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