SuperNature Labs

The cellular street grid delivers up to 50% reduction in roads and road infrastructure 

The fundamental innovation of the Supercell is the permeability of the system through the creation of direct paths for pedestrians between the public and private realm, creating shorter and nicer routes for micromobility modes.  

Impact: This introduces an environment that is advantageous for walking and soft modes of transport, reducing the dependency on cars and private transport. Supercells also require less space for roads in comparison to typical traditional grids. 

The cellular street grid reduces the number of required signaled intersections, enabling faster and more efficient traffic flow through the development 

The Supercell is designed for the future of mobility, leveraging the dissolution of the hierarchical approach of traditional transportation engineering.

Impact: The three arms intersections and the lack of hierarchical differentiation creates a seamless network that is more fast, efficient and CAV ready in comparison with traditional layouts.

The Hexagonal structural grid of the built form, drastically reduces the number of structural members required compared to traditional buildings 

With some adaptations, the Hexagonal Cell system is highly competitive in terms of number of elements when compared to traditional structural forms.

Impact: The cell system has the potential to drastically reduce complexity in terms of number of joints, in large part due to the innovative joining of beam and column into a single mass-produced element.

The Supercell urban form reduces the MEP usage per plot due to the collation of adjacent buildings together to create a series of homogenous built forms

Initial load modelling has shown that peak conditioning (cooling and heating) loads have the potential to be lower for the Supercell.

Impact: This has the benefit of lower energy consumption (for the planet and the pocket) and the specification of reduced plant sizing.

The building massing drastically improves the potential for passive design as each building unit, within each super plot, can be optimized to maximize local microclimate 

The fundamental advantage the Supercell has over the traditional grid is the number of orientations with a greater level of refinement possible, with 6 façade orientations rather than 4.

Impact: The tessellation of the hexagon provides better daylight and longer and more engaging views which both have shown to have a beneficial influence on health and wellbeing. The number of residential units which have an adjacent parallel façade is reduced when using hexagonal Supercells, decreasing privacy issues and lack of natural sunlight.

Each façade orientation has an optimal façade design based on environmental performance, which also results in a lower occurrence of wind funneling and better air mixing with building height variation.