Briggate: Redefine

This is where things start to get interesting. For our redefinition, we decided to focus on four key elements from the definition that we felt were really integral to the street as it exists.

- Single Use (Retail)

- Single Level (Retail branding restricts eye-line to below first floor)

- Pocket Spaces (The loins and arcades that make the street unique)

- Destination (The street's purpose, in it's current incarnation)

We then talked around the four points and started to explore how we could either change or enhance those existing characteristics. We found that similar solutions or problems started to repeat from the four different starting points, and so we mapped out the thought processes that related to each one. After several iterations of the mapping, we felt we had reached a natural conclusion, or in other words, our redefinition.

So our concept of Briggate was now focused its potential to become a 3-dimensional street. By adding activity above and below the current shopping level we are suggesting a complex and layered streetscape, with the potential to become a compeltely unique destination. The Briggate we currently know is redefined as one third of a system that does not yet exist.

We then felt we should try and represent this concept graphically, and so we sketched a slightly deranged cartoon of the new, redefined Briggate:

Briggate: Define

This is the first of the definition sheets - the colours have gone a bit strange, I'll try and sort that before I upload the second sheet. Click on the image for a closer look anyway.

UPDATE: I have now replaced the image with one showing the correct colours. As you can now see, the image shows a sequence of maps of Briggate, showing:

- the pedestrianised area is marooned by the vehicular main roads looped around the East side, cutting off Briggate and halting the historical north-south flow.
- retail unit sizes vary enormously throughout the area, but there is an overal trend of increasing unit size as you move from north-south down the street
- the area is almost exclusively retail. Other uses are pushed to either end of the street, closer to Boar Lane and The Headrow.

The elevation at the bottom illustrates the inequality in dominance between the historical loins (alleys) against the main streets, grand arcades and key stores. Lengths of shop frontage are marked above the elevation, which again shows a trend for larger shop fronts towards the southern end of the street.

Briggate: Define>Redefine>Propose

You may all be thinking that my design proposal is moving a little slowly, so I thought I should fill you in on the work that is going on in parallel.

Briggate is the main, pedestrianised shopping street in Leeds; if you've ever been shopping in Leeds then you will certainly have been there. The photo below shows a view from the South end looking North.

This street has been the site for our initial design work, which is effectively unrelated to our individual thesis projects. The work has been a combination of group work and individual proposals, and will culminate in around two weeks time. My group has two members - myself and Roger Reeves.

The brief for this project is split into three distinct stages:

Define: This stage is essentially a site analysis, undertaken by seperate tutor groups. For those people unfamilar with the idea, it is the process of gathering information about the site, as diverse, complete and exhaustive as possible, then analysing and presenting that data in a consise way. It is common to concetrate on a small number of key site characteristics once the initial data gathering has been undertaken. In this way, each group will focus on different areas and come up with unique 'definitions' for the area.

Redefine: The brief describes this stage as follows: "Using Briggate as a generator, develop a Narrative addressing defined issues and develop a specific method of approach." We interpreted that to mean all sorts of different things before we finally settled on something we understood. You'll see what we ended up with in a couple of days.

Propose: This stage marks the end of the group work, and we individually propose some sort of 'intervention' that fits within the framework of the group Redefinition. That intervention may be a building, but it could equally be sculptural, landscape, or something completely different. At least, that's what we think so far. This stage is currently ongoing, and I should find out in a couple of weeks whether I've got it completely wrong or not.

I'll post my group's Definition work online tomorrow...

And The Winner Is...

The results of the first reader poll are in and the winner is Fearn's Island, with a convincing 77% of the vote!

Luckily this is by far my favorite site from the shortlist and I have already begun photographing the site and constructing a digital model of the surrounding area. I'll post some of the site photos on the blog over the weekend.

I think it's going to be a bit of a squeeze getting the building on here, but it'll be fun trying. The traditional monastery courtyard layout will be impossible to accomodate, so I'll have to get inventive.

Thank you to everyone for taking part, and after this success I hope to have a new poll up shortly.

Tour of The Black Sheep Brewery

Photos:

1. Casking process

2. Casking process

3. Fermenting

4. Fermenting

5. Mash tun and Copper

(all images downloaded from www.flickr.com)

Here are some images from a tour around The Black Sheep Brewery in Masham, Yorkshire. I would have liked to take pictures myself, but these are sadly banned on the tour. However, they do describe the history of the brewery and the brewing process itself. I think the older part of the brewery (image 5. is clearly the most exciting architecturally, with the sculptural forms of the equipment dominating the space.

I fully recommend the Black Sheep Best Bitter.

Site 5 : The Dark Arches

Photos:
1. Aerial photograph (Google Earth)
2. Bird's Eye view looking North (www.live.com)
3. Bird's Eye view looking East (www.live.com)
4. Bird's Eye view looking South (www.live.com)
5. Bird's Eye view looking West (www.live.com)

The final site on my shortlist is this, a patch of dusty carpark on the banks of the canal and next to the railway station. Admittedly, it's not as quick as it looks to walk to the station (it's on the wrong side) but it's only a few minutes.

I've known about this site for a little while because we based a project here in our 3rd year undergraduate (2006). It has vehicular access over the little bridge to the West (see the top aerial photograph), together with good canal and pedestrian access.

The Dark Arches provide a good backdrop, although the site is a little out of the way from the busy centre.

UPDATE: I have now been informed by two independent sources that this site is home to a multistorey carpark... perhaps my research should have stretched to a new site visit. Thanks for nothing Google Earth! However, for the purposes of this project I think the site is still valid. A little imagination never hurt anyone.

Site 4 : Kirkgate

Photos:
1. Aerial photograph (Google Earth)
2. Bird's Eye view looking North (www.live.com)
3. Bird's Eye view looking East (www.live.com)
4. Bird's Eye view looking South (www.live.com)
5. Bird's Eye view looking West (www.live.com)

Finding sites close to the bus station was tricky, but this patch of semi-parkland is underused and very close to Leeds Parish Church. The fact that the site is bisected by the railway is actually quite appealing, with opportunities to tunnel under it and connect the two sides.

At the same time though, it seems a shame to build over one of the few areas of green that Leeds has, even one as poor as this.

Site 3 : Fearn's Island

Photos:
1. Aerial photo (Google Earth)
2. Bird's Eye view looking North (www.live.com)
3. Bird's Eye view looking East (www.live.com)
4. Bird's Eye view looking South (www.live.com)
5. Bird's Eye view looking West (www.live.com)

I noticed this site whilst scanning the length of the River Aire for sites on either bank. I haven't been able to find an official name for the island yet (please get in touch if you've got any idea) but the footbridge running over the top seems to be called Crown Point Bridge.

Obviously this site would provide rather a unique challenge, especially in terms of access. The site is very close to the huge Carlsberg Brewery that closed announced its closure just over a week ago, which could provide a good comparison.

My early research tells me that Trappist monastics value 'hiddenness' and so this site would be fantastic for providing the isolation required, whilst still maintaining a strong city identity.

UPDATE: It seems that the island may be called Fearn's Island, so I have renamed this blog post accordingly.

Site 2 : Vicar Lane

Photos:
1. Aerial photograph (Source: Google Earth)
2. Bird's Eye view looking North (Source: www.live.com)
3. Bird's Eye view looking East (Source: www.live.com)
4. Bird's Eye view looking South (Source: www.live.com)
5. Bird's Eye view looking West (Source: www.live.com)

This site made the shortlist primarily because it is available, and relatively close to the main streets of Briggate and The Headrow. Unfortunately it is also surrounded by roads and car parks, which doesn't make for the most appealing context.

As you can see from the images, the inner city loop road emerges from the ground just next to the site, which would make noise control a key consideration for any development. Access to the site is abundant, but there are no significant public transport links apart from a bus stop a little further South.

Whilst this is still a relatively prominant site, the area is unappealing to pedestrians and completely dominanted by vehicular traffic.

Site 1 : Wellington Street

Photos:

1. Aerial photograph (Source: Google Earth)

2. Bird's Eye view looking East (Source: www.live.com)

3. Bird's Eye view looking South (Source: www.live.com)

4. Bird's Eye view looking West (Source: www.live.com)

This site was added to the shortlist because of its very central location, proximity to the railway station and buses, and current availability. There are very few sites of this size available in the city centre, no others in such prominant locations.

The site has been empty for some months, having previously been occupied by a large, brick office building. It would be an exciting challenge to put an industrial, introverted building type in such a central location.

Choosing A Site

As with my choice of building type, I began site hunting by drawing up a shortlist and examining the pros and cons of each. The locations for each of the 5 sites on my shortlist are shown on the image here.

I made an early decision to base my scheme in central Leeds, regardless of building type or special interest. So far on our course we have based all but two design projects in or around Leeds, and it seemed appropriate to finish off the 5 year portfolio with a final Leeds scheme that demostrated a vigorous understanding of the city.

Within that intial criteria, the sites on this shortlist do not share any one overall characteristic, but instead represent a range of site strengths that could take my design in different directions.

1. Current availability of site
2. Proximity to public transport
3. Proximity to the canal

Choosing A Building Type

There are three major decisions to be made at the start of a thesis project:

1. Building type
2. Site
3. Specific interest

Knowing one of these can lead to discovering or developing the others. I personally began by listing potential building types that interested me, and using this as the starting point for the other decisions.

Having listed around a dozen possibilities I gradually eliminated typologies one by one. Eventually I settled on a brewery as my favoured building type.

Unfortunately, breweries as a building type are relatively uncomplicated, and there is limited potential to develop such a brief into a thesis subject. I therefore needed to expand the building type to incorporate other services that would layer complexity and academic interest onto the brewery typology.

Monasteries have a strong historical connection with brewing, and there are still a number of monasteries globally that generate their entire income from beer sales. They also have an incredibly strong architectural history that contrasts well with breweries, which have often been ignored by architectural historians. By combining the two, an interesting contrast of typologies combines into an exciting building type.