Prologue - First Encounters

0.III V1 Urban Artefacts

Preston Bus Station 1.100 Sectional Model

The sectional model above explores the interchange of people, cars and buses within the overlapping layers of the Brutalist Infrastructural icon. The station built upon the idealistic principals alike many other structures of the era: to design for a four-wheeled future, separating person and vehicle. . The bus station was under threat of demolition in the millennium and was saved and granted Grade II listed status by local residents and famous architects alike. The model demonstrates the negotiation of height and space to accommodate for the varying ‘users’, double height spaces welcome two footed guests, while a spiralling ramp brings those on four wheels right to their destination. Buses, cars and people intersect across 4 planes including a now filled in subway route which took pedestrians to the adjacent Guildhall, giving the buses priority at ground level. The model en-captures this layering of space alongside the iconic repetitive cast concrete fins along the layered swept façades.

*Please refer to the Appendix pp.48 to refer to the entire Urban Artefacts Research Project