09 : Reflection

I am struggling to develop my form and I'm losing motivation due to my confusion about the relevance of my project.  It is very difficult for me to design a construction system and it seems very technical and I don't think I'll be able to pull if off.  Over the next week, before the next tutorial I think I will revisit my key concepts and see what is possible for me to develop before the end of the semester.

I'm frustrated with myself because I know I should be much further along with this... I know I really just need to get on with it.

09 : Research : Time-Based Architecture

Following on from the reading, here are a few exemplars of time-based Architecture:

Cedric Price Potteries Thinkbelt Project (1964) - This theoretical project was a reaction against the elitist university institutions (which Price believed kept education separate from the masses) and the loss of skilled manufacturing workers/developers through the ‘Brain Drain’ and de-industrialisation of the post-war UK. Price proposed a new type of science and technology teaching institution. The ‘Potteries thinkbelt’ was a series of interconnected faculties and student housing which was linked through the existing road and rail networks (which were underused at the time). The Rail connections not only acted as a link between sites but also acted a teaching rooms, labs and workshops. This was achieved by having container styled teaching units which could be lifted by cranes at ‘transfer’ area onto or on a train depending on the requirements of the institution. Price believed that the creation of such an institution would create employment and innovation in the area and thus aid a better quality of life in the North Staordshire Area.

Archigram 'Walking City' proposed building massive mobile robotic structures, with their own intelligence, that could freely roam the world, moving to wherever their resources or manufacturing abilities were needed. Various walking cities could interconnect with each other to form larger 'walking metropolises' when needed, and then disperse when their concentrated power was no longer necessary. Individual buildings or structures could also be mobile, moving wherever their owner wanted or needs dictated.

These are both theoretical examples, but they still provide a great source of inspiration.

09 : Reading : Time-Based Architecture

Last semester I researched a lot about Time-Based Architecture.  This book became particularly useful as it described a number of projects and essays about how there is always a time-factor present in any design project.

Here are some quotes from the book, which I believe are relevant to this project:

In the late 1960s, serious research was done into techniques that would allow buildings to adapt to meet the demands made by time.  However, the desire for flexibility led to programmatically neutral, characterless buildings.

Society is changing at such speed that buildings are faced with new demands which they should be in a position to meet.  There are times when buildings change function during construction or even during the design process.  A new approach, therefore, is to design buildings that are able to cope with such changes, in other words buildings that respond to the time factor.

Designing for the unknown, the unpredictable, is the new challenge facing architects today.  'Form follows function' is giving way to concept like polyvalence, changeability, flexibility, disassembly and semi-permanence.  The design is becoming an innovative tool for developing new spatial and physical structure that generate freedom.

An important design strategy for conditioning mixes of function and interchangeability of living and working is to provide more than one access system.

So it's all about the architect being disposed to designing not just for one condition but always for so much more.  Perhaps this covers the words polyvalence, competence and performance.  You have to be constantly aware of the fact that everything you make should be open to new interpretations as time goes by.

09 : Lecture

I was sick yesterday and missed the lecture in person, but I have gone over the recording and found the lecture very insightful.  Yasu made the point that if we haven't started actually designing now, then we never will....

Here are my notes:

08 : Reflection

Last weekend I traveled to Melbourne to visit some good friends of mine.  They happen to be architecture students also, so were actually interested to talk about the types of projects I'm working on.  They mentioned how the light rail system in Bilbao (see post below), but also Melbourne itself has a great infrastructure, particularly in the inner city regions.

Flink Labs used a data visualisation system which maps Melbourne's Public Transport and shows all the areas (blue) which are within reasonable walking distance (5 mins) of 25,000 train, tram or bus stop within Melbourne.


Flink Labs also developed and interactive data visualisation created for the Victorian Government's App My State competition. Live Where? takes data from many Victorian Government departments and combines them into a compelling and engaging visualisation that helps people quickly explore and find potential suburbs to live.

It would be great to develop a similar maps or resources for Canberra and for the A.C.T.

08 : Research : Bilbao

I seem to have developed some sort of condition where I talk about this project to almost anyone that will listen.  This became particularly apparent in Melbourne last weekend, where I met up with two lovely friends of mine (who both happen to be student architects) and gave me a couple of ideas.  As it happens, they traveled around Europe together last year, and they mentioned the light rail system in Bilbao, Spain is really interesting.  So I've done a bit of research into what they were talking about about.

Bilbao developed a new tramming system called 'EuskoTran' and was developed to encourage urban revitalisation.  According to Euskotran suburban trains, the metro and the tramway currently form three essential pillars for the development and revitalisation of Bilbao as a modern city. "After many years went the tram has been rediscovered as an ideal alternative for the future. Quite a paradox for a means of transport unfairly branded as an anachronism and taken out of service during the 50s and 60s in cities which gave their streets and avenues over to private cars. Today, the Tramway is the alternative to pollution-generating forms of transport in city centres. Surface transport which does not need large infrastructures or heavy investment costs. Transport which travels the streets along reserved spaces or in company with other vehicles. Without limits, because its versatility enables it to adapt to any type of urban surface, be it tarmac, paving stones, stone, sand or grass...
These are the most significant advantages of the Tramway, although the economic benefits that this system brings to a city are no less important: it improves access to cities with resulting savings in time and fuel costs, and strengthens the development of cores of commercial activity. The Tramway thus becomes a driving force for a city‚s urban and social transformation."

08 : Research : Canberra Events

I trawlled through as many websites as I could find with different events and put together a table like this:

I then converted this into a map to see if there was some sort of distinctive movement pattern over months.

One random thing I discovered was that Canberra has special events just for people who have arrived in Canberra in the last twelves months.  Here is advertisement below:

08 : Lecture

This lecture described a 'new' way to understand sustainability.  Cradle-to-cradle design is something I researched in Collaborative Design last semester, and I particularly the examples shown in todays lecture.

I quite like this Quadror idea and I think having a simple element which is assembled by the user.  A video by Quadror is shown below:

08 : Tutorial

Chatting with Jane in the tutorial today definitely helped clear a few things up. 

I've decided to continue with the construction concept and will develop this further over the week ahead.  Points to consider this week include:

• figuring out where these 'temporary' stops will be (in terms of current events in Canberra)
• how will it connect with Jess's proposal. 
• I'd also like to make time for some quick sketching of some sort of 'vision' of how this proposal may actually work.

07 : Research : Monorail

This website has a lot of detailed information about construction details for monorails and the different types of column/beam support options:

http://www.urbanaut.com/Guildway%20and%20Construction%204.htm

Monorail Definition: A single rail serving as a track for passenger or freight vehicles. In most cases rail is elevated, but monorails can also run at grade, below grade or in subway tunnels. Vehicles are either suspended from or straddle a narrow guideway. Monorail vehicles are WIDER than the guideway that supports them.

Waterfront East station featured a double track station with an island platform

Hanging Monorail, Germany. Wuppertal's monorail first opened in 1901, and for most of its 11km route is located above the river Wüpper, however at the western end it runs above a main road where by not requiring any roadspace it very effectively avoids traffic congestion. Admittedly the system is not the prettiest to look at and is a little noisy but the superstructure is from a different era when people just marvelled at the technology.

Source: http://citytransport.info/Monorail.htm

07 : Concept : Construction

Here are a few images of above ground railway lines in construction:

07 : Tutorial

The feedback we received from Jane about last week's presentation was fairly positive.  Obviously, the lack of consistency in paper sizes in the presentation was unfortunate, but in terms of the content she said that she liked the idea of defining the mobile theme as the 'mobility of people', in contrast to almost every other group presentation which was about getting people out of Canberra.  Jane did mention though that we need 'something' else (which is also mobile-related) to really push the idea into a built form.

With this, I looked into the various definitions of mobile.

mo·bile 

adjective

• capable of moving of being moved readily.

• Digital Technology.  pertaining to or noting a cell phone, usually one with computing ability or a portable, wireless computing device used which held in the hand, as in mobile tablet; mobile PDA; mobile app.

• utilising motor vehicles for ready movement: a mobile library.

• permanently equipped with vehicles for transport.

• flowing freely, as a liquid.

• changeable or changing easily in expression, mood, purpose.

• quickly responding to impulses, emotions, etc., as the mind.

• Sociology. characterized by or permitting the mixing of social groups.

• of or pertaining to a mobile.

noun

• a piece of sculpture having delicately balanced units constructed of rods and sheets of metal or other material suspended in midair by wire or twine so that the individual parts can move independently, as when stirred by a breeze.

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Just before the end of class, Julian (who is the other mobile tutor) called me over and himself and Jane discussed possible ideas for the rest of the project.  He made a very good point by saying that our 'architectural entity' does not have to last forever - the reality is that it probably won't.  He said that if it was him doing the project, he would focus on the construction of the railway line.  How is it constructed, and is there a way for it to be constructed in certain places around Canberra temporarily / maybe it would become a cocoon or capsule like form that would engulf the train to become a station as well?

Here is a quick sketch I did right after we spoke:

This week I think I will research a little more into the construction of railway lines and see if anything sparks my interest.  This technical approach to the project is usually not my strong area, but last design proposal, maybe I'm up for the challenge??

07 : Lecture

The lecture was really great yesterday at breaking down the required elements for the individual project.


Here are my notes in the lecture:

06 : Research

I'm looking forward to having a bit of a chat to Jane about which direction to take for the rest of the semester.

One idea I had was to focus on the integration of 'Russell' into the master plan, as with our new transport plan this would be the 'gateway' into Canberra, the first glimpse into the axis of the city.

Russell is one of the smallest suburbs in Canberra, comprising a number of government offices but no private residences. It is probably best known for the headquarters of the Australian Defence Force, which is housed in the Russell Offices complex. 

The Parliamentary Triangle is the ceremonial precinct of Canberra, containing some of Australia's most significant buildings. The triangle is formed by Commonwealth, Kings and Constitution avenues.

Russell Offices complex comprise the Office of National Assessments and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, as well as the Department of Defense and Australian National Defense Force.

View of Campbell Park, headquarters of the Australian National Defense Force.

From the book 'Canberra Following Griffin' the diagram illustrates a study for National Capital Authority, about the 'Central National Area' completing the Constitution Avenue restoring the Russell corner of the triangle as the new entry to the city.

The Australian–American Memorial commemorates the role of the United States in World War II. 

06 : Individual Assignment

As I understand, the purpose for the rest of the assignment, is build upon the 'strategy' at our interim presentation and create an architectural entity which is to replace and/or support one of more specific function the parliament house currently provide.

Slightly confusing... but upon reflection of our strategy, I've tried to break this down into some sort of concept to give me a bit of direction for the rest of semester.

06 : Development

As mentioned earlier, I have reviewed Dee's Sketch-up file and re-analysed our ideas based on the feedback given in our interim crit yesterday.

I wish I applied some of the techniques found in one of our main exemplars as found by Jess about the Light Rail proposal on the Sunshine Coast.  Here are some of the images in their proposal:

 

Before the next tutorial on Friday, I will attempt to apply some of these techniques in specific areas around Canberra in order to decide which part I will continue on with the rest of the semester.

I will also dig up a book I have somewhere called "A Pattern Language" which has some really great diagrammatic / sketchy examples of these types of situations which I hope to employ in the second part of this project.

06 : Reflection

Obviously, there is not much that can be done about the project now, but I think it's still worth reflecting on what can be improved for the rest of the semester.  I assumed that everyone was on the same page and trying to put as much effort in as possible, after completing 7 design studios before that, but obviously not. 


Jess wrote a really good reflection on our project which can be found at http://jess-hammond.blogspot.com/2011/09/final-panels-and-post-presentation.html
Here are our panels from the presentation:

Dee's last panel (which was supposed to display our architectural entity) was not to the standard that I expected.  I think it would have been important to be more explicit in the drawing style that everyone wanted, and to make this very, very clear from the beginning.

Over the weekend, I am going to use Dee's sketchup file and re-analyse and visualise in a style I would have done if this was an individual project.

06 : Interim : Statement

GROUP STATEMENT:

Our group has proposed to convert every state in Australia into a separate country with its own parliamentary system. This will allow each country to be more self sufficient and sustainable, and possibly reduce migration and travelling around such a mass area. Canberra will ultimately act as a ‘union’ and meeting place for all of these countries to gather and discuss common issues, which is why improving mobility within Canberra is essential for the future.

Canberra is very spread out with the only form of public transport being buses, and a main focus on walking and cycling. It is near impossible however for everyone to be able to access all areas of the capital both easily and cheaply. This affects everyone from tourists holidaying in the city, people living in the area, children visiting the capital for school camps, and politicians staying in the city whilst using Parliament House on a regular basis.

So, we have devised a new light rail network that connects all major areas in the city to enhance mobility within Canberra. This will in turn attract people to the capital and allow Canberra to appeal to a wider demographic of people.  The proposed network will create an additional layer on top of the current infrastructure, with the majority of rail elevated above median strips of main roads within Canberra. Links to the existing airport and country rail will be designed to allow people coming in and out of Canberra easy access to the centre of the city and Parliament house. All main tourist attractions are connected for visitors, and routes that join surrounding suburbs with the centre are implemented for residents. There are also proposed stations at common school camp accommodation and local politician lodges within the city that connects to Capital Hill. The Parliament house station has been strategically placed to not interfere with the precinct, and all stations across the area are positioned to avoid the blocking of views to Capital Hill. Improved scale and proportion within large streets and unused spaces across the city is also a main strategy, with the possibility left open to create urban spaces on the elevated rail for future densification.

Overall the proposal will promote and cater for future population growth within Canberra through creating an area that is both mobile and accessible and provide a common ground for every politician representing each country.

05 : Interim : Panels

Here is my final panel, without the header.  Finally seeing starting the see the end of this project...
I think the other girls are almost finished so I'll upload all of our panels together once they are done.

The little blurb on the side says: Country or continent? Will Australia’s capital cities become so self-sufficient and independent, that one-by-one it will begin to break away? The scattered design of Canberra is currently influencing its significance identity and presence as the country's capital. So if Australia the country became Australia the continent, perhaps Canberra can become an exemplar city, a common denominator between the various needs of its citizens.

05 : Interim : Statistics

All of these statistics were taken from the file found in Week 04.

05 : Interim : Development

Updated panel nolli + Australia Map.

05 : Interim : Mapping

The nolli of existing Canberra is to be situated in the bottom right hand corner.  I played around with different layers, in order to illustrate how vast the area is:

01 - base map from nearmap.com

02 - green areas

03 - water areas

04 - built areas

05 - combined maps

06 - final map. the green was too strong on the panel, and not effective.