Interim Review

 

Sheet pinned up

The following is taken from my script which i said during the crit to explain the sheet above:

After visiting the site my first impression was that the site is a very contraint site and feels somewhat overshadowed by the dominant buildings surrounding the site so my intial thought was how am i going to compete with these surrounding buildings while also making a statement myself. I then started to look at the buildings which surround the site, one of which is the Preston bus station which has been the centre of alot of statements over the year but according to a survey launched last year by the Lancashire Evening Post the bus station was voted Preston people's favourite building, so from this i decided to look at the characteristics of the building to try understand why. The building is a Brutalist building, a style coined by Alice & Peter Smithson in the 1950's. After reading a few extracts from books they had written I came across this diagram.

 

The diagram shows the density of each 'field' and the association with the other fields, so for example the city is closely associated with the town then the town with the village and so on and so forth, however it also shows the the city has lost ties with the isolate field. So i propose to link the countryside to the city by extracting an element of the countryside and placing it in the city.

 

 

 

Since i want it to compete with the dominant buildings surrounding the site i needed a big bold element, so I looked at the Lake District which actually runs through the north of Lancashire. The biggest element within this district is a mountain called 'Scafell Pike' which is the largest mountain not only in this area but also in England, this mountain is tied back into my concept which i shall explain in a minute. 

So if we look at these diagrams i created, it explains how i got my current building form. So firstly starting off with just a large mass, as most buildings start off as a large mass then they have bits cut off and extruded etc to meet requirements etc, from this i highlighted a central area which i wanted to make a void so it creates an outdoor space where performances could take place etc so its a semi public-semi private space. I then push down on the most southern corner of the building to allow maximum light into the central space created and also into the back of the building. After i dont this i highlighted the area where the majority of people would come to access the building, i then created this corridor through a building which filters the public into this space and then splits the building into 2 almost so the public may enter one side and the more private into the other for the workshops etc. This then ties back into 'Scafell Pike' which i mentioned before as this is also horseshoes in shape and opens up to the south.

From this building form i created it in sketch up and started to create views leading up to the building so here is a view from the Harris Museum and you can see that it is starting to draw attention to itself due to this focal point of the peak of the building which will be the auditorium as its what people aim to get to, similar to climbing a mountain, people want to get to the peak. 

Then another view of how it would appear when you reach the front of the building, you can start to get a feeling of the size of it and how it towers over you. 

Then i took a view of standing within this central space looking back out over the context and it begins to frame a view.

I then continued to develop the scheme further by introducing exterior steps which allows the public to walk over the building creating a new urban space with views of the entire city by extruding the existing urban space of site and occupying the space beneath it with the programs of the building.

It also creates an exterior ampitheatre allowing the street performers to perform to the public or a space for people to act to promote the play.

From within the building the exterior steps creates an interesting space. I propose to make the rise of each step out of glass so from withing the building, its an active space with the movement of the people outside casting moving shadows throughout the day. And also when approaching the building people will be able to see the activities withing the building which sparks an interest and draws them in.

So this building is now a much more organic form placed in the middle of a city deprived of this connection with nature.