Friday 10 December 2010

'Settlement Centre' Group

These diagrams and nollie plans show the recent development work relating to the central area of the settlement, notably 'the finger'. Working with the transport group, the moves within the development have been derived from the transport routes, relationships with the Commonwealth Games and other districts.

This part of the settlement will be dense, with hard edge created to the North, and the buildings set back on the South side of the finger.

















Sections to follow soon. Please comment and share your thoughts as this is an important area within the settlement.

6 comments:

  1. I feel like the grain is too small and the streets too narrow.. the streets look more like alleyways... and the grain looks like each is the size of a house.. not really relevant for a commercial centre... might be nice if the streets sort of fanned out at the bulb rather than just be straight running parallel to the main street.. same with the central park..

    Happy with the main street and widening of the pedestrian thru routes as they meet the main street.. this widening could happen along the main street similarly.. resulting in a square at 45 degrees to the junction.. (?)

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  2. Fair point, the grain is small and the streets are narrow, and this will have to be addressed in the next phase of development. It is perhaps too tightly packed. I disagree with the opinion that the scale is similar to that of a house. The streets can be widened, and will have to be to address privacy and overlooking issues. What form do you see a high density commercial centre taking? With these drawings we were exploring street patterns in relation to the river and context. I think we should explore further Alan’s suggestion to split the main route into two.

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  3. well, maybe a big house then... how wide is one of those squares? 10m?

    i would see the blocks as being about the size that the 5th years had them, but with a more considered street plan with open space within for public activity...

    perhaps these could address the river i.e. not directly on centre but shifted south to get southern sun and open up to the river..

    some of the buildings in here are going to have to have relatively large footprints if they are going to be able to justify their height because of requirement of lifts etc. and also to house large departments of corporations within one or two floors

    I think if the individual buildings were of the scale drawn (which some might be) I think they would have to abut one another at certain places so you don't get tiny alleyways between each one.. this would form a kind of terrace.. allowing some streets to become wider..

    of course there could be some alleyways we make a feature of.. they could maybe become arcade-like spaces

    these are just ideas, they might not work, so we'll have to explore

    splitting in two could be good, again we'll have to explore

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  4. They vary in size, some are up to 30m wide. They are not blocks in the same way as the 5th years had them, they are hypothetical building shapes. Open spaces for public activity are formed within the plan, more so in the finger than other areas shown.
    We considered the public areas to be central given the general development of those spaces in the transport diagram. I think these should address the river, as has been shown in places. The buildings to the South have also been set back to create public space and to address the river. These spaces will be South facing.
    Yes, some buildings will have to have to large footprints, but not all. I think looking at the site on ‘Bing’ gives a good impression of scale. Obviously, the size and shape of buildings are variable at this stage until we make some firmer decisions.
    Streets can absolutely become wider, perhaps splaying. We have hinted at moves of this sort in the plan.
    This is an important part of the site. We have to talk about this on Monday asap. It is clear it will be talking point within the masterplan. Hopefully the drawings here have kick-started the discussion and given us something to debate, as intended. I think the basic principles of what have been proposed here are viable, and with tweaks to the building sizes, street widths, relationship to the river and the tram route, we can make this an exciting and successful part of the settlement, as it ought to be.

    Who else is going to voice their opinion?

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  5. the pattern graphic look good but I cant imaging how it gonna look like in 3d,
    can someone please sketch the 3d view of this please. you may say everything in this plan but make it come to life is other story

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  6. the blocks pattern and streets pattern have to be related in development strategy . If not we may have 21 century slum

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