Week 9 Blog Question

How can you apply the notion of critical thinking to the testing and assessing of your design ideas?

Depending on what the notion is, the way of testing and assessing changes the outcome of a design. I believe there are all sorts of ways that people design. Firstly when an idea comes to mind it is crucial to also see it in all different perspectives of scale. The immediate site, master plan, the city then a comparison and deeper understanding needs to be made with this idea to different cities. During this process research is crucial as most likely, a similar idea or concept has been thought about or done somewhere around the world. Compare it and consider the different ideas that other people have come up with as it is just adding stronger elements to the idea and concept of the design.

Through this, understanding of the immediate culture needs to be assessed as the underlying notions of culture and society varies in many different ways. A great understanding of this is needed as a designer as we are designing for society and community and not for ourselves and our ignorance by just observing.

As designers, research is a very important aspect that needs to be done diligently and in a broad manner as it’s the different ideas and understanding of the society, technology, sustainability etc that determines how we execute our design and give us a base to test and assess the outcome of our ideas. It is a validation of why and how our design will work.

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Week 9 Design Process – Cultural Change

(Diagram of cultural change)

By going back to basics for the last week and seeing the site analysis again in broader context as well as cultural building analysis, it was interesting to see that all learning centers are away from the parklands. The closet one was the Queensland Maritime Museum however; it’s not a very interactive building as well as people don’t come to Southbank just to see it.

However in the bigger context and the main point of designing a new building needs to relate back to cultural change. The relationship back to cultural change has been slowly forgotten during the process and needs to be evaluated.

The question of what am I trying to culturally change and why was analyzed through this week’s process as the essence of the project was being forgotten.

When looking directly on the site, learning areas are minimal especially on the parklands. Secondly around the heart of Southbank (Streets Beach) there are not many green spaces around the swimming area other than the hill area in front of the beach and sand areas.

 

(Diagram of Green spaces on immediate site)

(Graphic representation of buildings in Southbank)

(siteplan of interaction areas)

Diagram(of Interaction and POI)

When looking at Southbank and the culture of the site, there are not many interactive areas for people to enjoy. The playground for children limits interaction to only a particular age group. The most interactive area on the site is the beach area.

Things to change on site

–          Interaction opportunities with the community as well as Southbank itself

–          Learning resources of Southbank

–          A POI on Southbank other than Streets beach.

Week 8 Design Process – Back to Basics

(back to basics  development thinking)

Going back to site analysis, the question of proposing an interactive children’s learning playground needed to be questioned in a more in depth perspective. First of all it’s the only urban parkland in the city of Brisbane. Secondly, the expo of ‘88’gave an opportunity to Brisbane to create something different to the site.

The question of what was working on the site and what makes Southbank so iconic to Brisbane was challenged and how can we push a culture change to Southbank.

The original idea of children’s learning playground is not validated enough. When on site and seeing the existing open green spaces and playground, people are still not attracted to the areas.

Why are people so attracted to the existing site? People love it due to its landscape and its relation to water.

Families mainly go the Southbank for Streets Beach. Question Why? Why not stay at home in their pools or go to a swimming pool closest to their neighborhoods?  

1.        Free Entry to the public
2.        Natural landscaping (even though its manmade)
3.        Point Of Interest in Brisbane as a meeting point/relaxation point.
4.        When in the area, you are a part of a community, and have that opportunity to have direct interaction with people and have that feeling of being somewhere ‘lively’
5.        QLD is iconic for its relaxation and easy going vibe in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne. Southbank is a direct example of that culture of QLD.

The contrast to the busyness of the urban city to Southbank balances the element of being in a place full of people (community) and the cultural and relaxed atmosphere of the area.

(Diagram of Brisbane Parklands and Nodes to where people are attracted to the site)

(map highlighting green spaces)

Week 6: Question

What are the meaningful findings from your site analysis/context research, which inform your master plan and conceptual design process?

By applying Urban Informatics to the design process, the site analysis and context research was all about the real-time of the site, meaning understanding users and experiencing the site in person multiple times of the day and week.

In the design process of Southbank site analysis, an intimate understanding of the site was analysed. Analysis on how people used the site was very important. As there were certain spaces and pattern of interaction within the same spaces was quite common. This allowed the design process to understand what was needed and what was unnecessary for the community that was using the space.

By these findings, the master planning and conceptual design was influenced by how users would use the space and the key connections that needed to make. The non-existing connection of spaces as well as neglected spaces of the users influenced the overall form of the master planning and programming.

Week 5: Question

 

Based on today’s lecture by Marcus foth, how do you think urban informatics can be applied to architecture and your design process?

To future proof the architectural role in the industry, it is important as architects to understand and apply urban informatics to the design process. In the end of the day we need to ask ourselves who are designing for and if caters for what the stakeholders need.

When it comes down to a building, it comes down to who uses it and how the community works. By understanding the transportation route of a city, meeting hubs, networking etc, we start to understand the city we are designing for and the community.

By applying urban informatics to the analysis and design process, the design of a building or a space would be more than just a generic building that have no specific relations to what the community needs but a space/building that caters and gives what the general public is wanting Therefore its not the users that adjust to the building but it’s the building that adjusts to the users.

Week 4: Question

How has the site evolved from its original state to its current condition?  

South bank has a great history when it comes to how it was evolved and what it is today. It was primarily used for the European settlement in 1840 and was used originally as shipping wharves and industrial warehouses.

In 1893, most businesses were relocated to the northern banks (the city) of Brisbane due to the great floods of Southbank, which soon became a major port and industrial area.

However after the Second World War, south bank was becoming neglected and an unused site until in 1988, the government decided to use Southbank precinct as the “88 World expo” site.

After the “88 expo”, South Bank Corporation was established in 1989 to develop and manage a 42 hectare mixed use precinct on the Brisbane River which includes 17 hectares of Parklands. In 1992 the opening of new Southbank Parklands was announced allowing tourist and the community to use Southbank as an area of play and rest and even to this day, constant renovation and change is happening to the site to cater for the community.