Ring Roads

The other day I can across this nice little image of the ring roads of the world by Rice school of architecture.

And I decided to do one for the cities of Great Britain.

Ring roads are significant features within cities and very often form the centre piece of a cities movement network. They do however only ever form part of the vehicle network and often little consideration is given to how pedestrians and cyclists will cross the ring road barrier. All to often pedestrians and cyclists will be forced into an underpass or overpass, which very few of us ever want to do.

Reburbia

Reburbia is a competition to re-envision the suburbs.

"Calling all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers:Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren’t a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb-grown food, and local, renewable energy generation? We want to see how you’d design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration—the wilder the better!"

Here are some some my favourite finalists.

'Burbs REDUXED

Our scheme proposes to thicken the arteries of our burbs as the remedy for their future. New housing is proposed above the roadways in-between the existing suburban fabric. The density of the burb is dramatically increased. The new housing promotes a new typology. A sinuous ribbon that weaves between the McMansions promoting mixed forms of living that offers an alternative to the single family dwelling.

Smaller housing modules, shared housing and extended family living are all accommodated in the strip. Opportunities for community interaction are increased. The ‘backyard’ is relocated to the roof, and becomes community parkland, providing new recreational opportunities and a new view of suburbia. The new density increases the patronage of public transport making the system more sustainable.

When the strip converges at an intersection the strands cluster and rise vertically to create a mini-city of apartments. These clusters of high density living encourage the development of support services around their base. The rooftop parkland becomes the façade of the towers transforming into a vertical garden.

When the strip terminates, the ubiquitous cul-de-sac creates the opportunity for a unique suburban event space such as skate park, gallery, restaurant or perhaps just a new take on the ‘corner store’.

In time the patterns of living in these commuter suburbs shifts. People want to live in the strip. The demand for the McMansion falters. Slowly they are replaced by park.

I really like the inventive use of space in this idea, using what is essentially defunct space above the roads for housing would increase densities in the suburbs and go some way to making it more sustainable. The idea that the existing housing would be replaced with parkland however contradicts the purpose of the idea in the first place as it would just result in in lower densities in open parkland. We have see that idea fail enough over the past 30 years to repeat it again with this!

PARKING LOT AS FARM.

Bumper Crop is a soil-less farm irrigated with reclaimed waste water and suspended above the strip mall parking lot to shade the ground plane and reverse the heat-island effect. By means of a membrane bioreactor, reclaimed water from the city sewer main supplies the overhead crop with nutrient-rich irrigation water creating an oasis in the asphalt desert. Land currently used for parking only is reclaimed for urban agricultural production thereby preserving undeveloped land and repairing the ecosystems that have been sacrificed for soil-based agriculture.

I can't see why this couldn't happen over every car park?!

URBAN SPRAWL REPAIR KIT

This set of simple infill techniques represents a sprawl repair toolkit to retrofit the 5 building prototypes that define Suburbia. These iconic detached structures and their parcels, via modest interventions, have the potential to contribute to a more diverse, cohesive urban fabric within a walkable and identifiable public realm.

Rather than being demolished, these existing buildings are re-purposed and/or lined with new structures using renewable technologies and energy-efficient practices, often taking advantage of Suburbia’s typically excessive setbacks and parking lots.

A drive-through restaurant pad becomes part of a main street, but largely concealed from it, with perimeter liner buildings added along the edges of its parking lot. A strip center is converted into a recycling center with a green roof and 2 side-wings with solar panels framing a courtyard that reaches to the sidewalk. A gas station remains in place while growing a two-story corner store-office extension at a busy intersection to help screen it. A suburban ranch house is permitted to utilize its deep front yard to add a wing with additional bedrooms, a home office, or a rental outbuilding that creates a courtyard with the existing home and defines a livelier street frontage at the sidewalk. Even the ubiquitous McMansion can be converted into senior housing when a five-bedroom/ three-car garage home yields a 10 room-9 bathroom facility for seniors and a caretaker.

This is brilliantly simple, turning what are poorly designed spaces into interesting, attractive places that will contribute in a highly positive way to the suburbs. This gets my vote!!

CharacterLess Areas

Thought it was interesting looking at a character area plan without a base. I though it was surprisingly informative, but maybe that's because I know what the masterplan looks like? I would be interested in seeing others!

The Burbs

Artwork from Ross Racine

"The subjects of my work may be interpreted equally as models for planned communities or as aerial views of fictional suburbs, reflecting the dual role of the computer as a tool for urban planning as well as image capture. Encouraging a reflective attitude by its perpendicular and distant viewpoint, the aerial view is used here to comment on society's occupation and transformation of the natural landscape.

In addition, the obviously invented nature of these suburbs exaggerates existing situations and drives the subject matter into the investigative domain of science fiction. Examining the relation between design and actual lived experience, the works subvert the apparent rationality of urban design, exposing conflicts that lurk beneath the surface. These digital drawings are a comment on the fears as well as the dreams expressed in suburban culture."