Bankside Urban Forest Area, Initial transformation Design:

The groups strategy for the area of Great Suffolk Street is to 'improve the public realm'.  It was decided that a change in the quality of streetscape was needed in order to transform the area from a 'backstreet' to an active avenue.  The major developments of the area, namely the Tate Modern expansion & various large scale residential projects, is already changing the density of the built environment, and hence the pedestrian flows along Great Suffolk Street.  This needs to be reflected within our design strategies, in hopes also to improve crime rates in the area.

More information on group 4's initial studies into the area can be found here.

Below: The area of study (blue): the route from Southwark tube station (south edge) toward the Tate (north end).

Initial Considerations:

Identifying the quantity of public realm along the street.

above left:  The pavements towards the left of the street are much wider and sufficiently wide enough to provide usable inverventions.  Pavements appear excentuated at the corners.

above right:  The key nodes along the street to provide intervention & navigation from the tube to the Tate.  The central area is highlighted as the key node, the larger space where 3 new developments are occuring and where the street turns to face the Tate directly.

INTERVENTION 1:

Inspired by local viaduct conversions (below) comes the idea that navigation of the street can be achieved by way of reflection of the surrounding context.  Providing a sphere of view greater than that which is directly in front of you.  Views can be drawn down various streets to direct, entise of advise movement.

note: these reflections occured on both sunny & overcast days (respectively).

This concept could be applied to the darker areas underneath the series of bridges, bringing in both reflected light and views.  Explorations below:

 

angled surfaces begin to reflect the surroundings - view towards the tate and back towards the arches

more angular reflects various urban components and visual clues. possible planting above begins to reflect and multiply in the surfaces.

larger plan reflective surface to create an invisible bridge, direct views of route and greenery.

a series of angular mirrors, gridded into a system. Appliance for vegetation to grow up also.

INTERVENTION 2:

Remaining with the theme of reflection, the next idea is to incorporate a small structure repeated along the street, providing reflective surfaces capturing the surroundings, moments, landmarks & the extended nature.

i'm not quite sure how well this will work, however the theory at this junction is that the landmark Tate will be visible from much more earlier on at the bridges, as the reflections will double reflect around the corner.

 

above: incorporation  of vegetation, greening the area, by way of the supporting structure of the reflective surface becoming the mesh for climbing plants. (either rooted in the ground soil or adequate sized container).

above: a roof system placed above to connect the two mirrors, providing a more stable structure, an providing the architectural language of an arch to pass through.

above: creating the space larger enough for temporary use, allow the larger density of pedestrians to stop and use the space.  Active street.  Also see example project, further down, for A12, green room.

possible construction method not dissimilar to the Tate taxi shellters (below & see first post at bottom)

INTERVENTION 3:

Using reflection still, this time to provide much needed light to an entrance to the car park underneath the bridges.  This is to help create a safer environment, and more appealing environment, via light and the feel of openess.

 

Providing light for percieved saftely as well as a way to introduce enough natural light to provide planting.

Vegetation already growing (and enhanced) will be reflected too all surfaces, the entrance to the car park will feel much larger in scale as surfaces become covered in reflective material.

EXAMPLES OF PUBLIC PROJECTS INVOLVING REFLECTING SURFACES:

Each of these projects offers intrigue and incapsulation.  This quality of the design could prove well in rehabiliting Great suffolk Street, and activating the street as well as providing possible way-finding benefits, in the way landmarks may be reflected.

Gruppo A12: 'Green Room'

Exibited at the Barbican's 'Radical Nature' this year, the team created a miniture English garden inside a wooden box, which when reflected by mirrors on all 4 walls creates the illusion of an infinate garden space.

SANAA, Serpentine Gallery 2009:

Constructed from aluminium, the reflected surface draws in elements of the context and vegetation.  In areas the structure becomes lost, replaced by the environment it sits in.  Below are some photos I took in September.

Anish Kapoor:

Anish Kapoor produces many public projects using reflected surfaces, at varying scales. Below are projects from Chicago & New York.

These demonstrate to the scale at which urban environments can be replicated onto a surface, inhabiting a public realm.  The surfaces offer a suggestion of the wider area around a single standing point, the idea that from one point surveillance or way-finding can occur.  Below is the courtyard piece to Anish Kapoor's exhibition which i recently visited at The Royal Academy of Arts.

Paradise Park Childrens Centre, Islington

Architects: DSDHA
'green' wall:

This building trialled, unsuccessfully, a hydroponic wall; whereby the plants were grown without soil, using only water with mineral nutrient solutions.  The plants were rooted into what looked like mineral wool covering the meshed structure around the facade.

This project brings into question whether this system of green walling works.  This is forced nature, and not the natural way of growth; without careful maintainence, in the longterm, a system such as this is likely to fail.  Nature has not got the ability to finds it's own path for growth, it does not become 'wildlife', & it's existance depends too heavily on the efforts of man's hands.

 

Above:  A view of the from this angle brings into perspective again the amount of added infrastructure that is created to support plant life.  Exspecially with the buildings context within the park setting, an area with ample open space.  A system such as this, if it to work, might have more merit within a denser urban fabric where land is otherwise unavailable for plant growth and biodiversity.

Below:  Bringing in a selection of other vegetation taking over vertical surfaces around london I stumbled across, such as this building along Bear Lane in Southwark & the taxi shelter outside Tate Modern, it allows for a comparison in the effects between a naturally green wall and a hydroponic wall.

Here the wall becomes wild with a blanket of natural growth, whose plant roots are based in soil at ground level.  Maturing and inhabiting the space successfully over time.  The result, a much more successful symbiosis than the Paradise Park hydroponic wall.  

 

This taxi shelter is constructed from a mesh system which becomes settled by ivy, rooted in a small area of bedding at the forground of the photo.  (no more structural infrastructure is created/added than what may have existed without the need of supporting plants).  Here the plant recieves as much nutrients and water as needed from the soil, and only when needed, & within natural cycles.  It is interesting to see how a similar mesh structure as used in the Paradise Park facade is used in different ways.  The mesh at paradise park could have similarly been used in this way.

This is not a quick fix, or technical solution, to greening a facade.  The result and success appears over time, but as a result the structure becomes more grounded, & I admire this.  

Granted these examples are ivy and may not provide as much biodiversity as a successful hydroponic wall, however, it should be noted that this is a species of plant which thrives in the UK climate in various orientations.  Consideration into which plants to use for the best performance is key within green walls.