Alex Critchell, Trinity Buoy Wharf

Trinity Buoy Wharf

By Alex Critchell

Location and Information

Understanding the Space

Trinity Buoy Wharf is located in East London, and is on the river Thames. It is opposite the 02 arena. Trinity Buoy Wharf is the site of a lighthouse, the lighthouse no longer functions, but is the home of various art projects. In 1998, Trinity Buoy Wharf was an empty, derelict site. Now it is a place with studios for people in the creative industries, workspace for people who work to provide transportation on the river, classrooms for education, and indoor and outdoor spaces for arts events and a wide range of activities from conferences to product launches.

West

East I need to fully understand the environment before designing any outside spaces. One of the main objectives in this project is being eco-friendly, so I want to maximise the use of natural light to illuminate any areas. Knowing the sun rise and set directions means that I need to face my walls, buildings, pavilions south to be more efficient.

This is a drawing that won the Trinity Buoy Wharf drawing prize 2020.

Research of public spaces Outside Public space research These images are some examples of similar outside public spaces. A public space is a place which is open to the general public. A public space provides people with many opportunities and engage socially with other people.

Public spaces include; pavilions, outside café and seating's, parks and public squares.

These public spaces are very similar, they are of different spaces but both have the same meaning. They both use space well, it has organic natural themes as well as the use movement and flow.

The harmony with the organic architecture and the theme of movement and flow compliment each other well. How this space works is like walking through a one way system and allowing seating either side, this lets people to view the surrounding area.

The layout imitates a river flowing in the direction of movement.

These public spaces are a circular seating area. I liked this design because it is an unusual shape. the curves allow movement throughout the space which is a theme I want to incorporate in my design. Another reason I liked this space is that it has a water feature in the middle. The water pumps around the curves until it falls into the centre, you can either turn it on or off which allows people to sit and walk through the water.

This is another example of a circular sitting area, this public space allows more people to be seated but also allow space in the centre for a range of activates.

High line New York This space is a long path of many species of plants and trees. It is a 1.45 mile long greenway which is now used as a pubic space.

The straight lines on this path shows what the space used to be a railway.

Also the straight lines on the floor and rails shows you the direction of movement. The direction of movement is also a big theme in this public space. An example of movement on the path is the little green spaces in the middle of the pathway, this makes the visitor to move and make the space more enjoyable.

A difference in this public space to the other spaces I have researched is the distance and scale, this high line provides people an enjoyable journey to the other side of New York.

The arrows show the movement and the flow of this space. The idea that you have to move around the green spaces makes the space much more enjoyable.

The colours of this space work well with each other, the green of the plants and the modern man-made colour grey makes it look natural and eco friendly.

Millennium Park – Chicago

Pavilion

Great Lawn

Theatre

Lane Garden

Millennium Monument

Grown Fountain

Cloud Gate, Bean

This space works really well with movement and flow. From the birds eye view sketch and pictures you can see that it is like a maze.

This keeps the park interesting.

I also like the wired roof of the big green space. It creates a nice pattern on the grass when there is shade.

Thames Barrier Park The green dock is one of the most eye-catching features in this park, it is a 130-foot long garden running diagonally through the park. This space inside the park has a very interesting design. It is located within an open trench that is protected by the wind. This is called a microclimate a small area within a climate zone that is slightly different from the surrounding climates, so the little wind allows a variety of plants and wildlife. I like the uneven wavey shapes of the bushes, this replicates the idea of water and waves as being on the riverbank of the River Thames. Also, the different levels showed in the front elevation drawings give a sense of enjoyment of the space. As the bushes are shaped like waves, it gives the impression to follow the path down to the river bank which ends up on the sand. This space within the park clearly illustrates the theme of movement and flow.

The colours in this space are in great harmony with each other from the grey gravel path, variety of plant colours and the different shades of green from the trees and bushes.

In the perspective elevated view of this park shows large buildings surrounding the park, this creates a feeling of safe and private whilst visiting the park.

Basketball court

Green Dock

The Thames Barrier Park is located in the royal docks in the London Borough of Newham. This park has lots of wildlife, picnic and children's play areas, basketball court, visitor pavilion and coffee shop.

River Bank

I am comparing these two public spaces together because it has the same design and flowing theme. I like the theme of flow and movement. These light sketches show the different levels of both spaces. The front elevations of the Thames barrier will look like the 2nd public space.

Model Making Ideas Requirements: 1 The space should provide access to users ranging from children to adults, wheel chair users, visually impaired etc.

2 Remove ALL car parking spaces (this will not be part of your design) 3 Create a series of different social spaces suitable for, daily use, events, social gatherings, space that can be reconfigured 4 Create 3 different types of eating space including casual with seating and quick on the go 5 Add visual features to enhance the location ie series of Pavilions, Café & Social Spaces This is a broad overview of the spaces I want to design on trinity buoy wharf.

A long structure to fill the space.

Café or kiosk design.

Pavilion.

Seating area.

Waterfront design

These plaster models are a really good way of coming up with new designs. Making random shapes allows new ideas.

Café Design from Plaster Models

From these rough sketches, I found that using ovals is a good shape to use to get a theme of flow and movement. I wanted to fill the top middle part of the trinity buoy wharf (filled with white), the This design is an edging around the café which can be used as measurements of that space are 29,200mm X seats to sit on or place your food on. I liked this design because 29,700mm. I then wanted to have seating or some it is very similar to the ‘green dock’ at the Thames Barrier Park sort of entertainment next to the café. and also incorporates the plasters shapes.

I sketched in pencil to get rough ideas and shapes and put them into different forms. I used this plaster model to get different concepts. I liked this model because of the shapes that are used, it has oval and curved shapes. Also in my café design, I want to show the theme of movement and flow.

Shutters

This view shows how to open the to the outside section of the design. Whilst designing this on sketch up I decided to make these shutters. This allows for a more open plan dining space and even more access from both parts of the café.

I like the shape of this design, I also like the design where the roof meets the ground. This could be a place for people to sit on or could be the entrance.

Pavilion Ideas and Concepts

Research on Pavilions with organic structures.

In sketch up, I have used a sandbox tool to creates organic and flowing structures. This is an example of my organic ideas. I wanted to make a pavilion that has different levels and also increases space. This idea works well with the requirements for my This research helps me come up with different ways of making a pavilion. For instance, the pavilion. I am going to experiment with more photo on the right shows it joining a structure, this could be a possibility and can be explored in organic structures. my design. The patterns in both designs make the spaces much more exciting.

These sketches show the movement I want to make in my design. The drawing on the right shows a simple sketch of curved lines to show the basics of what I want to design.

This sketch is a better example of what I want to design. The seating area was something I added to look at other possibilities and usages of this pavilion. Also, this shows the different heights well.

Idea 2, Waterfront Designs I like this design where the waterfront is above the water and it is overlooking.

The brief of this project states that it has an ‘Uneven ground surface’, so having this at one level will solve this problem. There are still lots of developments I could make to this design.

Final Model

This is my final design, I have made it out of 3 shapes, squares and rectangles, circles and hexagons. I have made all three designs to be layered and at different heights.

This drawing is similar to the first drawing where it is close to the water, but instead of paths, it is seating. I could merge these two ideas to have pathways and seating but it may be too busy.

I wanted to design another space for people to relax on. I decided to make a waterfront design. From these drawings, I have come up with 3 ideas. This idea was to make pathways instead of seating along the front. this idea came apparent from the space that is available as this will take a lot of space up.

Idea 3, Seating Design I took a range of shapes from these 2 pieces of research and came to design my rough sketch of what I wanted. This design can be used for a seating area. Initially, I sought to make this design connected to the café. This would allow a better seating area and more enjoyable space.

Kiosk Design and Model Making This is a building in Trinity Buoy Wharf called the ‘Container City 2’. I like this building due to its appealing bright complimentary colours, and the industrial metallic aesthetic. Based off this building I want to design a café that contrasts clearly to this design, therefore I want to design a café that is inside a container.

The container kiosk will be bright and at different levels like the container city 2.

Final Sketchup Models

Rendered Final Models