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.