[12] Individual Project One Statement

Our final ideas towards this assignment have finally come together and worked in conjunction with our future visions. By searching the issues of today which we are currently faced with is the only solution to how we can fix the issues of tomorrow. After doing a lot of research on today's issues we were able to provide fixes in a multi-use architectural solution.

The whole idea of multi-use is to provide smaller community areas rather than just having one large one in the Brisbane CBD which means everyone in Brisbane has to travel into this one area, creating congestion. With the different nodes already developing in approximately 5 areas in Brisbane including Mt Gravatt, Carindale, Chermside, Indroopilly and Mitchelton the Brisbane City Council needs to develop planning guidelines in these areas which push for design solutions which can meet this idea of multi-use in a high rise piece of architecture.

Our transport vision for 2050 is to have no cars enter the current Brisbane CBD area. To achieve this goal we have proposed some new modes of transport for commuters. We have introduced a high speed rail line which connects Brisbane with the Noosa and as far as Tweed Heads. In and around the CBD light rail will be used to jump on and jump off to reach your final destination.

Overall developing  steps leading up to the year 2050 should be interesting. If by 2020 the light rail system is implemented through the CBD, 2030 high speed rail is implemented (stage 1 tweed heads to CBD) 2040 (stage 2 noosa to CBD), 2050 cars are no longer allowed to enter the Central Business District. Throughout all the stages development will continue to grow and change ultimately creating multi-use facilities for commercial, retail, residential and educational living.

[11] Mixed Use

Queen St currently has a lot of mixed use already, including retail, commerical, hospitality and transport. The only main characteristic which it is missing is residential. By including residential in this area, the need for these people to travel to places causing congestion is ultimately reduced. Not dramatically but it is one step we could take.

Retail in 2050?? Who knows where retail will be at in the year 2050. Currently online shopping is beginning to surpass physical shops in one respect. That is sales, however consumers still prefer to have some sort of physical presence when it comes to finding things to purchase. How do we address this in 2050? 

There could be two main possibilities that happen:
1. Trying to retain the experience of shopping in stores and malls.
2. Online shopping continues to develop potentially reducing or removing retail from a region.

Queen Street currently only operates 12 hours a day. In comparison to Fortitude Valley, Queen Street runs during the day, and Fortitude Valley runs through the night. With the adoption of mixed use no place goes deserted for any period of time. This issue goes in conjunction with urban sprawl. Creating 1 space for 2 uses. Rather than 2 spaces for 2 uses. 

[10] Characters

By creating characters which are current to today's world is a great way to find out how there personal life will be effected or change if they were 'inserted' into the 2050 scenario.

Sophie 45 (Politician)
Sophie is a politian activist and has been since a young age. She works Monday-Friday driving from Brisbanes Eastern suburbs and parks next to Parliament house. With a family of her own she usually spends her weekends doing activities such as beach trips, shopping or just a casual sunday lunch.

Bjarke 30 (Architect)
Bjarke works as a fulltime architect in Brisbane CBD. He lives on the southside and has a family of his own. Leaving most of the shopping to his wife, Bjarke usually catches the bus to work during the week because of the traffic and cost involved with parking in the city. On the weekends he uses the family car to take the children to their sporting events. 

Monique 30 (Business Women)
Monique spends her weeks in the Queen Street mall working as a sales assistant. She is single and lives in Toowong by herself in a small studio apartment. Usually catching the city cat to work, she enjoys a bit of retail therapy in her spare time. Whilst the current need for a car during the week is limited, she still has an automobile and uses it on the weekends. 

Tyson 20 (Student)
Tyson travels far to get to QUT every week. Coming from the Gold Coast he finds the travel very tiresome, however does not have any option because he does not have his own car. He still lives at home with his family and relies on public transport on the weekends. In terms of shopping, like most young males he enjoys wearing the latest gear however does not have a lot of money to spend.  

Frank 65 (Retired)
Frank is newly retired and lives in Southbank. Him and his wife enjoy the Sunday markets and spend most of their time reading books. They no longer have a car because they usually spend their time around the Southbank area. Normally the family comes to visit them once a week.

Laura 30 (Mother)
Laura is a fulltime mother who loves to meet with her friends (who are also new born mothers) regularly at coffee shops etc. She is a very keen shopper and always travels around via car. Living with her husband on Brisbanes Northside, their family income comes solely from her husbands small business. 

[9] Ideas

A week out from the actual due date of the assignment and we are all in mixed minds. We are running around in circles unsure of what to do. Personally I would like to stick with the current situation given to us, having no cars in the CBD. I think that the best way to do this would be to work backwards. For example,

2050 - No cars in the CBD

2040 - Allow cars with only 2 or more people into the CBD area (unless picking up someone)

2030 - New mode of transport is built and running (underground high speed rail)

2020 - Design and plan for the introduction of a new mode of transport (underground high speed rail)

These are just some quick examples of how I think we should approach this task. And in doing so we can represent the effect of each stage through the life and movement of different 'characters' such as a university student, a family and a pensioner. Obviously these are just quick and simple thoughts and have not been resolved enough for this assignment, but as stated previously, we do not know what to do!

Maybe we make personal transport in the CBD more viable and efficient....

Most people who come to the CBD are individuals? or groups?

[8] New York

This weeks lecture by Phil was extremely interesting. I loved learning about the ways in which New York as a city decided to allow for different planning schemes in comparison to what we are so familiar with in Brisbane. The two most vital points which I thought would be interesting to be adopted into the Brisbane environment are;

• Being able to transfer your building rights onto another property in which you own
• Building to the very boundary

[7] Bouncing Ideas Around

Fighting Architecture!
In the tutorial we tried to come up with a character who was going to help produce architecture for the wider community like never before. Using the background idea of a superhero vs villian an idea that I came up with was to do with a voting system by the public one very much the same as voting in a government party. An architectural party (not a firm, but a group of architectural activists) are voted in and are funded by the government to fulfill some project of their choice which they feel is worthwhile and beneficial for Brisbane!

[6] People & Their Lifestyles

This weeks lecture was getting us to think of a story to tell through characters, scenes and sets.

Our characters are:
FUTURE CITIZENS

Our scenes are to demonstrate:
FUTURE LIFESTYLES

Our sets are:
OUR OWN PROPOSED SPACES

Our fiction should be based on:
REALITIES AND FACTS

If we know the client and the users directly it is much easier to design for these people and what they would like and how they would use the spaces, however at times you have to design spaces for more than one person and people you never meet or get to know what their expectations are. How do we design for this???

This was a point addressed in the lecture which got me thinking about in relation to our actual site in Brisbane CBD. When designing a solution creating a scenario, how do we know what sort of people are using it and what they expect from such a public space.....

[5] Generating Scenarios In An Urban Environment

In the tutorial today we formed our group of 3 to begin on our first assignment task for the semester. Once this was established we spent the time generating scenarios for an Urban Environment with the specific site reference being Queens Street, Brisbane.

Through our group discussion with came up with many different ideas such as, bringing the population to the city rather than creating an urban sprawl, developing the public transport system, creating a multilayer-ed city all to achieve the one optimum goal; Have no cars enter the CBD area.

Currently Brisbane CBD has a central traffic area which allows commuters to only park for a maximum of 2 hours where there is no further signs or pay machines. The image shows the outline for this central traffic area.

The below diagram shows (in yellow) the basic current public transport set up which basically requires everyone to travel to the CBD before they can go to a different point of Brisbane. However, we have come up with a new system which allows people to travel from north to west for example without having to travel directly through the CBD.

[4] Measuring Sustainability

This weeks lecture run by Murray Lane simply about measuring sustainability, in many ways than one. Beginning with 3 essentials that make this world go round and round.. ECONOMY... SOCIETY... ENVIRONMENT... Each effects one another in either a positive or negative manner.

Architectural Principles was also given in an exhaustive list which basically outlined the purpose and benefits for design. Having never actually written out my own list before I found it interesting with the points in which were raised;

• Shelter
• Communion
• Learning
• Love
• Sharing
• Quest
• Connection
• Safety
• Comfort
• Security
• Insight

[IMAGE]

[3] Theme Groups

After thinking about the four different possible theme groups presented to us, I have decided to choose the Urban theme as my first preference. I think that within every major city congestion is a large problem. It bottle necks the whole city Monday - Friday specially around the typical 9-5 jobs. It filters all throughout to the suburbs simple from one small problem. Well.... it is small but trying to get a culture to change their ways is probably the most difficult which is presented with such a need for change. My preferences in order go;

1. Urban
2. Suburban
3. Virtual

[2] Future Visions & Scenarios

Similar to previous semesters, we are presented with the choice of a particular theme group which we would like to join. Below are the different options which I need to think about;

• URBAN (CBD)
• What if Brisbane City Council decided to introduce London style Congestion Charge to CBD in 2020 to reduce traffic congestion in the area?

• SUBURBAN (PADDINGTON)
• What if all retail stores in Paddington Central stopped selling goods in favour of online stores, but decided to keep physical presence for customer experiences?

• REGIONAL (WOODFORD)
• What if Woodford Folk Festival site were to become a self sufficient community that was to be managed and operated self-sufficiently?

• VIRTUAL (WORLD) 
• What if Queensland Government's key strategy were to resolve Urban, Suburban and Regional issues Virtually?

[1] Back To Uni!

Ahh well... back to uni I go. No mucking around with the first week setting the scene for what appears to be a very interesting and different approach to design from what we are used to. From the lecture;

"An architectural proposition should be a response to needs. The needs should be identified by considering multiple contexts such as; climatic, cultural, ecological, economical, geographical, political, social and technological context."

Obviously in a perfect environment where site conditions, financial restrictions and realistic building practices do not exist, each and every one of those contexts can be addressed in a positive manner. However we do not live in this perfect world that we dream of, thus have to make do with the most practical solutions to address each of these issues.

"The needs should not be identified simply by observing what we see today. The solution may not even be relevant by the time it is available if it were a response to yesterdays needs. Envisioning, rather than simply responding to what you see today, is essential to be able to prepare and respond to future needs. A good solution should not be a mere response to short-term issues but instead should stay relevant for a prolonged period of time. An architectural proposition should therefore be backed up with a thoughtful future vision and strategy."

The above paragraph given in the lecture is essentially the role of architects. As designers we need to be able to provide economic solutions to clients which then can benefit from today, tomorrow and in the future. But how do we know what the future is going to bring us?? That is the question we need to answer..........

This short video was presented to us in the lecture. It makes you think about the future and what sort of architectural problems and solutions would have to be present to facilitate such an environment as the one shown in the video.