Saturday, July 30, 2011
Narrative - A Possible Journey of a Wanderer Through the Docklands
I was wandering through the Melbourne Docklands, bored and a little cold. What a desolate and empty place! Maybe it's time to get out of here - back to the city. Turning up the Harbour Esplanade towards the tram, gin was the only thing that could save this day for me.
As I approached the bar, I noticed a strange, slatted grey box, seemingly waving in the wind. This wasn't here last time! Coming from behind I could hear music and crashing as well as what seemed to be the rhythmic whirr of an exercise bike! Curiosity overcomes me and I walk around the corner, and creep nervously down the dark glossy black corridor, noticing a nice warm volume to my right - maybe I can hunker down here to warm up? But curiosity draws me further past a dimly lit, dusty chandelier.
I enter a bustling space, full of people talking and brushing past me. A very strange man in a turquoise suit greets me warmly and asks me to take a seat while he arranges my consultation.
Consultation? I want a gin, not therapy!
But before I can explain I am swept off and seated in a giant black, ominously suggestive leather throne. Here my consultation begins. "Yes, it's a severe case... I'm the resident specialist and you have a severe case of Docklands Development Disorder - symptoms being boredom, loneliness, spatial disorientation, anxiety and the desire for a stiff drink.
He runs through a series of questions asking me about spaces I love, and how the Docklands makes me feel. From there I'm asked to jump on a modified trampoline, ride a rather dog-like exercise bike, crawl into a box before I finally approach the 'operating table', which seems to be a hub of activity.
People draw, people drink, people sit, people stand, people talk, people listen, people watch, lie, lean, run, jump, kiss, slide, yell.
I walk up the crimson ramp next to the table. This table seems tall at one end, and is gradually swallowed by the ramps towards the end. It's a table for all heights. I'm handed an "arse chuck" - a strange thing which a lovely blonde girl hands me - I am confused until she gestures - I take the wedge and find a spot, sitting on the ramp at the table.
My seat tilts me to my neighbour - a clean cut guy wearing a channel seven name-badge. He chats to me about his experience about this very strange place. What a hoot! Finally a little bit of life, surprise and unpredictability in the Docklands!
I had thought for a long time that the Docklands had no reason for me to stay - but perhaps this thing is what is needed! A place where we can rethink urban space and what the city means to us. A place where we can construct and deconstruct and enables us to choose how we would like to inhabit our urban landscapes. I really feel like the bigwigs are watching and listening to this.
Later on, I'm standing at the top of the ramp looking over the restless harbour. Maybe I'll give the Docklands another chance!
Sitting in the Consultation Chair:
Decontaminating:
Riding the bike into the forest:
Sitting on the arse chocks at the Operating Table:
As I approached the bar, I noticed a strange, slatted grey box, seemingly waving in the wind. This wasn't here last time! Coming from behind I could hear music and crashing as well as what seemed to be the rhythmic whirr of an exercise bike! Curiosity overcomes me and I walk around the corner, and creep nervously down the dark glossy black corridor, noticing a nice warm volume to my right - maybe I can hunker down here to warm up? But curiosity draws me further past a dimly lit, dusty chandelier.
I enter a bustling space, full of people talking and brushing past me. A very strange man in a turquoise suit greets me warmly and asks me to take a seat while he arranges my consultation.
Consultation? I want a gin, not therapy!
But before I can explain I am swept off and seated in a giant black, ominously suggestive leather throne. Here my consultation begins. "Yes, it's a severe case... I'm the resident specialist and you have a severe case of Docklands Development Disorder - symptoms being boredom, loneliness, spatial disorientation, anxiety and the desire for a stiff drink.
He runs through a series of questions asking me about spaces I love, and how the Docklands makes me feel. From there I'm asked to jump on a modified trampoline, ride a rather dog-like exercise bike, crawl into a box before I finally approach the 'operating table', which seems to be a hub of activity.
People draw, people drink, people sit, people stand, people talk, people listen, people watch, lie, lean, run, jump, kiss, slide, yell.
I walk up the crimson ramp next to the table. This table seems tall at one end, and is gradually swallowed by the ramps towards the end. It's a table for all heights. I'm handed an "arse chuck" - a strange thing which a lovely blonde girl hands me - I am confused until she gestures - I take the wedge and find a spot, sitting on the ramp at the table.
My seat tilts me to my neighbour - a clean cut guy wearing a channel seven name-badge. He chats to me about his experience about this very strange place. What a hoot! Finally a little bit of life, surprise and unpredictability in the Docklands!
I had thought for a long time that the Docklands had no reason for me to stay - but perhaps this thing is what is needed! A place where we can rethink urban space and what the city means to us. A place where we can construct and deconstruct and enables us to choose how we would like to inhabit our urban landscapes. I really feel like the bigwigs are watching and listening to this.
Later on, I'm standing at the top of the ramp looking over the restless harbour. Maybe I'll give the Docklands another chance!
Sitting in the Consultation Chair:
Decontaminating:
Riding the bike into the forest:
Sitting on the arse chocks at the Operating Table:
Team 8: Urban Transplant
The notions of the multilayered design we have uncovered in the process of making, designing and working as a team are found in the sensitive idea of transplanting what we find lacking in the site: soul.
The contextual situation of our site, our finding of the site, and the very restriction of not being able to work with the grassy ground have pushed our design. We aim to demonstrate the artificial nature of the site [literally not grounded, and situated above water] by responding with a suspended weed garden. The plants are hanging from a structure that speaks with the pylons in the water on the edge. A clear visual connection is achieved by mimicking their grid and slight tilts as well as the outfit of the white caps.
Urban transplant is aiming to install a dynamic, responsive [and subversive] urban micro ecology.
Over time is is expected that the weeds and the cardboard structure will disintegrate and colonize the space and the surroundings. The colonizing agents will spread through wind and human/ animal interaction. We thereby create a second nature of an unknown future colonization which will generate new form and urban design based on the ideas of sustainable systems.
The contextual situation of our site, our finding of the site, and the very restriction of not being able to work with the grassy ground have pushed our design. We aim to demonstrate the artificial nature of the site [literally not grounded, and situated above water] by responding with a suspended weed garden. The plants are hanging from a structure that speaks with the pylons in the water on the edge. A clear visual connection is achieved by mimicking their grid and slight tilts as well as the outfit of the white caps.
Urban transplant is aiming to install a dynamic, responsive [and subversive] urban micro ecology.Over time is is expected that the weeds and the cardboard structure will disintegrate and colonize the space and the surroundings. The colonizing agents will spread through wind and human/ animal interaction. We thereby create a second nature of an unknown future colonization which will generate new form and urban design based on the ideas of sustainable systems.
The Final Hour. (48 minutes actually..)
Urban Graft.
The process is coming to a close, and we seem to be the only team successfully completed due to the other participants running frantically with ladders and plastic bags (what could they be building?) Maybe it's because we are the only team that worked all through the night on site.
Miskom, our own dream team of varied designers, landscape architects, artists, producers and media relations pro's, have managed to pull together a magnificent structure that embodies all that we dreamed and hoped of three days ago, and more.
The dream? Was easy. Sustainability. Ecology. Tactile. Beauty. The results? All and more. Our objective from everyone collectively, was that all would contribute and work on the design together. It has been a work of process, based on time and time in the end being a form of art that built our Urban Graft. Our ability to work together, and learn from each other, from our differentiating skills and minds, has also contributed to our structure of urban reality.
Our graft, built of mostly recycled materials, due to our ability to make the most of our highly dense area of construction, has managed to fufill the brief in all. The stitched together bandaged skin that is healing the inner shell of nature, surreal reality, and the consumable lifestyle of the harbour town site. The value of plants hanging from their roots, in a landscape bound to fail, and a house that is far from the serious, contributes to the site of the sick amusement corner, and the site that appears to be a deadened of humble values. However, just behind there is a piece of beauty in the Mooney Ponds Creek, with the reminiscent of the original wetlands of the docklands site. Bringing nature back into its place, and creating a site of reflection, peace, free and a place of play we have in all contributed to our collective ethos, concept and brief.
Photo gallery to illustrate our process coming next!
The process is coming to a close, and we seem to be the only team successfully completed due to the other participants running frantically with ladders and plastic bags (what could they be building?) Maybe it's because we are the only team that worked all through the night on site.
Miskom, our own dream team of varied designers, landscape architects, artists, producers and media relations pro's, have managed to pull together a magnificent structure that embodies all that we dreamed and hoped of three days ago, and more.
The dream? Was easy. Sustainability. Ecology. Tactile. Beauty. The results? All and more. Our objective from everyone collectively, was that all would contribute and work on the design together. It has been a work of process, based on time and time in the end being a form of art that built our Urban Graft. Our ability to work together, and learn from each other, from our differentiating skills and minds, has also contributed to our structure of urban reality.
Our graft, built of mostly recycled materials, due to our ability to make the most of our highly dense area of construction, has managed to fufill the brief in all. The stitched together bandaged skin that is healing the inner shell of nature, surreal reality, and the consumable lifestyle of the harbour town site. The value of plants hanging from their roots, in a landscape bound to fail, and a house that is far from the serious, contributes to the site of the sick amusement corner, and the site that appears to be a deadened of humble values. However, just behind there is a piece of beauty in the Mooney Ponds Creek, with the reminiscent of the original wetlands of the docklands site. Bringing nature back into its place, and creating a site of reflection, peace, free and a place of play we have in all contributed to our collective ethos, concept and brief.
Photo gallery to illustrate our process coming next!
SITE 8: Team X - CAD drawings
As a component of the assessment criteria, below are our CAD drawings:
Team 8: one hour and one minuinte to go
the clock is racing: team 8 has moved through this with amazing team effort!
transplanting material, working as and effective unit of positive energy, now finish up final clean up and enjoy the weather!
transplanting material, working as and effective unit of positive energy, now finish up final clean up and enjoy the weather!
Urban Realities - Site 2 - Urban Filler - Team 7 Blanket Solution - videos
Blanket conversations - Friday
Tara discusses the project
Bottle caps
Tara discusses the project
Bottle caps
Building the Buoy: DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
At our initial meetings we had dreamt up many ideas for what we could build from Doglands, an off the leash meet and great space for the dog owners of the city, to a pig farm that processed the sites waste then provided a nice spit roast lunch on the Saturday! I'm sure many would be relieved to know that these ideas quickly went out the window once we got our site and noted the reality of our context (for full site analysis and the concept behind Dirtybuoy please see our video).
The idea of needing both a more personable scaled space within the plaza and a series of buffer walls arose quite early in the first site discussion, purely on a consensus that without dealing with these two conditions, nothing would work on the site. The initial form of this wall was the idea of construction with milk crates. The concept of constructing from water was also a very early idea that was drawn from the site analysis, in particular the lack of connection with the water on a site that was all about the water. As the day developed we brain stormed over 6 different methods of achieving this outcome of compressed space and protective walls to ensure that we didn't put all our eggs in the one basket, especially in the tight timeframe.
An early favourite emerged after an observation we had on our return from our first site visit. The interlocking modularity of the Fratelle water that the organisers had provided got us all into a flurry of excitement and we began taking over the water supply and playing around with the lego block like units.
The system offered not only stability but an opportunity for storage in a simple system.
It even offered opportunity for integrating infrastructure.
Pretty soon we realised that a whole single single wall would look best but may not offer the best stability! Until we realised that the modulation worked across the bottles too! We were getting way too excited over the Fratelle!
After half a day of try to source the necessary 650 empty Fratelle bottles, we began to investigate other options of achieving the same outcome with an equally simple system. Jeremy's memory of the Hong Kong goldfish markets inspired the sandwich bag that we felt worked doubly as a scientific sample bag reference. On testing it revealed this amazing reflective capacity.
We also had $500 of pantry out our disposal and after seeing the way that light was refracting through the sandwich bag alone, we immediately purchased the lights in the hope that it may provide an interesting night outcome.
As the evening rolled on, we took a group bonding brainstorming session to the nearby COSTCO and nearly wet ourselves with excitement when we stumbled across these 170L tubs for $22! With a plan in sight and 6 ways of potentially achieving it, we signed off the design on Wednesday night and went to bed.
Pretty soon we realised that a whole single single wall would look best but may not offer the best stability! Until we realised that the modulation worked across the bottles too! We were getting way too excited over the Fratelle!
After half a day of try to source the necessary 650 empty Fratelle bottles, we began to investigate other options of achieving the same outcome with an equally simple system. Jeremy's memory of the Hong Kong goldfish markets inspired the sandwich bag that we felt worked doubly as a scientific sample bag reference. On testing it revealed this amazing reflective capacity.
We also had $500 of pantry out our disposal and after seeing the way that light was refracting through the sandwich bag alone, we immediately purchased the lights in the hope that it may provide an interesting night outcome.
As the evening rolled on, we took a group bonding brainstorming session to the nearby COSTCO and nearly wet ourselves with excitement when we stumbled across these 170L tubs for $22! With a plan in sight and 6 ways of potentially achieving it, we signed off the design on Wednesday night and went to bed.
As it turned out on Thursday morning, 4 of the 6 options were not guaranteed to be done by our fireworks deadline of 5pm so we progressed straight to COSTCO and handed over $1300 for 42 tubs.The Urban Disorders Clinic Consultation Session
Our intervention has evolved into the Urban Disorders Clinic under the supervision of Dr Vic Cabal, a specialist in the treatment of the urban epidemic known as the Docklands Development Disorder (DDD). The clinic has been temporarily "implanted" at Site 7 and will be open for consultations from 2pm today. Visitors are encouraged to have a one-on-one consultation with one of our specialists, where they will be diagnosed for the condition of DDD. A range of treatments is available at the clinic. After receiving immediate, short-term treatments, they go into "community re-integration", before being released back into the public realm. Community re-integration takes place at the "Operating Table" - here they can socialise with other visitors (patients), have a drink, warm their hands at the fire, draw on the table with chalk and reflect on their treatment and the long-term rehabilitation of their particular strand of DDD. The treatments available at the clinic include Decontamination Shower, Walking the Dog, Isolation Cell, Nail It, Joy Jump and more. There is also an Intensive Care unit for patients in the Ultrawanker tax bracket.
Below is a simple chart of the Consultation and Treatment session, known as our Diagnostic Tool. This will be drawn on the top of the Operating Table, for reference by our specialists during consultations. Visitors can also annotate the chart and leave their thoughts on the table.
The specialists use the Diagnosis Form to structure the consultation and gather information from patients. The patient takes this form away with them - but before they leave, we will take a photo of it for our records.
Our team will take on the roles of urban disorder specialists/physicians, reception (triage), intensive care and rehabilitation carers.
The whole system is a disruption to the normal conditions on site and in everyday living, playing with the familiar to get people thinking about the possibilities at Docklands. We see it as an apparatus for engaging with the public, simultaneously offering them playful and reflective activities, and enabling us to find out how they feel about the Docklands and its future.
Below is a simple chart of the Consultation and Treatment session, known as our Diagnostic Tool. This will be drawn on the top of the Operating Table, for reference by our specialists during consultations. Visitors can also annotate the chart and leave their thoughts on the table.
The specialists use the Diagnosis Form to structure the consultation and gather information from patients. The patient takes this form away with them - but before they leave, we will take a photo of it for our records.
Our team will take on the roles of urban disorder specialists/physicians, reception (triage), intensive care and rehabilitation carers.The whole system is a disruption to the normal conditions on site and in everyday living, playing with the familiar to get people thinking about the possibilities at Docklands. We see it as an apparatus for engaging with the public, simultaneously offering them playful and reflective activities, and enabling us to find out how they feel about the Docklands and its future.
Building the Buoy: CONSTRUCTION
We started construction 9am thursday and wrapped up 5pm friday.
Our main 'construction' was the collection of water directly from the public marina in front of our site. We used a surveyors pole to measure the different depths taking samples from the surface through to 2m below.
We then pumped directly into the structure via a lookout across the public thoroughfare to alert the public of the trip hazard. This time was also used to test the structural integrity of the main wall. In the above iteration the wall is a tight stretcher bond however the foot and lid system of the boxes meant that this arrangement could not lock into place and therefore could not withstand any horizontal pressure (much like a Jenga block configuration).
At the same time we began to test the moveable wall, assessing the added windload of the bags and established that the best arrangement was alternating rows on the front and bag and staggering the distribution along the rows.
As the construction starts to come together, unexpected effects appear.
Here the two construction systems, side by side, show the rigid order necessary to maintain the structural integrity. As you can see, the solar lights are distributed throughout the stacker wall, all within the same sandwich bags as the moveable wall.
We then pumped directly into the structure via a lookout across the public thoroughfare to alert the public of the trip hazard. This time was also used to test the structural integrity of the main wall. In the above iteration the wall is a tight stretcher bond however the foot and lid system of the boxes meant that this arrangement could not lock into place and therefore could not withstand any horizontal pressure (much like a Jenga block configuration).
At the same time we began to test the moveable wall, assessing the added windload of the bags and established that the best arrangement was alternating rows on the front and bag and staggering the distribution along the rows.
1500 sandwich bags and 3000 mini pegs is a time consuming but safe and therapeutic construction method. Pretty sure there is not a single mini peg left in the greater Melbourne locale!
As the construction starts to come together, unexpected effects appear.
Here the two construction systems, side by side, show the rigid order necessary to maintain the structural integrity. As you can see, the solar lights are distributed throughout the stacker wall, all within the same sandwich bags as the moveable wall.SITE DRAWINGS + RATIONALE
Here are some more formalised drawings of our architectural moves:
SITE PLAN
We have constructed a 2.6m x 10m x 2.5m grey box - an echo of both the past era of shipping containers as well as camouflaging in with the bleak concrete windswept environment that it inhabits. From angles - in particularly towards the city, this box opens to reveal its surreal interior. The contrast between mundane and the hyper experiential acts as a draw card - curiosity and the drive to play drives us towards, into, through and eventually onto our intervention.
The bold, brash and strong move of creating a volume to shield from wind as well as the destructive presence of the penetrating gaze - a presence created by a wing of a nearby bar - enables the space in between the box and the road to be used for anything - you are only limited by your imagination!
To this end we have inhabited the remainder of our site with a collections of 'deployable objects' - the intention being that they can continue to inhabit the site, or they can drift around the docklands, to be eventually replaced with other objects. These objects reflect our individual desires of what we would like to see on in the docklands.
To fulfil our desires, we have managed to collect:
- ply boxes
- gym bike
- reclining chair with footwash basin
- emergency shower
- trampoline
- chandeliers
and other bits and pieces.
In order to imbue the entire scheme with a sense of a past narrative (something we called out as important earlier on in the process) we will ourselves inhabit this space - creating an Urban Disorders Clinic, a space where we can discuss with the public their individual perceived problems with the Docklands. We act as specialists and consult with the public, as well as provide 'treatments' to enable them to alter their perceptions of the Docklands. We also create a space to demonstrate to the Docklands alternate urbanisms which people might desire. Conversations are opened by the strangeness and the sense of play that our intervention creates.
ELEVATIONS
The 'urban camouflage' is constructed of stained timber planks, which are allowed to sway in the wind. The brief gaps in-between give glimpses of the exciting interior. The east face - which opens to the city, displays the black painted horizontal plane of our communal table - painted with chalkboard paint to take the suggestions of the neighbourhood, as well as to tempt engagement.
SECTIONS
Also visible are the two red painted raked planes - these become our landscape to be inhabited, as well as our deployment of things, which aid us in the inhabitation of this landscape, as well as the greater landscape.
SITE PLAN
We have constructed a 2.6m x 10m x 2.5m grey box - an echo of both the past era of shipping containers as well as camouflaging in with the bleak concrete windswept environment that it inhabits. From angles - in particularly towards the city, this box opens to reveal its surreal interior. The contrast between mundane and the hyper experiential acts as a draw card - curiosity and the drive to play drives us towards, into, through and eventually onto our intervention.
The bold, brash and strong move of creating a volume to shield from wind as well as the destructive presence of the penetrating gaze - a presence created by a wing of a nearby bar - enables the space in between the box and the road to be used for anything - you are only limited by your imagination!
To this end we have inhabited the remainder of our site with a collections of 'deployable objects' - the intention being that they can continue to inhabit the site, or they can drift around the docklands, to be eventually replaced with other objects. These objects reflect our individual desires of what we would like to see on in the docklands.
To fulfil our desires, we have managed to collect:
- ply boxes
- gym bike
- reclining chair with footwash basin
- emergency shower
- trampoline
- chandeliers
and other bits and pieces.
In order to imbue the entire scheme with a sense of a past narrative (something we called out as important earlier on in the process) we will ourselves inhabit this space - creating an Urban Disorders Clinic, a space where we can discuss with the public their individual perceived problems with the Docklands. We act as specialists and consult with the public, as well as provide 'treatments' to enable them to alter their perceptions of the Docklands. We also create a space to demonstrate to the Docklands alternate urbanisms which people might desire. Conversations are opened by the strangeness and the sense of play that our intervention creates.
ELEVATIONS
The 'urban camouflage' is constructed of stained timber planks, which are allowed to sway in the wind. The brief gaps in-between give glimpses of the exciting interior. The east face - which opens to the city, displays the black painted horizontal plane of our communal table - painted with chalkboard paint to take the suggestions of the neighbourhood, as well as to tempt engagement.
SECTIONS
Also visible are the two red painted raked planes - these become our landscape to be inhabited, as well as our deployment of things, which aid us in the inhabitation of this landscape, as well as the greater landscape.
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