Re-configuring space to incorporate existing structure...

Week 12 / Existing Structure / Car Park

I experimented with the use of the existing car park slabs, and tried to envision how i would use them considering their bunk and size. I decided to cut the slab making  a smaller footprint, allowing for access ways and ventilation.

Altering the slab in such a way also allows for a courtyard typology for green space and light infiltration into the building.

Week 11 / Project Direction

After consulting with Cameron in this weeks tutorial, i received some helpful feedback on the current direction of my project. Cameron noted that my current proposal which included clearing the entire site was not neither socially or environmentally sustainable. I decided that since my key concepts of minimising gentrification, and encouraging social sustainability, and enhancing character of the suburb would be better achieved if elements of the current structure where retained.

As Cameron explained it, a brand new development would upset the current fabric of Paddington, changing the exhisting character drastically... it would create a richer development to retain some structure and form.

New retail spaces would also introduce higher rent prices, eliminating the desired "boutique" culture of small retail outlets and thrift stores.

I decided to re investigate the site, and the current structures and the possibilities that existed with retaining elements of this.

Focusing on the existing car park in particular.

Week 10 / Project Development

Week 9 / Organisational Sketches

Ground Level Plans

The idea of linear urban space was explored with sketches of the site. These access pathways are to create public spaces which flow through the site, these are the primary pedestrian walkways, but also act as communal spaces, gardens and green spaces. The function of these spaces varies as the user enters the site... with adjacent spaces labelled as "active spaces". These space have the potential to become communal hubs for knowledge exchange, art and performance areas and market places and open air eateries. 





This sketch shows a visualisation of a section of the main pedestrian access way / linear public space, the surrounding "active zone" and the adjacent building. Here the area directly adjacent to the public space, the "active zone" has several community garden projects and stalls.

Outdoor Theatre Space

Week 9 LINEAR PUBLIC SPACE / Circulation & Access = Creating a User Experience

KEY TERMS

HUMAN EXPERIENCE
GROUND LEVEL INTERACTION
LINKAGE
ACCESS
LINEAR PUBLIC SPACE

To create a place which is unique in it's approach to user interaction, I began to explore the possibilities that exhist in pedestrian walkways and the role they could potentially play in user experience, through and around the new development. These paths have the potential to serve several functions, rather than simply that of a physical vein of movement.

The project THE RED LINE, by BIG Architects uses this concept to produce a distinct red line of circulation which changes in it's role as the user progresses through the site.

The project is comprised of several very different urban forms which serve very different activities, I feel that my development will be similar in this regard, comprised of several different urban forms, it is however the pedestrian paths and linear public space that will link the development and enrich the human experience.

"We propose a project defined by a linear public space that like a red line ties the three distinct urban areas together. It invites public life along a new water front promenade, brings it onto a rooftop hiking path to enjoy the views over Tampere, and into the tribunes of the new improved stadium."  Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

A linear public space, the red line, meanders through the three new developments and connects them to the surrounding neighbourhoods. The red line changes shape and function throughout the area – from a boardwalk with harbor baths and saunas along the miniature skyline to a public hiking path reaching the peak of the perimeter block, finally ending as a running track along the stadium building.

www.archidaily.com

Week 8 / New Retail Models

Image source: Google Maps

This image of Latrobe terrace captures the current trend of thrift stores in the area, often defining Paddington, these stores represent a mode of retail which promotes a strong connection to cultural heritage, as well as the reuse and recycling of used goods. My development aims to express these notions in a new and innovative way, promoting cultural heritage, whilst also promoting "sustainable" retail models and incorporating affordable housing.

KEY ARCHITECTURAL RESPONSES:

In order to design a development with clear objectives, some key architectural responses have been formed in response to key issues:

GENTRIFICATION - Affordable housing, Student Accom.

DENSIFICATION - Vertical Stacking, Urban Hierarchy, Mixed Use development.

CULTURAL HERITAGE - Arts/Cultural Spaces, Thrift/Reuse, Adding to rich cultural heritage already present.

RETAIL SPACE - Re-inventing retail space, incorporating various modes of Retail (Rigid, Flexible, Semi-Flexible)

COMMUNITY FOCUS - Green Space, Education, Knowledge Share.

RETAIL

The retail component of my development will play a significant part in the final design. Re-inventing the current trends in retail models as well as consumption patterns. In project i we mentioned the clear separation of PUBLIC/PRIVATE/CORPORATE spaces in urban areas, and how this can be challenged.

A successful model for this is the "pop-up" shop, here retail becomes more of a community platform, to showcase craft, art and design while still being a retail model.

RE-INVENTING THE TRADITIONAL


One of the most historical retail/public urban spaces is that of the town-square. This space has been one of the most simple expressions of social urban spaces, often transforming into a cultural or retail space. This typology of urban space stuck with me as a model on which to experiment applying my architectural responses.

BIG Architects experiments with the same town square model creating a new neighbourhood with a strong focus on sport and recreation...

"...the streets animated by a publicly orientated functions for education, news and culture, and commerce resemble the functional diversity of a medieval downtown."

www.dezeen.com