PROJECT 3.
PARKLIFE
Mapping use and processes
AIMS
We will continue our investigations into TV through further site visits (including an overnight stay), desktop research, seminars and drawn explorations to:
• Develop an understanding of the processes that allow the productive park to operate
• Develop and assess methods for understanding the needs and aspirations of the park’s users, our potential future ‘clients’
• Propose and test techniques for graphically representing use and processes within the park and specific buildings
• Refine techniques for conveying character and narrative through photographs and drawings
• Develop techniques for surveying an existing productive place, and potential site
BRIEF
1. A productive ecology
Process flow diagram, Impala Platinum Impala Platinum Holdings Limited (Implats)
Process cycle / diagrammatic section, Carbon cycle GRID-Arendal, United Nations Environment Programme
ECOLOGY from Greek: oikos, “house, dwellingplace, housekeeping, or living relations”
Every productive park is an ecology, a complex matrix of inputs and outputs, elements and forces that contribute to the form, use and character of the place. Any engagement with the park requires an understanding of these ‘living relations’. Consequently the existing ecology of the park needs to be observed, drawn and analysed in an attempt to gain insights into its productive potential.
You are to research how your productive park is used and graphically represent its ecology – the inputs, outputs and constituent parts.
• What information do you already have about your site? What do you need to collect? What will you realistically fail to collect given the restraints? How do you assess which bits of research to focus your efforts upon?
• What existing diagrams have you seen that would be appropriate to your site ecology? Appropriate them as the starting point to make your own diagrams.
• The statistical analysis of Project 1 highlighted the potential for statistical information to be misleading. How can you test your drawing is both accessible and accurate?
• How might you convey the character of your park and its ecology in your graphical representations?
Graphic Presentation Brinton, Willard Cope, Brinton Associates, New York, 1939, p45
2. A day in the life
A city can be defined as a collection of citizens as well as a collection of forms. The overall shape of the city may be established by a designer (architect, planner, council or developer) but its use, adaptation and subsequent character is generally defined by its users. The people that use the productive parks of the Thames Valley have different needs and aspirations yet it is likely that there are shared, typical themes, particularly within each park. To understand the Valley’s post-suburban archetype we must first learn to understand the needs and aspirations of its typical citizens.
Identify one or more typical characters in your archetypal park and graphically represent a day in their life, illustrating both their needs and aspirations.
2.1 Research the users of the productive park
Meaningful engagement with a community can take a very long time, as shown by the years it takes to make any insightful documentary. The studio does not have the luxury of this time frame, nor are you likely to in your professional life. You need to develop a number of methods for quickly and efficiently gaining an understanding of your residents. The following summary outlines the main methodologies. Explore and test their relevance for your productive park.
A. Quantitative research
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Benjamin Disraeli, British Politician 1804-1881
Demography is the study of population through statistics. Many relevant statistics can be found in the census; the 2001 figures for TV are all available online (www.nomisweb.co.uk), as we explored in Project 1. These statistics claim to be direct and so could be described as fact. However you must consider the context of the statistic and use them with care. If there isn’t the statistic you need then consider gathering it yourself or exploring other sources e.g. ACORN
What relevance, if any, does each statistic have to your other research? How might it be combined with other statistics to create a more general overview? Are there any statistics within your grid square that contradict each other?
B. Qualitative Research
In contrast to the generic, large-sample methods of quantitative research, qualitative research relies upon smaller, more carefully chosen examples to provide a more in-depth understanding of a specific situation. Methods include:
B1. Direct observation
Used in projects 1 and 2 this is the most familiar aspect of research to architects and you should continue to use it, particularly when considering user adaptation. Record your observations through on-site drawings and photographs.
B2. Personal interviews
Interviews can either be formal (pre-planned questions and recorded answers) or informal (noted down afterwards). Consider whether your investigations would benefit from answers to a fixed set of questions or more spontaneous conversations.
B3. Analysis of documents and materials
Local Newspapers
Web sources
Marketing material
Films and documentaries (Youtube, BFI)
Adverts – TV and print
Estate agents websites and windows
Development agency materials e.g. station lobby presentation boards
2.2 Define a typical character
‘Public’ and ‘Private’ are terms that lie at the heart of architectural design. When designing for the Private an architect often designs for a specific, known user, or for a clearly defined demographic. The Public, by contrast, is far less defined. The Public should always be thought of as The Publics, with the plural reminding us that the public collective – Valley, Park, Building – is made up of a diverse range of individuals, with differing, and often conflicting, needs and aspirations. Many of the productive parks are built or developed speculatively, with a generic company full of generic workers in mind. In many ways therefore the buildings can be considered as Public, albeit a very specific and controlled selection of the Public.
When designing it is essential to have some notion of the spectrum of these differences and so it is useful to develop a sense of the typical constituents of that public. Typical is a loose phrase, option to interpretation. Some readings of typical you may consider:
- the most common types, as defined by the Census 2001 statistics
- characters that you feel most typify your situation
- real people you have met, or read about in the local paper
- fictional characters, based upon your research
- demographic groups e.g. Mondeo Man, Hockey Mums
Every point you define about your typical characters should be backed up with quantitative or qualitative research that is collected from your productive park, or elsewhere in TV.
Lazy, inaccurate stereotypes should be avoided.
How might you define a character’s needs and aspirations?
Consider the following:
Statistical profile – age, socio-economic group, employment, home ownership status, marital status
Behaviour – transport preferences, shopping habits, politics, cultural engagement, holidays
Aesthetic – home, garden, car, clothes, accessories, likes and dislikes
History – background, class, reasons for working and/or living in TV
Future – location, home, employment
This list is suggestive, not exhaustive.
2.3 Graphically represent a day in the life of your typical character(s)
Ultimately you will be making a design proposal for members of the publics who use your productive park. These typical characters are your future client, their needs and aspirations your future brief.
The process of developing a written brief into a spatial proposal is complex. To encourage a strong connection between brief and proposal it is useful to accurately record the way your future clients currently use their built environment, from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep. Through careful observation and recording of everyday inhabitation you can gain an understanding of the give-and-take relationship between people and the environment that surrounds them.
The following examples illustrate methods for representing a day in the life of your characters:
Mulholland Drive
Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio, 1980
David Hockney
Media: Collage, images cut out from 1950s American magazines and glued on card backing
Method: iconic elements of popular culture combined to create a fictional room, inhabited by fictional characters, to convey the character, aesthetics and concerns of the modern age.
Brinton, Willard Cope, Brinton Associates, New York, 1939, p97
Brinton, Willard Cope, Brinton Associates, New York, 1939, p97
Method: A 100% bar chart provides the structure for a series of spatial experiences illustrating the main subject.
The Acme Novelty Library, Chris Ware, 2005
The Acme Novelty Library, Chris Ware, 2005
Method: A single elevation of a building provides a backdrop against which a number of related storyboards are superimposed, using both traditional comic book conventions and flow diagram graphics.
3. Surveying the connections
The Thames Valley is a poly-centric city that has evolved over thousands of years around a complex network of communication and transport infrastructure. In general, productive parks are located at nodes in this network - motorway junctions, airports, railway stations, river crossings. Looking closer at the parks themselves it seems they have their own networks, with a series of legible nodes.
Node comes from the Latin ‘nodus’ for knot. It is a point of connection, a tying together of routes but also the point of greatest friction, where the most heat is generated. In this respect it is like a centre, yet it lacks the centre’s hiearchical importance; it is one of many similar but different connection points. Specifically generic.
An understanding of the nature, use and character of these nodes is essential to understanding the way the park works. Careful analysis will lead to propositional representation and the beginnings of a design for TVs new centres of production.
3.1 Produce a diagram of your park as a network, showing the relative significance of each node.
What constitutes the elements that make up the network? Roads? Paths? Communications routes? Fox trails? etc
What constitutes the nodes of the network? Building(s)? Space(s)? A geographical point? A social or cultural point?
A virtual space? A newspaper, noticeboard, green, public house, church, garden, cul-de-sac?
3.2 Photograph a series of nodes in your park, in a similar manner to your lexicon.
Who defines the nodes? What are their similarities? And their differences?
3.3 Select the node you find most interesting. Write minimum 250 words why.
This will be your detailed site of inquiry. Your Site. Make an initial choice based on intuition. This will then require further investigations and extensive post-rationalisation.
3.4 Make a considered photographic survey of your chosen node
Aim to capture the form, use and character of your node.
3.5 Accurate, computer produced, beautiful scale drawings of your chosen node including min.:
3.5.1 one plan – at what height do you take your plan?
3.5.2 two sections – long, short, along a route?
3.5.3 one elevation – how far does your context need to go?
The scale of your drawings will depend upon the scale of your centre but you should aim for each drawing to be minimum A3. Consider the use of colour, line weights and tone. The drawings should not only show the precise scale of the drawn elements but they should convey their character.
Second years, note, these drawings will form the basis of your first DMR submission.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
1.1 A1 drawing of the ecology of the park
1.2 prep work, including precedent diagrams, research carried out, initial drawings
2.1 day in the life – format as appropriate e.g. A1 sheet, bound book, scroll, etc
2.2 prep work, including precedent format, research carried out, character summary, initial story boards
3.1 a diagram of your park as a network, showing the relative significance of each node.
3.2 photographs of a series of nodes in your park, printed 150mm wide x 100mm high or as a bound book
3.3 written description of why node selected, 250 words minimum.
3.4 a high quality, considered photographic survey of your selected node.
3.5 accurate, computer produced, beautiful scale drawings of your chosen node, including min.:
3.5.1 one plan
3.5.2 two sections
3.5.3 one elevation
plus additional drawings, as discussed and agreed with your tutors.
REFERENCES
• VENTURI, SCOTT-BROWN AND IZENOUR, Learning From Las Vegas, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1972
A PRODUCTIVE ECOLOGY
• WILLARD COPE BRINTON, Graphic Presentation, Brinton Associates, New York, 1939
online at: http://www.archive.org/details/graphicpresentat00brinrich
• EDWARD TUFTE, Envisioning Information, Graphics Press USA, 1990
• www.sankey-diagrams.com
• infosthetics.com
A DAY IN THE LIFE
• DAVID HOCKNEY & NIKOS STANGOS, That’s the Way I See It, Thames & Hudson,1999
• CHRIS WARE, The Acme Novelty Library, Jonathan Cape Ltd 2005
SURVEYING THE CONNECTIONS
• FRANCIS CHING, Architectural Graphics, John Wiley & Sons, 3rd Ed. 1996
