A Beacon.

Short Post.. All arrival points within my proposed precinct have a distinct sense of threshold. but currently the threshold is to more of the same. This is a feeling that could be enhanced to create a noticeable destination.

by creating a destination may mean making some sort of gateway or folli.. but something that the entire area has in common is the visibility of the broadcasting tower atop paddingon central.

This could be more then a digital broadcaster. It could become a visual beacon for the precinct that would enhance the destination. Helping to give the area an identity.

The Carpark

By proposing a decrease in car usage and by making paddington central a leader in lowing the cars on our roads. not only is there an opportunity to reclaim some of the streetscape for pedestrians, which for an outdoor shopping precinct, becomes invaluable.

An opportunity arises to re-purpose the existing carpark behind the shopping center.
This could become something that supports the existing shopping precinct.

My initial thoughts are to break the existing structure into three parts.
A Server Farm -
creating a public server farm instead of private creates a transparency and trust. It also creates value on many levels. value in giving paddington slightly speedier connection then the surrounding suburbs and a sentimental value by creating an open public domain where the information becomes a precious centerpiece worth preserving and protecting.

participating in a completely open and public system would make people feel incredibly vulnerable. However, with complete openness comes strong security. By creating a digital environment that resembles the public arena that it is encourages people to act in a publicly acceptable manor, where the chance of visual  observation is high, raising safety.

This openness and vulnerability also has the opportunity to create strong bonds of trust within a community.
So, in this sense, the Server Farm becomes more like a Public Library of local information.

A Home Room -
Potentially attached to the library, this would be a place relaxation, recovery and socialising.
Coined from the high school equivalent were students of all ages meet in small groups before starting the day. similarly, this 'home room' will be for all ages and will primarily be used at the beginning and end of a day.

Bike Shelters -
considering that cars are no longer permitted within the precinct, arrival by other means becomes very necessary. public transport would be the major transport from surrounding nodal points throughout the city. but locally, riding a bike or walking becomes a much more practical method of transport.

Future Retail

Up to now. most everything that I have explored can be implemented now. and while the template and concepts for my proposal would stay the same, considering the proposal is for 2032, how would technologies and social norms have changed?

According to Moore's Law, our modern computing power and technological integration is capable of doubling itself every two years. With this in mind, chances are, by 2032 digital technology will be vastly different and appear completely integrated into the physical environment.

Some of these advancements that will affect my design will include:
Voice Recognition and interaction - converse with computers and machines.
Biological Security - eye scan or finger print
Gesture control
Increased connectivity speeds and a relative decrease of on board memory
Complete Cloud Computing
Online based Education

Looking Inwards.

I noticed that the last time I was on site in Paddington I would always walk around the other shopping stores before going into paddington central.. I also noticed that each time I went in, I made a conscious decision. whereas outside on latrobe, I could wander from store to store looking, and occasionally even buying, without really thinking about where I was or where I was going.

And as much as I wanted to, I could never stay long inside paddington central. I felt like I was missing out on everything else.

this made me realise that, while paddington central was well designed in terms of acknowledging your context, It still feels like a shopping center.

Elaborating, the center is designed well in terms of creating a building that was sympathetic to its surroundings. but at the same time, It completely ignores the current happenings and movements outside. In that sense, It still has the shopping center feel where the focus is internal. I had previously decided that a Latrobe shopping precinct would be successful. But if Paddington Central is to be successful and feed off the success of the shopping precinct, the internal focus needed to change.

by reworking the spaces to create a more externally focused shopping experience would create a symbiotic relationship between the shopping center and its context. where each can strengthen the other. This alone would make paddington central a unique shopping experience.

Latrobe Retail - Fuel the Fire

As previously posted, the Paddington Central Shopping Center is easily identified and strongly branded through it's use of strong red colour throughout a building that is designed to be sympathetic to the surrounding post war converted queenslanders.

By bringing the strong red colour out into latrobe, you can create the same effect with the existing traditional style shops. A red element woven through the length of the latrobe precinct would create a contrast similar to the shopping center.

Drawing on the history of the site, the fire at the old tram depot can be used to create a scene and a visual for the new Latrobe precinct. This also ties in with the precinct beginning and ending between the site and the old power station. Thankfully, there were no lives lost in the destructive fire so there is a low chance that I could be drawing on potentially painful memories.

Using this information I came up with this concept logo for 'Latrobe Retail - Fuel the Fire'.

The flames are designed to look hand painted and slightly tribal to reflect the home made style of the shopping center. The fire symbol is drawn from the destructive fire on the site but is instead meant to represent life, renewal and community.

Branding Latrobe

In the current environment of advertising and branding, where consumers have almost instant access to online material from anywhere in the world. According to Brandscape.com, brands are turning back to one of the oldest, but most effective forms of advertising, word of mouth.

Word of mouth can be twice as effective as advertising and costs almost nothing.

The majority of current shops along Latrobe Terrace do not advertise conventionally advertise and instead rely on word of mouth to sustain and grow their business.

By bringing in a strong sense of experience into the entire Latrobe terrace and expanding word of mouth into the online arena is likely to generate a strong increase in business for every store.

My initial thoughts are to draw some inspiration from the site to create a common thread along the area that would enhance one's experience of Latrobe.

Project 2 Site.

My initial thoughts regarding project 2 are more based around the context of the site rather then the site itself. The surrounding boutique shopping experiences create a great opportunity to bring the paddington central shopping center together with these individual shops to create a unique outdoor shopping experience in an outdoor retail precinct along Latrobe Terrace.

The precinct could recognise and enhance the community that supports it while giving the area a stronger identity.

The existing shopping area currently continues uninterrupted right through to the old power station that was built to power the old tram depot where the shopping center currently sits. This makes it a very practical and poetic place to limit the initial stages of the shopping district along Latrobe.

Because this strategy is more of a consolidating and branding exercise. the building requirements would actually be small and align themselves with my project one brief of creating a Hub of activity within the existing fabric to help preserve the surrounding environment. This strategy also has great expansion potential as the shopping becomes more constant along Latrobe to the east and west sides.

The Blue rings represent potential arrival points for the precinct.. the middle point being a new public transport stop.

In terms of the site, the left and middle points are the most important. as well as arrivals from the north from local areas.

Project 1 Feedback / Reflection

Disappointing.
Personally, I felt like our argument was strong, our presentation panels were packed with information relevant to our point and our concept.. My little speaking cameo left a lot to be desired but I wasn't expecting to almost fail.

The criteria sheet gave absolutely no feedback regarding where we went wrong and had no feedback from the tutors. After getting an explanation from Peter, he explained how he marked the project and hinted that our poor marks might be attributed to our blog... But I have been constantly contributing to this blog from day one. I still cannot understand how I can be penalised considering other blogs were empty the day before this project was due.

Anyway, build a bridge i guess...

Paddington Central Site.

The paddington central site was originally the tram depot for the brisbane trams before it (and a substantial number of brisbane's trams) were destroyed in a fire.

7 News Flashback

Project 2 Initial thoughts

looking over the brief and walking through the site, I got a strong sense of identity from the site. This was a place that strongly represented a community. with this realisation, I began to wonder what it was that made people recognise a place as Paddington? how was this place different from all the other suburbs of Brisbane? 

And it is different.

I zoomed out, looking at Brisbane. how was Brisbane recognizable from Melbourne or Sydney?

The climate: It would feel humid to anyone not used to it.

The topography: Brisbane city sits comfortably within the winding path of the iconic Brisbane river.

The architecture: perhaps not our CBD but the surrounding suburbs pulse with a traditional Queensland style.

The people: Brisbane still feels like an overgrown country town. and like a classic country town, everyone knows everyone, and word spreads quickly. how would that feel? to enter a place as a stranger?

Moving into Paddington, can any of these themes be repeated to form the identity of Paddington? or perhaps there is an opportunity to give Paddington it's identity through the Paddington central.

looks like I'll be going back to site to find out!

Beginning Project 2

- The Site.
Paddington Central Shopping Center - located in the heart of paddington this collection of retail stores sits comfortably within its traditional queensland surroundings. The building presents a neat traditional style front facade with pitched roofs along the road to break up the building to appear as several smaller objects.

Walking through the centre, you can't help but feel the building has a certain swagger, an sense of style. It appears modern and sharp, but with a few traditional accessories to give it flare and interest. The signage and shopfronts are incredibly well styled, and the entire center is strongly branded.

- The Brief.
Turn paddington central shopping center into a local HUB of activity for residents of the area in a future brisbane. A central place that connects people to the area, and to each other. A place that has a strong identity and a place that people feel they belong to.

This, in turn, should support a new public arena in the online realm that helps to create an environment of accessibility for every person. increased accessibility requires less transport and building costs, creating a sustainable, environmentally balanced community from within the existing fabric of the renewed Paddington Sprawl.

Project 1 Feedback

After presenting our ideas and speaking with the Tutors. It became clear that we had not managed to get our ideas across quite as well as we would have liked. I had volunteered to speak on behalf of the group, which was a terrible option as I struggled to connect our ideas with our presentation. Eventually we were able to convince the tutors that we had a strong idea.

Overall, they were happy with our progress and noted that we had a very strong idea but noted that our idea was not well represented on our presentation boards... to which I say, fair enough, we crammed as much information onto our boards that in hindsight, may have overpowered how we wanted the new paddington to feel.

Safe to say, these lessons have been noted and will definitely be taken into account for project 2