MArch First Year Project 'New Midborg Town Centre'

DESIGN · STUDIO · 11

REYKJAVIK · HALLMERKI

NEW · MIÐBORG TOWN · CENTRE WES · J · C · STONE W1729758

New Miðborg Town Centre is the major project from the first year of my masters degree at the university of Westminster.

The project is located in Iceland, Europe’s most Western and isolated country.

Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, is one of Europe’s youngest cities. Much of the town planning was inspired

by American urbanism, prioritising single family houses and wide streets.

This has made densification difficult and is pushing many young people out of the city.

While in Reykjavik I met with the city planners who outlined their plans to develop a new district on the disused airfield.

As a group, we developed a masterplan for the district which we named New Miðborg.

The first principle of the masterplan is to create green corridors connecting the existing park to the sea.

Transport infrastructure informed the housing packages, ensuring all residents were in walking distance of a bus or railway station.

The new district provides a mixture of housing, offices, and cultural buildings.

The district town centre is highlighted in red. This became the focus for my individual design project.

Miðborg

New Miðborg

Ora

Library S

Book Sorting and Back of House

Kitch

En

My vision for the new town centre is to integrate the binaries of culture and industry; public space and private space; individualism and collectivism; future technologies and history.

Future Solutions Present Issues/ Value Past Heritage

Lab Meeting Rooms Lab Office Space

Research Labs

Digital Lab

atory

Reading Rooms (5)

Study Hall

Stacks

Library Hall

Audio / Visual Studio

d

n-suite

Sleeping Quarters

Balcony

Education Centre Farm Lab

Cafe

Kitchen

Platform 1 (West)

Platform 2 (East)

Restaurants

Ticket Offices

Rail Tracks

Retail

Services

Park

Information Point

Reflective Space

Sagas Display (42 total)

Covered Town Centre

Hydroponics Growing Low Nutrition Consumption

Market Hall

Entrance Space

Dining Hall Writers Room (26 Cells)

Tropical Greenhouse

Nurseries

Public Realm Covered Forest

Entrance Hall and Welcome Gallery

hen

Local Flora Greenhouse

Hydroponics Small Scale

Hydroponics Industrial Scale

High Publishing Rate Sagas Access

Weather Preventing Open Space

Sagas Storage

Monorail Link Lack of Public Transport Infrastructure

I began Before Add some settling bytext creating on a afinal number design of I producesstudies feasibility a number to make of design sense of the studies 200 x 100m for discussion. town centre site.

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2.

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By analysing the designs I was then able to create site and design principles for the final buildings.

1.

Town Centre Site

4.

Thresholds and Views

2.

Offices

New Datum Level

3.

Access Points

Offices

Rail Link

East Side Housing

Resi Park

5.

6.

Glass Enclosure

Primary Spaces

7.

Connections

10.

Covered Forest

8.

9.

Vertical Circulation

Hydroponics Research Centre

11.

12.

Forest of Columns

Living Roof

These images show how the final building integrates into the masterplan.

The Growing Library

Ground Floor Plan

Hydroponics Research Centre

Monorail Secondary Entrance

Monorail Main Station Offices

Monorail Secondary Entrance

The Growing Library

First Floor Plan

Hydroponics Research Centre

Monorail Secondary Entrance

Monorail Main Station Offices

Monorail Secondary Entrance

The Growing Library

Writers Retreat

Second Floor Plan

Hi

Hydroponics Research Centre

Monorail Main Station Market Hall

Covered Park ighline Walkway

Monorail Secondary Entrance

The Growing Library

Writers Retreat

Third Floor Plan

Hi

Hydroponics Research Centre

Monorail Main Station Market Hall

Covered Park ighline Walkway

Monorail Secondary Entrance

The Growing Library

Writers Retreat

Fourth Floor Plan

Hi

Hydroponics Research Centre

Monorail Main Station Market Hall

Covered Park ighline Walkway

Monorail Secondary Entrance

Roof Garden

Roof Plan

The Growing Library

Writers’ Retreat Sagas Museum

Market Hall Offices

Station Platform

Station

The primary building in the town centre is the Growing Library.

These two images show the variety of open and intimate reading spaces in the building.

Below the Growing Library is a museum containing the Icelandic sagas. Unlike most modern languages, Icelandic has not changed significantly since the middle ages. This means that most Icelandic speakers can read the saga texts and can connect to their history through them.

The project also looks to Reykjavik’s future. Here a researcher looks out over the industrial hydroponics floor. Through this intense system of farming it is possible for the centre to produce enough food to feed the entire masterplan district.

The market hall within the main building provides a social space where the food produced on the site can be cooked and sold.

On the top floor of the growing library is a covered roof garden.

The idea is to provide a light and living green public space during the dark Icelandic winters.

The town centre must be a place for all people to feel welcome. In the writer’s rooms I have allowed the spaces to be customised to represent the diversity of the residents.

This exploded axonometric shows the three main buildings in the New Miðborg town centre.