design diary
DESCRIPTION
wsa5 Design Diary, 2011TRANSCRIPT
DESIGN DIARY
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The Design Diary is an integral part of the MArch Thesis at the WSA, providing a detailed record of the research
and design development undertaken throughout the year, providing context and background information to the final
Thesis Design Project.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 07
DESIGN AND BUILD 08Ephemeral Architecture. Particle Motion
PRIMER PROJECT 13Llanelli, ‘Place’ and embedded memory
LLANELLI: ‘PLACE AND EMBEDDED MEMORY 15Historical development and evolved urban pattern
THE RIVER LLIEDI 19Erasure of pattern and palimpsest. Fragmented memory
EMBEDDED MEMORY 28
Case studies
GROUP STUDY 31Collaboration and temporal mapping
MEMORY AND HISTORICAL ERASURE 34Postwar Germany and the GDR
CONCLUSION 36
DISSERTATION 37Constructive Deconstruction
ABSTRACT 38
INTRODUCTION 40
CONCLUSION 44
DESIGN THESIS 47Degrees of Permanence
CAMDEN: DEGREES OF PERMANENCE 49
SITE SELECTION 50
INITIAL SITE ANALYSIS 54
ORGANISATIONAL CONCEPTS 59
UCL COLLABORATIVE SCIENCE CLUSTERS 64Networked Ivory Towers. Brief and schedule of accommodation
PLUG-AND-PLAY 70
DEEP GEOTHERMAL DISTRICT HEATING NETWORK 78
MODULAR CONSTRUCTION 64
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INTRODUCTION
The growth, complexity and evolution of cities is a topic that fascinates me. The city is the ultimate
expression of civilisation and its patterns of urban fabric, communications infrastructure and
architectural form are a reflection of the underlying mechanics and values of the inhabitant culture.
My primer project examines the urban fabric as a medium for information storage. Using the town of
llanelli as a test-subject the primer is an exploration of the resilience of memory embedded in the binary
figure-ground. The importance of urban mnemonics is discussed with relation to ‘place’ and identity.
Building on the themes expounded in the primer, my thesis project explores a resolution between the
fast changing, , prefabricated, disposable nature of our contemporary society with the human and civic
requirements of place-making and embedded urban texture. The project develops an evolutionary, site
specific urban architecture incorporating degrees of permanence and polyvalence into the tectonic
diagram of the city.
DESIGN+ BUILD
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EPHEMERAL ARCHITECTURE_PARTICLE TENSION
The year began with a short two week group project to create a series of architectural interventions an vacant
solicitors office on the first floor of the Morgan Arcade in the centre of Cardiff. The exhibition was run in collaboration
with Cardiff Design Festival (1-16 October) celebrating and promoting design talent in the city.
Our group worked under the tag-line ‘Ephemeral Architecture’ with an emphasis on the fluid, dynamic and
temporary.
e.phem.er.al
[ih-fem-er-uhl]
–adjective
1.
lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory: the ephemeral joys of childhood.
2.
lasting but one day: an ephemeral flower.
This installation attempts to engage with the notion of ephemeral architecture with a response generated from
analysis of everyday stimulus that exists in the world around us. The vacant solicitors offices provided an empty
shell; forms in space that no longer contain many of the more ephemeral qualities that once would have enlivened
it. The transitory and sometimes imperceptible characteristics of light, noise, movement and data formed the
palette, which through digital analysis, has been sculpted into the forms of the installation.
The form of the installation was generated through collection of data values that transient in nature. These being
constantly fluctuating natural day lighting levels within the rooms and reverberating sound particles generated by a
speaker in the final space. These were modelled digitally and combined to create a flowing, virtual form that gives
the impression of a moment frozen in time.
The movement of the audio through the space, generating and defining the form is “reflecting the
consumed past function both within and around the arcade through the non-permanence of the invisible
electromagnetic radio wave, scanning through wavelengths which have been left behind” - A. Antoniou
Just like the fleeting stimulus on which the installation is based, it too engages with the space in a temporal way
and can be completely removed leaving no trace of its presence.
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The Design and Build project threw up some interesting structural and 3D
modelling challenges, and the tight time-frame meant the project had a
directness and energy which is sometimes lost with a more considered and
iterated design process. The projected video of the design and construction
process is available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxEHa74a0OY
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PRIMER PROJECT
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LLANELLIPOPULATION: 46,358OS GRID REFERENCE: SN505005PRINCIPAL AREA: CARMARTHENSHIRECOUNTRY: WALES
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LLANELLI: ‘PLACE’ AND EMBEDDED MEMORYAs a starting point for my primer I began to look into the theory of ‘place’ and place-making.
One area I found particularly interesting is the idea of embedded memory, information
encoded in the physical fabric of the city and the effect this accumulation and aggregation of
temporal remnants has in creating identity.
The ‘place’ studio collectively took Llanelli, a small town in Carmarthenshire, south west
Wales as a studio study area. We began the exercise by exploring the town and analysing
the existing conditions to identify specific themes and areas of interest which we would
pursue and develop throughout the primer.
Llanelli was historically a mining community and it owes its explosive growth in the 18th and
19th century to coal mining, steelworks and the tinplate industry. The Llanelli and Mynydd
Mawr railway which opened in 1803 and the expansion of the docks also made the town a
key link in the trade route for raw materials from the valleys.
This industry gave the town its raison d’etre and dominated the local economy leaving an
indelible mark on the urban fabric. Large industrial sites grew up within the town surrounded
by rapidly expanding working class terraced housing and the importance of the docks and
railway gave the town an infrastructural coherence and hierarchy. However as the mines
closed and the importance of industry started to decline Llanelli suffered economic collapse,
coupled with an identity crisis as the town struggled to reinvent itself. Llanelli is now a post-
industrial town suffering the effects of unemployment, economic stagnation and sustained
outward migration.
My initial impressions of Llanelli were of a disjointed, damaged urban fabric. Although
there are moments of beauty there is an overall lack of coherence. Evidence of recent
industrial trauma permeates the town, which is perforated with large vacant brownfield sites
and derelict buildings. The city centre is characterised by violently disrupted routes, fast
arterial roads, over scaled, cancerous shopping centre developments and huge areas of
car parking.
ASDA, located right in the heart of the medieval town, is symptomatic of the destructive
planning policies that have exacerbated underlying economic problems and contributed to
a significant loss of urban character and identity. Historical routes have been simply erased,
the building is massively over scaled within its context and offers nothing to the surrounding
urban environment while the vast exterior carpark destroys any sense of urban enclosure,
separating and segregating the commercial core from the residential housing behind.
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Left: Historical images of Llanelli as a robust, successful mining
town. Industrial infrastructure was intrinsically interwoven into the
urban fabric and defined the character and raison d’etre of the
town .
Right: Llanelli 2010. A disjointed, incoherent city fabric suffering
from a loss of identity and the erasure of historical urban pattern.
Building on my interest in embedded memory I began to analyse
the town centre through historical maps and photos alongside
contemporary surveys and mapping data. My focus was on
historical routes and coherent patterns of temporal events which
have left their mark on the urban fabric, and how this mnemonic
construct altered and fragmented over time providing less a
complete record but rather an echo of past events.
I was interested in how evolved, historical routes and figure-
ground arrangements survived and were re-appropriated into
the developing urban fabric. This evolutionary growth imbues the
urban grain with layers of meaning and embedded memory of
past uses and inhabitation patterns.
Conversely I was also interested in the development of the large
areas of amorphous, loose space and fragmentation of coherent
urban arrangements that is evident throughout Llanelli. Planning
policy has created violent ruptures in the town fabric. Generic,
unresponsive interventions have damaged the character of the
centre while a failure to engage with context has led to a loss of
coherence and rhythm.
‘Place’ by definition requires inhabitation, and the requirements for
inhabitation are fluid and dynamic. A responsive urban environment
is constantly evolving to meet changing requirements, but urbanity
requires echoes of the past, contained within the architectural
fabric to provide the seeds for meaningful places.
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THE RIVER LLIEDI
During the course of my investigation into the historical development
of Llanelli I became interested in the changing fortunes of the river
Lliedi. Historically the Lliedi flowed directly through the centre
of Llanelli, providing the original settlement with a well defined
geographical anchor. Throughout the towns development the
river has taken on importance as a trade route and a source of
water for industry, helping to drive the towns explosive growth. As
well as a large proportion of the towns industries, many important
buildings and civic spaces were located on the banks of the river.
The market is an example of a civic space that benefitted from
being located directly on this arterial trade route, and is still held in
its original location to this day.
However today there is very little evidence that Llanelli is a river
town. The Lliedi has been culverted and now flows through the
town centre hidden beneath the streets.
The removal of the Lliedi from the map is a further example of
the historical erasure which is apparent across Llanelli. A river is
a key defining element within an urban fabric, and in Llanelli the
river has historically had a huge influence on the development
of the town. The loss of the Lliedi is not only the removal of an
important place-making element, it is also a major erasure of the
towns accumulated past.
However, more than looking at the river itself I was interested
in examining the fragments of urban memory it left behind. The
historical city fabric evolved around the river and an echo of this
geographical element was embedded into the surrounding urban
form. Is it still possible to read the presence of the river encoded
into the urban grain. Does ‘place’ rely on the palimpsest.
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Map of industrial development along the river Lliedi in 1880. This map shows the continuing
importance of the river on the towns development throughout the industrial revolution and how the
form and meanders of the river had a strong influence on the urban fabric of Llanelli.
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Right: This sectional model examines the theme of embodied
memory and built mnemonics, both on the urban infrastructure
and the individual building scale. The model is a diagram
exploring ideas of the changing relationship between the built
fabric and underlying structure of the town, in this case through the
controlling and corralling of the river Lliedi.
Below: Concept model of the river Lliedi encased beneath the
town centre. Despite its erasure from the map the river still
demands an infrastructure and carves out its new territory under
the streets of Llanelli.
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Pre-Industr
ial -18th Century
Original settlement on the banks of the river Lliedi. River as key geographic feature rooting the town to its location.
Industrial 18th Century - 1
970
Post-Industr
ial 1970-2010
Massive population explosion with industrial development. River as industrial artery for transport andindustrial processing. Major port development.
Steep post-industrial decline, falling population, loss of character. River and coastline repurposed as leisure ammenities.
Llanelli Population
Below: Concept diagram for the ‘shattered urban fabric’ of Llanelli exploring the erasure of historical
memory, expanding interstitial, grey spaces, lack of effective linkage and enclosure and disruption to
the closely linked networks accrued over the previous centuries. New additions such as ASDA are
parachuted in, their engorged floorplans plastering over the existing street networks and car-parks
carving exaggerated urban void in the city centre. Post-60’s interventions show a violent disregard for
the complex evolved ecosystem of the city and rejection of dialogue with existing conditions. These
developments are by necessity place-less, functional objects and their infiltration into the city centre
produces a bland, generic urban environment, with cities functioning more and more as mere service
stations rather than providing the ‘joy and delight’ which is a fundamental prerequisite for successful
urban living.
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Top Left: Diagram of historical development of Llanelli, highlighting importance of the Lliedi and the
towns other water resources in each period, from preindustrial market town, to industrial and trading
powerhouse all the way through to the current policy of encouraging and focusing on the leisure
industry.
Below: An exploration of the idea of embodied memory on the smaller scale. The traces of past
inhabitation and uses are layered throughout the urban fabric. The act of demolition can cut through
and expose these layers, revealing tantalising glimpses of other lives. The marks on the wall are
evidence of a ‘place’, ingrained in the very stains on the brickwork.
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1951.An analysis of the embodied memory of the river in the structure of Llanelli in 1951. Although a large section of the river in the centre of the town has already been culverted below the streets there is a clear urban memory of the Lliedi’s previous path. This memory is embedded in the building lines (in orange) which retain a mnemonic of their relationship with the water.
2010.A similar analysis of the same site in 2010 shows significant degradation of the urban form. A far larger area of the river has been covered and forgotten while the urban fabric has largely unravelled and lost its coherence and structure. The memory of the river is being systematically erased through new developments which fail to engage with their context and this erasure of the existing pattern has made a strong contribution in the loss of ‘place’ currently being experienced in the town-centre.
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Bologna_Italy_City Walls Lucca_Italy_Ampitheatre San Salvador_Paraguay_Crater Mexico City_Mexico_Lake
Structural brickwork and history of construction process left exposed. Actual structure visible rather than alluded to through ornamentation.
Marble cladding revealed for what it is; a paper-thin skin applied after the building itself is complete. The opulent lower section contrasts with the utilitarian brick of the higher levels, reflecting the cities changing economic fortunres
Post holes reveal the traces of the temporal event of errecting scaffold.
EMBEDDED MEMORY_CASE STUDIES
Above: The San Petronio Basilica in Bologna is an interesting example of memory
embedded in the facade of a building. Only ever partially completed the facade traces
the economic history of the community through periods of wealth and prosperity as well
as stagnation and decline while revealing temporal details such as the post holes for the
scaffold. Details such as bisected windows and truncated columns hint at the temporal
and permutable nature of the buildings current form.
Following my investigation of embedded memory in Llanelli I decided to look for other
more successful examples of urban mnemonics which have been retained and re-
appropriated into the modern city. These case-studies are examples of buildings and
urban environments that demonstrate a strong historical identity embedded within the
urban fabric. Although they have undergone evolutions and changes of function and
built-form over time there is still a clear imprinted structural legacy visible within the
contemporary city.
Left top to bottom: The ring road around the historical core of Bologna follows the
route of the old city wall, fragments of which survive to this day; monumental city gates
confined within roundabouts. In Lucca the structural imprint of a roman amphitheatre is
visible in the towns piazza despite the complete appropriation of the actual built fabric.
In San Salvador urban development has colonised an impact crater embedded in the
landscape forming a coherent, self-contained settlement and in Mexico City an abrupt
change in the orientation of urban grain identifies the site of an old lake-bed.
Right: Appropriation of urban relics, Rome.
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GROUP STUDY_TEMPORAL MAPPING
In addition to our specific individual primer work the ‘Place’ studio decided to collaborate and pool
their research on Llanelli to generate a multi-faceted, holistic picture of the towns evolution.
A timeline was generated plotting the key moments in the towns development from a wide range
of perspectives, and these points were translated into a geographical matrix, each addition mapped
into its temporal and spatial context. The process was recorded with stop-motion photography and
the video can be accessed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YJGqEJ6yNM&hd=1
This collaboration achieved an interesting synthesis between a wide range of interests and research
priorities and allowed us to place our individual work within a wider context. The project was
predominantly about the process and the discussions provoked, and was an interesting way to wrap
up the primer phase of the year.
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MEMORY AND HISTORICAL ERASURE
I have had a long interest in the issues of embedded memory and historical erasure, partly stemming from a
period of several months I spent living with a family in Cologne, Germany.
The issue is part of the collective consciousness and has an added significance due to the widespread
and utter devastation visited on so much of Germany during the Second World War. Many cities, including
Cologne were virtually levelled by allied bombing raids, with historical landmarks reduced to rubble and the
urban fabric shattered beyond recognition.
As part of the rebuilding effort many of these landmarks were faithfully restored to their original condition,
such as the Romanesque Saint-Martin church pictured below both in the immediate aftermath of the war
and in its present, restored condition.
There are arguments for and against this approach to restoration. Landmarks such as Saint-Martin are an
intrinsic piece of the identity of the city. They act both as co-ordinating anchors in the urban fabric, and a link
to the city’s past, establishing the present as a point on a continuum stretching across the generations. They
are also extremely effective place making objects.
However this painstaking restoration can also be viewed as erasure and hence a denial of a period in the
city’s evolution. All traces of war damage have been carefully expunged from the walls of the church and it is
as though this great trauma has been meticulously airbrushed from the embedded memory of the city fabric.
The recent decision to demolish the former GDR Palast der Republik in Berlin, to be replaced with a replica
of the earlier Berliner Stadtschloss is another example of the removal of an important part of the country’s
development and an apparent attempt to create an idealised, and to some degrees sterilised built history.
I think it is important to recognise the role of the city as a repository for the collective memory of its inhabitants,
and be aware that ‘place’ is only generated through the accumulation of moments of inhabitation. Erasing the
accrued deposits of this process has an inevitable impact on the authenticity of place and moves towards the
total homogenization of the city.
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Top left to right: The church of Saint-Martin, Cologne, Germany,
in the immediate aftermath of World War 2 and how it looks today
following extensive reconstruction.
Right top to bottom: The Palast der Republik in Berlin, one of
the most important GDR era buildings in the city and below, the
original Berliner Stadtschloss, a replica of which is currently under
construction.
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CONCLUSION
The specifics of an embedded history is perhaps less important than the
actual existence of some form of urban history. A space is endowed with the
qualities of ‘place’ only through inhabitation. Inhabitation is experienced as
an accumulation of memories associated with a particular space. It therefore
follows that an urban fabric, or an architecture, with a high capacity for
supporting memory embedded within the structure itself is highly conductive to
the process of place-making.
In Llanelli the loss of ‘place’ and identity has myriad social, political and
economic causes, but a fundamental issue seems to be the destruction and
fragmentation of historical patterns of inhabitation. Patterns ingrained within the
urban fabric are a crystallisation of the temporal activities of inhabitation, and
this inhabitation is the critical prerequisite for the distinction between ‘space’ and
‘place’. Instead of building on and responding to the aggregated layers built up
over hundreds of years, the town planners instead strive for ‘growth’ at all costs
and systematically destroying the vestiges of ‘place’ in the name of progress.
This rupture between historical pattern aggregation and the post 1960
development of Llanelli is a case-study in the homogenization of ‘place’
and destruction of identity in a process that has been repeated across huge
swathes of the built environment across the UK
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DISSER-TATION
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CONSTRUCTIVE DECONSTRUCTION ABSTRACT
Our cities are shrinking. Modern, highly developed cities around the world are facing large-scale population losses and concurrent reductions in urban density, in a process that challenges the hegemony of the capitalist growth model.
Although shrinkage is not a new phenomenon, the two hundred years of rapid growth in western cities following the industrial revolution, has led to the situation where ‘growth has become an expectation’.1
This dissertation argues that population stability, and even controlled shrinkage should be viewed alongside growth as legitimate phases in a city’s evolution. Urban shrinkage must first be recognised and accepted before we can begin to approach the population loss and urban perforation in a constructive way.
Can urban shrinkage be harnessed to achieve an improvement in urban living conditions despite continuing population loss?
1 Phillip Oswalt, ‘Introduction’, in Shrinking Cities Volume 1: International Research, ed. by Phillip Oswalt, English edn (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005), p.12.
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INTRODUCTIONGlobally 450 cities with populations over 100,000 have lost at least 10% of their population since the 1950s.2 One in four shrunk between 1990 and 2000,3 with this shrinkage primarily concentrated in Eastern Europe and former industrial cities across Europe, Japan and the American Rust Belt.4
This process of massive population loss and the resultant restructuring of the urban fabric has received surprisingly little attention in contemporary architectural and planning discourse. The predominant response from municipal authorities is outright denial,5 coupled with optimistic growth strategies that fail to recognise the reality of the situation. Shrinkage is viewed as symptomatic of failure.
However the Earth is a finite system, and the indefinite growth espoused and striven for by politicians and planners is an inherently unsustainable concept. Uneven development is in the very nature of capitalism6 and pressures of competition are compounded by demographic realities. The majority of highly developed post-industrial countries are experiencing a decline in population, with the EU predicted to lose almost 20% of its working age population by 2050.7
Should shrinkage therefore be viewed as a failure of planning and economic policies, or rather, as a natural and entirely predictable part of the life cycle and maturation of the contemporary city?
If we accept the premise that in certain regions shrinkage is unavoidable, the question then, is how to harness this shrinkage in a constructive manner. Planning policies with a tropism towards growth exacerbate problems of shrinkage by failing to engage with the issues on the ground, squandering limited resources while also missing the unique opportunities offered by a shrinking, perforated city fabric.
Planners and urban policy makers have begun to reverse this mentality in certain parts of the world, notably in cities in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) states in Eastern Germany, but this constructive response to the phenomenon is still an exception rather than the norm. The lessons learned in cities such as Leipzig have immediate relevance to other declining post-industrial urban areas, both in Britain and internationally. Sharing and communicating these ideas is of paramount importance if we are to overcome the traditional combative mind-set and instead work to harness shrinkage as a tool for improving urban quality of life.
2Karina Pallagst and others, ‘Planning Shrinking Cities’, Progress in Planning, Vol. 72 (2009), p. 225.3Philipp Oswalt and Tim Rieniets, Atlas of Shrinking Cities (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006).Phillip Oswalt, ‘Introduction’, in Shrinking Cities Volume 1: International Research, ed. by Phillip Oswalt, English edn (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2005), p. 27.4Ivan Turok and Vlad Mykhnenko, ‘The trajectories of European Cities, 1960-2005’, Cities, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2007), p. 169.5Emmanuale Cunningham-Sabot and Sylvie Fol, ‘Shrinking Cities in France and Great Britain: A Silent Process?’, in The Future of Shrinking Cities: Problems, Patterns and Strategies of Urban Transformation in a Global Context, ed. by Karina Pallagst and others (University of California, 2009), p. 25.6Matthias Bernt, ‘Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany’s Shrinking Cities’, International Journal of Regional Research, Vol. 33.3 (2009), p. 754.7Rainer Muenz, ‘Aging and Demographic Change in European Societies: Main Trends and Alternative Policy Options’ (SP Discussion Paper No. 0703, Hamberg Institute for International Economics, 2007), p. 22.
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Fig. 1: Cities with over 100,000 inhabitants that shrunk between 1950 and 2000, illustrating the global relevance of research into shrinking cities.
Fig. 2: Map of shrinking regions of Europe, 1996 – 1999. A clear east-west divide is visible, with shrinkage centred on the eastern former socialist regions.
Fig. 3: Diagram showing the extent of shrinkage in a spectrum of representative cities with figures representing percentage population loss and time-period.
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Fig. 4: Declining population figures in Detroit have left a massively over scaled public infrastructure operating far below capacity. As a result incongruous uses for abandoned or derelict spaces have sprung up, such as this multi-story carpark in an empty theatre.
Fig. 5: The reality of urban perforation: St Cyril, a densely populated neighbourhood in 1949 Detroit has almost been re- naturalised by the processes of shrinkage and perforation.
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CONCLUSIONThe decline of urban populations is a challenge facing many cities across the globe. There are many contributing factors, however in a contemporary context shrinkage is mainly associated with industrial decline, post-socialist structural reform, demographic changes and suburbanisation. These factors together contribute to a causal and predictable loss of population as people abandon the city in favour of more prosperous regions, or as a city simply ages and declines. The phenomenon is currently predominantly found in highly developed, post-industrial regions such as Eastern Europe, Russia, Japan and the American Rust Belt.
Declining populations result in a reduction in urban density and a perforation of the urban fabric through rising vacancy rates and an increase of vacant spaces within the city. Associated problems range from reduced municipal budgets and dysfunctional housing markets to under utilised infrastructural networks and widespread closure of shops and businesses.
Given this myriad of negative impacts, coupled with the tropism towards growth displayed by western societies, it is hardly surprising that the general attitude towards shrinkage is overwhelmingly negative. A shrinking city is equated with a failing city, and as a result politicians and municipal planners often disguise the reality of the situation with a range of euphemisms and statistical ploys.This is however an entirely counter-productive approach. Growth oriented policies tend to exacerbate the problems of shrinkage, and a refusal to engage with the realities of population loss limits the scope for positive exploitation of the opportunities inherent in a perforated city fabric.
Leipzig is an exemplary case of a city that has finally achieved a change of mentality among the municipal authorities and is now actively aligning its development strategy to the reality of a declining population. Leipzig offers a lesson in the dangers of over-optimistic growth policies from the city’s post-reunification ‘boom’ years, which significantly exacerbated underlying structural problems. However the city is also a showcase for the opportunities available to city planners if they chose to respond pro-actively to the shrinking perforated urban fabric. Leipzig has achieved positive results in green infrastructure, sustainability and general liveability since deciding to abandon unrealistic growth strategies at the turn of the century, and is instead concentrating on harnessing the positive potential of the shrinking, perforated urban fabric.
This positive, pro-active mentality is still very much the exception, with the vast majority of planning policy still entirely fixated with growth. Planners in the UK and elsewhere need to learn the lessons offered by the Leipzig model, and adopt a more pragmatic approach to the shrinking city, one that is responsive to the situation on the ground, as well as being realistic about future prospects.This involves a change in mentality towards accepting shrinkage as a legitimate direction for urban development. This is particularly relevant now as sustainability climbs up the planning agenda. We live on a finite planet with limited natural resources; indefinite growth is both unrealistic and an inherently unsustainable concept. This coupled with demographic changes means it is likely that many more cities will experience periods of stability or decline in the coming decades. And if shrinkage is an inevitable urban phenomenon, we must learn how to best respond to the situation, as far as possible mitigating the negative effects while attempting to harness the opportunities and advantages offered by the perforated city fabric. We must ensure that periods of population decline do not equate with a decline in living standards and urban quality
As each city has its own unique mix of factors influencing population and development of the urban fabric, a one-size-fits-all model for responding to shrinkage is not a viable prospect. However, research and precedent can act as a ‘toolbox’ of approaches for planners to positively engage with the issues surrounding population loss.
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The list of projects contained in this document provides a wide-ranging basic framework for re-imagining the shrinking city. Perforated cities have a valuable resource that isn’t available to growth-centres; free space. The space offers the city a huge degree of flexibility and dynamism to re-imagine itself and re-tool to meet contemporary demands. Vacant lots and low-cost city centre accommodation provides space for community engagement with the urban fabric, and an investment of new meaning into defunct spaces. Parks and community gardens in traditionally dense areas of the city increase the attractiveness of city-centre living, and re-appropriation of abandoned buildings provides a fertile arena for artists and creative professions.
The budgetary constraints associated with shrinking cities often means that the municipality simply does not have the resources to fund all of these initiatives themselves. They must begin to work collaboratively with individuals and community groups, who have a vested interest in the on going success of these projects. A further knock-on effect of population loss could therefore be an on-going empowerment of a city’s citizens.
“In shrinking cities, too, there exists an ideal image of an individual adding value to a space – that is to say, the only resource that exists in surplus. In times when public funds are lacking, private initiative is seen as the only opportunity to increase value and provide new stimulus”.139
The list of projects, while hardly exhaustive, shows that it is possible, at least at a theoretical level, to provide improving living standards in the context of continuing population loss. Each proposal takes an aspect of the shrinking city and re-imagines it as an opportunity for positive developments that works to re-animate or inhabit the existing city fabric in a new ways. More extensive research is required to state definitively the benefits and limitations of each proposal, but we are still at the very early stages of research into the possibilities offered by the shrinking city. This list simply scratches the surface of the multitude of new and emerging manifestos for re-appropriating vacant spaces and creating new shape for the city.
In conclusion, for shrinking cities, accepting the inevitable might mean ‘planning for a future of a considerably smaller city, emptying out run-down neighbourhoods, re-greening once populated areas, and adopting an economic development plan that boils down to controlled shrinkage in smaller but nevertheless liveable places’.140
Coupled with a positive change in mentality, a re-imagining of the shrinking city “stirs hopes that cities might be reduced to their essential core and in this way make qualitative gains”,141 providing an increased standard of urban living despite continuing population loss
139Anke Hagemann, ‘Go East: On the Wild-West Rhetoric of Shrinking City Projects’, in Shrinking Cities: Volume 2, Interventions, ed. by Phillip Oswalt, English edn (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006), pp. 421-25.140Thorsten Wiechmann, ‘Errors Expected: Alighning Urban Strategy with Demographic Uncertainty in Shrinking Cities’, International Planning Studies, 13.4 (2008), p. 435.141Phillip Oswalt, ‘Contraction City’, in Shrinking Cities, Volume 2, Interventions, ed. by Phillip Oswalt, English edn (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2006), p. 179.
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DESIGN THESIS
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CAMDENPOPULATION: 235,700DENSITY: 10,811.9/km2
OS GRID REFERENCE: TQ295845PRINCIPAL AREA: GREATER LONDONCOUNTRY: ENGLAND
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CAMDEN: DEGREES OF PERMANENCEI was interested in continuing the exploration of embedded memory and evolutionary urbanism from
my primer and bringing these themes forward into my thesis project. However in parallel with what
could be a relatively conservative approach to urban interventions I wanted to explore the possibility of
incorporating a degree of flexible dynamism that would allow the urban fabric to respond to changing
demands without the need for aggressive restructuring and demolition.
The perspective I chose from which to approach this problem was via differing degrees of permanence:
a dynamic, responsive and short-term architecture capable of responding to contemporary demands
embedded within a heavy, permanent, polyvalent infrastructure. As well as providing an interesting
thesis on ‘place’ and the responsive city this approach would offer exciting tectonic opportunities in the
dialogue between old and new, permanent and temporary or heavy and light.
I was also interested in exploring the relationships between different scales of city architecture, from the
massive, linear transport infrastructure and the urban figure-ground of block and courtyard, street and
square down to the individual building or moment embedded within this matrix. Moments of collision
between contrasting rule-sets are challenging, but also offer the opportunity to explore the underlying
logic of the city. Some of the most sublime moments in the city come about from the successful
resolution of contradictory scales and patterns.
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London St. Pancras International StationLondon Kings Cross StationEuston Station
Site
UCL Main Campus
Camden, London
SITE SELECTION
In developing a thesis project from my primer I was interested in working within a complex, evolved urban
context. I wanted a site with a large urban scale, strong definition and a gritty materiality, with a pre-existing
character and an existent fabric to respond to. I was also interested in exploring the interaction of different
scales of city infrastructure and exploring the contrasting ideas of connectivity and isolationism within the
city.
The Camden area of London was an obvious choice as I have worked in Islington and know the area
well. The specific site, a large vacant plot just south of Kings Cross rail station has strong street frontages,
attractive but non-too precious adjacent buildings and vibrancy and critical mass which allows the area to
sustain a wide variety of different uses and user groups. Its proximity to the main UCL campus, as well as
the transport infrastructure and cultural venues of the Kings Cross area provides a wide range of potential
briefs.
As well as the constraints of the existing urban block, the site is also bisected by a London Underground
railway cutting, and the resolution of this large infrastructural element with a human-scale, inhabitable
architecture is an interesting challenge. The site already contains buildings up to 6 storeys in height giving me a degree of sectional freedom while still working within the framework of the existing context.
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The block contains a large empty site right in its core straddling the London Underground lines which is currently waste ground used for car parking. This vacant land will provide the core for any proposed intervention, with extra accommodation extending out into the surrounding urban fabric.
The materiality of the existing context is predominantly London brick and structural steelwork. The photo above shows the structure of the exposed railway viaduct bisecting the site.
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INITIAL SITE ANALYSIS
My first move towards understanding the constraints and potential of the site was to build a 3D model of
the city block and surroundings exploring the construction of the existing context as well as mapping the
locations of foundations. An early idea was to break the existing buildings down into a kit of parts, which
could either be subverted in-situ or re-used and appropriated into a new configuration to support my design
intervention.
My early analysis also included documenting other uses within this area of the city. These included the UCL
campus, Kings Cross, St Pancras and Euston stations, the Gagosian gallery, the Royal National Throat,
Nose and Ear Hospital and the Central London Osteopathy and Sports Injury Clinic to name just a few uses
which could link to a developing brief.
I began to test the existing context by exploring a set of relationships between old and new, including
hanging, bridging, cantilevering, punching, cutting, balancing, sliding and mining. One key early decision
was whether to treat the existing context as solid to be carved into, void to be filled or mould to be filled.
Another exploratory approach was the idea of a parasitic or reappropriating architecture which could inhabit the city block and use the existing context almost as a carapace or heavy defensive external skeleton while growing and evolving within this shell.
However the fundamental challenge I was interested in tackling was the idea of building a modern building which works with the areas sense of ‘place’ and reinforces existing urban qualities within an existing context. An intervention which follows its own logic while also functioning within the evolved, organisational structure of the city.
Below: Series of images exploring the penetration of sunlight into the central courtyard space.
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DECEMBER CRITAlthough I think the ideas I am looking at such as re-inhabiting an existing shell, building a community based around recycling a valuable commodity and developing a defensive, almost fortress-like typology within the city are interesting, but from a pragmatic perspective the Copper Guild programme is very difficult to justify. Apart from having a distinct air or sci-fi about it, the city centre location is problematic with regards to transport and available space. Any large industrial reprocessing facility is far more likely to be located on the urban periphery with a large availability of free space and good transport links.
Despite having to completely rethink my programme I still feel there are a lot of positives to be taken from this crit. My sketched exploration of the city block along the railway cutting suggests interesting sectional possibilities and the choice of site, nestled within a well defined urban fabric is one I am exited about moving forward with.
Basic material choices are also relatively developed. I’m interested in using a small palette of materials, based on a tectonic image of the site. Brick denotes existing, concrete is heavy, anchored or embedded intervention, steel provides the structural system and lighter extruded, cantilevered or spanning volumes while copper is used for specific detailing such as window drips and hand-rails, providing a unifying, tactile filament running through the entire scheme.
Below: Diagram of unwrapped existing fabric, broken down into typology.
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ORGANISATIONAL CONCEPTS
Early in the design process I decided to set down some co-ordinating strategies which would help to inform
my design moving forward and provide a set of constraints to work within. The strategies were designed to
reflect the key concepts driving the thesis.
Top left: Tectonic diagram of site strategy, with heavy nodes embedded in a plinth or landscape carrying
services and circulation routes. The permanent nodes are connected by a more flexible, responsive
ephemeral architecture, which has the potential to support and accommodate temporary modules or
pavilions as required.
Middle left: The building ground plane as a flexible element varying in its relation to the default ground level of the surrounding territory. A multilayered ground plane offers the opportunity for a variety of relationships with the ground as well as providing a unified circulation system. This strategy throws up interesting opportunities for the interaction of the ground floor and plinth throughout the site.
Bottom left: The heavy, permanent plinth embedded into the ground enforces an organisational logic of the accommodation above. The plinth is the enabling, polyvalent form within which programmatic elements are inset, containing service zones, circulation and ancillary spaces.
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1. Deep geothermal shaft (2000m - 5000m depending on required load)
6. Plug in modules allow the fabric to keep up-to-date without frequent major structural alterations.
4. Infill accommodation runs inside and between concrete cores and carries second-degree horizontal services directly feeding off parent core.
3. Vertical infrastructural risers housed with lift-shaft and fire stair as part of concrete shell carapace.
5. Satellite accommodation is not physically connected to the parent node, but still feeds of a secondary infrastructural network.
2. Major infrastructural network plus ancillary service spaces housed in recessed plinth structure. Plinth extended with concrete slab skirt over non-utilised areas.
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Top left: Programmatic clustering and hierarchy. This diagram is comprised of the volume and general arrangement of spaces in relation to each other. Relatively permanent spaces are clustered into three main cores with the more fluid, dynamic spaces forming the linking elements. Privacy varies sectionally with the spaces around the ground floor levels being the most public and the level of privacy increasing vertically towards the roof.
Bottom left: Tectonic diagram of primary elements: geothermal bore, infrastructural network, vertical infrastructural risers housed in concrete core structures, secondary infill structure, satellite accommodation and ‘plug-in’ modules.
Top right: Nodes and routes as the basic building blocks of the city - or the building. Cities are the crystallised embodiment of temporal movement patterns, reinforcing routes and reflecting the structures, values and philosophy of the parent culture. This information is encoded in the binary of figure ground across the urban environment.
Upper middle right: The networked city block aims to develop the idea of the block as an infrastructural unit. It goes beyond the simple physical coherence of the block and invests social, infrastructural and communications functions establishing the block as a collaborative, self-aware entity.
Lower middle right: Clustering a variety of different uses and user-groups within a confined physical space encourages interaction between users and the emergence of unexpected hybrid programme. This richness and variety of experience, and juxtaposition of elements is similar to the traditional form of the city, a clustered melting pot attaining a certain critical mass and thereby becoming a true civic space. Clustering and programmatic overlaps within the building are designed to help foster communication between the disciplines and encourage new and unexpected hybrid research areas to develop.
Bottom right: Concept of the two cores as heavy, immutable objects with rusticated bases echoing the civic buildings in the area.
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Top left: Image showing the organisational structure of the building, acting as a quad orientating itself towards a self-contained courtyard while presenting a hard edge to the surrounding city. This defensive edge helps to moderate the internal environment and provide an oasis of calm within the urban bustle.
Bottom left: Tectonic, infrastructural spine and plug-and-play diagram showing the constituent pieces of the design.
Right: Concept diagram of the roof and courtyard space and an opportunity for urban gardens. The roof level is often hugely under utilised and in this dense, urban context it provides the best opportunities for attractive breakout spaces, with light, fresh air and views across the city.
Bottom left: Tectonic diagram of the core, embedded in the plinth and feeding the module units. Cores are a solid concrete construction sat on a steel frame. Internal fit-out is light-weight steel construction and vertical circulation and services are housed in the concrete services core. The interior of the building contains an atrium space to facilitate stack ventilation as well as provide visual communication between different areas separated by vertical divisions.
Bottom right: Collaborative clustering of modules from different parent cores. This cross-fertilisation of ideas and working methods creates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Modules attached to each departmental node are grouped together to form miniature cooperative partnerships. Working in close proximity to people from different departments and working in different fields helps to facilitate a free and natural exchange of information and techniques.
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UCL COLLABORATIVE SCIENCE CLUSTER_NETWORKED IVORY TOWERS
BRIEF
The rapid growth in the study of nanotechnology, and overlaps with related fields of biomedical research
and high-end computing is creating an increasingly pressing requirement for collaborative, multidisciplinary
scientific communities capable of responding quickly and effectively to changes in available technology and
resources, ensuring that they are always operating at the cutting edge of research.
The raison d’etre of this building is to facilitate communication and collaboration in all its forms. The
relevance of this physically networked building typology is underlined by the increasing ubiquity of digital
communication. Although this development allows for an unprecedented decentralising of the work
environment, the increasing focus on virtual interactions creates a pressing need for physical environments
that facilitate face-to-face interaction and allow people to form real-world connections. The advent of the
digital age, far from removing the need for city hubs actually increases the need for clustered inhabitation
patterns as an antidote to the digital vacuum.
This new facility, funded by UCL, governmental development funds and private business is intended to be
evolutionary, evolving over time in response to salient conditions while creating the right conditions to take on
one of the most difficult and intractable challenges of scientific research: getting people to talk to each other.
SCHEDULE OF ACCOMMODATION
Nodes (permanent cores): offices, auditoria, library, gym, kitchen, common room, classrooms, roof garden,
security, administration, restaurant, great hall, toilets.
Modules (temporary, replaceable units): laboratories, workshops, classrooms, cafe, canteen, exhibition
space, demonstration spaces.
Plinth (service zone): computer servers, car parking, bike storage, large-scale workshops, rail link, storage,
toilets, deliveries.
Detached elements: semi-autonomous start up units: office space, workshops, live-work units, student
residences, accommodation for visiting lecturers.
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enclosed courtyard - main communal public space
MAIN BUILDING (PERMANENT)
carved entrance plaza
semi-public working courtyard space.
PUBLIC
SEMI-PRIVATE
FLEXIBLE WORKSHOP SPACES
TEMPORARY PAVILLION
RAILWAY CUTTINGlecture theatreconference roomsofficeslibrary cafe / exhibition space
canteen / restaurantclassrooms
PERMEABLE MEMBRANE BUILDING
permeable link with courtyard
offices / classrooms
offices / exhibition spaces
office / residential spaces
SEMI-PUBLIC
office / residential spaces
SPECIALISED LABORITORIES (TEMPORARY)
DANGEROUS FACILITIESBRIDGING ELEMENT
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Left: Early parti diagram of dispersal of accommodation across the site
Above: Preliminary ground floor plan, section and services plan showing central spine and spokes feeding
modular accommodation strung between cores.
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Left: Sketch layout of north core including recessed ground floor, 120 seat auditorium and three floors of
office space. Atrium spaces facilitate natural ventilation and lighting.
Above: Massing options and sketch model of early scheme.
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PLUG-AND-PLAY
In order to achieve an effective and efficient interaction between the modular units and the infrastructural spine
the project utilises a standardised ‘plug-and-play’ system. The idea is that new modules can be delivered
to site and simply plugged into the existing service infrastructure, providing electricity, water, ventilation,
data connections and specialist gas and scientific services as required. Standardised connections allows for
quick and easy installation and easy switching of modules. It reduces the amount of on-site work required
and allows for reduced costs as standardised connectors and service runs can be manufactured in bulk at
off-site facilities.
The infrastructural spine reads like an electronics diagram, with an infrastructural spine running the length
of the site, feeding a number of service nodes or plugs. Some of these are permanent connections, for
example leading to the heavy tower cores, while others are left open, available for future accommodation or
services to simply plug in as required. This centralised system connects to wider networks through a control
point, allowing for network optimization and for the return of excess self-generated heat or power to the grid.
The infrastructural spine also connects to on-site power generation and storage facilities, such as server
waste heat and the deep geothermal bore.
The infrastructural hierarchy runs from the bore as source along the coordinating spine. Branching from this
is the secondary infrastructural network comprised of service cores running vertically within the departmental
cores and service fins incorporating vertical circulation connecting to temporary modular units. From this
point smaller specialised capillary connections carry the required services to where they are needed.
To further facilitate the speed and ease of this plug-and-play system I am proposing that a maximum outline
of modular accommodation is given planning permission in advance, in effect creating a shadow within
which development is permitted, thus speeding up the process of adding to the system massively.
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Temporary modules housing labs, workshops and specialised facilities.
Small scale facilities for offices and administration.
Nanotechnology core.
Advanced computing core.
Lightweight linking structure housing communal facilities and encouraging informal interaction.
Plinth sitting on pile foundations housing service spine and service areas within a light honeycomb concrete structure.
Biomedical research core.
Upper plinth structure housing concrete ‘plugs’ for subsequent units. Heavy set structure becomes an element of site topography.
Bridging element sitting across London underground lines serving the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines.
Existing buildings.
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Left: Provisional structural diagram
Top: Massing model showing project in context. Temporary modular units are shown indicatively as steel
boxes while the more permanent cores and facilitating structures are shown as grey concrete.
Bottom: Diagrammatic north elevation showing heavy-set concrete cores with shuttered bases in imitation of
rustication traditional on grand civic buildings. Temporary modules are expressed in steel and the lightweight
connecting architecture is shown indicatively as glass on a steel or timber frame.
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MODULAR CONSTRUCTION
Top left: FABRICATION
Modular units are built to order in a specialist factory. Depending on the universities
requirements the finish can range from high-spec fully filled volumetric units all the way down
to skeletal structures and simple structural panels. Cladding materials can be adapted to suit
the local context.
Although these units are designed to have a relatively short life-span the actual structural
pieces should be robust enough to allow obsolete units to be returned to the factory to be
re-fitted and updated to suit contemporary requirements.
Top right: TRANSPORT
The volumetric modules and SIPs are designed to be transported on the back of a HGV
lorry. This allows easy delivery to site from anywhere in the country. 3m module widths allow
transportation without the need for any special measures such as a police escort or the
closure of roads.
Centre: ASSEMBLY
Where necessary prefabricated pieces can be delivered to the courtyard of the building for
assembly allowing the building to continue functioning as normal during the construction
period. An over-sized steel frame is required for lifting these agglomerated structures but this
frame can be recycled each time the module is refitted.
Bottom: INSTALLATION
Small modules can be simply lifted in to place by the on-site crane and ‘plugged’ into place
directly from the delivery lorry. All servicing and circulation is carried within the permanent
infrastructural fins allowing the units to go into operation almost immediately.
Larger structures and spans assembled in the external courtyard are craned into position in a
similar fashion. These structures have the capacity to carry up to five storeys of prefabricated
units, and additional units can be stacked vertically as and when required.
Bottom left: Large lab. Expected life-span 5 to 10 years. Maximum number of modules 15
Bottom right: Small lab. Expected life-span 1 to 3 years. Maximum number of modules 3
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Left: Tectonic and constructional diagram showing the relationship between
temporary modular units and the heavy, rooted core and service fins. The
concrete elements are long-term embedded pieces which are designed to
outlive the functional life of the building and inform the next iteration of the
city’s evolution.
Below middle: Diagram of how small modular labs sit on of the embedded
fin elements. Theses fins contain vertical circulation and service ducts
connecting the infrastructural spine back to the individual modules. Each lab
is made up of two standardised lab modules with a self-contained circulation
and services zone located adjacent to the main body of the structure.
Bottom: A run of four small lab modules plugged into position. Large labs
were introduced later in the design process to provide a greater degree of
flexibility, the opportunity for larger spans and to allow for larger research
groups to operate in the same structure.
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DEEP GEOTHERMAL DISTRICT HEATING NETWORK
Using oil and gas technology, and new drilling techniques involving dissolving rather than
crushing rock allow for more cost effective drilling up to 7000m. The crust is saturated with
groundwater and at this depth this water is significantly warmed by geothermal heat. The
chalk under London has a lower heat capacity than the granite under Newcastle or Cornwall,
and energy generation is unlikely to be cost effective. However the extraction of this energy for
community heating schemes across the city is highly feasible. Industry research has shown
that if these deep geothermal wells are sited at a minimum of 100m from each other there
is no noticeable impact on energy output, and wells are continuously productive for up to 30
years, after which a 30 year recuperation period is required.
Therefore a resilient network of interconnected deep geothermal wells across spreading
across the city will allow wells to alternate between being active and dormant without affecting
the systems overall heating capacity.
Deep geothermal is currently being trialled in Durham and Newcastle, where a geothermal
bore is currently being drilled with the intention of supplying geothermal heat to a proposed city
centre science campus, with excess heat sold to other buildings in the area.
Steel casing
Perforated injection pipe to allow groundwater exchange with surrounding ground-water.
Gravel to stabilise shaft and allow percolation of water.
Insulated hot water production pipe.
Above: Geothermal
temperatures as -5000m.
Source Shell Exploration
Right: Detail of single-injection
geothermal bore.
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30 year effective life-span of well. Well can then recover heat over a 30 year dormant period.
5000m to water at +100 degrees centigrade under London.
Min 100m between production shafts
Area of surrounding city which can be heated by one 5MW geothermal bore.
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Top left: Ground floor plan showing basic arrangement and structural coordination. Key axial lines are the street frontages to the north and south and the underground rail cutting bisecting the site. The building is relatively defensive towards the city but opens out towards the internal courtyard.
Bottom left: First floor plan showing solid cores and plugged in modular units sitting on top of the ground floor plinth. First floor level contains large voids in the departmental cores, providing entrance foyers with a civic scale.
Top right: Early rendering experiment showing a sectional cut through a core with an auditorium and glazed roof-garden areas as well as space for servers at basement level. The ground floor plinth element extends to the left pierced by service fins, and one modular lab building is indicated by a steel skeleton.
Middle right: A more developed image of the north core, showing the buildings relationship to the railway line as well as an internal atrium space providing light, ventilation and communal space to the offices on the upper levels. The double height foyer space on the ground floor with circulation routes is also visible.
Bottom: A basic version of the north elevation with all temporary modules in place. Also visible is the greenery on the roof of the north core and in the courtyard behind the perimeter wall.
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Top: Embedded infrastructural spine, service cores and service fins connected to the deep geothermal bore.
Most permanent and long lasting infrastructure with an expected life-span of 100 years+
Bottom: Secondary concrete structure, plinth and facilitator for subsequent modular accommodation.
Concrete core structures, basement and ground floor spaces are made up of this heavy, embedded
architecture.
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Top: Addition of modular units. These comprise the steel offices, library and auditorium which sit within the
departmental cores and the external lab spaces. Lab spaces are made up of small labs with an expected
life-span of 1-3 years and large labs with a life-span of up to 20 years. Each modular arrangement is made
up of smaller standardised modules, structural insulated panels and steel framing.
Bottom: Complete structure sitting within its context, including on-site crane.
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Right: Structural diagram of rooftop ‘plant-pots’ capable of holding trees within the roof garden. Removable prefabricated profiled concrete planks sit within the beam structure supporting the roof and support the root-structure of the tree.
Below: Conceptual diagram exploring the idea of the entire roof garden as a removable element, allowing access to the offices and semi-permanent accommodation within. These are envisaged as permanent, locked pieces but if required the building can be retrofitted with relative ease, again adding to the flexibility and polyvalency of the structural system.
Facing page: North and south cores. The top image strips away the cladding and structural concrete to reveal the internal structure and clustering of uses.
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Glazed facade onto internal courtyard. Look at issues of glare, solar gain and thermal performance.
Wood panelled internal finish viz. Oxbridge colleges. In-built shelves and furniture.
Light steel frame structures anchored within the massive concrete walls. Look at anchoring options.
Concrete diaphragm walls carrying vertical services and ventilation.
Horizontal service duct. (Majority of horizontal services to be carried in wither duct work or underneath raised floors).
DETAILPosition of window within wall: deep recess in facade or internal window seat. Shutter system? Size and position of window in relation to the room
Right: Rendered section of the north core. The outline foundation strategy is visible along with the infrastructural spine and servers basement. There is a large double height foyer space with vertical circulation rising up on the right and the auditorium and offices hung within the concrete superstructure. The internal environment is moderated by the concrete walls, but only the steel boxes are true internal spaces. A smoke reservoir sits at the top of the circulation route adjacent to the service core containing the lift shaft, service shaft and fire stairs. The glass ceiling to the office atrium space is visible in the roof garden.
Top right: Prefabricated concrete panel core construction system. The concrete panels are diaphragm structures containing insulation and vertical ventilation. The diagram also hints at the elevational effect of this system, with joints visible between the panels. Vertical joints will be minimised but horizontal joints can be expressed if desirable.
Bottom right: Diagram exploring the structural coordination of the concrete cores and a preliminary investigation of the range of prefabricated elements required.
Below: A basic structural and tectonic diagram exploring the relationship between concrete and steel in the departmental cores.
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Above: This skeletal base drawing shows the temporal progression of the project through its 100 year+ life-span. From left to right the diagram shows the existing urban fabric, the drilling of the deep geothermal bore which acts as the seed and anchor for the whole scheme, the construction of the infrastuctural spine and erection of the crane which will remain permanently on-site. The next element is the concrete shell which will house the core elements, followed by the first iteration of the modular lab buildings being lifted into place. A truck carries a replacement element and the crane folds down to its resting position, potentially doubling as a communications tower for the facility during its downtime. A second modular iteration shows the adaptability of the concept and then there is a break beyond which the programmatic element of the scheme is stripped away. The next image shown how the heavy concrete elements of the project could be incorporated into an evolving urban fabric and the polyvalent forms could be reappropriated and given a new function, providing continuity and a memory past use and inhabitation. The final image is slightly romantic but the idea is to show the building core as a ruin standing amongst the floodwaters in central London. The plan shows a small flotilla of boats using the crumbling edifice as a mooring point and building a new urban territory from floating barges and scrap metal.
Upper right: paving diagram for the twin courtyards. Paving as a reflection of the infrastructural networks running beneath them.
Lower middle right: Elevation of the existing north facade with buildings to be demolished shown in outline.
Upper middle right: Diagram exploring the horizontal expansion of the infrastructural system. A network of geothermal bores could be drilled, creating a resilient network that can spread across the city supporting ever increasing pockets of urban fabric and leaving behind an infrastructural legacy which can be reappropriated by the developing city.
Bottom right: A photomontage showing how a crane can fold down and become a small tower for on-site storage, reducing visual impact and maintenance costs.
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Exis
ting
urba
n fa
bric
. Coo
rdin
atin
g fra
mew
ork
for i
nfra
stru
ctur
al s
pine
.
Dee
p ge
othe
rmal
bor
e, 2
km in
to th
e ea
rth. P
redi
cted
out
put 5
MW
hea
t ene
rgy.
Initi
al s
eed
for p
roje
ct.
Infra
stru
ctur
al s
pine
, life
span
100
year
s +
Year
: 0 Serv
ice
fins;
circ
ulat
ion
and
plug
-in p
oint
s fo
r sub
sequ
ent m
odul
ar a
ccom
mod
atio
n. L
ifesp
an 1
00ye
ars
+
Perm
anen
t fol
ding
cra
ne o
n-si
te
Con
cret
e co
re. P
olyv
alen
t fci
litat
ing
stru
ctur
e. 1
00ye
ars
+
Lond
on u
nder
grou
nd li
ne
Larg
e m
odul
ar la
b bl
ock.
Life
span
10-
15ye
ars
Year
: 1
Infra
stru
ctur
al fi
n
Smal
l mod
ular
uni
t. Li
fesp
an 1
-3ye
ars
Mod
ule
arriv
ing
by tr
uck
Fold
ed c
rane
and
com
mun
icat
ions
tow
er
Adap
ted
repl
acem
ent m
odul
e pl
ugge
d in
to in
frast
ruct
ural
spi
ne
Perm
anan
t anc
hors
act
as
co-o
rdin
atin
g po
ints
for f
utur
e de
velo
pmen
t of t
he u
rban
fabr
ic
Year
: 100
Year
: 150
-200
+
Infra
stru
ctur
al ru
ins
as a
ncho
r poi
nts
and
coor
dina
ting
poin
ts in
the
city
Rea
ppro
pria
ted
core
inve
rted
to p
rodu
ce in
tern
al c
ourty
ard
spac
e
Incr
ease
s in
urb
an fa
rmin
g
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SOFA 3850x1850
SOFA 3850x1850
SOFA 1
850x850
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
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PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
PORTMAN 50
COOKER
600x600
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Top left: latest iteration of the ground floor plan showing the arc of the permanent crane as well as the
courtyard territory and its relationship to the building.
Bottom left: latest iteration of the first floor plan showing the 600mm lab grid within the prefabricated modular
units. Each lab module is standardised so any piece could fit in any arrangement and labs can potentially be
swapped between research teams.
Above: 3D model of the current iteration of the building form sitting within the urban block. The geothermal
bore is visible to the left and the infrastructural spine runs underneath the entire scheme extending out to
the north.
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Top left: Basic rendered short north-south sectional perspective cutting through the north
and south cores and extending down to the underground railway cutting. This section shows
the internal structure of the cores and their relationship to the large courtyard space behind.
Because the section cut follows the line of the railway and cuts both cores at an angle the
proportions are slightly misleading, and I maybe need to find a way of representing these
spaces on a flatter plane, but the complex combination of angles will be quite a challenge to
resolve. I hope to add a detail section across the front of this image, providing enough detail
to justify presenting this image at a large scale for the final presentation. A further challenge
is how to inhabit the rendered section convincingly without flattening the depth in the image.
The image also lacks enough context, maybe adding the adjacent buildings across the street
to north and south would make the image appear more like a piece of the urban fabric rather
than a an isolated. stand-alone building.
Bottom left: Long east-west sectional perspective showing basement spaces and cutting
through modular lab spaces and service fins. The west railway cutting needs more
prominence and again a lack of context means the building reads very diagrammatically.
I expect to try several further iterations of this image to work out what degree of detail and
context is required to make this a key coordinating image in the presentation.
Below: Outline version of foyer perspective.
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Easter crit presentation boards. Overall the feedback from the crit was fairly positive but
several important elements are still missing including a greater level of context, perspectives,
developed detail drawings and images explaining some of the key concepts in a clear, concise
and beautiful way. The balance between rendered images and line drawings is important,
as is hierarchy in the presentation, so the eye is drawn to the most important images and
supporting information settles more into the background.
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97BEN HANSEN_PLACE STUDIO_WSA5_2011
Left: The steel office box is anchored back into the concrete wall and when linked with adjacent modules creates a self-supporting structural framework. The steel box is timber lined providing a comfortable internal environment, which the deep window reveals help to reduce glare and provide opportunities for window seats and recessed balconies.
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