really excited to see the chosen designs developed further and to learn more about how they will assist people navigate around Croydon as regeneration in the borough intensifies.”
Councillor Alison Butler, deputy leader and cabinet member for homes, regeneration and planning
The council has partnered with the Architects’ Journal for the competition, which will see the winning scheme given the opportunity to be developed into a fully, functional piece of tech rolled out across Croydon. The shortlisted entries will be presented during live judging to the panel on Wednesday 26 July, which will be chaired by BBC journalist and presenter Razia Iqbal.
The panel will be made up of Croydon Council chief executive Jo Negrini; councillor Alison Butler, cabinet member for homes, regeneration and planning’ Richard Waite, news editor at Architects’ Journal; Paul Monaghan, director at Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Sarah Luxford, co-founder Croydon Tech City.
