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Ground Control: A New Methodology for the Creation of Urban Realm within the Urban Core

Part 2 Project 2019
Joseph Earley
 Leeds Beckett University | UK
G R O U N D C O N T R O L:
A New Methodology for the Creation of Public Architecture within the Urban Core.


The methodology comprises of six key stages:


Stage 1 Building an image of the City Centre

Stage 2 Identifying the most catalytic site for intervention

Stage 3 Realigning the city centre with key public assets

Stage 4 Prioritising the pedestrian

Stage 5 Learning from seminal public architecture

Stage 6 Testing a new form of open urban housing on the site.



This process has three primary objectives:


a) To realign the UK city centre with key public assets

b) To oppose the modern proliferation of closed gated communities in urban cores

c) To challenge the binary notions of public and private space in pursuit of inclusivity



The methodology is built from a study of several historical and contemporary figures:


Richard Sennett’s distinction between open and closed design

Jan Gehl’s distinction between the citizen and the consumer

Edmund Bacon’s text on the realignment of 16th Century Rome by Pope Sxitus V

Robin Evans’ texts on the on-going privatisation of the home

Carlo Scarpa’s haptic materiality, and his junctions between old & new


Tutor(s)
2019
Mapping exercise to identify a site whose restructuring would be the most effective catalyst for the realignment of Leeds City Centre with Public Assets.
Breaking through the city block (like Pope Sixtus V’s 16th Century restructuring of Rome). The resulting pedestrian connection realigns Leeds City Centre with two of its most important public assets: Leeds Art Gallery and Leeds Railway Station.
Importing specific aspects of seminal pieces of public architecture to form an urban skeleton for the new route.
Grafting in a new concept of open urban housing, whereby the traditional private house is broken open and provides domestic functions for both private residents and the general public.
Southwest axonometric illustrating how the scheme cuts through the city block, reconnecting the currently isolated pieces of public realm to the north and south.
Site plan illustrating how the scheme responds to the footprints and entrances of the existing buildings within the city block; most existing buildings are respected, however specific ground floors are invaded to develop figure-ground porosity. The propos
Cut-away axonometric illustrating the overall urban form of the scheme. Each of the buildings provides a different domestic function for residents and the general public. A mixture of scales provides both places of pedestrian intimacy and urban landmarks
Rendered view looking north through the scheme. The buildings in the foreground experiment with the treatment of the envelope in the city centre by pushing and pulling external walls & canopies and implying volumes. Experimenting with the treatment of har
Rendered view looking north through the northern complex. The architecture plays on the form of the Roman Impluvium to create an esoteric break-out within the city centre, at a pedestrian scale. Covered urban furniture provides protected places for member
Rendered view from inside the communal kitchen. The architectural language concentrates on permeability and structural connection in order to break down the concepts of inside & outside and public & private.
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