Team 4 IDEAS IDEAS IDEAS

Our collaborative process started with each person pitching their ideas to the group. From this, we pulled out key ideas and themes that resonated with the group. We seem to share many common threads...

Finger's Secret Sex Parlour
- How can we create hidden spaces that reveal and conceal...

Major's Complex
- Urban maze, vessels - considering the space in between

Licky Dome
- What can we learn from old Bucky Fuller - reuse of materials? Geodesic domes?

Woodsman Clearing
- Handmade city - theatre - many viewpoints

Those Dirty Flags
- Shade - Protection - Bringing in some politics

Muttley's Crew
- House of memory - we are puppets reforming the city

Sheep's Intestines
- The sheep is the house...

Island of Dr Fogey
- Urban hospice - quarantine - another country

Dockland's Anonymous
- Who is the community of docklands? - Self help architecture

Pinball
- What is the game? Who are the characters? The site is a crash landing pad

We then split into groups to further develop and discuss these starting points. How much can we push the rules of this challenge?

Some ideas that keep coming up:
- How can we suggest a design for the healing of the docklands - an urban site in crisis? How can urban design and architecture provide therapy, a place for exchange, intimacy and healing? What objects or furniture allow this to transpire?

- The tension between design/architecture as object and as performance. It stands alone, yet invites people to inhabit it and come together. What rituals can be embedded into the space? How to entice locals to the site, to be part of the offerings of the site?

A return to the brief: "Implanting activity" is the imperative. We noticed that other teams had quite different and sometimes much more specific briefs in terms of outcomes and materials. Curative activities to stem the suicidal tendencies of the site seemed important.

In the shed early evening, we began to sketch out these ideas, with the elements of a ramp, table and doorway forming a base structure from which to weave the more transient and ephemeral components of the design. The conceptual thinking around these three elements runs as follows: the table is what brings people together; the ramp intersecting with the table changes the relationship of a person to the table as they ascend the ramp - this affords different exchanges/activities at different points along the table. The table can have different things embedded or placed on it along its length. The doorway acts a transformational gateway into the space and depending on how it is scaled could offer different kinds of experiences. The engineer signed off on this base structure, so we have the green light to start building!

A small note on ergonomics: The question was raised about how un/comfortable it would be to sit at the table given the slope of the ramp. One would be unbalanced in the buttocks. The idea of butt or arse chocks was introduced to alleviate this potential issue.

Here are a few snapshots of ideas sketched out and worked over:







Watch a timelapse movie of our sketching.

It was getting cold in the big shed, so we decided to relocate to a warmer place for more scheming. We also decided that sleeping on our ideas might also be a good thing. We ended the night with a plan of action for the next day and allocated tasks to all members of the team.