Week 6 - Exhibition and Crit

Exhibition:
Walking around the exhibition it was great to see each group's take on what would be the realistic scenario for the future, with regards to Paddington Central. Without reading other concepts, it appeared as though the future will very sustainably based with large focus on green energy and technology and a keen interest to turn the site into an urban farm. Although this is a good idea, it only is to a certain extent as they have not catered for all societal issues ranging from cultural, political, education, etc. They have made it too specific and I feel that more awareness of the economic and social sustainability factors would contribute to a greater concept and architectural solution. I believe that our proposal exemplifies this.

Crit:
Over the last few weeks we have been discussing and pitching our ideas about the future scenario for Paddington Central with each of the three tutors. They have been very helpful and positive about our progress and idea generation and have inspired us to continually improve and evolve the idea.

This continued through to the presentation today with all three tutors very pleased with our final presentation. The main points of value that I think I can take from the tutors is that,

• The idea is very original 
• Very community based and believeable
• It resonates within all facets of society (e.g. culture, technology, etc) 
• It actually improves the well being of human life through the functions which we have proposed for the Paddington Central site.   
• Sets a footprint for what the future could be.

These are all strong points to take away from the assignment and I am very pleased as a result. Hopefully this will inspire me to challenge myself for the next assignment.

Week 6 - Individual Project One Statement

We as a society have begun to emerge through the hardships of recession and have grown to relinquish the luxuries and material things that once used to own our lives. Major cultural changes have occurred due to the fact that the alignment of community values have been shifted. We no longer hold onto selfish traits, as society has reverted back to the ways of the past where we as a group embrace more humble and modest lifestyles. The community mindset is now underpinned by only the original  principles and needs of unity, nourishment and love. Today, success is no longer measured by what we have but in fact what each of us can contribute to society.

In 2017, Paddington is transformed on a whole due to the presence of an open sourced market place which is underpinned by community interactions through the exchange of skills, goods, space and time. It now exists as a community, based on the generation of collaborative living. Specifically, Paddington Central has formed as the hub and heart to all collaborative activities. It has evolved through changes in space and function, uniting four key services for the wellness of the community. These include; a market place, edutainment hub, co-creation centre and a wellfit institute. Together these services feed the community by defining qualitiesand providing a site to which collaborative interaction leads to aflourishing culture of prosperity and generosity.

Week 6 - Final Presentation

This week the group has worked effectively together to establish the final presentation for the first assignment. Like what was said within last weeks tutorial the best result would be achieved if we divided the work evenly between the four of us. This needed to occur  because of our conflicting schedules and various other assessment pieces due this week. This seemed to work well with each member of the group effectively working towards our desired goal.

Specifically, we split the roles into:

• Future Scenario: Samantha
• Sustainable Future: Annie and I
• People and Lifestyles: Sophie
• Architectural Opportunities: All
• Panoramic Shot: Sophie

The only problem which arose throughout this process, was the collaboration of the work when compiling the panels. Due to one person completing this at home it was hard to develop effective communication as to what had to go where and as such some of the information was misplaced on the panels. Also file sharing caused an issue as the files became very large to operate with (long upload time).


The final four panels were:

Future Scenario
This panel showcases the patterns, principles and drivers which all impact on the new future scenario that we have developed for the Paddington Central Site. 

  

Sustainable Future
The sustainable society of our future scenario has been mapped out within this panel showcases sustainability strategies and principles within the local Paddington community, Paddington central and Brisbane. We have also delved deeper in that we have realised the impact this scenario will have on other cities around Queensland and then Australia. 

Architectural Opportunities
This panel defines the four architectural opportunities which we have created for the new Paddington site. Although it is simple it clearly showcases the functions and its relationship within the site context.

 

People and Lifestyles
The new scenario we have developed has impacted on the people and the new lifestyles in which they live. This panel records the experiences of a new "typical family" within the Paddington Central community. 

 

Week 6 - Project Development

From the last post I made I have definitely advanced my images for the final presentation. After discussing with the group about each of them they felt that only a couple of slight changes needed to be made in order for them to present well on the panel.

We completed this as a group in at uni, where we all sat around and assessed each of the images. This allowed us to be honest and truthful as a group, which in turn I feel will help to create a more effective and evolved presentation.

Spatial Diagram:

• The colours of the spatial diagram have been purposely changed to match the sketchup mass model colours below. This will help for an ease of understanding between the relationship of the two images. 
• The font has also been changed to match the universal font that we are using across all four panels
• Additional information about the specific functions of the spaces have been added into each of the bubbles. This will allow the viewer to understand the relationship of spaces by to also understand what happens within the spaces, easily and quickly.

Mass Model

• The colours of the mass model have changed to match Samanthas colour layuout for the future scenario panel. By changing the colours it will make the diagrams look uniform across the four panels.
• From Annie's note, I have added in a bit of site context for the building so the viewer can comprehend its relationship with neighbouring buildings and street. It also helps to define the orientation of the building.
• Scale has been factored into this image as well as a result. I have added people in so that one can understand the sizing of each architectural opportunity as well as the size of Paddington Central overall.

 

Mass Model Explosion

• The colours of the mass model have changed to match Samanthas colour layout for the future scenario panel. By changing the colours it will make the diagrams look uniform across the four panels.
• From Annie's note, I have added in a bit of site context for the building so the viewer can comprehend its relationship with neighbouring buildings and street. It also helps to define the orientation of the building.
• I have also decided to add in the dotted lines which helps the viewer to realise where each function spaces fits amongst the entire building. With the addition of a colour key each space is also easily identifiable.

WellFIT Centre Diagram:

As a group we decided to make each of our Architectural Opportunities into a small visual diagram which would be about a quarter of a A2 page in size, when factoring in the panoramic shot. 

As to these instructions my defined diagram can be seen above. This idea/diagram has developed since the last tutorial and through the use of strong colours and simple illustration it is clear what functions are inclusive within the WellFit Centre. I have tried to make this as easily readable as possible so the viewers obtain an understanding about its function almost instantly. The diagram is purposely split into two parts including a basic bubble diagram defining the spaces, with a coordinating colour symbol and explanation on the right (below).

Sustainable Future Diagram:

After presenting my developed sustainability diagram to Annie the other day her idea of the poster had changed due to new research diagrams that she had found on the internet. As we were looking through we found that they were DEFINITELY more informative and easier to read overall. As such we began to develop a new overall diagram. The final image can be seen above.  This will be placed as the main image on the Sustainable Future poster.

Our main aim was to capture sustainability on a number of levels including;

• Community
• Site (Paddington Central)
• City
• State
• And nation.

By doing this it would allow for the diagram to explain in more depth the sustainable strategies and implementations at each level and how they work together to create an overall sustainable society.

This week Annie and I have brainstormed ideas as to what strategies would exist at each level and therefore created a representative symbol within the diagram. By doing so we have mocked up a created image of each of the levels.

The sustainable strategies which will exist at each level include:

Community

• Urban Infil - families will share spaces between houses
• Extenderd family - sees grandparents move into houses to respond to higher costs of living
• Conservation - conserving water and energy within the home (water tanks)
• Urban Farming - growing food at home.

Site

•  Community Preservation - typical green practices
• Market Place - source of economic revenue
• Re-Purpose - retrofit of Paddington Central to create a more sustainable development
• Community connections - fostering fulfillment and collaboration between people through the functional spaces.

City

•  Community Networking - new source of income
• Electrical innovation - greener forms of electricity and power
• Education - new cirriculum development
• Government - new laws and regulations and guidelines

State

Shows the impacts Brisbane city has on the surrounding cities in Queensland. It defines the new sustainable living lifestyle. 

Australia 

Showcases how the Queensland state can impact on all of Australia.

Week 5 - Project Development

After the tutorial I began to work on a couple of the diagrams which were delegated to me for completion for next weeks final presentation. These included;

• A diagram which defined the sustainable society we had created from our future scenario. This will be used as the main image for our Sustainable Future panel.
• A massing model of the new Paddington Central development
• A massing model explosion of the new Paddington Central development
• A diagram of my architectural opportunity; the WellFIT CENTRE.

 

Sustainable Diagram:

I have begun to construct our sustainable diagram this weekend. It is developing really well. I am trying to establish the core values of the sustainable community which revolve around;

• The Market Place
• Community
• Workplace
• Environment.

 At the moment my idea is to have representative features of each one of the above elements surround the diagram. You can already begin to see that I am developing the workplace, community and environment areas. More detail will need to be established within each quarter but I am going to await Annie's approval and see where we can go from here. 

Massing Model & Explosion

I have completed the massing model and explosion for the new Paddington Central development. Currently it is split into five functions including;

• Market Place - green
• Co Creation Centre - blue
• Edutainment - red
• Wellfit Centre - yellow
• And the fusion/core zone - grey.

As you can see in the image above, I have begun to work on creating the explosion of all of the functions. This will help to separate them and allow the tutors to see what/where the functions exist within the entire Paddington Central precinct. 

It is noted that the colours are a bit primary school looking at the moment but this will be developed throughout the week. Also on Monday I will ask the fellow group members if they think site context is important at this stage? I think it is because it gives a sense of scale, size and orientation.

Architectural Opportunity Diagram:

Due to all my time and effort being placed into the other two diagrams my Wellfit Centre diagram is looking a little bland and boring. At least now I have completed some research and the six provided services coincide with each other to create a place of wellness and health. The variety of services will help to cater all public users from children to the elderly. 

Although it is basic at the moment it shows my idea for the diagram. I want to create a simple and understandable bubble diagram of the spaces as well as provide a little explanation of what will be opportunities will exist in each functional space.  This will be developed over the next couple of days.

Week 5 - Architectural Opportunies

TUTORIAL PART 1 :

During the tutorial Annie and I began searching for inspiration with regards to the Sustainability Future diagram that we were delegated. It was our responsibility to define a new triple bottom line for the future society and have this represented with our finalised diagram. A few inspirations of the sort of diagram were researched and what we want to develop can be seen below.  

  http://www.meppublishers.com/content/index.php/mep-partners-with-piranha-for-full-scale-recycling-programme/

 

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-108906380/stock-vector-ecology-info-graphics-sustainable-concept-charts-symbols-graphic-elements.html

http://www.loveinfographics.com/categories/environment-infographics/sustainable-logistics-infographic-infographic

The image above was agreed upon as our favourite and we want to go ahead with this and use it as our inspiration. Hopefully we can adapt this to our particular needs and produce something which is understandable and provides a clear image of our future sustainable society. As Annie has an exam on Wednesday I am going to take the opportunity to begin to develop the diagram.

TUTORIAL PART 2:

This week we had to present four individual architectural opportunities to the class to explain on an design level, as to how this site will develop according to our futuristic scenario. As we had already explored the notion of architectural opportunities on the Paddington site throughout the weeks it put our group in good sted for this weeks class presentation.

Each of the group members over the previous week had further explored, researched and evolved their ideas and understandings of their function spaces. Therefore, the group was inspired to further develop this fusion of the four functions which  would permeate throughout the local Paddington community.

The dream we have for Paddington Central is for it to act as a structure which will inform close community interactions and collectively shape the community users through engaging and participating in simple, blue collar activities/jobs (which once defined our working society). This structure containing the functions;

• Market place
• Co-Creation Centre
• Edutainment Centre
• Wellfit Centre

will act as a source of collaborative living and will hopefully form as a lead model for the greater Brisbane, Queensland and even Australian community.

We delivered the following powerpoint to the class.

Week 5 - Lecture

Dr Philip Crowther directed the lecture for this week. I found this to be my favourite lecture of the five so far as it was so engaging and inspiring. Additionally, most of the content was about New York which is where I will be traveling after graduating at the end of the year. Although I felt that this lecture was directed more at the Urban theme group I did pick up some elements for my own groups design purposes and inspirations.  His opinions and explanations of communal housing particularly resonated with me as last week the group talked about developing more of a community housing feel where urban infill would begin to set itself as a trend.

Another inspirational feature of the lecture was "The High Line" Project . This project took a major piece of infrastructure which had previously been unused and unwanted and made it relevant to the city by transforming it into an urban park.This definitely caught my attention as I felt that it was a great exemplar of the future projects of Architecture. I think this project was extremely successful in creating a new identity for the meat packing district of New York and providing the area with new opportunities that came with the influx of people wanting to see and use the new attraction. I feel that this sort of project could be established in Brisbane in the near future and could inject some sort of life back into the city. We have many unused spaces which I feel could be revamped and once again become a desired destination rather than just acting as a passing point. 

 The High Line Project

  The High Line Project

  The High Line Project

Week 4 - Research

Over the past week I have begun to research about health and the benefits it provides for people and their lifestyles. In doing so, this will help to provide me with a base knowledge of what services will need to be provided for my WellFIT CENTRE. Consequently, by obtaining this knowledge I will be able to understand the experiences a user would go through whilst participating in such health activities. This will allow me to understand the emotions and actions of a person which will help to develop my character's story and recount within Paddington Central

What I have found it that we are supposed to maintain a well disciplined life. Such as we need to do some physical exercise regularly, we should take proper food, i.e.:- balanced diet, we need to drink clean water, we need to sleep properly, we need to take rest at every intervals etc. Without these it is impossible for us to achieve good health.

The Benefits of Good Health


If a person is in good health, they are able to enjoy the pleasures and pleasantries of life. It also helps  to save money on doctor bills and hospital visits. This allows people to spend their money on things you really want to do.

Exercise: 

• Regular physical exercise makes a human body strong and active. It also keeps a person free from all kinds of diseases. 

Education

•  Many people do not know how to achieve good health. For them it’s like a secret that can not be resolved. But good health is not a distant dream or long-term goal and through education this can be realised. Obtaining the right help and understanding is crucial for good health.

Food and Cooking 

• An important step in achieving good health is proper nutrition and good health foods. Too many people today have no idea what proper nutrition means. We are living in a world that is full of fast food meals, high calorie snacks, fattening desserts and sugary beverages. In order to have good health one must first have good eating habits and eat good health foods.

These three aspects of health will definitely inform the services which I will provide within the WellFIT CENTRE. They are not priorities but necessities is promoting healthy people and lifestyles.


CHARACTER & STORY CREATION:

With this knowledge obtained I have created a scenario for a user within the WellFIT Centre.

Character Profile:

• Name: Lisa Smith
• Age: 19
• Position: University Student

Recount of Lisa's day at the WellFIT Centre:

"It has been 2 days since my last iFIT and my wellness points (100 is maximum) have significantly dropped.  I press my hand against the screen and the computer begins to read my file. Today is shadow boxing and it is catered for my specific  wellness need. As I pick up my vision specs and receptor gloves I begin to punch at the flashing targets in front of me.  This only lasts for 15 minutes before the computer recognises that my endorphin levels are high and I am fully re-energised. I save my personal file for the next visit." 


Paddington Central Spatial Diagram with Character Experiences:

Also this week, I have enhanced and developed the spatial function diagram which we as a group created in the tutorial (seen in the last post). It showcases the spaces within our futuristic Paddington Central. Within this diagram I have briefly described the activities which are involved within each function, aswell as describing a character and their recount of the experience within that space.

Week 4 Tutorial - People and Lifestyles

Before we began the weekly activity the group thought it was necessary to develop a succinct statment which captured the future scenario in which we developed during last weeks tutorial. After much discussion the following statement was produced. 

Emerging from years of recession the community of Brisbane have relinquished the luxurious lifestyle and have ultimately reassessed their relationship with material objects. Communities have shifted their values and as a result major cultural changes have occurred. The community has begun to embrace a more humble and modest lifestyle returning to fundamental ideals. Our most basic needs of love, nourishment and unity underpin the communal mindset and success is today measured not by what we have but by what we can contribute.

 After establishing our future scenario the group began to really think about the experiences one would have at our new Paddington Central site. Particularly, what functions would exist here and what experiences people/users/characters would draw from being within the new site? The group began to pose questions like what are the needed spaces? What functions would exist at that period of time? Would it have a singular or multipurose?

We imagined this for a while and underpinned that four specific functions would satisfy a daily user at Paddington Central. It would allow for a fulfilled experience to be realised. We brainstormed for a while and established the following functions; the marketplace, the co-creation centre, edutainment and the wellfit centre. Although they are four singular functions we believe that they can integrate and fuse together to create an entire experience.

After developing the functions we tried to develop the experiences one would share whilst being at Paddington Central. Due to limited time we could only fill one of the functional experiences, the Co-Creation Centre. 

Obviously over the week this diagram needs to evolve with 4 individual recounts of the functional experience being drawn up into a single diagram. It would make it easier if this diagram became digital so we could play with the size, shape and colour. 

Week 3 Tutorial

This week the group began to work much better as a team. Rather then just throwing ideas on the table, we began to expand and evolve on each one to try develop a clearer and more resolved vision. After generating various sustainable strategies within last weeks tutorial, this week we began to develop our sole idea of what our future scenario would be/contain.

After various discussions we as a group have come to the conclusion that we cannot think too far ahead of ourselves and should in fact use drivers/issues from the world today to inform our scenario. We have decided that society reverts back to traditional existence as a consequence of the on-going recession that has forced people to question what is truly valuable. When one reverts themselves back to this type of living and mindset, material things are instantly relinquished. Therefore, people are only left to revolve around humble values and friendship. When this is overlaid with a significant technological innovation it has produced a wave of community based production and collaboration. The slideshow below is what was presented to the class this week and describes our ideas in a more graphic representation.

Week 3 Lecture

This weeks lecture was on 'How to measure sustainability' by Murray Lane. I have had the chance to work with Murray previously, being my tutor in first year of design. It was interesting to see the vast range of knowledge he had about this particular subject. The lecture although being quite loaded with information offered quite a unique perspective towards the triple bottom line.

Instead of it existing as just the three core elements;

• Economic 

• Social 

• Environmental 

http://candobetter.net/taxonomy/term/2764

Murray was proposing that sustainability can be split into principles and context when analysising a project.

• Principle is the core values or never changing elements - the bare essentials which sustain human life. For example, shelter, love and safety are principles of architecture. 
• Context is the ever changing factors such as culture, economy and climate.

He has broken the triple bottom line down and developed his own diagram for it which can be seen below. Here it reveals great levels of detail which can help to obtain the greatest amount of information about sustainability and its impacts whether in daily life or during a project.

Murray raised quite a valid point which has never occured to me, although it seems quite obvious. Claims for sustainability need to be backed up by reasoning, considering design, construction through to operation. So considering construction techniques, materials (recycled? local? embodied energy?) and operation. To literally call a project 'sustainable' means it is able to sustain itself which is difficult.

I believe that to considering all of these factors within a project could be quite a stretch and definitely within this society would be very hard to achieve. Perhaps a project needs to have systems in place that eventually mitigate and offset resource use, embodied energy and operation of buildings.

Week 2 - Influences on our Future

The lecture this week has made me realise that we as a society have become very influenced by film/cartoons and documentaries of what the future will look like. In a way these movies/tv shows are creating the future for us by placing ideas in our head of "what we should expect". The following are some movies and shows which I feel are influence our belief of the future.

Star Wars

Minority Report

Jetsons

                          -

Week 2 - Tutorial

This week we formed a group of four within the suburban theme, for the first assessment piece for DAB810. It is my first time working with Sam, Sophie and Annie but I have confidence that we will be able to work together successfully as we are all like minded with a drive for excellence and perfection.

In the tutorial we began to discuss as a group what our thoughts were about the theme? What the assignment was? Who had researched? What did they find?

Many ideas were posed throughout the charette which made for a very insightful and inspiring class. We were able to generate many ideas over a short space of time but what difficulties we had was that the future scenario was so up in there. We were trying to ground ourselves, which was effecting our ability to think beyond the square. After talking with Peter we began to open up and it was found that most of our ideas surrounded new technologies, new culture and sustainability practices.

One particular idea that we all seemed to agree upon was the idea of making it into a food and grocer market which allowed for a wider range of produce and a greater community interaction. From here we began to think about technology and how in the future this market may become completely interactive. Such ideas included;

• Combining smart integration with the market
• Allowing to scan food and then buy it online
• Having taste testers of each food or produce and then from there buying it online
• Making it a drive through experience, where you can order online and pick it up after work
• Having health experts there to educate you in the right choices of eating

 

Iphone integration with the grocery store

 Grocery store drive through

Week 2 Lecture

This lecture looked at 'What If.....' scenarios. A few examples of fictional examples of future scnearios were shown. Robots of Brixton by Kibwe Tavares was a student project which won the Presidents Medal Student Award. This movie is a social comment on how technology may eventually destroy human beings.

An interesting phrase I heard is this short clip was 'Evolution, not revolution'. Revolution in this case, is starting from scratch. It in turn means building the walls of the city as to how the should have been the first time. Evolution however is life adapting to the surrounding organisms and climate which confronts us. Evolution has presented the architecture of the past, and provides the foundations for the future.

Both of these terms can could in fact help to pave the future in a positive manner. But from my viewpoint I think that it has to be a combination of the two.  Rather than destroying a city and rebuilding it how about just expand it to a better relocation? Perhaps also looking at the ways we live, and attempt to adjust day to day activities we take for granted. Humans for the past thousands of years managed without technology, but is it time for it be a technological resolution? I wonder how long it will last before we see these sorts of changes within our everyday life?

Week 2 - Robots or Flying Cars?

Will there be ROBOTS??
Will basic human activities be superseded by robots in the future? As you can see in the below video, Honda have developed a robot to mimic human movements. Will they be our servants or be accepted within our society?

 Will there be FLYING CARS?

Even though these prototypes are being developed as we speak I don't think that we will see these sorts of things appearing within our life anytime soon.

Week 1 - My Vision of the Future

This week I have begun to think about the future which faces us as a population over the next few decades. Like most people, I feel that we will see a significant advancement in various areas of life....whether it is through a technological change or cultural social/cultural change I just don't know.

Week 1 - Architecture is Future Vision

Another facet of DAB810 this semester is to "envisage" the future world/scenarios/communities which will exist. But this will not just limited to "what we think it will look like"....but rather designing for what will be needed within that future context. 

I believe that it is important for Architect's to always consider the future of the particular site context of their design, whether it is to do with things such as population growth, activity, or development within the area, etc. It is crucial for us to have a critical eye for "what could be" and "what may be needed" to accompany this. My view is supported by a comment within the lecture which stated that "an architectural proposition should therefore be backed up with thought future vision and strategy"

Within these next couple of weeks I need to begin to  understand what I feel will be our future, specifically;
 - How that will look? 
 - What will be needed for that context?
 - What will influence it?
 - What role can design play within that context?

Week 1 - Beginning of DAB810 [Architecture as fiction]

This post is the start of many to come for the DAB810 unit for semester 2, 2012. The focus for this semester is to imagine architecture as "Fiction" which really seems to inform our design with the architecture telling a 'story' which will capture the audience in the best possible manner. What was interesting to note, was that within the lecture we were guided to let our project site become a "stage" and the "architectural entity" (substituted word for building this semester) will set the scene.  Also, the interaction of people will act as being the characters within the play. This view of architecture being a story is very unique and one which now actually makes sense when I think about it. We truly are telling a story to the clients and it is the users which end up acting out the play that us 'architect' design. Hopefully this new found way of approaching design may help to create innovative outcomes from previous semesters.