Week 5 and Mid-semester Break, Chongqing - MadLab

In week two, Dr. Hausler (Hank) brought up an opportunity to partake in a COFA based overseas design workshop in Chongqing, China.

Brief:

The high-rise shopping and office core area of Guanyingchao is best experienced in the evening when tens of thousands dance, promenade, dine and enjoy in an extraordinary flow of humanity. This dynamic of urban attractions and commercial activity is quickly spreading.

Location 1: Jiu Jie – 9th Street

A building owner has under-performing retail and restaurant space with occupied residential towers above and adjacent. The location is poorly defined and the street is difficult to cross. The proposition is comprehensive adaptation as an entertainment district with bars, lounges, eateries, event venues, entrepreneurial hubs, public art, music, interactivities, public open space – and other functions that extend the general theme. The place will be for Chongqingers (mainly) with their own cultures, but who are changing and open to – often hungry for - new ideas and activities.

Location 2: Main Square

A substantial outdoor public sculpture on the entry plinth to a shopping building with cinemas. What is it to be distinctive and noticeable in a visually and audibly chaotic context?

Brief With Sam and Matthew Priestman (Co-chairs of CQubed)

· Middle class is a huge focal point

· Focusing on western luxuries

· The ability to buy a trivial object and that the purchase will not have an impact on their fiscal future.

· Lack of computer use mixture of social hierarchy reasons and technical reasons.

· A contractual agreement does not really exist. Trust is a massive factor and building relationships are key to establishing business.

· Chongqing was the capital of china in the second world war

· Large manufacturing city

· Bottom up activity

· City’s must be contextual, ie: economically contextual, social contextual

· Dancers and performers in the streets

· Make the area more pedestrian friendly

· Entertainment precinct

· Can we add new functions

· Commercial, work and residential spaces

· How can we occupy higher levels

· Prosthetic architecture

· Space syntax data modelling company

· Interactive pavements/interactive instillations

· Connecting cities

· Modular spaces

· Hyper personable, yet regular

My Pitch

I approached the redesign of Jiu Jie (9th Street) through the lens of computational Design, capitalising on the data driven response to architecture that Grasshopper can achieve.

Arriving at the site is like a blind man clapping in a pharmacy, trying to eco-locate the contact lens fluid - you feel lost. One is overwhelmed with the possibility of movement throughout the space but with no way to actually move.

With inspiration from Chinese mythology, the dragon (Long) and the traditional Ba Mountain culture, seen through the weaving form of the bridge, juxtaposed by the towering structures that it connects. Building upon this theme I envisioned a network of kiosks that are parametrically designed. These form the terminal for a large-scale interactive experience where commerce and art combine.

Shoppers will buy merchandise from designed kiosks on ground level that are leased out to companies on a short term basis. Data from these transactions will be artistically represented on the facade of the bridge through a network of LED's , as if to comment on the social climate of the specific site.

Lastly, the bridge network’s name The Long Ba, (spelling error? No, it's a play on words) will become the world's longest commercial entertainment establishment (a bar), where Chinese business culture of excessive drinking, socialising and other entertainment activities will take place.

This design concept is highly site specific and I feel it is needed in a crucial hub like Jiu Jie.

I this has been an incredible experience and all knowledge gained about how to work with others and in teams, computational design, visualisation, timeliness, client relations, working to a brief and more to my studio project back in Sydney.