Double-decker bus-stop hits the Oxo tower

The humble bus stop is set for an architectural transformation, with two new initiatives to commission architects to revolutionise its design.

Developer Urban Splash has commissioned FAT for an eye-catchingly ornate new version of the old favourite, while the Architecture Foundation has invited a few more revolutionary concepts from five other emerging London practices.

Urban Splash plans to erect two FAT bus shelters at its New Islington development in Manchester and has contracted Bespoke to fabricate them out of laser-cut steel plate and vividly coloured glass.

Under the catchy title “The bus stops here”, the Architecture Foundation will exhibit its five thought-provoking designs for bus shelters at the Bargehouse Gallery in London's Oxo Tower from Friday (see www.the.gallery@oxo).

These include triple-decker bunk beds by Klassnik Corporation. “Weary from a late night out, climb up and catch 40 winks in a BunkBedBusStop,” said Thomas Klassnik. “Swipe your Oyster card and access the top Stargazer bunk and spend a romantic night under the stars.”

In a similar vein, Common Office goes for a double-decker model with an upstairs gallery. “London buses are loved for being double-deckers,” said Finn Williams. “So why aren't London's bus stops double-deckers too?”

Feix & Merlin has come up with a glade of slender lamp standards that bend over like snowdrops. Julia Feix suggested that they could even include retractable hoods that “can open and close like mini-umbrellas”.

“Through a lens of fantastic whimsy”, Glowacka Rennie Architects has devised a water-fountain bus stop. In response to London mayor Boris Johnson's appeal for more drinking fountains, the practice proposes to introduce “freely accessible drinking water into a necessary element of public infrastructure (the bus shelter)”.

Dallaspierce has also latched on to the water receptacle idea as one of five functional permutations of its design: “We have used the humble bus stop to respond to the capital's likelihood of drought and also flooding, the sustainability of its food supply, the disparity in the distribution of trees, and Londoner's exposure to noise pollution.”