Chapter 09_Ideation

Some brainstorming of ideas...

By applying small details of a big idea, we can "plant the seed".  That idea being food as an event - whether at Paddington Central, in the kitchen, a restaurant, or in the backyard.

Here I investigated use and logistics, and played with some basic arrangement and coordination of activities.

I like the idea of an abstracted landscape.

Chapter 09_Esoteric Food

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances; — William Shakespeare

Chapter 09_Architecture as Assistive Devices_Lecture

This lecture discussed particular to the project, how an architectural intervention can be a catalyst for change.

First the purpose of a building was discussed as a device for protection, or defense (from weather, privacy or even conflict). Buildings should and will be designed accordingly.
To design a good building or usable spaces, consider what it is about - what does the building do? this includes the inverse uses. For example: making/using or thinking/reflecting. 

To briefly reflect upon what I anticipate the Paddington Central has potential for.

• an arena for lifting the veil on food - food as the focus of a theatrical expose.
• building on this the user can take away a number of different experiences - the diagramme below illustrates how I am purpose could arrange itself...

For each activity or use in the building must consider how best to provide for: 

1. number (as in quantity) of people
2. space
3. facilities
4. logistics

Specific to our site, I think that I would anticipate a larger use of the site after my intervention. I plan for it's focus to shift predominantly in the direction of an 'informer' where the building or activities are enticing the user to experience food on a new level, rather than just consuming. For example... new ways of cooking, or learning GIY (Grow It Yourself). Self-sustainability is the key theme here.
Spaces will be arranged in a way to reflect the food as a theatrical means for program where the veil is lifted on the currently hidden process.
Facilities; maintain a typical 'supermarket', restaurants (formal and casual, and open to emergent cooking or cooking lessons), parkland, farming, market place, learning facilities.
Logistics? - still not sure about this part.

Yasu made an important (and welcome!) reminder that we shouldn't resolve everything.

Yasu also raised a keyword - Play.

How can the different spaces interact and have different causes, or change the experience for the user of the building?
Thinking quickly, I like the idea of a layered building which unites the different elements of the food process. The arrangement of these layers, I think, will allow for interesting play of spaces and emergent activities could begin to form...

This specific discussion of a site-specific device then lead onto Architecture as an assistive device for contextual, locale and global agendas. Which I think is an important, reoccurring theme in my posts to date:-  where architecture should "the abstract global and the proximate everyday or local."

Ultimately, I hope to address the homogeneous anti-interactive community of Paddington through an agenda which takes the popular global issue, sustainability, and develop it through simple community-based commerce and trade in an ambient, surreal park-come-farm environment.  A comfortable atmosphere such as this will broaden application of sustainable green practices particular to food, from the intimacy of own home to the broader city and country.

Chapter 08_Da Futcha

"The Postmaster General said that within the next 30 years nearly every householder will be linked to a local and national communication network which will enable them to do the following things: control his central heating while away from the house by commanding over the telephone; watch children, etc., with the aid of a TV "eye" while out shopping or at a party; shop without moving out of the house with the aid of a computer; pay for commodities throughout a computer link; receive confirmations and news by teleprinter; consult the local library for information through a picture phone. In fact, new soft transportation technology will give a hitherto unknown degree of freedom."
Source: Sadler, S., 2005. Beyond Architecture. In. Archigram: Architecture Without Architecture, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. p121



An interesting topical read -
Sci-fi dreams in reality: 10 writers' fantasies that have come true
Reviews cases where fiction has (and has not) become a reality.

Chapter 08_Demography and Consumption

Following on from my previous post, I encountered this quote by Guy Debord, published in 1967 (Paris) as a part The Society of the Spectacle.

The fetishism of the commodity — the domination of society by “intangible as well as tangible things” — attains its ultimate fulfillment in the spectacle, where the real world is replaced by a selection of images which are projected above it, yet which at the same time succeed in making themselves regarded as the epitome of reality.

I think that the immediacy created by consumerism, and addressed by Bjarke Ingels' 'Hedonistic Sustainability' is a good case point of making a positive net global change out of a mongrel fetishism, characterised by Guy Debord.

I postulate that by using Paddington Central as a community endorsed platform for food consumption and sustainability practices, future values can positively change.  Thus, Paddington Central exists more as guiding light, not necessarily a congruous answer.

Chapter 08_Sustainability isn't about being 'Green'_Studio

An interesting talk I listened to which is the confluence of demographic specific architecture, sustainable issues and community. 

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogXT_CI7KRU

In his speech, Bjarke Ingels discusses that it is possible to educate the world's privileged consumers and at the same time bring them together on the community level (Paddington lacks!).
I think the idea of 'Hedonistic Sustainability' - while unapologetic, does possess truth, particularly to the Paddington demographic.  The typical Paddington resident has a large disposable income and is educated and aware of global issues like sustainability and consumption, yet does nothing to address this - due to the convenience of central centres such as Paddington Central. 

Chapter 08_Further Site Investigations

Following the reading, discussed in the previous post, I undertook closer, specific, investigations of the Paddington Central site.

Scale 1:1000

Site

Site access.  The building has good access for pedestrians onto the street. Predominantly vehicle access on side street access,

Centrality. The centre, due to its location on La Trobe Tce - main thoroughfare through Paddington, it acts and appears as a central landmark for urban transactions. This quality will be important to maintain...

Pedestrian migration.  The building has an open pedestrian flow through the building, however, it is not a delightful experience.

Migration cont. Bus routes drop of passengers infront of Paddington Central. 

Solar. The topography of the site features predominantly north facing slopes.

Topography. A gentle 20m drop, sloping down from La Trobe Tce.

Use. The Paddington Central building provides a hub for food- orientated commerce. Predominantly residential area is serviced by Paddington Central.

Water drainage. There is a good drainage off the site.



















The site features multiple urban transactions (retail, food/groceries, public transport, gathering landmark, dining).  However, the read as distinctly separate and have clearly emerged at different times.  The collection and reformation of these activities is a good opportunity for an architectural intervention to activate the site and work towards dealing with the problems of the area. i.e. social barriers.

Chapter 08_Sustainability isn't about being 'Green'_Lecture

SUSTAINABILITY
Some points to consider:

Oftentimes, the act of 'greening' is nothing more than a corporate endorsed, media publicity stunt that has short term financial benefit and an attached political agenda.  For it to be functional, it must be justifiable. 

Consider the embodied energy of architectures.  Monumental buildings like Crystal Palace, which may have provided optimal solutions in terms of a modern programme or adaptable use, are now (if still standing) essentially rotting frames of steel, unusable and invariable within the context of sustainability.
A sustainable life cycle is essential in the search for the needs of the built. It has to be made worth it so that people don't give up on green strategies. 

Some strategies:
DISASSEMBLY!

 

CRADLE-2-GRAVE/CRADLE-2-CRADLE (_Incorporate to disassembly above_) 

"Closed Loop life cycle" ---> REPAIR, UPGRADE, RECYCLE

It is inefficient for repeat use of the same technology BUT it can be made sustainable through the consideration of resources and new appropriation of used resources and technology.


ephemeral (re)existence 

CASE STUDIES

WIKI HOUSE:

An open source construction set.  It's aim is to allow anyone to design, download and 'print' CNC-milled houses and components, which can be assembled with minimal formal skill or training. A neo-modular process for construction with outstanding credibility: local sourced, re-used, recycled, all plywood materials; DIY construction; open-source development tool (spread-the-knowledge, share-the-love); excellent application for temporary structures - an answer to providing an adaptable scheme for architectural intervention. Perhaps this sort of construction is one part of a building which is in flux to provide a capable and 100% flexible 'skin' of programme.

source: Wiki House - http://www.wikihouse.cc/

source: Wiki House - http://www.wikihouse.cc/

TESCO HOMEPLUS:

I think that while this idea is seeded with a positive technology input, it removes important human interactions and the result is a society reinforcing the contemporary quandary of an instant, disconnected, media and entertainment driven culture which is overall detrimental to community values.

QUINTA MONROY - ELEMENTAL (Chile)

source: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/smallscalebigchange/projects/quinta_monroy_housing

This project aimed to provide a just shell of a residential building with middle class ambitions to lower class citizens in Chile.  The existing community existed in precarious living circumstances (Not too dissimilar to the previously discussed Kowloon Walled City).  A maze with no security; about 100 families fitting into 5000 square feet.

So the architects aimed to provide: density without over-crowding, a porous enough building so that families could adapt suitably, and an arrangement with heterogenous social units of comparable ambition to engender the aspiring middle class community values so that there was a motivation to contribute to the 'community shell' provided.

This project shares common ground with previously discussed projects such as the Crystal Palace and works by Frei Otto. However, it adds a unique juncture from such projects in the form of a rather ambitious social engineering.  I particularly like how the previously discussed alternatives of adaptability (Chapter 06_Environmental Adaptability_Reading) are used in a symbiotic, flexible and plastic manner that is progressive for the users, not just the sustainable factors.

Chapter 07_Architecture is a device_Reading

EXCURSIONS ON CAPABILITIES

The role of the architect is questioned.

Dispair and neglect architecture
Alternative and the adaptable are feared, 
The architect is simply a common cure.
Fuck the whims of the everyday man.

Architecture is at point where value of direction is greater than reaction. As Maas highlights, since the 1920's each era of Architecture takes medial steps to simply understand the wider issues, without ever shedding light on alternatives and solutions. Never a criticism, only a manuscript here, thank you.

The future of Paddington can be just as Maas puts it, Pars pro toto, evolving the architectural revolution.  Maas also makes an interesting point with respect to scale: combine idealism and pragmatism, research and practice, large and small. In between these is a balance which can marshal the social issues into a directed program which 'literally constructs thoughts' i.e. globalism and anti-globalism, or even the incorporation of emerging virtual domains (perhaps as a means to navigate between the large and small domains - technology is a new manipulative tool for DIRECTION).


ARCHITECTURE IS A DEVICE
... and its products can be understood as:
1. Instruments of general observations
2. Messengers of urban transactions
3. Criticism as Facilitators for development and acceleration
4. Communicators of wider processes and agendas

These titles of Architecture cast a number of roles which I think will be useful in constructing the story of Paddington Central.

If the Paddington Central intervention is an instrument, messenger, facilitator and communicator; what is the potential language of these roles in an intervention?

General observations: Need for food and supplies in the community. 

Urban transactions: to maintain Paddington Central as a landmark within the community it should retain some Architectural standout features in lieu of the local association with the birds-nest type tower and the exaggerated awning.  The centre acts as a hub for not only shoppers (who visit Woolworths, chemist, baker, florist, newsagency, post office, doctors, bottle shop, restaurants) but also for users of public transport. I would propose that such a vital community civic location could provide amenity in retail, transit AND recreational.

Social accelerations required: A recreational gathering place would benefit the currently withdrawn community.  The natural topography of the site does not allow for large gathering places.  An intervention could attempt this... Bringing the community together is an important tool to create human bonds and connections that are ever disappearing in contemporary times.

Wider processes and agenda typical to Brisbane/SEQ/QLD/AUS: Attempting to educate communities on better eating (and spending) habits i.e. GIY (Grow-It-Yourself) is beneficial on both narrow (individual/family) and broad (AUS) scales.

Chapter 07_Locale Investigation

Initial investigation into the broader locale via mapping techniques.

Scale 1:2500

The simple nolli map shows us the interspersed, 'broken' arrangement of the Paddington built form.

Topographically, the area has great range

Combining the two layers shows the Paddington district in two paradoxical layers. The arrangement of urban form is ignorant of the topography. Only by simple single "Queenslander" typology dwelling construction is it possible to populate. The landscape separates and creates boundaries between neighbours and community.  The Paddington Central site presents in these maps as a coherent larger space for such interactions. (It currently does not cater to this).

Chapter 07_Green Education

In line with the everyday-life-of-'Mark' script, developed as an scenario how he might take something unexpected away from the Paddington Central Food Community, I thought I would post the above TED talk by Stephen Ritz.  Stephan and the class he taught in the Bronx began an urban farm for his kids.  The outcome was not only a thriving farm which was growing bountiful food with plenty surplus, but the spreading of an idea.  The children of the class took their newly developed skills home to their families and introduced them to urban farming.  The chain effect of passing knowledge is critical in a revolution.  

Perhaps, Paddington Central can become a source of knowledge and learning not only for urban farming, but the entire food process... from seed to bowl....


Following my last post, I further researched Botanical Gardens out of interest.  They are an extremely dynamic space, capable of hosting a number of activities from formal to casual, planned to emergent.  Botanical gardens, as rural or exotic entities juxtaposed usually against the urban environment, creates an anomaly in the fabric of the city with a unique atmosphere that invites exploration.
I think the genesis of the Botanical gardens, as a place of display, education, heterogeneous interaction - and specifically, somewhere not commercially motivated - is what I find appealing and something I would like to impart upon suburban Paddington.
I don't think I can completely remove the commercial consumer nature of a supermarket - in fact, I would like to encourage community commercial activity - however, perhaps there is a way to make a clear distinction between the serenity of a park/farm and the hustle and bustle of a market place.

Research and education

Hanging Gardens of Babylon one of the first 

engagements of civic gardens

Heterogeneous use

Emergent activities

Surreal escape from urbanity

Sources:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Udhagamandalam_Botanical_Gardens.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Botanischer_Garten_BS.Seerosen.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Orto_botanico_di_Pisa_-_general_view.JPG

http://www.daveandcharlotte.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/14-Singapore-Botanical-Gardens-Wedding.jpg

Chapter 07_Architecture 07_Studio

PROJECT 2

For this week studio we individually began to brainstorm ideas for suburban Paddington.  Ideas developed for the interim presentation to be used as an impetus...
SCENE
The reality...
- Homogeneous community
- Mixture of students and middle to high-class income
- Mostly family homes
- Large homes with large yards
- Disposable income for consumerism
- Environmental issues with consumerism (waste, carbon footprint, buy without thinking-instantaneous satisfaction is needed)
- Generally no goods are produced at home (despite the availability of space)
- Inward, schizophrenic interactions with community - only short bursts at the only central location (Paddington Central)
- Community impeded by restriction of topography + traditions of rich on top of the hills and poor in the gullies
- Car-centric 

STAGE
Intervention potential...
- Community farming/shared agricultural space (not necessarily for commercial gain)
- Allotments like European cities?
- To further the food agenda: provide labs for research and education for community
- Paddington Central as a theatre to celebrate food with other members of the community
- Lift the veil that conceals the process of food - production, storage, preserving, distribution, preparation, cooking, buying, eating
- If the future scenario was to be maintained - the building could be a sustainable hub, technologically enhanced to grow any food in any climate
- At least, until such time technology is capable of that building mass could be dedicated for an archive/vault to food - to educate and preserve the status of food as a fundamental necessity of life.
- A suburban botanical garden/farm (Botanical gardens facilitate scientific research and plant taxonomy as well as inviting members of the public to move across a site to learn about the vegetation, but also doubly act as a resting point, place for recreational activities, eating, read, perform, wed...)
- Green/food aqueduct: perhaps the intervention receives and distributes food by growing along a sort of 'green aqueduct' (along the old tram network?) - Similarly to Roman days this network supplies a town with an essential necessity. Focused around a collection point (Paddington Central)
- Facilitate sustainable practices i.e. grow food onsite at Paddington central or generate interest and provide know-how and tools for home grown food, riding bikes instead or catch the bus instead of driving, outdoor leisure/recreation instead of watching tv, wind/algae farm?, 
- Markets to re-instate fair trading and community grown/made goods
- Food stalls?
- Cultural exchange

SCRIPT
Users and interaction with Paddington Central...

'Jenny' might go to Paddington Central to buy her groceries.  Instead of buying goods from anti-competitive, monopolistic, mass produced corporations she can see that the tomato puree she is purchasing has been grown and pureed at the place she buys it from... in doing so, she is awakened to the fact that she (in the past) never knows where her food actually comes from.  In this case - she can even get to know the man who grew the tomatoes..

Source: self made

- 'Peta' and 'John', her son, go to buy groceries. They also find a park in which to enjoy and spend the afternoon, meeting other children for John to play with. 

- 'Mark' works in the Brisbane CBD and escapes from the concrete jungle to Paddington Central for a lunch break (by bike or bus). After parking his bike or getting off the bus he has a number of options available to him for a meal at varying cost brackets... restaurant, street food, supermarket.  Where he eats it could vary also: with a view to the south over the city on a hill - above the centre, on the hill looking out over the rolling hills/farm/park space, in a restaurant or on a restaurant terrace.  After walking past a restaurant kitchen and seeing what they cook, he decides to go into the restaurant and eat on the terrace. After lunch he still has a bit of time to kill before he is due back at work. He discovers the seed archive and learns a bit about the history of growing food. At the end, he decides to take the food process into his own hands, and buys pumpkin seeds from a farmer in the centre to grow at home. 

- 'Lauren' has a small 2x2m 'allotment' at Paddington central that she shares with her neighbour.  She rides her bike with a basket on the back to the allotment to collect some apples. She wants to make an apple pie for her date that night. After she has filled her basket with apples, she passes 'Peta' who is sitting in the shade of a tree, watching 'John'.  'Peta' offers 'Lauren' some money to buy a couple of apples for a snack. 'Lauren' agrees.  That weekend, 'Lauren' decides to walk around the park with a basket of apples to sell to people relaxing or working.

Source: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/images/apples.jpg

Chapter 07_Architecture Fiction_Lecture

The week 6 lecture reviewed future possibilities for new technologies and how these technologies can respond to the architecture and users.
Yasu made the statement: "think about your daily lives today."  In consideration, I feel that it is imperative to take into account the daily patterns of Paddington residents into the design process.  However, as a social observation I also feel the disconnection of community and family in contemporary homes is directly correlated (as mentioned in previous posts) to the consumer driven over-saturation of convenience and choice.  With that being said, a socially empathic program, (such as the proposed urban farming/shopping scheme) could become the catalyst for 'Paddington 2.0'.  These are proactive to social context.

SCRIPT
Real - Architecture fiction not Science Fiction. Architecture is a reality. Just as is CONTEXT.

STAGE
Consider and weight the design for the MOST important aspects of what the project hopes to achieve, or simply, hopes.
This creates - - - > Purpose - - - > Solutions AND opportunities (for emergent situations)

Given the analogy of the stage of Architecture, one must consider navigation - specifically, the paths and stories of people/users: residents/students/field workers/store men/scientists....
How will they get to the intervention from work/home/play
bus/horsedrawn? bike/kayak? How would this be enhanced by the intervention (if it needs to be).

Integrity - How can it become a sustainable entity?

SCENE
What is the users resonance with the building - Presence and identity: range of contexts, physical and psychological.
Dramatic interpretation as a 1st person experience: within the building, people interacting with other people in spaces, the context of the story (consider mise en scene/movie/snapshots in sequences)

CONTEXT > PLOT > BLDG > WAY TO TELL STORY

Extract from the 1st assignment the potential architectural and how they could be designed/illustrated/narrated - want to see it on a personal scale of interaction

Yasu showed an example of a project to get ideas rolling of end product possibilities:

Greenland Migrating

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNaV5_8KlEM

The presentation was effective at conveying all the ideas Yasu talked about in the lecture.  It used facts and figures to illustrate first the context. Secondly, it described the script-the ex-mining town has emigration problems. And then it provided a fiction of the potential for the proposed intervention.  The aesthetic was overall very pleasing and the uncluttered use of diagrams was very effective.

Chapter 06_Environmental Adaptability_Reading

City Sense and City Design

This reading objectively outlines a variety of means to deal with obsolete environments, flexibility, and rate of change relating to flexibility.  These issues are relevant to emergent architecture theory, discussed in an earlier reflection.

"The more adequate our predictions of the future become, the more will our anxiety for flexibility be transmuted into such tangible problems" - How can we provide for unspecified future change?

The reading reinforces the notion of understanding a building not necessarily as bricks and mortar, rather as a complex system which should behave as an organism; subject to evolution and revolution, and where, just as humans have successfully done so, adaptable populations will survive and the inflexible succumb. 
Lynch posits an interesting flip of perspective: look to "...not the adaptability of the organism to his environment, but that of the environment to the changing purposes of the organism"
This stand point made me consider the environment of Paddington, and if let to interact with the organism (the building or form which stands as Paddington Central), what would be the result of this relationship between environment and organism?  How should the Paddington organism influence its environment?

Lynch also suggests successful adaptation occurs when the user is given a chance for active participation.  This creates a plastic environment, stretching beyond making choices which have so driven the consumer market for an era (Such 'choices' can be counter productive in a 'flexible environment').  However, this lateral plasticity of flexibility (the blank piece of paper analogy) contends the traditional architectural adaptability (provide media open for any use).  

Lynch pushes two measures for flexible spaces:
1. Separate specialised complex purpose-driven spaces as a unique zoning of 'fixed and fluid'/specialised functions.  These will support or communicate to some other integral part of the organism (i.e. Is the presence of Woolworths an integral part of the organisms life? If so, it should be a sturdy element of the building that is not removable).  This method encourages a buffer zone around specialised spaces and placement on important axes.  The crossover creates a vacuum opportunity for potential.

source: self made

2. Separate by permanence of space/program.  To determine this, ask: what is easy to change in the building OR what changes and what doesn't over the building's anticipated lifespan (i.e. how long will that space (XXXX Space) within Paddington Central need to be a bottle shop? - the need informs the physical form and arrangement of program).  The intensity of the the permanence could accomodate 'intensity rings' for interaction with the building uses. 

source: self made