This battery does not hide: it is trying to become public architecture

Electrical infrastructure usually becomes visible when it fails. While it works, it stays behind a plant-room door, a fence or a bill. Civic Grid proposes the opposite: making a battery a visible part of public space.

The first prototype has been installed in a renovated square in Cannington, Ontario. Architects Jack Self and Josh Harskamp designed it with industrial designer Max Fine, combining 60 kWh of storage with seating and public charging points.

The battery charges at night, when electricity is cheaper and pressure on the grid is lower. During the day it can discharge energy, reduce the site's peak demand and supply more power than its conventional connection could continuously provide.

It also supports local charities and can provide electricity during an outage. That combination changes its urban role: it is no longer a box occupying land for a private problem, but an object with both an everyday and an emergency service.

The project starts from a simple diagnosis. Electrification of buildings, vehicles and services is growing faster than many networks. Substations and cables take time to expand; storage near demand can shift energy between hours and avoid some peaks.

The challenge appears when such equipment enters dense urban fabric. Conventional systems are often expensive to locate, difficult to integrate and treated visually as objects to hide. Every act of concealment consumes more land, enclosure and distance from public life.

i

i

i

i

←01 / 04→

Civic Grid turns that difficulty into an architectural language. The piece is monolithic and legible: it communicates that it stores energy without looking like an industrial container abandoned in a square. The bench does not completely disguise the machine; it proves infrastructure can provide more than one service.

The prototype evolved from a deployable energy system developed with Lisbon Civil Defence for the 2025 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, where it remains in operation. Moving from emergency equipment to a permanent object tests maintenance, vandalism, rain, heat and daily use.

The 60 kWh figure needs context. It will not transform a city grid by itself and is small next to an industrial battery. Its importance lies in distribution: many units beside civic buildings, squares or housing could add flexibility without concentrating it all on a peripheral site.

That requires clear rules. Who operates the battery? Who is responsible for safety? How are cells replaced? Which share of the savings returns to public space? A good enclosure does not solve governance, life cycles or the origin of stored electricity.

For architects and public authorities, the prototype opens a concrete field of work. Transformers, tanks, cooling equipment, telecommunications and energy storage can become civic infrastructure when public benefit enters the brief rather than being applied as decoration afterwards.

The fact. Cannington now has a 60 kWh system that charges at night, discharges during the day, integrates seating and public charging, and can respond during outages. The editorial question begins afterwards: the energy transition becomes easier to accept when communities can recognise what occupies their land and what they receive in return.

i