Thursday 15 October 2015

Manifesto Draft Video


Concept Design

Concept Site Plan

Concept Cross Section

Concept Longitudinal Section

Concept Perspective - Rehabilitation landscape and commercial/retail

Concept Perspective - main route through building

Concept Perspective - wetland

Concept Design

Programme Planning Diagram


Proposed grid. An extraction from the context city grids

Concept Basement

Concept Ground Floor

Concept First Floor

Site integration

Landscape rehabilitation, along with the stitching/linking of several layers on the site, will integrate the site into its context, while creating new opportunities. Furthermore, how the development of refuse disposal brownfield sites can benefit local communities and ecologies. Reclamation and remediation based design principles are used to propose the remediation of contaminated soils, wetlands and landscapes.





 
 
This thesis aims to challenge the contemporary perceptions of refuse disposal landfill sites, transforming the site from a hidden, inaccessible open public land, into an integrated, rehabilitative, multi-use and accessible site – with value to ecology, economy and culture. Ultimately questioning how architecture plays a role in the abovementioned, connecting ecology and culture.

 



Paradox Landscape


A void in networks, break in connections, closed-open space and unsafe terrain – an epicentre of paradoxes and opportunities. As topographically and topologically dynamic landscapes, landfills exist as a unique paradox of public space which is not easily accessible or visible to the public which created them.








The final resting place for most refuse/solid waste, landfills, have become underappreciated and often an overlooked form of public space. The contemporary perception of landfills, and refuse disposal, is that these landscapes should be concealed from public observation. This perception removes the link, and subsequent understanding, of where the waste that they create goes to ‘die’.





Wednesday 14 October 2015

Architecture Manifesto 2015

1. Architecture is a process, not an object
If you know the end product before you start, what benefit is the intervention? It is simply constructed from your existing knowledge and experience.

2. Use principles, not manifestations of them
Ask yourself ‘why?’ There is no point refilling a bucket with water, when there is a hole in the bottom of the bucket.

3. Everything is connected
Every place has existing functioning systems, processes and networks. Any intervention must acknowledge and augment these.

4. If you’re not innovating, you’re stagnating
Architecture should improve what was there before, otherwise it makes no sense. There is always a better way.

5. The brief has requirements, so does the site
A brief presents an overt set of requirements. The site has intrinsic requirements, which need extraction and interpretation. Genius loci.

6. Listen and learn
“When you talk you are only repeating what you know; but when you listen, you may learn something new.” - Dalai Lama

7. Architecture should be complex, not complicated
Architecture can be seen as the integration of several entities and systems, every part should co-act. Chaos Theory.

8. Acknowledge context, nothing happens in isolation
A glass house in the desert, probably not the best idea.

9. Architecture evolves, adapts, and changes over time
Subject to time - people, circumstance and the built environment change and adapt. Design to promote and facilitate this change.

10. Open, green public space is cardinal space
People are intrinsically interwoven with nature. A healthy environment acknowledges and integrates this fact, providing space for people to be in nature.

11. Think urban
Architecture sits within an urban fabric, recognise that. Infrastructure should be in place at an urban scale.

12. Understand before you intervene
Respond to what the place/people need. Map, analyse, explore, research and immerse.

13. Architecture creates and takes advantage of opportunities
Opportunities exist everywhere. Engage with them.

14. Don’t accept what has been done without challenging it first
Hypothesise. Speculate.

15. Open Building principles make sense
Design with Levels and Orders of the built environment. Design for capacity and disentanglement.

Friday 9 October 2015

Unit 2 Values Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kuch Presentation

As a group, in our Unit, we were required to articulate our understanding of the Unit’s position and values on architecture - through a Pecha Kucha (20 slides x 20 seconds) presentation:

 (turn pages from any corner/click and use arrow keys)

Thursday 8 October 2015

Design Charette

Sections and Models

Sections















Models





 



















Rapid Intuitive Design Experiment

The brief required one to imagine oneself as the user, and how you would feel in your intervention. Context, Social Agenda, experiments, research, clients, systems, flexibility and presence were all aspects intended to be kept in mind throughout the process.

Movement and Route (10 mins; looking forward; medium must not lift off the page)

Volume and Scale (10 mins; looking forward; medium must not lift off the page)

Hierarchies (10 mins; closed eyes; medium may lift off the page)

Landmarks and marks on the land (10 mins; closed eyes; medium may lift off the page)

Application of Principles

I proceeded to critique,extract and reinterpret the principles from the previous workshop, which I found most useful and relevant to my process and project.




Final Conceptual Model (45 mins)