Usman Haque was having coffee at his local, casually observing people finding their own way across a busy road, ignoring the pedestrian crossing. Having studied architecture in London, human-centred design is now at the core of his global projects – re-imaging our cities, putting people first.

How did you become an architect?

I’d applied to do physics and just before I started university I was reading a book of short stories by South African writer Nadine Gordimer. An architect was in one of the stories, and it called out to me; I took it as a sign from the universe. So I changed to architecture. (Usman graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London)

Was the universe right?

From the very start, I realised there was a difference between architecture and buildings. I wanted to transform what people think of as architecture, do stuff that was explicitly interactive, explicitly about the way we live our lives and organise them, and wanted to do something within the city.

“I wanted to do stuff that was explicitly interactive.”

What drives you?

I was always very driven by whatever I did. I’m pretty tenacious, some might say stubborn. It’s been a winding path. I’m always questioning what I am and what I’m doing.

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Turning point

I started Umbrellium in 2013 because I wanted to do more in the urban technology sector. One of our first projects was in East Durham in the north of England, ex coal mining territory. We worked with the community for almost three years developing a social communication network we called VoiceOver. It’s a kit of parts that works in a similar way to shared phone lines. So it gets rolled out in different communities and manifested in many different ways. Typically it will be in a particular location for a few months, and then move on. The project was commissioned as part of East Durham Creates, and produced by Forma Arts and Media.

VoiceOver is a hyperlocal social radio network built on 3g or 4g network that people in a community can listen in on and contribute to through a closed network of ‘radio boxes’ – a familiar domestic device.

Human-centred design?

We have a lot of projects going on, but one that people all over the world are responding to is called Starling CV. Rather than designing a road for cars, with humans as an afterthought, we’re designing streets that respond to humans, making us safe.

“We’re designing streets that respond to humans.”

A prototype of the Starling Interactive Crossing in South London.

Let’s take the pedestrian crossing?

I am always thinking about the city and how we use it. Every day I cross the road near where I live. There isn’t a pedestrian crossing there, and everyone just crosses diagonally, randomly. Rather than having a crossing painted in just one location, we started to think how a crossing could change its size, its angle and orientation in different circumstances, by reading the local environment and human movement.

Often in large cities you see a pavement next to a bike lane, next to a car lane with different vehicles turning in different directions, maybe there is a tram as well. All of these things have to dynamically respond to each other. And particularly with pedestrians, with more and more people following their ‘desire lines’, rather than an allocated traffic light or pedestrian crossing.

So the project we’re working on involves cameras and computers strategically placed around the site to monitor and classify moving objects and then reconfigure road markings and pedestrian crossings in real time. The patterns are displayed on the road surface itself.

Starling Crossing reconsiders pedestrian crossings in terms of shared space strategies. A concept by Umbrellium for people-friendly interactive systems in public places.

How advanced is this project?

We built a working prototype of Starling CV in 2017 and are now working with partners to build a more permanent version in the public space. Up to now we have been trialling it in different places. To make a more permanent version involves dozens of different organisations with different authority and expertise: government, legislation, insurance, logistics and maintenance, road builders, things like that. It’s very complex. It’s potentially a global project. We are currently in discussion to trial Starling CV in another country, but it’s confidential at the moment.

Where to from here?

I’m looking forward to the next iteration [of architecture] that thinks more about decision-making and the governance of cities, not just interactive spaces. We should have cities that can respond to our actual needs and evolve alongside us.

“People feel that the city is somewhere they inhabit but don’t control.”

Creating a new model of city governance?

From an architectural perspective, I’m interested in how to build into the master planning process the idea that everyone is part of the governance: the ownership, operation and management, the accountability and agency. I think people currently feel that the city is somewhere they inhabit but don’t control… it’s somebody else making the big decisions, somebody else who is responsible for dealing with pollution, with transport networks etc. But a restructure is coming. It’s already started in Paris and Barcelona, for example. In Sydney there is participatory budgeting in Canada Bay.

Umbrellium is active in Australia, in partnership with Frost Collective.

umbrellium.co.uk