Working Through To Get It All Done!

Masterplan

Site Section

Queen Street Render

Queen/Albert Street Render

Elizabeth/Albert Street Render

Monorail Station

Queen Street Entry

Queen Street

Commercial Building Cut Section

Shopping Centre ~ Floor Plan

At this kind of scale, the internal walls and poles look extremely thin to be holding the weight from the upper levels. But to put it in perspective, some of these walls are actually 600mm thick. The first image outlines the two main entry points from the street level. The lower level also includes a supermarket of some sort, all centre management is located in the back corner this includes cleaning facilities/storage and boardrooms etc.

The highlighted blue area denotes the public space accessible by all the public. The rest of the white space is either toilets or tenant spaces.

The blue aarows indicate the basic movement of the users of the site. Entry and exit and from floor to floor movement. Each floor is accessible via lift or escalator. Larger retail shops should be on the ground level because there is the most opportunity for larger areas.

Masterplan ~ Bringing It All Together

Now that I know which direction every bit and piece is taking. I have to start thinking about how I can bring it all together and tie it all together as one as effectively as possible.

1. Residential Building
2. Commercial Office Building
3. Shopping Centre

Already I have found the most efficient place for the buildings in terms of sun movement but now I need to manipulate pedestrian movement around this constraint. The current MAIN entrys of the Myer centre (queen street & corner of elizabeth and albert) are still 2 very ideal points of entry. In keeping these, I can navigate the users through the site via the blue section indicated in the image below.

The public pool has also been put in place here. From the earlier sun path study of the site, you will notice that the top right hand corner is in the sun for pretty much the entire day. With a roof to protect from weather this will be a place to be enjoyed be all people from Brisbane CBD. 

The final image shows the movement of the wind which generally comes from the South-East. Whilst the wind can move through the site relatively freely, where it is interrupted by a building it navigates itself around or through appropriately. This disturbance is what is required to avoid any form of wind tunnels occurring in the Brisbane CBD.

General top view master plan.

Using the centre atrium to bring light all through to the ground level of the shopping centre.

 Orange aarows show most of the south-east winds are still able to flow through very easily. 

Shopping Centre ~ Floor Plate Ideas

Ok. So the whole aim if the floor plates is to provide easy flow through the site, allow for easy thorough fair and allow as much light to enter and glass as possible. The other day I came up with the idea of designing the floor plates around a centralized 'dome' of light which is on the level of the park?

In doing so, it had to be multilevel with different voids and approaches to make it feel rather spacious as well as giving visual contact to the outside world. How can I do this? Instead of making it like a glass box, if I position the floor plates around the outer skirts giving central attraction to the 'atrium' (being the centre point) navigation/light and visual connection through glazing can all be achieved.

Centre atrium depicting the shape and form of the floor plates around it.

3 Levels for the internal shopping centre. Keeps the connection with the park on the roof to a minimum.

In addition to the centre atrium, I also thought about including a river like glass piece across the whole site in the roof which will also give extra natural light but also develop soft touches if it were a penetrated piece.

Lighting effects just through simple penetrations.

Same principle idea as above however just a lot more holes which gives a different play of light. 

From the two examples above with the roofing penetrations, I think that for a shopping centre which is attempting to be a very bright space in itself, the larger penetrations are far more appropriate in conveying this message.

Floor plate design idea

Shopping Centre ~ Tutorial

What is the main role and goal of this development??
If we look specifically with retail, around the world retail centres have become iconic places in major cities. In some way this does come down to the physical size of the shopping centre and the types of outlets it has, however architecture itself can make this an interesting experience. Not feeling trapped is a good way to start! With approximately 20,000 m2 of commercial office space, up to 80 units and a shopping mall, this site could be looking at getting around 10,000+ visitors per day. From a realistic perspective, a developer has a range of aspects in which they can generate income from the site. It still will remain minimalistic in a sense but they will have lots of space to rent out or sell off making it a viable option for development. On top of this, it will hold one of the main monorail stations within the entire city which generates extra traffic to pass through each day.

World's Largest Shopping Centre ~ Dubai

The shopping centre is the one part of this assignment that has been bugging me the most. I have not given it as much thought as I have for the residential building however I do have a very strong vision for this shopping centre. My concept with this shopping centre is all about light! Light and visually having a connection of your location in regards to the outside of the Myer centre. Currently when you are inside the Myer centre, you have little connection if any with the outside world apart from some parts of the roof. I think this a vital connection which needs to be made because it makes the users feel more comfortable when being inside and they do not feel like they are lost. If they have this feeling then they will be sure to hang around for longer and possibly purchase more items! :)

When I spoke with Davor I really struggled to show exactly how this was going to work. He liked the idea and agreed with me that the Myer centre does make you feel like you are trapped inside. I wanted to try and make it feel like floating floors in the middle of the building however it was not working very well. I have some ideas of how I can still achieve the main goal. Let me sketch them!

Resolved Floor Plans ~ Buildings

The buildings finally have resolved floor plans! Firstly both buildings start above the actual shopping centre as shown in the below image. The residential building has been fully solve to the very point of simply being built and the customer moving in, however the commercial building has been left as a shell with only the basics. Fire exits, bathroom facilities, lifts, risers & garbage chutes have all been considered in the plan however the actual set out of the offices has not been. This has been left for the actual tenant to fit out as they wish.

Basic Section ~ Identifies the location of the plans

Residential ~ Reception Level - *On top of the shopping centre

Residential ~ Typical floor plan. Each floor has a 2 bedroom unit and a 3 bedroom unit. 

Commercial ~ Typical floor plan. Left open for internal development by tenants.

Commercial Building ~ Floor Plate Design

When designing a commercial building it is very difficult to create a special and unique space inside for each tenant, especially when these tenants may only be there for a short period of time. Obviously we have to understand the needs of the users on a variety of scales. Being a multi-use development, it is able to cater for as many different people, requirements, personalities, duties and hours of use for everybody concerned. On a smaller scale however, this commercial building shall be left for internal fitout once there is a tenant allocated to a particular place. Thus a space specifically required for their working conditions can be created.

Do I keep the rooftop idea for the commercial building? It would be cool to just go down a level to have smoke break in a small park rather than go down to the busy Queen Street mall. Or even just have a relaxing lunch break by yourself or with some friends in peace. For a working environment this is something which I can control with how the users feel when working in a building such as this.

To visibly make the building look more dense and like a working environment, the park areas should be smaller in terms of ceiling height. The only problem with this is the time frame in which sun can get through the protrusions. There is a solution but! Because of the shape of the building, I am able to squeeze the centre in almost like it is wearing a tight belt. This will open up the window for the sun to pass through the centre of the building.

The right hand section clearly identifies the suns ability to pass through the building when the centre of the floor plate is tightened.

The type of shadow pattern this building form creates in the morning.

 

Commercial Building ~ Form

When considering the building form for the commercial building I think it is really important in trying to keep the visual relationship between the residential and the commercial one. However there needs to be distinct differences which also allow the public to differentiate between the two.

I have shown this development down on the Gold Coast previously but what I wanted to show was they both have the same function (residential apartments) but their actual building form is just tweaked to the very slightest to have a difference between the two. In this case the height is the most obvious to point out.

Predominantly, the difference between the conventional residential and commercial office buildings is the amount of glass facades used in commercial buildings and the visibility of balconies on residential buildings. Whilst I intend on including both of those in my designs I want to manipulate the building form of the commercial building to make it similar, but at the same time very different.

Options rejected

More options

[Week 11] Lecture 10

Residential Building ~ Playing With Floor Plans

Residential Building ~ Public vs Private

With having large protrusions through my actual building mass, I am somewhat limited to what I can do with these spaces considering they are external. The more I think about the top of the shopping centre the more I am seriously considering a public park. With that in mind, there is an opportunity to make these protrusions private rooftop terraces.

In addition to this, I began thinking about breaking up the building even further allowing different effects of the sun to act on the building providing a greater opportunity for 'less' shadowing on surrounding areas.

Public, private & semi-private

There are a few opportunities that could be explored with this space such as;

* WIND TURBINES
* NOTHING
* COURTYARD
* PRIVATE/SEMI PRIVATE
* RESIDENTIAL FACILITIES
* GREEN SPACE

This space also leaves opportunity for everyone in the building to have access to each and every space, or it could be made available only to the below units? By only allowing access to the rooftop level from the below units, it makes this space semi-private. I was struggling to set on an idea for what to do with this space but after speaking with Davor this week he really urged me to implement some sort of courtyard/green space area. I explained some initial issues which I could forsee with this such as the time frame in which it would be in sunlight each day but after further discussion and analysis we worked out it would be fine.

This section shows the great opportunity with this space if the ceiling above is 3-4 stories above. It gives opportunity to large trees as well as small shrubs however in saying that, it must be noted that a deep floor must be required in order to handle the rooting system. Something to keep in mind? Positive or negative?

This week I also confirmed that I could bring a concept idea (being my whole project) as my assignment but what I had to do was go in detail with an element or elements such as the residential building. This settled me a bit because there is in effect 3 different buildings/types going into this space and there is only so much resolution I can do with taking on 3 huge elements of this concept design. Nonetheless I am excited to see the final outcome of this multi-use facility.

Developed the building form to test the shadow effect.

Residential Building ~ Layout Options

Its been like a snowball effect. Once I get one idea another 2 or 3 seem to add on and just keeps helping me add to my resolution for the new Myer Centre. From playing around in CAD with what I originally thought would be a sufficient design solution, I began to think differently about having the typical lift well in the centre of the building. I played around with the lifts on the very outskirts of the building, the centre and also in between the two. The later I found gave me more opportunity to create an experience between owners and tenants.

Building separation.

I have currently developed the floor plate shape and began sketching some ideas about how the plan should go and fit in everything required. Currently the city is not a viable option for anyone other than single people. With this being said, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments shall be required. 

[image]

Residential Building ~ Form

Indicates potential views to Southbank &  the river.

Now that I have worked out what I need and the placement, I have decided to place to place the residential building towards Albert street. The reasoning behind this is I can give the units views towards the river & southbank and on top of this, anything interesting which is built below on the site is all in that one line of sight. At the moment I am thinking about a public park of some sort?


I began doing some simple sketches but I have since gone on to do some actual modelling in CAD, however these are the ideas which developed in my mind about what I could do/should do with the residential building in particular. I started with that box that I initially used to help me navigate the suns movement around the site. From here I decided to include protrusions which would ultimately effect the shadow which is cast onto surrounding buildings and streets. Then  I began twisting the form to allow wind to move freely around and through the building and even interrupting somewhat so that wind tunnels do not occur.

When I showed Davor my current progress with the CAD model and my ideas behind the developed design he understood my concept behind my form and protrusions. I was glad this was the case because it took a ridiculous amount of time to get to this stage. I also used my opportunity with Davor to discuss the full direction of my project in relation to my commercial building and also the shopping centre. I didnt have much to show him in regards to this but I told him my initial ideas just to see if he had a different perspective but basically he just wanted me to go ahead and sort it out because the ideas seemed to be solid enough.

Show a render of the building with holes

[Week 10] Lecture 9

This week we had a guest lecturer, Alex Sanal. Before this presentation I was very focussed and narrow minded about the effects of my buildings on the surrounding neighbourhood. I guess this somewhat looks at the human elements and the experiences of users outside the site but I haven't thought to far ahead about what sort of specific experiences I could create in my development. I know how I would like the shopping centre to feel but it is just a matter of coming up with tactics to achieve these goals. Something to do with the roof? Mirrored glass? Reflections and refractions? A play on natural light?

I am really not to sure as of yet but as I type this.. I do remember a lecture I sat through last semester with Jean Nouvel who went through in detail about this perforated roof. Something that amazed me which I should probably look further into.