Applying programmatic thoughts to these users, there is one thing to still think about. There are the users that pass by. How to go about “interviewing” them to come to the site? How to provide program to this area that people coming through will want to drive, bike, run, or walk through this area.
The first step into thinking about these scenarios was open space vs. enclosure. Bringing green spaces around the Electrical building has the potential of stopping space while people are living or traveling through the area. Since the residents in the area do not even use this at all, it can bring them together and see what this great part pf the city is all about. They know this area is there, they can see the building from five blocks down the road. They know its there so it has potential of uniting it. All the users have a sense that they need this leisure space that the area does not provide. Hipsters and Students could come and hangout and possibly plan their next dance party, or even just to have a walk through and a cigarette. Children have a space to run around in and parents not worrying about them because they know where they are and feel sage about it. Workers could have their lunch break out here.
So getting them to the building, what is going to be there? The building needs to establish something for the users in the area and outside coming in. If you look at Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Public Library, he gives this sense of cross programming. He states about the building, “The ambition is to redefine and reinvent the Library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but as an information store, where all media - new and old - are presented under a regime of new equalities. In an age where information can be accessed anywhere, it is the simultaneity of all media and the professionalism of their presentation and interaction, that will make the Library new.”5 This building needs to be flexible and have specific duties for all users.
Pushing the parking over to the other side of 8th street is needed. There are so many parking lots there that are never fully filled and it will add to he open space aspect.
Is there a possibility of residents inhabitation this building at all? Not sure if people want to live here if events are going on outside constantly. Maybe residential could be looked more toward college students and hipsters since they are in that age range where they could handle events going on and participate in.
The circulation needs to connect using these Willow Street lines from Spring Garden down to the site and back up. It will stitch people using spring garden down into the site and back on their path. This makes a linkage to the site on their route. What will go on here is not determined, but a leisure pathway will conclude what this site needs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Good thinking here. It sounds like you are saying that the dedicated outside space will be green, will be leisure oriented, will have a lot to do with landscape and park. Its probably pretty clear, with a bit of analysis to conclude that- as that entire NE quadrant just beyond the city center becomes more residential (Old City, Chinatown, Spring Garden East, Northern Liberties, Kensington South, Fishtown, etc), there is really a dearth of green space- yes, there are some intentions along the river, but that is so so far.
But then if the exterior neighborhood space is more leisure oriented, maybe the interior programming of your Peco building is intensely and vibrantly lively. Keep all the noise, the events, the partying, the crazy sloppy creativity within. THAT then is the draw, for people to come up and come in, to see what is new, what is happening, what is lively and what is potent...if even only for the moment. Maybe not a great place to live for anyone, but it can be a lively mix of things that happen that don't make for good neighbors (and so its deeply inside and up- fully contained). Art studios (like the Crane Building), performance places (like Electric factory), sure, some stores- peripheral on-the-edge clothing boutiques, late night clubs, indoor skate board tracks, places for rallies and protests, but even other needed civic functions- a neighborhood health center, a rehab clinic, a daycare center, a seniors center, a police substation (so its crazy but not dangerous)...whatever. Can it be packed inside with events and activities...as long as it doesn't burst outside and spoil the surrounding neighborhood? Waddaya think? jp
when in doubt, stick to the surgery
tim, in regards to how do you program the space that people will want to move through, it made me think of a case study i recently did on oma's kunsthal ( which i might have mentioned to you already). the building is an exhibition space that is intersected by two paths. a pedestrian concourse and a city street. the two intersections begin to inform the orientation of the program. but what i thaught was relevant to you was how people move through the building even when they are not trying to interact with the program. also how the building pursuades people passing by to enter it. check it out.
Post a Comment