a City for Wanderers

design manifesto

{ the destination city problem }

The state of our cities is becoming increasingly disconnected. This is due to the bias of city planning as gravitating towards ‘destination spaces’: spaces that are iconic attractors that are ‘airlifted’ and inserted into a site. City dwellers are compelled to move ‘to’ points in the city, but never ‘through’ the city. As long as this paradigm exists, the city is effectively dead; people can only experience the city as the sum of its icon destinations.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

aimlesss architecture

{ the need for aimless space }

The aimless architecture provides an option and avenue for city dwellers to wander leisurely, as an expression of freedom of movement. It denies the idea of travelling ‘to’ an iconic destination in efficient, straight lines and without exploration. That people should be allowed to meander and break the monotony of movement through the streets, cities, and space. To wander is to acknowledge the idea that humans, when engaged and given a chance to play and explore, will always choose that over the most efficient straight line to a single pointed location. Additionally, aimless space exists in between Destinations, and thus gives character a place, rather than giving locations to a place. The aimless space is necessary to fill in the blanks around a Destination, and thus give the Destination context.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

the through pattern

{ through, not to }

The anti-destination manifesto emphasises the design of space as taking a person on a journey ‘through’ the city and not ‘to’ a singular location (Destination).; challenging the current monotony and straight-line nature of Destination-going as the pattern of moving from one point to the other. Under this Manifesto, the new architecture should be created and designed for people as moving ‘through’ the city, not ‘to’ a location; to create a journey through space to be experienced. The process of journey through a space is just as important as the activity that happens within the enclosed circuit within a (closed) space.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

master plan

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

key plan

1 ‘a waltz in the garden’

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

2 ‘a railway for people’

3 ‘a hill over the depot’

4 ‘a bridge over the city’

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a waltz in the garden’ : ‘moments’

The scheme uses elevated walkways of varying playful heights and playful curves to take people through the garden space. The design is a play on the pathways moving through botanical gardens, here designed here to be raised off the ground

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

An example of an ‘isolation pod’ module typology. These pods provide an enclosed space promoting closeness with nature. The design plays on the ‘wonder’ of the scheme, providing a space for quiet contemplation and meditation, with nature.

The largest space of the ‘a waltz in the garden’ subsection of the scheme is a large open park space, providing an embracing grove that organically gathers people in its center, which is the crossing of several axes of travel through Mayfield.

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a waltz in the garden’ : elevation

{ ‘garden’ elevation } Elevation 1 of 2 showing the elevated garden walkways. This section of garden lies along a piece of side-road to the west of the Depot Mayfield site. This is the first space interacted with when entering the site from the south, on the side of Mayfield park.

key plan

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a waltz in the garden’ : elevation

{ ‘gathering’ elevation } Elevation 2 of 2 showing the gathering park space. This section is located at the triangular lot to the front of Depot Mayfield, facing Piccadilly Station. The site lies at the crossroads of several main roads passing through Mayfield, and thus makes the perfect gathering node in Mayfield.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a waltz in the garden’ : plans

{ roof plan }

{ floor plan }

Roof plan delineating massing and layout of spaces, directions and networks of paths, and placement of trees and grassland throughout the gardens. The plan also shows a close-up of site context, with the triangular and enclosing nature of the gathering space shown best here.

Floor plan showing the internal spaces of the scheme. A majority of spaces in the garden are pavilions, with open spaces supported by steel columns and beams creating a permeable space. Some enclosed rooms are present to provide more private spaces by walling off areas, curating a more tranquil enclosure around the gardens.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

1 ‘a waltz in the garden’

‘a railway for people’ : ‘moments’

Here the winding and playfil nature of walkways through the scheme are best shown. Paths curve and diverge, creating non-linearity. The visual confusion is intentional: as users are not quite able to pick a path through the space, they are encouraged to approach and explore (to wander) to find their way. All the while, the path is still curated to lead people through the space.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Module ‘pods’ provide spaces that frame views throughout Mayfield for trainspotting, people watching and views of scenery throuhout Mayfield.

Conversation pits ‘deposit’ wanderers moving through the space, with views serving as the backdrop. The curved inward pit provides a comforting, enclosed space, which encourages the gathering, chatting and interaction of people within the space.

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a railway for people’ : elevation

{ ‘rail-side’ elevation } Long elevation showing the scheme resting on a plot of empty space along Piccadilly Station’s emerging railway tracks. The site runs parallel with Fairfield Street and is designed as an elevated walkway along Fairfield Street, taking users through Mayfield along that route, at an elevated level.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a railway for people’ : plans

{ roof plan } Roof plan showing massing and layout of spaces and overlapping floor plans. This plan also best shows the layout of modules, which never overlap/cross over walkways. This design shows the ‘depositing’ and ‘emerging’ nature of modules and rooms as ‘breaking out’ from the gaps between pathways: Anti-Destination, as the spaces are emergent of the gaps between movement only.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a railway for people’ : plans

{ floor plan } Floor plan showing internal layouts of pavilions and module ‘pod’ rooms. The pods and spaces are furnished with seating pointing inward, creating a ‘pit’-like room layout. The floor plan also shows green gardens in between spaces, forming the scheme into both an elevated garden as well as a walkway infrastructure.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

2 ‘a railway for people’

‘a hill on the depot’ : ‘moments’

The design is made to mimic a hill, and thus a play on knolls & mounds of grass dirt and rock is designed in the form of seating spaces, playing on the ideas of picnicking and sitting on mounds as one hikes along a rolling park hill.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Long sight-lines and gentle curves, with a clearer visual focus contirbute to the scheme being more open, and having a more relaxed activity, creating a leisurely storlling experience.

Having open and wide field-like linear spaces provides the necessary space for exercise and play, such as games like tennis, frisbee, and even football.

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a hill over the depot’ : elevation

{ ‘depot ramp’ elevation } Elevation showing the placement of the ‘hill’ along the Depot’s currently under-utilised service ramp. This scheme proposes the adaptive re-use and pedestrianisation of the Depot Mayfield’s Service ramp into a useable park space along the ramp.

key plan

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a hill over the depot’ : plan

{ roof plan } A similar design language as used in the ‘gardens’ is repeated here. The massing and layout of spaces here is much lighter, promoting a more open, linear park space. Most spaces are concentrated to the east (the bottom) of the ramp, where they can blend into existing buildings.

The plan lightens toward the top of the ramp, creating an ‘unfolding’, ‘lightening’ and ‘opening up’ of spaces toward the upper levels.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

3 ‘a hill on the depot’

‘a bridge over the city’ : ‘moments’

The network of bridges crossing between Mayfield Depot and the railway forms the ground levels of Fairfield and Temperance street into a play on a canyon. This perspective shows the physical connectivity of the scheme spanning all across Mayfield, connecting spaces that once were once only visually connected.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

This perspective shows the scheme as a footbridge crossing over the railway tracks below. The importance of the crossing being ‘over’ the tracks creates a freedom of movement, where crossing under the arches creates a tunnel vision and darkness, here the bridge spans between two worlds, crossing the ‘wall’ of the railway tracks.

Enclosed pods provide a resting area for people before crossing the bridge. Just as parks provide benches for rest, the vertical city-park should also provide sitting; here in the form of a sitting pod.

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a bridge over the city’ : elevation

{ ‘footbridge’ elevation } Elevation showing the way spaces sit along the side of the railway arches. Structural components such as heavy beams and columns are hidden within solid structures. Fire stairs and elevators carry perople vertically up through the space. The walled-off nature of the arches is seen clearly here

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a bridge over the city’ : section

{ section through arches } Section showing the way the bridge sits over the railway tracks. The arch space below bores through the red brick, while the bridge above mimick that crossing, as an elevated path.

key plan

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

‘a bridge over the city’ : elevation

{ roof plan } Roof plan of the footbridge section showing the layout of spaces at either end of the narrow bridge. Here, the bridge layout can be seen in plan as a ‘connector’ between Temeperance Street to the south and the Ancoats area to the north of the bridge. The ability of the scheme to cut across the ‘wall’ of the railway tracks is seen here.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

key plan

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

4 ‘a bridge over the city’

case study section

section callout 1

section

key elevation

1

{ case study section } Case study section of one set of modules, showcasing the typical construction methods to be repeated throughout the structure. This case study section appears along section 2: the elevated ‘railway’.

key plan

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

construction detailing

{ metal deck floor construction detail }

{ combiboard wall panel construction detail }

{ GRP fibreglass roof construction detail }

Structural concrete flooring rests on steel floor decking, with floor beams holding up the whole structure.

Combiboard wall panel construction uses only light vertical reinforcements to hold panels up, with horizontal reinforcements inserted in profile. Air holes are punched into the section as both structural support and to lighten the panel. Both internal and external faces of the panel system are made of PVC.

GRP fibreglass roofing with deck support over the wall structure.

Edge trims runs in front of the wall surface to enclose and protect the edge connection between walls and roof.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

fire escape plan

{ materiality visualisation } The visualisation shows materials applied to structure and context, to show the scheme as being ‘of place’ fitting into context.. The renders represent what the scheme could look like once fully built.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024

manifesto: the new city model

{ the City as a Park model }

The largest implication for the future of the future model is the creation of a new city model: the City as a Park. It is a concept that poses a philosophical & manifesto question to the architectural and urban design community at large: why is it drab to move through the city? How do we break the monotony of city-movement and Destination-going? And what if we designed the City as a Park? This scheme presents the beginnings of a new set of rules for designing the city, and thus can be applied to various conexts not just in Mayfield or Manchester, but to cities around the world.

Ryan Choong | M.Arch 2

Flux | Studio 3 Portfolio | 2024