Issue 16 Autumn 2012 - Brunel University

…the most detailed designs ever made
for a Thames Estuary airport hub
With the UK’s air traffic capacity
currently a hot topic, a group
of final year Design students
were inspired to create a
detailed engineering and design
masterplan for a new airport to
improve London’s global transport
connectivity.
Bedir Bekar, Marshel Weerakone,
Adam Greenland, Baltej Sidhu and
Volkan Yildirim exhibited a physical
architectural model of the Thames
Estuary international airport hub
at Made in Brunel. Their extensive
masterplan – the most detailed
ever produced around this topic
– takes construction methods,
FeATUre :: sTUdeNT ANd GrAdUATe NeWs :: eXPRess MAGAZINe
environmental impact mitigation
and economic growth into account
on an equal footing.
Explaining the idea, Weerakone
said: “London is the economic
heart of the United Kingdom
and a fulcrum of the global
economy. However, with London
airports operating at 99% capacity,
the economy will suffer if the
increasing demand for air travel is
not met.
“We have produced a construction
scheme for a working artificial
island platform upon which airport
infrastructure can be built.
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This has been done effectively in
other parts of the world such as
Hong Kong.
“The benefits of this plan, as
opposed to the expansion of
Heathrow Airport, are huge.
Not only would it provide
much needed employment and
economic growth around the
Kent and Essex area, but it would
also make the most of the UK’s
specialist engineering knowledge
and intelligence. We believe this
scheme would have a similar
impact to the Olympics in terms of
benefits for the architectural and
engineering industries.”
…a low-cost household device
to stop water wastage
on show...
Design student Mitch Gebbie’s water saving device could help
households reduce waste and save money.
Gebbie’s small, low-cost and easy-to-retrofit design recycles wasted cold
water that cools in the pipes after the hot tap is used, and then flows
from the tap when it is next turned on while the user waits for the water
to heat up. Sitting below the sink, it diverts the cold water back into the
storage tank until sensors detect that the temperature has risen.
The working and proven device guarantees a saving of almost 10 litres of
water per day for the average household, halfway towards the 20 litre
daily reduction which Defra has pledged to achieve by 2030.
Gebbie’s inspiration for the device, called ‘Waste Not’, stems from
growing up in a large rural Victorian home where he worried constantly
about the amount of water he and his family wasted while waiting
for the hot tap to warm up. He is keen to see the project through to
manufacture and adoption across the UK.
“This is a timely solution to the UK’s water shortage and responds to the
need for households to take control,” says Gebbie. “As the impacts of
climate change are felt across the ever-more connected and shrinking
global village, the Western world is effectively pouring desperately
needed water down the drain.”