Solaris

Solaris is Hinal Gosai's BA3 community cycle hub, sited at the entrance to Liverpool's Queensway Tunnel - a car-dominated threshold that has long fragmented the urban fabric between Liverpool and Birkenhead. Rather than resolving this gap, Hinal's design makes it inhabitable, reactivating forgotten infrastructure through light, circulation, and adaptive reuse. The project asks: what if forgotten infrastructure became the generator of new urban life?

Driven by desire line mapping and noise analysis, the design places a cycle bridge at the heart of the building, with quieter gallery and mezzanine spaces sheltered from traffic edges. A stained glass curtain wall facade, inspired by Liverpool Cathedral, filters daylight into shifting colours - a cinematic threshold rooted in the city's cultural identity.

A hybrid glulam-concrete structure balances ground-level stability with warmth and sustainability above, complemented by rainwater harvesting, thermal mass, and south-facing skylights. Solaris doesn't close the gap between two cities - it gives people a reason to linger within it.