Individual Project One Statement

At the heart of any thriving retail experience lies four key themes:  Connection, Community, Identity and Belonging. By preserving these key themes into the future and strengthening those around the Paddington site can ensure that we preserve the heart of Paddington central, whatever it may become.

There is a growing threat to increase the density of the surrounding suburbs of Brisbane in order to sustain current population growth. But how can you retain the character of the Paddington area, and all other strongly characterised places surrounding Brisbane while reaping the benefits of a dense and sustainable city.

By focusing on retrofitting flexible, usable spaces at highly dense points throughout the fabric of a city and preserving the existing grain of the sprawl can cut costs of building and everyday transport by 90%. The most sustainable building is the one that you don’t build, or the car trip that you don’t take.

By simply changing our perception of the urban sprawl in Brisbane from a template of environmental destruction, to a seed for sustainable living and high quality of life, suddenly changes ones thinking about what the sprawl was and is; to what the sprawl could become.

Similarly, the current use of online media and personal profiling receives comparable negative connotations.  Society’s hesitation behind adopting these technologies lies in the distrust for the people who ‘own’ the information. What if this too were to change? Could information be freely shared across the globe with trust and honesty? How could each single person’s online profile shape their lifestyles in both the physical and virtual realm now that the barriers of distrust and dishonestly have been removed?

Brisbane 2040 can become the ‘new world city’ that we hope it will. By implementing a strategic dispersal of high density nodes radiating out from the CBD can both reap the benefits of high density living from within the existing environment of the urban sprawl.

Simultaneously, technological advancements and quick integration into society based on a strong trust can lead to levels of accessibility never before seen. By creating a virtual overlay of current physical connections each person’s online profile creates a perfect symbiotic relationship between virtual and physical realms.

Week 5 Architectural Possibilities.

going in to week 5, I was very concerned that we may not be able to replicate the great ideas from previous weeks, as our basic premise for the following project is based around changing peoples thinking rather then building a future.

We began the tutorial very similarly to the previous weeks. our team has blended well over the last few weeks so coming up with ideas was never a problem. each of us started diagramming basic ideas for architectural possibilities that would be the result of this change of thinking.

I think all of us had an underlying feeling that our ideas (though all were legitimate possibilities) seemed to be lacking that inspiring factor that we had consistently created in previous weeks.

We began to realise that by creating any built form for Paddington went against our ideals for this project and  that our architectural intervention should simply make use of what is already there. transforming how people's thinking by changing the way they use the space through subtle influences rather than by redesign.

Similarly to the current urban sprawl and the online world, what exists now should provide the framework for the future. changing the way people use the existing spaces can save much effort in demolition and re-design. Creating a more sustainable building solution and changing the way people think about their current environment.

Week 4

Week 4 Tutorial
Developing a narrative,

our group developed a story of our future, told by three characters of completely different backgrounds, but whose lives overlap throughout a single day in paddington.

A 16yo girl gets up in the morning and departs for school through the paddington hub. school is now a decentralised, location based learning system where children travel throughout the city to places that have a direct correlation to their subject areas.

 

A 21yo goes to work on a futuristic construction site before before friday drinks in caxton street

A Mother travels to work in the Paddington HUB

Think Differently

Haven't posted in a while so I'm going to have a quick catch up.

last week I was doing some major thinking (which is a big deal for me). So far our two main themes for this project have been about creating hyper dense nodes throughout the existing fabric of Brisbane and the wider area, more of a town planning ambition then actual architecture. that being said, it was definitely a worthwhile exercise.

our second theme of utilizing ones online profile and social media for unclutterring our future lives and preserving connection and community, seems a little more ambitious. The main point was could it be achieved? It looked unlikely, but none the less, It was this question that I pondered.

Social media and your your online profile. simply a collection of information about who you are, where you go, what you like.. how is that inherently evil? I imagine its a similar feeling to wandering through a forest. no-one else is around, nothing overly bad is happening to you... but you've still got this nagging feeling that you're being watched...

and you are being watched! because you're not in a private internet forest, you're in a CBD of online profiles buzzing around you. but you can't see them and they have no addition affect on your private online experience.. Its time to make the internet feel like the public place that it is. chances are, the general behavioral standards of our online citizens would dramatically increase too!

all your information is open for the world to access. does that make you feel vulnerable? it should. but that doesn't necessarily mean it is inherently bad.

What is the underlying principal that makes your online profile a bad thing?
Because people lie and cheat and do bath things... so imagine how that would go if they knew everything about you? It's like being pursued by Sherlock Holmes. Or having the entire oceans 11 crew lay heist to your mind!
Hence, we don't like our information being up for grabs.

BUT!!! what if we could change this underlying premise? People are honest and helpful. how would that affect our current system that is the internet?
Well suddenly, instead of Sherlock Holmes convicting you of being socially inept, your being run down by Dr Watson, intent of helping you change your eating habits so you can lead a healthier lifestyle. Advertising is restricted to things you can afford to buy. Your boss knows you'll be late this morning because you had a big night on the drink last night. Honesty works both ways people!

So the answer to the question, after all that, is yes. your online profile and social media has the potential to free up our lives for living.. and we don't need to build anything or do anything. Just think differently.

Brisbane 2026 Vision

Brisbane has a strong vision for future prosperity based on consultation with the community.
while some of the goals might be a little over ambitious, the themes and 'fundamental principles' (there it is again) that these goals are based around should be carefully considered when looking at the future of brisbane.

Does our groups theme for the future brisbane fit within and support therse themes?

Accessible, connected city: this has been definitely addressed based on the idea of changing the perception of the urban sprawl and desifying accross nodal points of the city. In turn, by increasing accessibility and lowinging transport, this will also help to address the 'Clean, green city' theme.

A 'Well designed, subtropical city' would be the key driver behind changing the perception of the urban sprawl. Retrofitting exsiting buildings and infill development within the existing built environment will help to achieve this as well as helping to densify our nodes or tentpoles in brisbane.

The 'Active, healthy city' is also addressed by drecresing the need for cars and increasin accessability. Eventually, the city will hit a threshold where people will no longer need a car... this is already beginning to happen.

The remaining themes, I believe, are also being affected positivily through this scheme. However, there could be further thinking done on these to dramatically improve the output in these areas....

Brisbane's Tentpole Density Strategy

I took a map of brisbane and began to place markers over points that would be suitable for raising the average density of the city as a whole. this also aligns with a previous graph that we drew in the tutorial sessions.

The nodes around the city in the valley newfarm and west end region and paddington regions currently act as support nodes for the CBD, they all have existing transport infrastructure and can very easily become (or are already becoming) part of these tentpole dense HUBs.

Alex Steffen Lecture Summary

The TED Lecture by Alex Steffen (posted below) touches on some very interesting points that personally, I think are definitely worth exploring for this next project.

The first point is population. Steffen points out that the population by 2050 will be somewhere in the vicinity of 8-9 Billion, possibly more. with just about every person within a days drive of a major city.

sustaining an exploding population with our current reliance on energy will be increasingly difficult, let alone by replacing our current technology with less advanced (but much cleaner) energy solutions.

It becomes blatantly obvious that some serious energy cutting measures need to be implemented if a sustainable society is to be achieved.

even in our current society, creating a denser environment can cut transport energy costs by up to 90% as lengthy travel no longer becomes a necessity.

source: http://www.grida.no/graphicslib/detail/urban-density-and-transport-related-energy-consumption_fffb

Linking with last weeks tutorial findings, our group noted that the current urban sprawl is bad for the natural environment based on the assumption that the infrastructure that we build is bad.. changing the assumption (by building and living in a sustainable manner) would create an urban sprawl that would be great for the natural environment.

Steffen touches on how this could be done, stating that raising the average density has the same effect. This means that you can focus your efforts on creating certain areas that are hyper dense and maintain the rest of the urban fabric to achieve the same results. Steffan refers to this as tent-pole density. Not only would this be much cheaper and efficient, it also strongly supports our initial template of a future brisbane and a potential template for the future of the Paddington site.

Concept Architecture

Some Inspiration for upcoming designs

Images sourced from http://www.ryanchurch.com/

Pretty much sums up our findings from week 3

Your Online Profile

Can your online profile be used for good? to support your well being and improve quality of life? Or will it inevitably be used for ill?

Future Concepts.

Progressing from the last post...

Our group looked at future functions of these future community HUBs throughout the city.
Continuing with our principle of connection our group carried on from week 2 discussions of localising the physical aspects of the internet. we looked at the concept of ones online profile and the possibility of returning control and privacy to the owner. The paddington site could become a bank for local citizens to store and protect their online information. the information could then be accessed locally for synchronisation with other future digital information such as shopping lists, personal health and for streamlining tax information.

the primary focus for this HUB of the future though, is to maintain the 4 fundamental principles that make the current shopping center template successful. Connection, Community, Identity and Belonging.

The site, as part of the network of Hubs across Brisbane, should be shaped to reflect the individual style of the community that it supports. It can be the central connection to the wider Brisbane and the world.

Tutorial Discussion

Entering into the first of our theme group tutorials. we formed groups of three and talked about our first project in Paddington.

We began our dissection of what the fundamental principles behind the current success of the shopping center model. We discerned four fundamental principles behind the shopping center: Community, Identity, Connection, Belonging. These undying principles can be applied in any context; our group predicted that the paddington site of the future should continue to support these principles, regardless of the future function of the site.

We then looked at the shopping center model as a pattern, noting the requirements for factors such as access and residential support. we concluded that the shopping center acted as a HUB for the surrounding community.

Noting future growth, we predicted that these shopping center HUBs would increase in number with density and population.

This revealed a strange and unexpected result, the future model of positional nodes stretching across the wider Brisbane area, actually supported the urban sprawl template. As students, we were always under the assumption that the current urban sprawl was an unsustainable destruction of the natural environment. but we discovered that the assumption behind this statement was, that what we build is wrong.

If we change this assumption and assume 'everything we build is good', suddenly, the idea of an urban sprawl becomes a fantastic template to create a sustainable community. The difficulty then, lies in changing our designing and building habits (which are already in flux), changing our parasitic, off the shelf housing that just attach themselves to the landscape and fail to improve or support it, to become a smarter and more sustainable urban sprawl that supports a community with its own identity within a greater network of connections.

Research Tool

Open Ideo

Website Devoted to openly solving the problems facing today's global society..
This will be another great tool for researching into what our future could look like.

The Physical Demands of the Virtual World

The Future of Silk

Week 2 Tutorial

Week 2 Tutorial.

Results of our Week 2 Design Charrette..

Topic 1 - Urban
Our group first discussed what changes would come into effect if a congestion charge were to be implemented into Brisbane City.

We discused pushing public transport as well as making use the city more pedestrian. Breaking down the threshold of inside and out. Using building openings for pedestrian movement through a city, Creating more organic flow that overlays the grid of the city.

We raised the question of carparks underground.. If there were less cars in the CBD, what could the remaining spaces be used for?

Topic 2 - Suburban
our second discussion point looked at the future of retail business and potential changes in a customer experience.

We discussed the downfall of the shopping center and the potential rise of the local market place. Pitching ideas for a new business model for a travelling market that generates high interest in a small area for a short period of time, before moving to a different location.

Looked at how grocery stores can link themselves to restarants and create a more efficient produce industry by ordering produce based on recipies and correct portions for less waste.

Topic 3 - Regional
Our third topic looked at developing a self sustaining system in the regional site of woodfordia.

our group really struggled with this idea of starting a new system. what were the reasons? what is the likely hood? Would this new society be linked to the rest of the world? or totally removed?

Instead, we focused on developing a system that could be used to encourage purchasing of local products that would encorage a global shift. we created a concept for a global carbon tax.

The tax would take into acount the carbon produced to create and ship each component of the purchased product as well as the carbon used to ship the product to your door. Obviously, the more local you buy, the less likely you are to incur a large tax for importing products. This tax would also have the potential to create more local jobs.

Topic 4 - Virtual
Our group discussed the idea behind the physical costs of the virtual world.

Physical servers provide the network of information we call "the internet". But as the Internet grows, so does the server population required to uphold it.. The closer you are to a server, the faster you are provided with the information. Often, servers are placed on empty floor space that used to be office space.

What would a building look like that was designed for servers?

Summary

Using the situation that we had created, we decided to procede in creating an elegant solution to our futuristic problem.

The global carbon tax would come into effect and would track your online spending and shipping and stored with your digital fingerprint (facebook profiles ect.). The additional information can be stored in new servers in a city. The servers can fill the empty carparking space that was left behind by the initial congestion charges. Servers produce substantial heat which could be used to heat the ground in parks to encourage the growth of vegitation.. the server floors could also be opened up in the winter for a warm place for the homeless..

And the whole world is fixed.. Horay!