A Design Proposal for the Regeneration of City Road By Yi Zhong
e f i L f o e r t a e Th
1 Introduction This is the individual design project in Cardiff University's Spring Studio, which follows the team work where the regional tissue analysis, community involvement and key space identification were conducted. Through the deep exploration of local context and social background, a vibrant and practical design has been developed, which is expected to provide a decent solution for regional regeneration and improve the cohesion of local community
Site Location Cardiff
The United Kingdom City Road Area
Cardiff
City Road
Site
City Road
In the previous team work, the main problems and key spaces of City Road area have all been identified. I chose this site to be my individual design site
2 Surrounding Context City Road Area With 40 takeaways, 13 hair salons, and numerous bars, beauty shops and bookies1, City Road celebrates a great diversity of business. However, the old facilities and lack of new activity spaces lead to a poor living environment for this local high street. Welsh poet Peter Finch said "(It's) a street that everyone knows but hardly anyone loves"2.
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Historical Background
source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/flats-planned-site-120-year-old-former-8527788
Used to be the centre of the city in1900s', City Road has a rich historical legacy. Old Gaiety Cinema, the building next to the site, was the main attraction of this area and now is still serving as a legible local landmark
1. "The site": https://cardiffcityroad.wordpress.com/about/ 2. "Every street has a story": https://cardiffcityroad.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/194/
Multicutural Social Structure City Road is renowned as its various international cuisines and the local community also has a multicultural background
Community Involvement
Community involvement was held in local community (Plasnewydd) during team work time. Lots of useful information which guides the function set has been collected Five issues that residents most care about:
car park street lighting
green element street pavement
out-door activities
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Site
Graffiti School
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Graffiti Culture City Road is an experiment field for local graffiti artists. Lots of excellent graffiti work can be found here, which brings the area a strong feature of street art. Meanwhile, it is an affordable way to enhance legibility
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3 Site Analysis
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Site
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City Road
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1. Old Gaiety Cinema: In previous team work, Gaiety Cinema will be transforned into a local culture centre which contains art workshops, design studios and second-hand book shops 2. Gate Art Centre 3. Mokentosh Centre 4. Tennis Court 5. "Death Cross" 6. Poet's Corner 7. Primary School
Sequence of Spaces The site has a diversity in terms of different kinds of spaces, from the hustle City Road to the shabby alley located in residential area, where abandoned vacant plots can be found
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Old Gaiety Cinema
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City Road
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4 Conceptual Development "Theatre" with Foyer, stage, back stage, green rooms and dressing rooms, a theatre usually consists of a series of different type of spaces, which can give inspiration to the zoning and orgnization of the plots in the site
Plan of Royal Opera House, Westminster
Source: http://www.theatre-architecture.eu/db.html?theatreId=383
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2 1. Foyer: as the gate, the foyer is the interface between the interior space and out space. 2. Back Stage: it's where the actors get ready for show, which support the performance at the stage 3. Stage: key space of a theatre, where the main activities happen Combine with the site addition, the conception of theatre has been applied to the site as the diagram on the right
Source: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2011/01/50-year-old-opera-festivalsevers-links-to-lake-george.html, https://boysballet.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/nine-yearold-dances-onto-stage-into-hearts/, http://www.flickriver.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/ sets/72157631397986424/
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stage
back stage
5 Master Plan
Master Plan
1. "Foyer": City Road reconstruction
"STAGE" "FOYER"
"BACK STAGE CORRIDOR"
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2. "Stage": Gaiety Square
"BACK STAGE" 3. "Corridor": Colourful Alley
4. "Back stage": Beer Garden
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5. "Back stage": Ecological Car Park
6 "Stage": Gaiety Square (New) Gaiety Culture Centre 4
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City Road
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garage
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residential house
1. wooden terrace 2. wooden bench 3. stairs 4. disable access 5. existing tree
The colourful pattern will be painted to the ground by graffiti artists
Birds from Egyptian mural, curve from Japanese Garden, the painted cultural icon represents the multi-cultural background of the community
Using Strategy Cooperate with local graffiti school, the Plasnewydd community committee can hold graffiti competition every year, the champion will earn the chance to select one part of the pattern on the ground and repaint it. The repainting must follow rules given by the community committee, such as : must include multicultural icon or must represent the spirit of the community. This scheme will keep Alive Stage changing yearly, like organism has constant metabolism. Through this way, the tie between community and the site can be strengthened.
Sight Analysis When people are offered places to sit down and chat, they love something to watch. In this "stage" conception, people who sit down are regarded as "audience", and the vibrant scene on City Road, strolling people in the square and the outdoor screen on the wall are the "performance" they can enjoy
Activities As the main design of this project, Gaiety Square will hold various activities that improve residents' life quality and assist the new Gaiety Cultural Centre DAILY
WEEKLY
MONTHLY
friends meeting
weekend party
exhibition
street food
outdoor cinema
food festival
street music
second-hand market
book fair
7 "Back stage", "foyer" and "corridor" Beer Gardens one of the tree Beer Gardens
pop-up urbanism: precedents
4 1 2 3 1. silver birch 2. plane tree
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3. cherry tree 4. Macadam pavement
Different from the vibrant scene in the "stage", Beer Gardens are relatively quieter and are ideal place for friends sitting down and have a drink.Besides, Beer Gardens actually offer local communities space for temporary uses: pop-up urbanism. A flexible design allow activities like sunbath, market, mini-exhibition and speech or reading party to happen City Road Reconstruction
Colourful Alley
As the "foyer" of the "theatre"This part will be transformed into shared surface pavement to make it easier for pedestrian to get to the site. An isolation belt will be added to City Road to use the spare space on the road and create space for ornamental street lamp, which can be used as billboard if there is event happening
Colourful Alley works as "corridor" to connect every part together. The bright colours also attract people to get into the inside of "theatre"
8 Sequence of Spaces With street food, beer garden, open-air cinema, exhibition and urban agriculture, all the vacant plots are endowed with new functions
4 Eco Car Park
3 Beer Gardens
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2 Gaiety Square
1 Gaiety Centre City Road
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Material & Intention
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1. City Road reconstruction: Shared surface is introduced to slow down the vehicles and make it easier for pedestrian to cross, and it spreads to the east to enhance the connection between new Gaiety Culture Centre and Gate Art Centre 2. Gaiety Square: All the beautiful graphic will be painted in polyethylene, which enhances the graffiti culture that's already existed in the area, and suits the multicultural atmosphere in City Road area 3. Colourful Alley: Also painted in polyethylene, the road art will turn this back dark alley into a new work of art 4. Beer Garden: The gardens mainly provides local residents with space for temporary uses such as outdoor cafe or sunbath. Macadam paving creates an atmosphere of relax 5. Ecological Car Park: As a response of the demanding from community, the car park will offer more spaces for local residents and green elements are also integrated into the pavement
9 Collages Gaiety Square
Beer Gardens
10 Review Regenerate City Road area international cuisine
multi-cultural background
exhibition
cafe street food
urban agriculture
out-door cinema
sun bath
student district
green elements
Gaiety Cultural Centre
more job opportunities
community cohision
environmental benefit
Response to community involvement
car park street lighting
green element street pavement
out-door activities
The figure above shows how this design fulfills the demands from local community. As a predictive strategy to regenerate the whole City Road area, this design offer more possibilities about how public life can happen in open space so most plots are dedicated to out-door activities. That is also the reason why the most cared issue of car parking has not been fulfilled very well.