Week 10 -Defining Future Scenario/Site Selection

Images and works highlighting factors within my future scenario

Future technologies such as this will enable so many new things to be done. Works cultures will begin a fundamental change by 2030, with an ever increasing amount of people conducting their work from mobile locations. This will create redundancies in CBD office space, with an increasing focus on buildings being mixed-use. This technology will also help this process, with its inclusion within pods allowing for real multi purpose usage.

Systems similar to this can be implemented to quickly create different variations of pods, based on simple template. These units can be pre-fabricated off-site, then easily installed into structural systems. Creating a graphic such as this, would also be useful in my final presentation for explaining the construction process of pods and building retrofits. 

Times Square in New York is an excellent precedent for what my chosen site may work towards becoming in the future.  One can draw inspiration from how it has become such an iconic landmark, but also learn from the mistakes that have made this space sometimes chaotic and difficult to pass through. By closing the space off to automobiles, Brisbane's Queen Street has already done a key thing that New York's Times Square has not.

Another iconic crossroads within a world city is London's Piccadilly Circus. Currently it is more similar in scale to how I see central Queen Street becoming in the future; Times Square is vast. Again, traffic running through this area divides and congests it.

One thing to draw from both of the iconic locations mentioned above is their names. They have a name for the specific site,  thus giving them identity. This is currently not the situation in Brisbane. The site is known merely as the juncture of two streets or colloquially; 'outside hungry jacks'. If this is to change in Brisbane creating an iconic space at the heart of the city, it requires a 'label' that everyone can refer and relate to.

This graphic from 2003, illustrates future pedestrian bridges and through-city routes proposed by the Brisbane City Council. Some of which have already been built, re-enforcing my predictions (below).

Possible extent of pedestrianized streets by 2030. Although streets on the CBD periphery such as William Street, Alice Street and Eagle Street would most likely remain open to traffic. For public access and so deliveries can be made.

Design for Abode Tower in Melbourne currently under construction.  Drawing inspiration from this facade, a retrofitted pod tower doesn't necessarily have to possess a particularly disjunct form. In reality, I envision that the 'pod towers' of the future might perhaps be very sleek and attractive.

Possible 2060 Brisbane subway map -London Underground Style.

Okay by 2030, of course this much infrastructure will not be built in Brisbane. But this image can give an indication, as to the improved connectivity I foresee within the city center.