Saturday, August 11, 2012

Initiation of a Conceptual Scenario

After nearly three weeks of confusion and worrying about producing a believable yet interesting concept for a future architectural scenario, we finally delegated groups in the design studio to begin constructing concrete ideas. As I was allocated into the urban theme our scenario is to expand on the scenario of an introduced congestion tax into the CBD, thereby reducing vehicular traffic. The obvious starting point was that of a massive increase in pedestrian-friendly spaces and the reassigning of roadway functions.
From here, our group went on to identify the outer CBD roads as access points, while the majority of inner streets would become entirely for pedestrian usage. Because of the limited roads, buildings would acquire singular functionality as those requiring vehicular access would cluster together. Due to a large increase in foot traffic, circulation spaces would expand and multiply to manage the large number of people through a systematic approach. We also decided that this growth would transcend vertically, creating multiple levels of circulation space.

After speaking to DaVour, he cautioned us to develop the transition from congestion tax to no cars carefully to achieve believability. In doing so, we produced the following timeline:

Through this gradual transition, the societal norm on using vehicles within the CBD will shift towards a negative view to provide acceptance of an eventual ban on cars within the area

It was further suggested to us by Yasu to question the reasoning for vertical development, as well as to expand further to create a more intriguing and less obvious scenario. This initiated the idea of a transition in the traditional CBD functional layout. This concept can be seen in the diagram below. 

Commercial and residential zoning will reverse, creating a node of mixed-use activity geared towards more pleasant inner city living that escapes association with the traffic, stress and harshness typical in a traditional CBD

No comments:

Post a Comment