PROBLEM STATEMENT//

CANBERRA IS NOT THE PLACE TO BE......

CANBERRA IS ICONIC BECAUSE//

Canberra is prominently known for its Political buildings as well as historical and cultural iconic structures. The aim of the light rail is to link all these features together...

BRIEF//

.Create a light rail system using capital circle as the central point

.Create a more pedestrian friendly centre environment for Canberra

.Link iconic spaces in Canberra

-->Link to outer parts of Canberra???

.Create more public spaces (the stations) that can be for Australians to have their voice heard directly to Parliament

.Can be (flexible) moved to combine with surrounding stations... (see image)

Concerns/options//

.Above ground or underground?

.Inner circle or outer circle of Capital Circle?

.Full circle or stop at the semi circle?

This statistic show that 84.5% of locals in Canberra use private vehicles. I think this statistic is well enough proof that there is a lack of public transport efficient enough for people in Canberra to use everyday. Only 8.8% use public transport in Canberra compared to 26.3% in Sydney.

WEEK 5//

Canberra stats...

.Canberra's population in June 2010 is 358 600 and it has an expected population growth rate of 1.9% pa

.Of local (Australian's) toursits that visited Canberra, the average length of stay was 2.7 nights and only 30% were there for holiday

.Of international toursits there were 5 098 000 people that visited Canberra and 52% were there on holiday.

.84.5% of Canberra's population use private vehicle to get around Canberra with only 8.8% using public transport - proving that public transport is one of the biggest issues in Canberra

Points of interest

.Australian Institute of Sports

.Botanical gardens

.Old/new parliament house

.High court of Australia

.Questacon

.Various museums

.War memorial

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM//

What is something that is not working in our nations capital?

- Infrastructure?

- Urban planning?

- Transport?

The main issue is....

CANBERRA IS NOT THE PLACE TO BE... right now

It's a sad fact, but Sydney is the place to be right now, and has been for a long time. In terms of tourism and for a new life. The challenge with this assignment is to promote Canberra and make it "the place to be"

Our main idea is to identify the problem of the transportation infrastructure and make it more flexible for pedestrians, travellers and local residents.

Will installing a light rail infrastructure help Canberra? Well, Canberra is known for a largely distributed city with many attractions but no transport. Is it the main reason you don't go there? Maybe not, but if it was installed with an up to-date technological light rail that could easily transport you to all these wonderful places in the space of a day or two, would you be more likely to go? Of course.. In a much more exaggerated sense, think of the difference between visiting New York and LA. LA is known for it's massive lack of public transportation and New York is well known for it's substantial subway system.

The light rail should circulate through the main hub of tourism and CBD points of interest and then possible spread out through to residential areas and further sprawls of Canberra.

WEEK 4//

FLEXIBLE TUTORIAL//

LAYERS//

Site //Practically never changes

Structure //Not as long lasting

Skin //Keeps elements out

Services //Changes with technology

Space plan //Partitions can change every 5 years

Stuff // Changing frequently

IDEAS//

Issue ideas:

- The boat people? Create Canberra as a 'transition' zone for immigrants to be acclimatized to the culture of Australia.

- Making Canberra more flexible in the people it attracts as far as tourism and relocating Australians.

- World expo - Having the world expo in Canberra allowing for the development to be put to great use. After the expo is complete, the spaces are then transformed into Political, Educational, Arts and Science precincts.

WEEK 3//

FLEXIBLE//link

The first thought that comes to everyones mind .. Flexible - rubbery, movable, soft, stretchy. Of course flexible architecture is not MEANT to be interpreted this way, but this next example pretty much IS very stretchy, movable and wavy. Very interesting.
http://www.flyingmast.com/?tag=adaptable-architecture

FLEXIBLE//video

A link for flexible/adaptable architecture.
The way I interpret flexible architecture is that something is adaptable to a certain situation or climate. This video shows architecture revolving and adapting to the climate...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwDG2Vj9xCw

FLEXIBLE ARCHITECTURE

Flexible - adaption .. to what?

Before designing, the main adaption an architect needs to make is to its surroundings, the site, the neighbours.. Is it in a concrete jungle city, a deep forest or on sand beds in Dubai??

Casa Tolo is a great example of a design adapting to the steep natural contours of the site ....

MOBILE ARCHITECTURE

The following link from a student exploring the uses of mobile architecture for emergency responses.

http://architectureforemergencyresponses.blogspot.com/p/mobile-architecture.html

WEEK 2//

Week 2//

This semesters first assignment is to do with Canberra's parliament. With 4 theme groups, flexible, mobile, virtual and distributed. Im sure everyone is just as confused as I am at this point as to how Canberra's parliament can be 'virtual' through architectural implications. So to start off, we are analysing what we think all four theme groups are. The biggest challenge I found was how to analyse each theme without thinking the obvious. For example, Flexible: you think jelly, stretchy or rubbery. Distributed: Separate items distributed apart? Virtual: Technology or virtual reality and Mobile: Something transportable. We were basically told to not think of the obvious and dig a little deeper. Which for me personally, does not come naturally. Here is what we found so far...

FLEXIBLE:

Flexible architecture can be described from a building that has a 'stretchy' or 'rubbery' material creating the typical flexible form, to a building that is adaptable to different situations.

When discussing the term 'flexible', the main words used were; changeable, adaptable, framework, interactivity.

Adaptable is described as being able to adjust to new conditions.

light & sound

light// How can light be flexible within architecture? Different shades of light, to create different emotions, different perceptions or transitions into different spaces.

sound// Having control over the way sound moves throughout a space, how it is reflected. How does this affect the user within the space?

The rotating tower - an over exaggerated use of flexibility/adaptiveness within architecture. The ability to adapt according to the direction of the sun's path.

VIRTUAL:

Virtual architecture is separate from physical architecture.

How a person perceives a space.

Virtual architecture// the way someone moves through a space and perceives a certain perception, intentional or non intentional. everyones perception could be completely different.

How can it benefit Australia?

-Eliminates distance effectively

-Instant, temporary architecture

-Streamlines the users experience

MOBILE:

Movability, transporting; people/ideas/resources/minds/perceptions.

What is mobile within a building?

Transportable/portable/transformable. Is it physical part of the architecture? Not physical at all?