Overview
The NAK (Newcastle Army Knife (Name WIP)) was an entry to the NSW state governments conceptual competition to design a tram stop for the new light rail line in Newcastles CBD. We assumed the government wasn’t going to deliver any of the proposals and disinterested in spending 4 weeks overthinking a roof, the group set out to develop a project that could ‘technically’ answer the brief, but more importantly, provide some comment on public space, urban activation and barriers to public transport in Newcastle.
The primary barrier identified by the group was that every time someone wanted to go into the city using public transport. They either had to buy access into the cafes, bars, restaurants, theatres ect or, pack a huge backpack full of things that enabled them to occupy their kids in free public space.
The concept therefore, was to supersize the humble vending machine, pack it full of things to use in the city like balls, batts, games, locks, kites, rain jackets ect and enable the general public to rent and return items from tram stops. Conceptually this would both activate free urban space for the majority of suburban families and at least draw people closer to public transport.
In the first submission we proposed the structures stand by themselves in public space and then connect string lines and canvas awnings to adjoining infrastructure of buildings.
We where lucky enough to be selected as finalists in the competition and refined the scheme to rely less on context for shade and rain protection. We where unsuccessful in the competition however, this project is one of my favourites as it provided so much more to the public domain and public transportation than any tram stop normally could.
