Week 1: Walkshop

This week we needed to complete the DAB525 Walkshop and at the end visit the Howard Smith Wharves site. The walk was meant to be completed on Monday 5th, but as it was raining the walk was called off, and I did it instead on Wednesday 7th. While all of the walk was significant to an understanding of Brisbane as a whole, there were certain parts that I felt were particularly relevant to the Howard Smith Wharves site and the design of our folie. My walk started from the turn around point outside of the university, and continued left down Alice street and then right down William street and into the courtyard outside the Registry of Births and Deaths. It was at this point that I started to notice the use of different flooring, as well as small physical barriers, to demarcate areas with different intended uses.


Caption: The paving changes from one style to another to indicate that the pathway is leading to a space that is different in use to that of the footpath.  The metal bar prevents drivers from mistaking it as a driveway.


In the courtyard itself there is another changing in flooring that this time acts as a memorial to Brisbane's architectural history.


Caption: The footings of a house built in the 19th century are marked out with paving in the middle of the courtyard.


Caption: The paving from the footings meeting with the general paving of the courtyard create interesting shapes that could be used as inspiration for the form of the folie.


This paving has created two ideas for the design of our folie: one is the idea of creating a folie that is a subtle memorial to an aspect of the sites history; the second comes from the shapes that are created when the paving of the footings meets with the paving of the rest of the courtyard. There are some interesting shapes created here, and I find the idea of using shapes made by the crossing of different lines or axes around the site as inspiration for the shape of the folie interesting, as not only would it give us a starting point, it would also hopefully make the design more readable to the users.


I walked through the courtyard onto George street, and continued along there until I reached Queens Park. Here I noticed a strong division between walking and pausing space, but it was particularly the crossing of different pathways of movement that I found interesting in relation to my previous idea of using different axes to create shapes.


Caption: Queens Park is divided into different zones of movement and pause by pathways designed to get users from one node of activity to another in the fastest way possible.


I moved on from there down Elizabeth street, through St Stephen's Cathedral Precinct and along onto Eagle St Pier. It was possible to see the site from here, and and it was interesting to see the scale of the buildings already on site compared to the scale of the Story Bridge. I also thought that the pictures from this point might be suitable for a photo montage as most of the site is visible, and would therefore put the folie in its full context.

Almost the entire site can be seen from this point. 

I thought that the shape of the bridge, with its straight lines of bracing, actually created a couple of curved, strangely soft shapes in the negative space above it.


I also thought that it was interesting to not how much the solid, bold footings of the bridge and the box shapes of the sheds there stood out from the relatively busy background of trees and cliff face.


Caption: The footings of the bridge and the sheds against the busy background of the natural environment.


Although these elements are much larger than the space that we have to design our folie in, I think it might be useful to consider using some bold elements in our folie design to allow it to stand out from the background, and possibly make it compete more with the scale of the bridge.


As I continued along the walk I noticed the presence of different paving to designate areas of varying uses which created unusual shapes. These instances occurred in multiple places along the riverside walk, right up until I reached the site.


Caption: Unusual shapes created by the meeting of different paving. In many places there is an interesting combination of a grid of paving meeting a curve.


Looking at the site from the end of the riverside walk, I think that the space in between the two buildings under the bridge and the one further along the river might be a good place to put the folie. It would be separated from the other structures and would instead be amongst greener, allowing it to stand out as a built structure in itself, rather than as just an extension of the existing structures. It would also separate it from the enormous scale of the bridge footings.

The site seen from the end of the riverside walk. There is a space in between the two lots of buildings that may provide an interesting space to create a folie that can stand on its own as a structure of importance. 

Looking at the site through the fence that surrounds it, it is possible to see the interesting juxtaposition of the jagged, uneven surface of the cliff and its textured greenery with the bold, heavy lines of the bridge above it. Both of these types of form (jagged and uneven or bold and heavy) may be interesting concepts to explore in the design of the folie, as the use of either might perhaps make the folie more readable to the users of the space.

The juxtaposition of different types of forms in the artificial bridge and the natural cliff face. 

The other end of the site which is dominated by the natural cliff face rather than the bridge. It could be interesting to introduce a bold form into the section of the site to create a heterogeneous textural space.