Interview about Pastoral Substation Public Infrastructure, winner of the A' Engineering, Construction and Infrastructure Design Award 2025
Pastoral Substation converts a 220kV substation into an open urban space. It features solar panels, kinetic devices, and green paths, blending clean energy with eco design. Drawing from the site's industrial past and natural surroundings, it provides event venues and field zones. The project reimagines infrastructure as a shared civic asset, turning the substation from an isolated facility into a community resource.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsThe concept originated from Shanghai’s dual identity — a city of industrial progress and ecological aspiration. Traditionally, substations are isolated technical facilities, hidden from public life. Our vision was to reinterpret this typology by transforming it into a landscape of energy and ecology. Drawing inspiration from Shanghai’s industrial heritage, we preserved the site’s functional core but overlaid it with public accessibility, green infrastructure, and educational value. This approach reflects the city’s ambition to evolve from industrial production to sustainable innovation — turning infrastructure into an open, participatory, and human-centered urban space.
Balancing security and public engagement required a dual-layered spatial strategy. The operational core of the 220kV substation remains strictly protected, while a surrounding buffer landscape integrates solar panels, kinetic pavements, and educational installations that visualize energy flow. The photovoltaic canopy both shades public areas and produces power, symbolizing the site’s active role in clean energy generation. Meanwhile, kinetic devices embedded along pedestrian paths allow visitors to physically participate in energy creation. This choreography of movement, light, and energy transforms a purely technical environment into a living classroom — where people experience infrastructure as both functional and inspiring.
We were inspired by the idea of “flowing energy” — both electrical and human. The multi-layered design expresses this dynamic through elevated walkways, bridges, and viewing decks that weave above and around the substation’s core. These paths not only ensure safe distance from critical equipment but also provide immersive views of the green roofs, solar fields, and kinetic installations. The layered spatial system encourages exploration and reinterpretation, transforming what was once a restricted area into a field of discovery. In essence, visitors traverse the site as if walking through an evolving landscape of energy, time, and nature.
Permeable pavements and native plantings were introduced not only for ecological performance but also as didactic elements in environmental education. The permeable surfaces mitigate runoff and improve groundwater recharge, turning the site into a functioning sponge within the city’s hydrological network. Native vegetation — carefully selected to reflect the regional ecology — requires minimal maintenance while supporting pollinators and seasonal biodiversity. Informational signage and guided tour routes invite the public to learn about these systems in action, turning the landscape into an open-air ecological laboratory that teaches sustainability through direct experience.
The primary challenge was ensuring safety without alienation. High-voltage facilities demand strict security measures, yet our vision aimed for openness and civic engagement. We resolved this by creating a layered boundary system where the operational core is enclosed with a semi-transparent photovoltaic fence. This fence not only generates renewable energy but also softens the visual boundary, allowing light and shadow to filter through while maintaining full security compliance. Surrounding public zones are shaped by topographical transitions — berms, native vegetation, and gentle elevation changes — which define boundaries naturally rather than defensively. This approach transforms the idea of “containment” into one of coexistence, where energy production, ecological design, and community accessibility harmoniously intersect.
The interactive exhibits serve as translators of energy — making the invisible processes of generation and transmission tangible. Kinetic energy floors convert pedestrian movement into electricity, powering nearby lights or digital displays that visualize real-time energy data. Solar-powered pavilions demonstrate the efficiency of photovoltaic systems, while small-scale wind installations showcase the diversity of renewable sources. Each feature was carefully placed outside the operational perimeter, ensuring zero interference with the substation’s functionality. This arrangement transforms infrastructure into education — a landscape where people learn by walking, touching, and participating in the rhythm of sustainable energy.
This project serves as a prototype for the post-industrial city, demonstrating that infrastructure can be both functional and public. Its low-carbon construction — achieved through recycled materials, solar integration, and modular components — provides a replicable model for sustainable transformation. As cities worldwide confront aging utilities, the project suggests a new paradigm: turning “gray zones” of industry into green, educational, and social assets. It invites planners, engineers, and citizens to imagine infrastructure not as a hidden necessity, but as a visible expression of collective environmental responsibility.
The project treats water, land, and energy as interdependent ecological systems rather than isolated components. Rainwater collected through permeable pavements nourishes green paths and cooling landscapes, while excess energy from solar panels supports on-site lighting and irrigation systems. This cyclical integration reflects a “closed-loop urban metabolism”, where waste and energy are continuously recycled within the site. By demonstrating these principles visibly, the project challenges conventional infrastructure design and proposes a more symbiotic urban model — one where sustainability is lived, seen, and experienced in everyday spaces.
Public interaction revealed a powerful insight: transparency builds trust. When people understand how infrastructure functions — where electricity comes from, how green energy is produced, and how safety is ensured — they develop both curiosity and respect. The workshops and tours allowed residents, students, and professionals to experience the substation as a shared civic resource, not an off-limits danger zone. This shift in perception transforms “NIMBY” attitudes into civic pride, proving that participatory infrastructure design can deepen environmental awareness and foster community ownership of public systems.
The project’s most influential aspect is its reinterpretation of infrastructure as landscape. By embedding energy systems within accessible, educational, and ecologically active environments, we demonstrate a new civic typology — the pastoral infrastructure. It represents a vision where power stations, water plants, and waste facilities are not hidden but celebrated as vital parts of urban life. This integration of function, form, and public engagement will influence future developments to embrace openness, sustainability, and shared identity — transforming the backbone of cities into living frameworks of culture and community.
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