User:Remi
From CollabLandWiki
Remi Bint
Victoria University of Wellington
Contents |
Design Intent
Hypothesis - "Can a square function as a point of transition whilst still accomodating the common historical uses of the square as a destination and meeting place?"
Urban Squares are commonly thought of as a cultural meeting place, though currently squares are becoming more of a point of transit. Do squares need to specifically function as a point of pause to take the role of a historical square, as a meeting place for human interaction, or can they function as a square by merely being a transition point.
Issues to investigate:
- Human movement through a space
- Space as a sense of movement
- The issue of the streets and lanes that lead into the square
- Ritual of pedestrian movement
- Multiple transport methods in a square
- How movement defines a space
Preliminary site analysis
Obvious Site Issues
- Activating the edges through retail, souviners, Hotels, Restaurants
- No orientation into the square, or around the City - High street, Victoria street
- Drawing people into the square
- Lanes leading into the square are dead
- Increase of attractions to malls - Convenience
- Expansion of City - Urban Sprawl
- Bus exchange system moved out of Square
- Police Kiosk - intrusive to space
- Major cultural significance - Memorials and Cathedral to both Maori and Pakeha
- Symbolic Nature of Cathedral
- Definition of boundaries - both Cathedral land and Council land
- Public has strong ownership and opinions towards the Square
- Conflicting demographically - students vs senior citizens
- Eclectic mix of architectural styles used on perimeter facades - Classical, Gothic
- Tension with pedestrian vs vehicular within the Square
- Issue of Grid - Colonial
For an in-depth analysis see Cathedral Square, Christchurch
The linking page is a collaborative effort by:
- Hollie Woodhouse
- Jen Fowler
- Remi Bint
- James Stephenson
Literature Review
Mobility Environments and Network Cities
Bertolini, L, &, Dijst, M 2003. Journals of Urban Theory, 27-44. UK: Carfax Publishing
This essay by Luca Bertolini and Marin Dijst analyses ‘mobility environments’ and the new urban dimension of transport nodes with the thought that in an “increasingly mobile urban society” a crucial quality of locations is their physical accessibility, or the quality of their connections to “transportation networks at multiple scales”.
The essay analyses different types of transportation nodes both vehicular and pedestrian and how they are structuring the “evolution of urban structure”, generating new opportunities for human interaction.
The author’s discus how modern communication and transport has lessened the need for urban density, and the evolution of the human social activity possibly is fundamentally changing the physical and social dimensions of the city. “The advent of advanced telecommunication technologies gives this possibility an extra twist, as complex webs of human interaction can be developed without any apparent spatial support.” ‘Network cities’ are evolving through this network of interaction that is spatially unconstrained.
The essay goes on to discus that mobility environments such as town squares are anchoring human interaction in network cities and that in this era of fast transport and real time communication mode we run the risk that traditional mobility environments we have inherited form the past will disappear, and “transport nodes will become no more than ‘transfer machines’ or spatial collections of functions that have no relationship to each other”.
This essay I believe is important as it has a lot of linking themes to Cathedral Square and my hypothesis. Christchurch has a dense inner city that has greatly spread and has become a “Network city”. Is there a need for spatial constrained interaction? This question could be asked with relation to Christchurch city as the use of the Square is becoming more as a thoroughfare. Cathedral Square is a ‘transportation node’ and runs the risk of becoming no more than a ‘transfer machine’ as people are currently using the Square more as a thoroughfare than a place of human interaction.
Sense of Movement
Reijndorp, A, 2003. In Transit- Mobility, City Culture and Urban Development in Rotterdam, 84-103. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers
This essay by Arnold Reijndorp discusses the way that movement defines spatial space in a city.
The essay begins with a discussion of spatial practise. The analogy that a ‘sense of place,’ might be called a ‘sense of movement’.
Aldo Rossi implied that a ‘magical’ structure lies beneath the surface of the cities architecture, and Pierre Bourdieu has pointed out that every instance of ‘magic’ is a result of the “constant production of the meanings by all kinds of people and institutions”. Reijndorp goes on to identify that the specific feeling evoked by a place emerges because of years of use and ingrained routines.
Reijndorp states that the shift in emphasis to “flows and the space of flows” would seem to make it necessary to replace the “static notion of ‘sense of place’ to the more dynamic-sounding ‘sense of movement’”. However it is argued that this would show a lack of appreciation for the way movement and place jointly define space. Reijndorp discusses how “Movement is essential to the experience of space”, explaining that in the ‘network city’ the mobile citizen composes a personal space from the highly differentiated urban field composed of cultural, natural, commercial, and idealized places.
It is then discussed how a built environment can only be transformed into a social or cultural environment through the use and by acquiring history. The users of the city create social and cultural spaces by moving from one space to another. “The street geometrically defined by urban planning is transformed into a space by walkers”.
Reijndorp also discusses the difference between the “space from above” and the “space of movement” in the difference between maps and route direction and the argument that the “city is being supplemented by the space of practise and routes. “Whereas the map sets out the backdrop, the route description is choreography: a quick sketch of movement between different points”.
This essay links to my hypothesis as Cathedral Square is a place of which the public would routinely walk through but not necessarily pause. The public would recognise that they would feel a ‘sense of place’ within the Square and it could be said that it is the ‘sense of movement’ which defines this feeling of moving through the space but is still recognised as a Square.
Making a Public Space
Safdie, M. 1997. The Making of Public Space In The City after the Automobile – An Architects Vision, 39-54. New York: Basicbooks.
What makes a place feel public? This essay by Moshe Safdie discusses whether privately developed place can make up the public realm of the city. If a private owned shopping mall is considered a public urban place does it have responsibilities to the city urban fabric in constructing a better city?
Malls, super block commercial towers and parking towers effect on the street is often negative as the streets empty of pedestrians and street level entrances. The ‘old’ public realm seemed less attractive, comfortable, and commercially desirable due to this.
Safdie explains that malls are often raised above street level. Rather than a mall being disconnected from the city if it can work with connecting parts of the city improving circulation would this not be better in to create a whole city that is greater than its individual parts?
Safdie argues that the modern mall is a poor replacement for the public domain. So a new type of space therefore is required instead of this, an “interactive centre” that lives up to its role as a large component of the “urban public realm”.
“What kind of place will this be?” At the minimum, Safdie explains that it must: -Connect different parts of the city, instead of establishing a district unto itself. -Integrate uses that are truly public by definition, such as court houses, libraries, welfare offices, day-care, schools, and community centres. -Extend the public streets and spaces of the city, connecting to public transportation, to parking specifically for the centre, and to general city parking. -Relate existing urban institutions in the city to the pedestrian circulation system throughout the centre.
This essay relates to Cathedral Square as it discusses the effect that the privately owned sector (Cathedral Squares edges) can have on public space. In terms of Cathedral Square do the privately owned banks on the Squares eastern edge that have the prime position in the Square, have a responsibility to create a better public space by allowing its outer edges to have stronger social elements.
Related readings and research
From Centre to Periphery: The Aesthetics of Mobility
Houden, F. 2005. City Edge - Case Studies in Contemporary Urbanism, 102-117. Great Britain: Elsevier
This essay examines how people derive a sensory experience through everyday mobility.
Spatial choice and preference in multilevel movement networks
Chang, D. 2002.Environment and behavior, v.34, n.5, 582-615. Great Britain
This article investigates how multiple design factors, such as attractors and generators of movement, grade separation by multiple levels, and local visual factors of transition spaces, affect the patterns of individual route choice and movement behavior
Precedent Study
Louis Jeantet Foundation
Geneva, 1995 Domino Architects
- Sunken patio
- Designed to overcome a separation between buildings and to serve as a entrance hall
- Designed to unify two places
- Situated on the perimeter are water channels which islate and bring together different elements in the space
- Planted with cherry trees who flowers transform the space
- Place of movement
- Lighting sharpens the contrast between its artificial and natural elements which marks off different routes of movement
This precedent shows how a space can be defined by movement and have a function as a point of transit yet still act as a civic space. This precedent relates to my hypothesis as this sunken patio acts as both a civic space and a point of transiton yet its main function is as a transport junction.
The Enschede Station
Enschede, 1997 Okra Landscape Architects
- A Station Square
- Main function as a traffic junction, part terminal and part through station
- Intergrates three squares, one of which is a bus terminal.
- Place of movement
- The squares serve as transfer points form one means of public tansport to another and are entirelt devoted to the theme of transfer
This precedent shows how the sense of movement and the point of transfer can define a space. This relates to Cathedral Square as the square is a place of movement both vehicular and pedestrian and shows how that their can be a clear merge of the two.
Natori Cultural Hall South Garden
Miyagi, 1993 Hiroki Hasegawa/Studio on Site
- Public open space and the grounds of the Natori Cultural hall
- Symbolic forest of trees
- The hall has a formal face for evening cultural performances and a casual south face for daily use by the community
- The lawn surface and paving of the space trace the rhythm of mounds on the space that pull visitors across the landscape
This precedent shows how surface texture and typography can choreograph the public’s movement through a space.
Smithfield Market
Dublin, 2000 McGarry niEanaigh Architects
- Formal open planned square
- Designed as a civic space for the 21st century
- Completely surrounded by buildings
- Has avenues, roads, and another market running into it
- 12 masts each 26m in height running the length of the square are lit a create a dramatic event on the cities skyline
- Powder coated steel sails on each mast reflect light and bath the square in soft lunar light
- Used for a monthly horse market and in summer hosts music concerts
This precedent shows how physical elements can create have an effect on not only its own context but in a wider context and become part of a cities skyline. This could be used in Cathedral Square as in Christchurch it is hard to orientate yourself and with physical elements such as the mast could provide a sense of orientation in a flat city.
Ferry Terminal Plaza
Dun Loaghaire, 1995 Mitchell and Associates
- A Plaza used for the arrival and departure of foot passengers
- Used as a civic space for the citizens of the locality
- Built on a spine of circulation from the amin street to the terminal entrance onto the space
- Place of constant circulation
- Social and sculptural seating elements
- Designed with the intention of being a ‘welcome mat’
This precedent shows how a traffic junction can take the role of a urban plaza yet still be a place in which people pass through and not necessarily stop. This idea relates to my hypothesis as this tranport junction works and is defined as a plaza yet is still a place of movement.
Place Kebler
Strasbourg, 1993 Guy Clapot
Place se I'Homme de fer
Strasbourg, 1994 Guy Clapot
Bismarckplatz
Hiedelberg, 1988 Gunter Nagell & Dagmar Stillger
Luisenplatz
Darmstadt, 1980 Lindiger & Partners, Hanover
http://www.43places.com/places/view/201218
Schedule of Program
Week 1:
- Site Analysis
- Analysing theory and precedents
Week 2:
- Stage 1 submission
- Continuing theory and research to create a more defined design intent
Week 3:
- Presentation of broad scale agendas
- Continued research
Week 4:
- Finish conclusions from site and progammatic analysis
- Have developed a clear articulation of design position, shaped by theoretical agenda and cultural and technical considerations
Week 5:
- Presentation Stage 2
- Develop conceptual ideas
Week 6:
- Further develop conceptual ideas
- Meet with group in regards to people to see and questions to ask for next weeks field trip.
Week 7:
- Mid trimester break begins
- Christchurch Field Trip with group
Week 8:
- Analyse feedback gained from second field trip
- Further develop conceptual ideas
- relating design to new agendas gained from site visit
Week 9:
- Further develop conceptual ideas
- an edited representation of design processes and investigations
- a spatial model
- digital perspective images
- Scale plans, sections
Week 10:
- Complete resolved design drawings and models
- Stage 3 Submission
Week 11:
- Further develop conceptual ideas
- working on a new technology/construction detail
Week 12:
- Further develop conceptual ideas
- working on a new technology/construction detail
Week 13:
- Further develop conceptual ideas
- a new technology relevant to the design
- an innovative construction detail
Week 14:
- Stage 4 Submission
Week 15:
- Further develop conceptual ideas
- Spatial model
- Composite drawings
- Design booklet
Contacts and Mentors
Lincoln University
Dr Jacky Bowring Associate Professor – Lincoln University 03 325 3804 or 03 325 2811 ext. 8439 bowringj@kea.lincoln.ac.nz
Earthwork
Wendy Hoffmott – Former Student - wendy@earthwork.co.nz
Shephard & Rout – Landscape Architect – 03 366 1562
David Shephad - dsheppard@sheprout.com Rob Watson - rtwatson@xtra.co.nz Jasper – (works with david Sheppard)
Christchurch City Council
Ross Herrit – Cathedral Square Project Manager 03 941 8863 Ross.Herrett@ccc.govt.nz
Dave Hinman – Senior City Planner 03 941 8804
Maurice Roers – Senior City Planner 03 941 8960 maurice.roers@ccc.govt.nz
Amanda Fiddes – Events development coordinator 03 941 8163 027 2495873 amanda.fiddes@ccc.govt.nz
Peter Rough Landscape Architects Limited
Peter Rough St Elmo Courts 47 Hereford St PO Box 3764 Christchurch NEW ZEALAND peter.rough@prla.co.nz
