Friday 10 December 2010

T24 Start again #3 The idea of city

As part of the lecture series about the design of cities today titled, ‘Rip it up and Start Again’ curated and chaired by Kieran Long at London Metropolitan University, Florian Beigel and Philip Christou will discuss small and large current city design projects in the Architecture Research Unit.
Architecture as City sums up the approach.

It is a spatial approach to designing the city. We are looking for an architecture that gives form to public spaces of all sizes from a tiny gap between buildings to the spaces of the street, to the celebration of the landscape in the city. We celebrate the idea of city in all scales: a plate of food on a table; a piece of furniture;a house; an ensemble of buildings; a piece of town. The aim is to bring a civility to the city.

Following the lecture there will be a launch of the recently published book:
Architecture as City, Saemangeum Island City
by Florian Beigel and Philip Christou,
Architecture Research Unit, London
Springer Vienna, New York, 2010, 160 p.
150 illus. in color, 240mm x 275mm, hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-7091-0367-8
obtainable from http://www.springer.com

Youl Hwa Dang Boolchall Building, Paju Book City, Korea.

The name of Youl Hwa dang is from reception room in a house for male guests of Korean traditional architecture “seon kyo jang”. But the design from the western painting it is irony for me.
The outside is very neat and strong but inside is very comfortable and beautiful. There are few people during the weekdays so the people can have a coffee and listen to music in a quiet.

Actually I like the paju book city and Heiry which is art village near by book city. I visited often because there are many comfy cafés and exhibitions also fascinating buildings. I thought the strong purpose of the plan with character can makes strong community.

Friday 26 November 2010

T20 Croydon

The future – from theory to practice
Streetscape – Richard Rogers partnership
Tram ling- tram link

The five masterplans
The council is working with public and private stakeholders on a series of masterplans to deliver change on the ground in the Croydon Metropolitan Centre (CMC), the greatest focus for our investment and growth.
The masterplans engage all major landowners, developers and public sector stakeholders from the outset in a collaboration to reflect the ambitions of all. Read more about all the masterplans on www.croydonthirdcity.co.uk

Wellesley Road Masterplan
We aim to enliven Wellesley Road and Park Lane with new uses and activities, transforming the existing 'urban motorway' into exemplary urban space. The renewal of this key area will help to make Croydon an attractive place to live and invest.The Strategic Urban Design Report is due for completion summer 2010.

East Croydon Masterplan
Improvements to Croydon's 'front door' will create an exciting new city quarter with a world class railway station and transport interchange. There will be a well connected high quality public realm and development will be coherent and integrated. Masterplan due for completion summer 2010.

West Croydon Masterplan
Better integration and links to the town centre will complement the improved station and transport interchange, creating a new doorway to Croydon. The area will see a coordinated new high quality public realm and built environment. The masterplan is due for completion summer 2010.

College Green Masterplan
The vision is to develop a learning and cultural area offering a vibrant mixture of educational, leisure, entertainment, residential and retai usesl. The world class public realm, will provide a platform for active use and performance, complemented by the reinvented cultural offer of Fairfield Halls. Masterplan due for completion summer 2010.

Mid Croydon Masterplan
The aim is to create a high quality build environment with a mix of uses that will complement existing assets and contribute to the wider mix of the CMC. It will include a range of high quality public spaces with a welcoming pedestrian experience and will be a low carbon development that leads the way in terms of environmental sustainability. The council is commissioning a multidisciplinary consultant team to develop this masterplan - the team should be selected by June 2010, with completion planned for autumn 2010.

New and improved transport facilities, particularly improvements to bus operations and rail stations, will support the new residents and workers in Croydon. Impacts of the growth of electric vehicles and possible extensions to the tram system will also be taken into account. The transformed central area will have new greenways for pedestrians and cyclists, linking surrounding parks and new public squares, which will form a network of quality urban spaces for amenity and recreation. The squares will also provide a focus for new cultural, social and community facilities, as the residential and commercial transformation gathers pace over the next 20 to 30 years.

In another important step plentiful, low-carbon energy could be on the cards for businesses and homes through a new district energy scheme and vacuum waste management systems that are currently being investigated. A transformed Wellesley Road - reduced from an eight-lane highway to a human-scale boulevard - will form the spine for the new energy, infrastructure, transport and public space improvements.

About 8,000 new homes are proposed in current plans for the Croydon Opportunity Area. Most will be in flats and apartments, built in a series of new towers, but there will also be a significant number of family-sized homes, particularly on the edges of the centre. However, the important heritage of Croydon, such as Surrey Street and the 'Old Town' area will be retained and enhanced with new developments being sensitively incorporated into the existing fabric of the area. The benefits to those living in the surrounding suburbs will include new facilities, green spaces, employment opportunities and improved transport.

T19 Start again #1

Thursday 25 November 2010

T18 Planning Policy Statements Review

Plan-making: a creative process







Urban Design Comments for Planning Decisions Reports

1. Introduction: factual description of design
- Size: height and basic massing
- Use: nature and distribution of programmes
- Context: immediate and wider location

2. External issues
- Ground floor use and relationship to street
- Thresholds and public – semipublic – private relationships
- Key routes near or through the site and wider links
- Landscaping and contribution to public realm (London Plan: policy 4B. 4Enhancing the quality of the public realm)
- Private external space and play space

3. Massing
- Tall building issues (London Plan: policy 4B. 8. Tall buildings – location; policy 4B. 9. Large-scale buildings – design and impact)
- Appropriateness to location
- Public access to upper floors
- Overshadowing and privacy
- Views (London Plan: Policy 4B.15 London View Protection Framework)

4. Architecture
- Design quality (London Plan: Policy 4B.2 Promoting world-class architecture and design)
- Articulation of facades and use of materials
- Internal arrangement issues: size/quality/location of rooms, Lifetime Homes Standards (London Plan: Policy 4B.5 Creating and inclusive environment)
- Entrances and frontages, and their relationship to the surrounding context
- Sustainability (London Plan: Policy 4B.6 Sustainable design and construction), in terms of passive environmental design, low-energy materials and construction techniques

+ Social network and Social mixed or Communities
- Council house and private house

Tuesday 23 November 2010

T17 Stratford Lecture

It is a very useful and interesting lecture. Seoul also have a big Olympic site and athlete's village apartment is a high satisfy with POE So I also so expect how the site will be change after the Olympic. Also interesting thing is some of stadium will be destroyed after the Olympic.

*Abbey mills pumping station -> change to public space
School – 3000 people  During the Game – campus
Huge urban shopping centre
The people will be passed through this shopping centre.
80% of people will be passed through the big bridge
I thought this plan planed precisely: during the Olympic and after Olympic
Energy centre in site will be conservation like Tate Modern
Flour- water pumping station
Bridge – economic material -> character- handrail, pattern differently
Central park Bridge -> width 15m?
Using color panels this bridge can change two side bridges.

2012 Innovation: stadium 2012
Aquatics Centre  post game making smaller
The Velodrome – john Hopkins
Basketball stadium – like Beijing swimming pool
Arcelor Mittal Orbit:
Huge tim box
The cloud bridge: Angel Lane. By Oscar Bauer and Nazareno crea ->cool
2012 Olympic game – post game Transformation

Connecting Olympic park
What can do Olympic for London?
Munich 1972- I can’t believe it was built more than 30 years ago.

-15,000 new home 10,000 new jobs, 70,000 new residents

Tuesday 2 November 2010

T13 Manifesto #2

When I started this MA course, I thought the urban design must see the whole site and bigger always. However, my unit works do different direction. It could start the scene of the site and then made a story. This methodology can see the actual scenes and everyday life in the site rather than looking the map long time. I can expect what happen in the site through the photos of actual scene. Furthermore, I had thought before the spatial planning is kind of interior design term. But, I changed it more political and actual idea of urban planning.

The studying policy is not easy for me. There are different policy and frameworks in each borough but it is also interesting to learn various view of the urban plan. Actually I had thought the balance of learning between urban design and spatial planning is important but, it cannot be divided and should goes together.

The most important point for me is how I can apply a lot of Royal docks data from MA SPUD into my unit work. I must combine these two works that political one and design one. I hope learn more about historical part and political part also want to research through the research methodology.

T12 Glossary of Terms #2

Planning
_ Make a rule for urban design and constructions, it should consider all of data from the site.

Spatial Planning
_Composing of the space with connect or cut off the space to serve its purpose. It could be a various scale.

Design
_ Create something looking good for practical purpose.

Urban Design
_To improve the urban environment to make people’s lives more comfortable and should focus on the function of public and private space.

Evaluating
_ Review the plan to apply or modify and also after the plan we can research how does the plan works

Local Development Framework
_ London has a different framework in each brough

Official Plan
_ a document adopted by the City Council, which contains a formal set of principles and policies, land use maps concerning the nature, pattern, extent and scheduling of future growth and change within the municipality for a specified period. (Urban design dictionary)

Smart City
_The new type of 21c city, it has a low and sustainable energy and it is controlled by IT. This city manages efficient network of traffic, energy and the people in the city.

Prototype
_ Main concept of urban design works in Urban Gallery method. It should be new idea to apply to smart city.

Sustainable Development
_ An important part of the modern urban plan, it include low carbon emission, green energy and etc.

Thursday 28 October 2010

T11 Rip it up #3 Liverpool-city as shopping opportunity?

A lecture by by Paul Domela with responses by Torange Khonsari and Ines Weizman. Part of Rip it up and start again, a series of 12 lectures curated and chaired by Kieran Long.

Liverpool’s transformation over the last decade is to some an exemplar of regeneration, and to others another instance of the sacrifice of civic values to commerce, and more specifically, retail. When Liverpool One, the huge shopping centre developed by Grosvenor Estates, was nominated for the Stirling Prize, it surely signalled where the institutions of architecture stood on this question. Paul Domela, the programme director of the internationally renowned arts festival Liverpool Biennial, and formerly the curator of Shrinking Cities Liverpool, will give us his observations of the social and political context of Liverpool in this era, and how the arts have played a role in the city’s development. Studio 3 tutor Torange Khonsari, whose students are working in Liverpool this year, and Dr Ines Weizman, programme director of ASD’s MA in Cities Design and Urban Culture, will respond on behalf of the school.

T10 Urban Markers


Olympic landmark - This object is kind of dialog – related other projects - Like art object
Giant – Victoria harbour – bridge structure – form / experience
Coiling – kind of concept
Irregular elevation

NLA (National Landlords Association)
Euston -> Grateful memorable monument /Euston Arch trust

Euston station development
1. The building before destroyed
2. Euston street
3. The other stations

Architecture - street furniture
English Modernism start bricks
Don’t need to show construction skill or like

Land mark for the citizen or the tourist
I thought the urban design is based on the data of surroundings, but it is not. So, it seems like a sculpture rather than urban design works.
Also, I think tourists don’t expect this object in London. They will expect to see historical buildings.

Friday 15 October 2010

T7 Urban Design Roles

Urban Design

  • Making a city’s image – Path, Edge, District and Nodes …
  • Transport
  • Infrastructure
  • Community – Housing
  • Services
  • Policy

Urban Designer

  • Architect
  • Designer
  • Planners
  • Developers
  • Landscape designers
  • Contractors
  • The Researcher
  • ..........

Thursday 14 October 2010

T6 Urban Design Definitions

Richard Rogers
"At the heart of our urban strategy lies the concept that cities are for the meeting of friends and strangers in civilised public spaces surrounded by beautiful buildings."

WEST 8
“West 8 approaches the production of nature in two different - but characteristically Dutch - ways. First, we take a classic civil engineering approach for creating landscape - a logic based on utility and necessity. Second, we are part of a landscape tradition that confers identity and, therefore, understand the need for creating symbols in the production of landscape. This method envisions a new nature, a 'second nature' of constructed landscapes that respond to pragmatic demands (water management, population growth, traffic congestion) and also reinforce the culture to which they belong (identity, symbols, expression).
In a departure from the old demolish and install engineering methodology, or the current preserve and protect model, we are adding and expressing new natures. The real future in today's debate about sustainability lies not in a political or philosophical dialogue about what we are protecting or how we are going to sustain" it, but rather how to actively create new ecologies. Creating land and then painting it: in many ways, this is the soul of Dutch culture.”

BIG
“The urban plan relies not on one single concept, but becomes an accumulation of different urban life forms, responding to specific local conditions and potentials.”

EAST
"We are interested in places, uses and the way they come about. By places we mean cities, spaces within them, buildings, and landscapes. Our work has come to be internationally recognised for a patient and innovative role in adjusting and improving the urban fabric and its uses."

Tuesday 12 October 2010

T5 Site #1: Royal Docks



Core Strategy

Newham is preparing a Core Strategy - a new spatial plan for the Borough. It will form the overarching development plan in the Local Development Framework and will set out the long-term spatial vision and spatial policies for the Borough.The Core Strategy will be key to delivering the Council's Sustainable Community Strategy and implement parts of the London Plan, such as housing and employment targets.

Where are we now?
A consultation on the Issues and Options stage of the Core strategy took place in early 2008. The feedback received from this consultation - including submitted comments and feedback from surveys - has been examined and we have published a consultation report, which can be viewed below. In addition, comments made during the consultation can be viewed on the Newham LDF Consultation Portal.

What happens next?
The Council is preparing the next stage of the Core Strategy, which will present policy options. Further consultation will take place at this stage.

Issues and Options
A six week consultation on the Issues and Options of the Core Strategy was held between 15 February 2008 and 28 March 2008, during which time exhibitions were held across the Borough. The consultation sought views on what are the most important issues for the Borough and presented three spatial options for the Borough's development: prioritising employment, prioritising mixed use and prioritising housing. The Issues and Options documents can be viewed below.

Evidence Base
In order to develop the Core Strategy it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of the issues facing the Borough. We are developing a range of background studies that will inform the emerging Local Development Framework. These reports form the 'evidence base' of the LDF and will be made available on the LDF evidence base page become available.

Earlier Preferred Options
In 2006 Council prepared and consulted on the Preferred Options for the Core Strategy, the second stage of preparing a Core Strategy. This consultation raised a number of new issues and helped us identify some further options that had not been consulted on. Furthermore, new guidance about what a Core Strategy should look like and how it should be prepared emerged after this consultation. As such, it was decided to return to the Issues and Options stage. The 2006 Preferred Options consultation documents below have been withdrawn and can be viewed for information only. The 2008 Issues and Options supersede these documents and we will be developing and consulting on a new options document in due course.



Urban Design and Conservation Team

The Urban Design and Conservation Team provides advice on the design of the built environment, including specific development issues involving conservation areas and listed buildings.


Design excellence is particularly important as Newham is undergoing a physical transformation with some of the most significant regeneration projects in the UK and Europe. Newham seeks to secure the benefits of this regeneration for its residents and has placed design quality at the top of its agenda, championing the highest quality architecture and urban design.

The council also seeks to improve the attractiveness of the borough through the conservation of its historic buildings and spaces, and recognises the value of the historic environment in the creation of sustainable places. There are currently nine conservation areas and 110 listed buildings within the borough. In addition there are around 200 locally listed buildings.



Royal Docks and Thameside West AAP

This will deliver change in a key regeneration area in the south of the Borough.
Newham's historic Royal docks and Thameside West area forms the lower half of Newham's 'Arc of Opportunity' and will play an important role in the Borough's regeneration. The AAP will set out a policy framework for the areas development.

Where are we now?
In 2006 Council prepared and consulted on the Preferred Options for the Royal Docks and Thameside West Area Action Plan, the second stage of preparing an Area Action Plan. This consultation raised a number of new issues and helped us identify some further options that had not been consulted on. Furthermore, new guidance about what an Area Action Plan should look like and how it should be prepared emerged after this consultation. As such, it has been decided to return to the Issues and Options stage.

What happens next?
Council will develop an Issues and Options stage of the Area Action Plan which will present options to develop the document. Consultation will take place at this stage.

Earlier Preferred Options
Consultation on the Preferred Options was held between 8 February and 29 March 2006. The consultation documents below can be viewed for information only. We advise that a new Issues and Options will supersede these documents.

Thursday 7 October 2010

T4 Rip it up and Start again #1 What is the city for?

Opening lecture of ‘Rip it up and start again’, a new lecture series curated and chaired by Kieran Long, writer, broadcaster and architecture critic of the Evening Standard.
Peter Carl will open up the territory that we will examine in the coming weeks by talking about the foundations of what the city is for, from Aristotle to the Renaissance. He will then consider the ways we have made the city too easy to design, through economic and systemic thinking about the city. Finally, and in the light of climate change and the destructive economy, he will suggest some interpretations of the contemporary city our work within it. Responses from Florian Beigel, Robert Mull and the audience will help give a foundation to the critique that will emerge in the following lectures.



Financial Industry – Capitalism – Resources
Architecture


Incheon New Songdo City
Utopia project is not easy to success
New songdo city is under construction and some parts in this area are completed. To be a good city, it may need about 10 years. But, the citizens want to live in this kind of city after 10 years? Future city could be boundary between city and country side.

As an Incheon resident and someone who has visited New Songdo, My thoughts on New Songdo.
1) What were your first thoughts when arriving in New Songdo?
At first, I felt like I trip to overseas such as Dubai and other Middle East Asian countries. And, at the same time, I thought it will take about 10 years to be a proper city.

2) Why did you visit and how did you use the city?
I took a 5 weeks course that ‘Future Environment-friendly and Low energy Training’. This is intended for who has a qualification of architectural engineering or design. Visiting New Song do was a kind of field trip. I never been there before and after the trip, so I think hard to say I used the city. But, I heard from someone who were studying in Incheon University (They built a new campus in New songdo), she said there are no special activities and if don’t have a car, not easy to move around.

3) Can you describe your journey there and within New Songdo?
Education centre > Posco office > Yonsei University campus
In Posco office, we received a brief explanation of song do new city and go to the over the 20 floor and overlook the city.
In Yonsei University campus, we received presentation about their project about passive house and visit there model house.
So, unfortunately there is not much time to walk on the city.

4) What did you see on the streets and in the buildings?
There are a lot of under construction buildings, a few people on the streets and some shops, empty bus stops, a huge bus terminal.
In the Posco office, ground floor has a high ceiling hall which is connected underground station. It’s nice office building.

5) Do you think this will be beneficial to South Korea? Do you think it is a good way to plan and make a city?
-Incheon International airport is located in the one of island in Incheon. It is divided by sea so, the government was trying to make a international business district that can visit and work without visa. New song do can access this island within 30 min through the Incheon Bridge. Incheon city want to make the song do link the international business strict. If it can be, it will be helpful in the Incheon maybe S.Korea too. Actually Incheon city has a big debt because of lots of urban projects.
-It can be depand on the site but, in the new song do case, I think this plan is not bad. It is because Song do is reclaimed land. However, the point is not built buildings but how to make a proper city.
I also wonder how the city grows. Korean people prefer a tall apartment rather than a house different from British people. Also, we think the education environment is very important. So, International school and the tall apartment in song do can attract to people. Already "helicopter parents” interested in this school. I think they will move to here without hesitation. There is an example which is Gang-nam in Seoul. It was an extraordinarily vast field in the past but, the government made a business district. Also, a good school district was formed after that a lot of people move to here and formed rich village.

T3 Film #1 Koyaanisqatsi

This movie is new to me like the title of movie ‘KOYAANISQATSI’. The first thing that I impressed is the music without narration but repeat the word ‘Koyaanisqats’. It reminded me the theme song for mystery movie. It is difficult to concentrate without story but, it shows awesome scenes virtually.

This movie suggests another view of direction of architecture and nature in detail. Especially the contrast of two things between static things and dynamic things were impressive to watch. For instance, the static rocks and the moving clouds, high-rise buildings and moving clouds, tight shot of people’s faces and the passing underground, etc.

Also, I like the scenes seem like patterns. When the camera passing through the field, it looks like a striped fabric. Then the parking lot with cars of different colour and tank in straight rows were nice too.

Moreover, some scenes reminded me the image of city such as ruined city, an expressionless face and mechanical manufacturing processes. It is like Korea’s 60’s and 70’s history as a developing country.

The scene that people was passing the underground entrance constantly was a very sectional image but, I felt it is the liveliness of the city itself.

At last, becoming silent, the scene overlapping between city map by bird’s eye view and plan of machine might well imply how people feel the city.

From this movie, I do not know what ‘the life out of balance’ is exactly but I could get some idea through the fabulous scenes and also it makes me think of the city and life.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

T2 Manifesto #1

When I was a child, my father owned architecture office. I had been there until he closed his office after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. I used to sit in front of drawing desk and draw some lines using magnetic rulers and a triangle. This memory is still vivid in my mind, so there is no surprise that I studied architecture in the undergraduate school.

I took a trip to Europe in my holiday in 2006 and it was my first time to abroad. The first destination was London and the atmosphere of London was completely different from cities in Korea. It was a chance to expand perspective of urban design. It was common to construct new buildings rather than keep old ones in Korea cities, but in the UK, they tried to make new constructions and old ones coexist. Since then, I could find values of old things and wanted to study in London.

I took several classes related to urban design while I was in undergraduate school of architecture in my last two years. The first project was an essay in Society and Space class. I learned Space Syntax programme and it made me know accessibility and visibility of space through the streets’ shape analysis. Based on the result of the programme, I could suggest a new alternative to keep existing streets rather than make grid streets at historic site. The next work, 2008 Incheon International Urban Design Competition for Students, was the urban rehabilitation project of Jemulpo station’s region. I couldn’t manage all the historical data of this project. Rehabilitation project was needed plenty of researching information and reinterpreting historicity of the site. My last urban-related project was planning ‘Dong tan Second New Town’ in the class of Architectural Design Studio 6. The project was a planning new city. The size of the site was much larger than any. My team used the Space Syntax Programme and it could make a good concept. It was an interesting project although I had to do too much works.

Through these projects, I realised the reinterpretation of history is not easy and more comprehensive knowledge was needed to design the city. So I will study focusing on the urban design theory, research skills and how to apply it to actual constructions. What is more, the haring international idea is great opportunity to get wide range point of view. There are differences between architecture and urban design, but I suppose I got a larger view of the urban study through this course. I hope the Spatial Planning and Urban design course have a balance of two parts.

T1 Glossary of Terms #1



Planning
_ Make a chart or a list of works in contemplation of the method, the process and the scale.

Spatial Planning
_Composing of the space with connect or cut off the space to serve its purpose.

Design
_ Create something looking good for practical purpose.

Urban Design
_ Improve the urban environment to make people’s lives more comfortable.

Site Analysis
_ Research the history, nature conditions and relationship with surrounding areas of the site to know the site’s character.

Planning Regulation
_ Analyse the existing or alterable building code in the site to discuss how to apply the buildings.

Circulation System
_ Make the space comfortable by expecting the flow of human traffic.

Road system Planning
_ Plan the car road, cycle path and pedestrian path by the rank.

Land Use Planning
_ Reorganise the land use through the studying of existing and alterable land use.

Evaluating
_ Review the plan to apply or modify.