Individual Project One Statement

The effects of the introduction of the Congestion Charge within the Brisbane CBD has seen the decline of traffic congestion, the transfer of business growth to the outer suburbs, and an influx of people having moved to the CBD to avoid transport costs - as a result of the charge and rising petrol prices. Consequently, the council saw the need to devise a strategic plan to establish multiple, self-contained centres throughout Brisbane to alleviate pressures on the CBD and provide outer suburbs with access to business and services and promote further growth in these areas. The CBD remains the largest of these - enveloping many of the surrounding suburbs to accommodate for this influx of people to urban areas. In order to prevent further urban sprawl, the CBD has been planned to cater for rapid growth and densification. This will include a new building typology of diversified, mixed-use blocks within the overarching planning scheme.  Interspersed within the main commerce-based zones, the CBD and Fortitude Valley, is the densified residential domain consolidated with greenspace. In order to provide for the increased population, the council has devised sustainable, self-contained systems to manifest within the CBD.  This includes a transformation of the existing infrastructure within the city, most significantly an elevated rapid transit system to provide transport connections to all areas within the CBD. Also due to the decrease in motor transport within the CBD, some roads have been reclaimed as greenspace, forming green wedges cutting through the CBD – dedicated to urban food production and social activity. Advancements in technology have allowed for such systems to be controlled by automated systems, seeing the growth of specialist jobs in IT and engineering systems. Brisbane’s advanced technological identity has enabled the city to maintain its position in the global market, establishing itself as the new conference centre for Australia. Due to its expansion and demand, Brisbane’s economy has furthermore seen the need to become efficient 24/7, meeting advanced markets around the world, where it is recognised as a major capital city on an international scale.

Week Six: Final Panels

1. Future Vision:

2. Sustainable Issues:

3. People and Lifestyles

4. Architectural Possibilities:

Week Six: Poster Layouts

Our team came up with the following rough layouts planning what we needed on each panel and how to arrange these for the most effective portrayal of our scenario.

Future Vision:

For this panel we want the masterplan to be the main focus, explaining various layers of our imagined scenario (self-contained, mixed-use, densified etc.). Surrounding this will be graphs, diagrams and historical maps explaining the evolution of the CBD and how this imagined scenario came to be.

Sustainable Issues:

This panel will explain the sustainable solutions to the key issues in our imagined scenario. These will mainly be new transport infrastructure, new building typology and, social sustainability aspects.

People and Lifestyles:

This panel will be a little different to the others showing a more interactive, in depth, representation of the future by providing an insight into peoples lives in the scenario. This will be by giving an example of a day in the life of a typical family in Brisbane 2050. We plan to lay this panel out with an indication of the technological influence on the lives of people - by setting it out like an iphone message.

Architectural Opportunity:

This panel will be mainly to give an insight into what a scene from the future scenario will look like. This will hopefully be a representation of all our ideas and capture the lifestyles and of the people within it.

TIMELINE: The timeline will run throughout the 4 panels along the bottom acting as a connecting device and giving the posters some continuity.

Week Six: Poster Progress

To prepare for the presentation of our panels we firstly planned out what we wanted to include on each panel to communicate our main ideas:



FUTURE SCENARIO

• Date
• Timeline (connecting all panels)
• Mind map - showing progression of impact of congestion charge
• Graphs - data (projected brisbane population, price of petrol, family sizes, birth rate, employment rate)
• Statement of scenario
• Diagrams showing self-contained city (multi-use buildings, transport, food production, live/work and play in CBD)
• Historical maps of Brisbane (1950, 2000, 2050)
• City form (satellite city) - multiple centres surrounding the one CBD

SUSTAINABLE ISSUES

• Multimodal transport (internal and external to CBD)
• Self-contained CBD
• Food production
• Community - housing encouraging interaction and social diversity
• Social hub zones
• Energy conservation/sources
• Resources
• 24 hour job sharing

PEOPLE AND LIFESTYLES

• 24 hour city
• Impacts of advanced technology on lifestyles
• New jobs - vertical farming, lifestyle coaching etc
• Social interaction is valued in society - children still physically go to school, social community hubs for recreation, food production and interaction
• Family dynamics - size, structure, relationships etc

ARCHITECTURAL OPPORTUNITIES

• New infrastructure: Multimodal transit system - travellators (elevated walkways), pods, stations, cycling and walking
• Vertical Suburbia - Mixed-used buildings, residential towers extensions on buildings
• Community gathering spaces - reclaiming sections of the CBD for greenspace and community focused zones
• Presence of technology in the built environment

Week Five: Tutorial

In this weeks tutorial, our group worked to communicate all of our keys ideas through architectural solutions. The future scenario that we have formed gives rise to various architectural opportunities that may take place within our imagined Brisbane CBD in 2050.

MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE:

With the need of a new rapid transport system, we had previously come up with elevated walkways with travellators and monorail tracks. After discussing this further we decided that monorails would not be efficient enough for our highly serviced and rapid transport network, and there would not be able to be many operating at one time on the tracks.

Instead we have opted for smaller, lightweight transportation 'pods', transporting 5-10 people at one time. By creating smaller modules, this allows the pods to come more frequently, eliminating waiting time. We plan for these pods to come about every 30 seconds to allow for the fast and efficient trasnportation of people around the city. 

Elevated Walkways Diagram

Sketch designs of the transportation 'pods'

COMPACT HOUSING:

One of the main features of our future scenario was the compactness and densification of the CBD, due to more people wanting to live in urban areas. This presents the need for new types of housing and mixed-use building typologies. Our main ideas were that the majority of the new CBD area will be mixed-use, almost always including retail and residential. We have had the ideas of community housing and compartmentalised living. We also explored the idea of creating housing which can have rooms added or removed, as required, as part of a vertical system which can cater to each dwelling's individual needs (we also envisage family dynamics/sizes to vary quite alot).

This would work as each dwelling would have the main living spaces ie. living room, kitchen & laundry, bathroom, 1 main bedroom and outdoor living. Then the 'extra' rooms would be interchangeable between levels, and could be moved (on vertical tracks) up and down the building, as required, and locked into place on the side of the building.

Mixed-Use Community Housing Blocks 

Sketch design of the modular, interchangeable, community housing.

COMMUNITY SOCIAL HUBS / GREENSPACE:



The existence of communal housing / dense living would also create compact communities within the city, with opportunities for community hubs for gathering and activites. As vertical space would be restricted, in this densified CBD, we saw the need for the emergence of dedicated community greenspace areas for recreation, food production, exercise and social interaction. As seen in the lecture this week (exemplars from New York - Central Park and the High Line), green space can immediately activate space within an urban setting, as it offers a refuge and a change of pace to the business of the city.

3D Representation of Queen St in 2050



Week Five: Lecture

The lecture this week, delivered by Dr Phil Crowther, was very engaging and helpful to this project. Many of the ideas that Dr Crowther talked about were very similar to ideas we had as a group, including urbangreen space/food production, alternative transport systems (including elevated walkways), communal housing and urban community hubs.

Dr Crowther also discussed the impressive urban renewal project in the New York called "The High Line." This project took a major piece of infrastructure which had previously been unused and unwanted and made it relevant to the city by transforming it into an urban park, which meanders throughout the district, across roads and through buildings. Personally, I think this project was extremely successful in creating a new identity for the meat packing district of New York and providing the area with new opportunities that came with the influx of people wanting to see and use the new attraction. The project has also had a great impact socially and culturally, as it activates the unused structure as a natural retreat within the urban setting in which it resides and acts as a destination, rather than a mere transportation route.

The old High Line was an elevated train system which meandered throughout the city, until it eventually became unused and irrelevant.

Now an urban park, the injection of greenspace offers a public attraction in the Meat packing district of New York. In our future scenario, we have imagined alot more greenspace within the city to form public attractions and community hubs.

An elevated walkway connects various places and buildings fitting comfortably into the urban scene. This is a feature of our imagined future scenario (elevated travellators/walkways). 

As the High Line does, our groups vision for greenspace within the city was that it would activate areas within the city and create destinations for the surrounding community to go by offering a retreat for various social activites in the midst of a busy city.

The idea of an elevated walkway was one similiar to what we had as a group, as it does not disrupt the ground plane below, and presents a new platform for activity above.

I also found a similar project in Paris, called the Promenade Plantée, also reinvented old railway. This structure also involves a multi-level route with some enclosed sections, as it passes between buildings and through tunnels, and some open sections with expansive views of the city.

Week Four: A Day in the Life of a Typical Family in 2050

The tutorial activity asked us to create characters that exist within our imagined scenario. This gives an insight into how the future scenario has effected peoples' lifestyles and how they interact with that world. By approaching the scenario from the perspective of what the people would be doing within it made a lot of sense and allowed us to be a bit more creative with the characters!

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A 'TYPICAL' FAMILY IN 2050....


FELIX - 10 year old child

• Only child
• Likes to play Virtual Golf
• Walks and take the travellator to school nearby
• Plays with friends in the recreation park nearby

VELMA - 42 years old

• Stepmum of Felix
• Works from home
• Takes care of vegatable patch on small balcony outside
• Microwaves instant meat for dinner

REX - 40 years old

• Father of Felix
• Works in the urban farms in a supervisor position
• Is awarded Salary + Food benefits each week
• Works flexible hours
• Loves team sport - goes out into suburbs to play cricket.

BRENT - 81 years old

• Grandfather of Felix
• School teacher at Felix's school (Life skills)
• Coeliac

By combining some of our previous ideas with new, brainstormed ideas we were able to be creative and came up with the following lifestyle factors for our characters:

• Shift in dynamic from normal family
• Less practice of religion
• Increase in technological reliance
• vertical and urban farming
• 24/7 operating servicing
• Majority of the population eat out
• Social networking becomes standard communication
• Decrease in social and sexual taboo
• Large engineering and IT workforce
• Increase in Part-time and Job share positions
• Online services
• ID profiles held under facebook account
• Shift work to accommodate for a 24/7 economy
• Lower working hours in a week
• More emphasis on the importance of social interaction in society - our group thought it was important to address this fact. Therefore there will be more social interaction opportunities, such as cafes and parks Also it is essential for children to still develop social skills - therefore they still physically go to school to encourage these skills, rather than watching podcasts from home

Week Four: Tutorial Activity - People and Lifestyles Within Our Imagined Scenario

PEOPLE AND THEIR LIFESTYLES: based on assumptions and current trends
In order to obtain a greater understanding of the people in 2050, we first conducted some initial research surrounding population statistics and made some assumptions about how these may evolve into the future...

• Due to the current trends, divorce rates will be increasing, resulting in varying family dynamics
• Due to rising costs, more women are entering the workforce and are, in return, having less children.
• Less focus on families and more focus on careers.
• Smaller families also resulting from restricted income and not being able to afford a big enough home.
• More people share-housing for cheaper accommodation (restricted income).
• More people moving to cities = overcrowding and overpopulation in cities.
• Decline in religious groups (due to current trends).
• More promiscuity 

Week Three: London - An Exemplar City for Brisbane

Research on the Existing Congestion Charge in London: By researching the implications of the congestion charge for London, I hope to obtain a greater understanding of what scenarios may emerge from the implications of the same tax in Brisbane.

Impacts of the London Congestion Charge:

• Significant reduction in traffic in the area covered by the charge
• Some shops and businesses reported to be heavily affected by the charge, both in terms of lost sales due to reduced traffic and increased delivery costs
• Stores just outside of the Congestion Charge Zone rose by 1.7%
• To partly compensate for the loss of revenue, shops extended opening hours and introduced regular Sunday opening
• Reduction in some employment in the charging zone
• Increase in the amount of cyclists

2001: Before the tax was introduced in 2003

Red: Cars and Taxis, Blue: Bicycles

2008: 5 years after the tax was introduced

Red: Cars and Taxis, Blue: Bicycles

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

After 6 months it was found that the average number of cars and delivery vehicles entering the central zone was 60,000 fewer than the previous year:

• 50–60% was attributed to transfers to public transport
• 20–30% to journeys avoiding the zone
• 15–25% switching to car share
• the remainder was due to reduced number of journeys, more travelling outside the hours of operation, and increased use of motorbikes and bicycles
• Journey times were found to have been reduced by 14% - less congestion 
• 4,000 fewer people visiting the zone daily

Research of the London City Urban Form: 

I have heard that the London City urban form is very successful, with various sub-centres surrounding the main city centre. I have also researched polycentric and satellite cities. Below are my findings....

• London is a polycentric city (multiple centres, as opposed to monocentric)
• It has many large green parks, open and recreational spade and with many local hubs that form the focus of diverse residential communities, and intense street culture of markets, safes and commercial activities
• The decentralisation brings commercial activities closer to residential areas and reduces urban sprawl
• London has multiple activity centres, including: 2 international centres, 11 metropolitan centres; 35 major centres; and 156 district centres. There are also over 1,200 smaller neighbourhood and local centres 
• London's multiple centres and widespread sprawl lessens impact on the main centre
• Polycentric development grows zones of global economic integration and achieves territorial cohesion
• Polycentric patterns add value and act as centres contributing to the development of the wider regions
• Polycentricity creates meaningful functional linkages between centres and places

Satellite Cities:

• Prevent the city suburban expansion
• Satellite cities are at least partially independent from the CBD economically and socially
• Satellite cities have their own independent urbanised area
• They have their own communities 
• Have a similar structure traditional centres: they have a CBD surrounded by traditional "inner city" neighborhoods - on a smaller scale

Source: http://cliffhague.planningresource.co.uk, http://en.wikipedia.org, http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_town

Polycentric City (London)

Monocentric City (Brisbane)

I believe Brisbane could definitely benefit from the development of multiple centres surrounding the CBD. This, combined with the congestion charge, would limit congestion within the CBD, as seen when it was implemented in London. Furthermore, the impacts of a decentralised, polycentric urban form would provide outer suburbs with greater access to resources and services, thus alleviating the need to travel great distances to access them (less pollution - environmentally sustainable) and create less pressure on the single centre. Self-contained sub-centres would be much more sustainable economically and socially, creating their own identity and functioning independently of the main CBD. However, in the London example, it was seen that some shops and businesses suffered in terms of decreased sales, where stores in the outer suburbs benefited from the charge. I believe something similar would happen in Brisbane, where the congestion charge would increase business in the areas surrounding and encourage growth in these areas. Also, the idea of extended opening hours is a viable idea for the Brisbane CBD to compensate for this loss of business. Also, as people may not wish to travel into the charged zone, employment may also see a fall. Similarly to  London, Alternative forms of transport may be introduced, to make transport cheaper, and reliance on "free" transport such as cycling will also increase.

Week Four: Self-Contained Multi-Modal Transport Model

In our scenario the congestion charge was introduced as a solution to rising fuel prices, pollution and to reduce traffic congestion within the CBD area. This approach will discourage the use of individual transport and will, in turn, encourage more public and sustainability oriented means of transport.

In order to suit a variety of needs, this transport model must be multi-modal which is highly integrated to allow efficiency and fluidity of travel.

HOW WILL THIS NEW TRANSPORT NETWORK EXIST WITHIN THE CITY??

An idea for the new transport model is that it is above (or below) ground in orde to 'free up' the ground plane. This ground place will be used for pedestrian and cycle traffic, as well as other pedestrian activities. By elevating the motorised/technology-based forms of transport, this creates a much safer environment for the ground plane, and allows more space for social interaction.

Sketches showing an elevation example of the multimodal transport network:

The 1st Level becomes the new / 2nd "Ground" floor of the building.

Week Four: Clarifying Thoughts and Evolving our Future CBD Scenario

This week the tutorial was focused on what the people and their lifestyles would be like within our imagined scenario. To clarify our thoughts, we summarised our ideas thus far:

• Multiple smaller self-contained centres dispersed thoughout Brisbane, as opposed to single centre.

From this we were able to go further and synthesise new ideas from throughout the past week to evolve our urban scenario further:

URBAN SCENARIO: A self-contained CBD

• Self-contained in it's transport network, food production (not entirely self-reliant).
• New multimodal transport network existing within CBD i.e. integrated network of walking, cycling, travellator, train, tram etc.
• 24 hour city - people work less hours and company needs more people completing one job (flexible work hours) = CBD is productive 24 hours a day.
• Urban Farms (on buildings) for food production - to reduce need for transportation of food from rural areas to CBD.
• Ration system in place in times when fresh food is scarce (socially sustainable, prevents over-consumption). 
• Large retail and commercial spaces become a production/manufacturing zones for food and online purchasing (located in CBD to eliminate costs in transport / also convenient).
• Many people work from home with online meetings and communications.
• School children still go to school (need to develop social skills) in urban setting.
• Communal gathering areas for recreation scattered throughout CBD.

Week Three: Urban Mobility in 2050

I have been researching the future of cities, in particular the transport systems, to see what others have predicted. I have chosen to look to circa 2050 so that the solutions are not too far-fetched but are still relate-able and could be realistically implemented in this time frame.

I came across a good site and a man named Arthur D Little who had some interesting predictions of transport in cities in 2050. The article is called "Towards networked, multimodal cities of 2050" (click to view full article).

Little suggests that there will be massive investment in urban mobility in the future. He says the challenge for cities will be to be "able to get around urban areas quickly, conveniently and with little environmental impact". Little recognises that improving existing mobility systems is a MUST not an option - as they are close to breakdown. He states that "by 2050 the average time an urban dweller spends in traffic jams will be 106 hours per year, three times more than today", which is significant as congestion in cities is a major issue in many cities worldwide.

Little also highlights that in order for urban mobility systems to be successful, they need to be applied comprehensively so that all facets of the problem are addressed. Innovation is also an important factor, where Little recognises that "the [current] management of urban mobility operates globally in an environment which is hostile to innovation".

Little goes on to then identify "Three Strategic Imperatives for Cities":

1.   Network the System: "For high performing cities the next step must be to fully integrate the travel value chain, increasing convenience by aggressively extending public transport, implementing advanced traffic management systems and further reducing individual transport through greater taxation and road tolls."

2.   Rethink the System: "Cities in mature countries with a high proportion of motorized individual transport need to fundamentally redesign their mobility systems so that they become more public and sustainability orientated."

3.   Establish Sustainable Core: "For cities in emerging countries the aim must be to establish a sustainable mobility core that can satisfy short term demand at a reasonable cost without creating motorized systems that need to be redesigned later. With access to new and emerging transport infrastructure and technologies these cities have the opportunity to become the testbed and breeding ground for tomorrow’s urban mobility systems."

The concept of creating a multimodal design network of transport within the city itself is an idea that intrigues me and I will explore further. The solution would have to be highly integrated to allow for the fluidity and efficiency of public transport, so that people can RELY on it to take them where they need to go. Also, as it was previously mentioned, INNOVATION is the key to ensuring a highly thought out and well-planned design, where CONVENIENCE, EFFICIENCY and SUSTAINABILITY are the focus. In our project, congestion charges have been introduced and the city, and people will most likely travel by car through the city ONLY if they have to go through it. The focus will shift to finding alternative means of transport WITHIN the city. The integrated, multimodal, urban mobility solution would have to be implemented on a large scale to promote uptake by the people in order for it to be widely accepted.

Week Three: Urban Tutorial

I have chosen and been allocated to the URBAN tutorial. Our first task was to brainstorm future scenarios involving the scenario: a congestion charge has been placed on the CBD area for all vehicles.

Our ideas covered:

ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF TRANSPORT

• The city becomes a cyclist community with more dedicated bike lanes and bike paths.
• Car parks are reclaimed as greenspace, producing increased biodiversity in cities.
• The creation of internal transport systems e.g. trams, trains.

RECONFIGURATION OF THE CITY CENTRE

• City centre will move to another location nearby, e.g. Chermside, Carindale, Indooroopilly, My Gravatt etc.
• City centre may disperse into multiple 'smaller centres'.
• Job centres and offices will disperse more into suburbs.
• City fringe suburbs will become 'dead zones'.
• There will be a government policy that forces more people to live in the country where each will have their own centre.

BUILDING TYPOLOGY

• Retail will suffer/may cease to exist (as it is the office workers who use their services) and people will not want to travel into city for shopping.
• More people may want to live in the city so they do not have to own cars and can easily walk to work, therefore there will be denser living and more highrises forming).
• DEAD SPACE = What is to happen to the shopping mall (Myer centre) and car parks? 

To get my head around these ideas, our Group's homework was to look at what is actually in our site, so that we could specifically imagine what could happen to these spaces in 50 years time, say? To do this I put together a quick map of what exists within our site:

After drawing inspiration from our site, I was able to expand on a few of our thoughts and ideas that we came up with in this brainstorming exercise:

SUMMARY OF IDEAS

• More people will work from home and shop online due to the tax, and therefore the retail and food outlets will suffer in the CBD.
• Jobs may begin to offer more flexible working hours to avoid tax (e.g. from 2pm - 12pm).
• 'Dead spaces' left behind by retail industry may transform into warehouses for production.
• City will become self- sufficient.
• Office space may transform into residential space.
• People may live in the city and the outer suburbs will be for leisure.
• There will be more frequent, localised, smaller centres that are distributed thoughout the outer suburbs.
• More mid-rises in outer suburbs.
• Pedestrians will dominate the CBD roads (cars will have to give way).
• Peak hours may change, where the tax will only apply during certain hours.

Week Two: Reflection on Movie - "The Fifth Element" - Waterless or Wetness?

This movie was set in the 23rd century so it is imagining very far into the future (probably further than we will be in this unit) but it was still very interesting to see the visuals on what the filmmakers envisaged future cities to look like.

The story is set in New York city and features a few of the monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge in their futuristic states. Below are a few key images from the movie.

An artistic impression of the future NYC.

A scene showing the city at large. Note: much of the water has retreated.

An artistic impression of the city at the previous street level and below. They have kept some of the streets to use as walkways between buildings.

The hollow city - this image shows the non-existent water surrounding the Brooklyn Bridge in the background and the vertical building (both down and up) of infrastructure in the city.  

   

A scene from the movie showing the futuristic streetscapes - flying cars and vertical landscapes.

  

A scene from the movie showing the new mode of transport - flying cars - who knows if this is possible?

WATERLESS OR WETNESS??

The movie shows one extreme of the barren city, where water has drastically reduced and with this new space has been found for living underneath the existing ground level. Even though this is a very intriguing idea, I think it would be more likely that the opposite were to happen i.e. water levels would increase in cities. Due to current issues, such as global warming which involves rising sea levels and climate change, the possibility of this happening is much more probable in the near future. This may actually be a very realistic issue and threat for some cities, where they will have to start thinking about how to waterproof their cities. Even in Brisbane, in the 2011 floods, the city was forced to cater for the mass influx of water in our CBD and inner suburbs, where we were quite unprepared and a lot of damage was caused. 

In the scenario that the city were to be inundated with water there would be a need to build up, not down, and find alternate methods of transport and building methods. I have come up with a quick idea sketch of how high rise buildings may exist in this scenario: 

This sketch describes a sort of 'canal city' where the lower levels have been filled in with concrete in preparation for the water level rise (as they still need to support above levels) and walkways have been built (braced to the buildings), connecting buildings and transporting pedestrians. Water travel may become a more practical form of transport between longer distances. Islands may also form in some areas with higher ground levels.

Week Two: Theme Exploration

This week we further explored the 4 themes for the project: URBAN, SUBURBAN, REGIONAL and VIRTUAL scenarios. Below are a few of the most interesting ideas that were discussed throughout the tutorials:

URBAN

Our group explored urban scenarios within the site of Queen St in the Brisbane CBD. The given scenario is that there is a congestion charge for vehicles passing through the CBD area. This would obviously drastically reduce traffic and so there will be little cars entering the CBD area. We looked at the need for other means of transport, such as bicycles, as well as the need for a more efficient public transport system which would connect the CBD with the outer suburbs. This would have to be much more frequent than the current system and would require some form of transformation or re-imagining.
With the less amount of cars, there will be less need for car parks and road space, so these areas could be reclaimed for other uses, such as alternative forms of transport and greenspace. Such scenarios to explian these would be for 'greenies' to take over or for sustainability to be forced on governments to employ such systems.

SUBURBAN:

In the suburban theme exploration process we looked at the possibilities for the retail spaces within Paddington. People still enjoy the experience of going out and being in the 'retail atmosphere', however it is just more convienant and often cheaper to buy online. As all products in the future scenario can be bought online, the retail spaces become useful for other things.  I believe these spaces would be used for community purposes  - as social hubs for opportunities for interaction and learning. Even thouhg products can be bought online, 'fast food' and restaurants will probably not suffer as much, as people would still go there for the experience.

REGIONAL:

For the regional theme, we dicussed ideas about self-sufficiency. Different cycles that could exist within such a remote and transient community. We also though about an aging population world, where the community would sustain themselves (live longer) by growing and harvesting organs, as they may have this technology in the future. Within an againg population community there would be much different dynamics exisiting within families and the wider community. The retirement age would probably get older, as the workers will be needed. The age gap between parents and kids may also get bigger as people have longer to live, and therefore will be able to see their children grow up. Alternatively, the age gap between parents and children may get smaller, as there is more pressure to decrease the median age and so another baby boom may occur.

VIRTUAL:

Our main ideas surrounding a virtual world came from movies such as "Inception" and "Avatar", where a mind exists in one boday, but controls another being in another world. Possible scenarios for this we came up with were that earth becomes unlivable, due to plague or deathly diseases, forcing people to live underground or sealed in containers somewhere. The virtual body can then exist on the earth while the mind controls it. These 'virtual beings' could be robots or computer generated in a program that all of society is connected to.

I found these dicussions to be eye-opening and very interesting. I am leaning towards going with the Urban theme group for next week as I can see the most intriguing possibilities coming from that scenario and I think it will be interesting to explore what such a major component of our city will be like in 20-50 years time.

Week One: Reflection on Reading - "Archigram: Architecture Without Architecture"

I found this to be a very interesting read, the ideas surrounding indeterminancy and the unknown nature of the future were explained very well. There were a few ideas that stood out which resonated with me about my beliefs of the future and what the role of the architect will be:

One was that, "Function' (Bakema) is libertarian in that the onus placed on the architect is to seek out the existing structure of the community and to allow this structure to develop in positive directions" (Sadler 2005). I believe that the spaces created within the built environment will have to cater for change in order to be sustainable and not become outdated, therefore incorporating the context of the community and allowing the functions of the spaces to change and grow with the needs of the community. This idea is opposed to creating environments which have one purpose and static functions, therefore discouraging flexibility and 'open-endness' of activity.

These ideas were also explained by the concept of Organicism, which "was the byword for managing anarchitecture-in-change, [where, the] proponents of the organic felt, architecture would emulate the continually evolving and growing human communities it served" (Sadler 2005). To me this means that architecture must become organic in it's function, it's growth and in its social interaction. This would be through creating architecture that is ever changing, has multiple uses throughout it's life, is transformable and flexible and most of all, durable. For architecture to be sustainable, it must stand the test of time. This means being physically resistant to change, as well as having the capability of evolving with the needs of society in it's functions and in it's aethetics so it does not become outdated and forgotten.

Finally, the changing nature of society isn't just a natural evolutionary thing, but a desired thing. As archigram's creation of 'open ends' describes "an architecture that expressed its inhabitants' supposed desire for continuous change" (Sadler 2005). It is within the nature of society itself to want to be better and create new things and have new ideas, constantly improving on itself and longing to make new and exciting discoveries.

Reference: Sadler, S., 2005. Beyond Architecture. In. Archigram: Architecture Without Architecture, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. pp90-138.