Week 02 // Social & Cultural Design Charrette

Urban // Car-Free Environment

The possible future scenario of introducing a congestion charge to the Brisbane CBD is an intriguing concept.  Limiting the amount of vehicular traffic in the inner city would mean a move away from our current car dominated streets and a return of the public realm to be more pedestrian and cyclist focused.  The current CBD streets could be re-purposed as community minded spaces and adapted for a variety of uses that better serve the community. 

Possibilities include -

• Increased greenspace / collaborative space
• Increased street activity / markets / events
• Safer / initimate urban form / finer grained street level
• Active local lifestyles / greater amenity for pedestrians and cyclists
• Re-purposing of obsolete multistorey carparks
• Better air quality / cleaner streets and rainwater run-off
• Localised artisanal businesses / demise of large supermarkets

*As an inner city apartment dweller for almost 10 years, this possibility has special meaning for me. I can imagine myself in this scenario very easily.  I feel this would be a liberating future for all my fellow inner city neighbours around me and that I would have better opportunity to lead a more sustainable lifestyle with greater opportunity to connect with those living alongside me.
 

Suburban // Sustainable Retail Experiences

The traditional retail experience is already being challenged by the continual growth and success of online trading. To consider Paddington Central in a future where the customer experience in a physical retail space is of greater importance than selling the vendor's products is an exciting scenario.

Possibilities include -

• Event based retail spaces: each individual product is located in a lifestyle setting where customers are invited into the space for a learning or entertainment focused event.  Customers can experience the use and appreciate the qualities of each product in a suggested setting or proposed event.
• Increased real and/or percieved value of each product: Bulk display of products on shelves are no longer a strategy used in retail spaces. Products would appear more "precious" and possibly more desirable due to being viewed as one individual item rather than in mass numbers.
• Mass storage is concealed and located off-site in central automated distribution warehousing facilities. This would mean less overall transportation of stock and allow bulk distribution via courier and postage to various postcodes

*Paddington is one of my favourite inner city suburbs.  One of my favourite things to do on a sunny weekend is to have brunch at Anouk with friends and wander through Paddington visiting all the local shops lining Latrobe and Given Terrace. I love the sunny, laid-back community atmosphere, all the great restaurants and cafes, vintage op-shops, homeware stores, boutique food outlets and most of all the retaining of so many original Queenslander style cottages and grand homes.

 
Regional // Self-Sufficient Community

The Woodford site as a self-sufficient community poses a scenario where immediately Utopian concepts come to mind.  The possibility that the community would be able to produce its own food, build shelter using local materials and craftsmenship, generate its own energy needs and capture rainwater are the obvious considerations. Self-sufficiency would provide a host of challenges and opportunities. Possibilities include -

• An alternative economy to the current capitalist model / trading skills and labour between other like minded communities?
• Avoiding enclaves for the privileged few who can afford to live in "eco-villages".
• Built form that is derived from locally available materials/ resources managed in a sustainable framework of harvesting and replenishing.
• Built form that is a "living machine" able to provide resources/ sustenance and adaptable for a variety of uses.
• Open learning and knowledge sharing / collaboration without reservation of IP / Observe and Interact without fear.
• Permaculture Principles: Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback / Produce No Waste (Holmgren, 2002)

Week 02 Tutorial Mapping - Regional

 * An ongoing interest in Permaculture design principles meant that I immediately associated this scenario of self-sufficiency with Permaculture.  However, I also understand that the idea is to possibly move beyond Permaculture and consider additional concepts regarding what the meaning and definition of self-sufficiency could encompass in a technologically driven future with virtual integration.


Virtual // Strategies for All Regions

The World Wide Web has fundamentally changed how we go about our daily lives in a short extent of time.  Considering what the future might be like where the virtual world is somehow integral to the physical world is difficult to fathom when the pace of technological advancement appears to be moving at a much faster rate than our human ability to comprehend the possible ethical consequences. There are positive and negative arguments for an ever increasing virtual reality becoming enmeshed with our physical reality.  Possibilities include -

• Smart public transportation systems customised to user location and destinations with automated updates leading to greater transport efficiency
• Purchase of items without any type of transaction physical or otherwise required due to automated virtual recognition systems as a network overlay 
• Live data download and upload for continual information updates based on lifestyle needs and knowledge sharing
• Smart virtual selves able to legally perform pre-loaded virtual tasks
• Tension between greater efficiency allowing more to be achieved and the need to move away from a sedentary lifestyle leading to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and heart disease / virtual network accessible from any location and therefore renders the need to be at the desk obsolete?
• Instantaneous events and community mobilisation: the physical environment is adapted to become highly manoeuvrable.

 

 

Week 02 Tutorial Mapping - Virtual