The rainy city is yours. An umbrella that transforms urban exploration when the sun retreats.
01 Observation
Urban tourism collapses by 70% on rainy days. Monuments stand silent. Streets stay clear. The paradox: optimal conditions for exploration are considered a deterrent.
Field note / Bellecour, 14:00
"The square is nearly empty. No queues at the museum. No crowds around the statue. Just the sound of rain on cobblestone. It's beautiful, and no one is here to see it."
User research / n=47
94% of surveyed tourists said they would explore a city in the rain if they had the right equipment and contextual information. The barrier is comfort and direction, not weather.
Design hypothesis
An umbrella is not just shelter. It is a personal architecture. If it carries information, it becomes a guide. If it projects knowledge, it becomes a portal.
02 Terrain Study
Three months of field observation across Lyon's historic districts, mapping behavior, infrastructure gaps, and atmospheric opportunity.
Lyon receives consistent light rain throughout autumn and winter: not storm-level deterrents, but the kind of drizzle that clears tourists from monuments for hours at a time.
128 rainy days / yr10:00–16:00 on rainy days: monuments are accessible within seconds. No wait. No crowd. The most authentic urban experience, systematically avoided.
Avg. queue time: 0 minTourism offices close early on rainy days. Kiosks go unmanned. The city's information infrastructure retreats exactly when visitors need it most.
Lyon, Vieux-Lyon, Presqu'îleOvercast skies reduce ambient glare to near-zero. This creates ideal conditions for projection-based HUD displays : a constraint turned into an asset.
Ambient lux: 800–2000Visitors who stay in the city during rain tend to move slower, linger longer, and engage more deeply with their surroundings : the ideal explorer profile.
Avg. dwell time +38%Existing BLE beacon infrastructure across Lyon's heritage sites operates at 15–20% utilization on rainy days. Untapped data channels waiting for a receiver.
50+ BLE nodes mapped03 User Profiles
Three recurring profiles identified across 47 user interviews and 3 months of field observation in Lyon.
"It started raining on day two. I sat in a café for 3 hours, refreshing Instagram. I didn't see the Vieux-Lyon I came for."
"I know the monuments. What I don't know is the texture : the story behind the story. Nobody sells that in the rain."
"Every time a friend visits, I see Lyon differently. The rain makes it more intimate. But I don't have the knowledge to make it meaningful."
04 Field Observations
Three months of observation across rainy days in Lyon's historic districts : Vieux-Lyon, Presqu'île, Fourvière.
05 Strategic Landscape
User journey and competitive positioning : where UMBRA intervenes and why no one else does.
Every existing tool is either passive (it waits for you to search) or fixed (it can't follow you through the rain). UMBRA occupies an entirely uncontested space: mobile, contextual, and proactive. The white space on the matrix isn't an accident. It's an infrastructure failure waiting for a design response.
UMBRA doesn't compete. It creates the category.
03 Street Saturation
Urban centers face extreme saturation during sunlit hours and a rainy void when streets lay dormant. UMBRA claims the city when crowds retreat.
BLE Beacons hidden in landmarks broadcast localized historical data to any active UMBRA node within range.
Automatic 5m proximity detection synchronizes the umbrella with the site, triggering an encrypted data handshake.
Real-time facts, maps, and archival images projected directly onto your canopy using an anamorphic light path.
Exploiting the rainy-day tourism gap through smart industrial design and urban redistribution.
Integrated ultra-short-throw laser picoprojector with an anamorphic lens to correct geometry for the curved PET surface.
Transparent PET panels coated with 3M Vikuiti™ rear-projection film, allowing high-contrast HUD visibility while maintaining 85% transparency.
Central PCB housing the BLE 5.2 module and IMU for orientation-aware projection mapping.
Patent Pending, Lyon Metropolitan Area R-01
05 Interactive Experience
Explore the Lyon metropolitan area in a new light. Navigate between the Presqu'île and Vieux Lyon to uncover the city's hidden secrets.
UMBRA is accessible through a network of rental kiosks located in Tourism Offices and mobility hubs. Use our detection system to find the nearest pickup point in Lyon.
"Redefining the urban experience by turning atmospheric constraints into catalysts for exploration."
Optimization of pedestrian flow during rain events.
Dry experience via hydrophobic transparent polymer.
Synchronized points of interest across metropolitan areas.