Manchester Northern Quarter - Urbanism Study

THE NQ: AN ORGANISM & ITS PRIMORDIAL SOUP

“That duel quality of the membrane is…an important principle for visualising more modern living urban forms. Whenever we construct a barrier, we have to equally make the barrier porous; the distinction between inside and outside has to be reachable, if not ambiguous.” -Richard Sennett

We look at the connection between environments as working places and the exterior spaces that are created as a result of building construction.

We base the foundation for our analysis on how people use the area as our interaction with space is derived from walls: the membrane of the NQ.

The use of a particular facade material highlights our point of using varying street light to guide the eye and in turn, subconsciously guide the user.

SOLID VOID MAPPING STUDY

MACRO: MCR

MESO: NQ + PCDLY

MICRO: SITE

URBAN GRAIN The layout of the Northern Quarter is rectilinear, much like the American grid layouts in its cities, where this grid allows for maximum space per area to be usable and not difficultly shaped. However, where there are two or more grids meet, there are often triangular plots to make use of the space.

Sennett states later in the text that, ‘…walls and boarders leads to a secondary systematic characteristic of open city: incomplete form.’

Here Sennett discuss that the building, or the wall/membrane of the building, and that it should be set forward to interact with the other buildings, where the designer is to create this form in a special way for the person.

Historical Analysis

NETWORKS PEDESTRIAN ROUTES

VOIDS OPEN SPACE

1850s

TYPOLOGY INDUSTRY

2010s

CONSTANT FORM: CHANGING FUNCTION In the Northern Quarter there is a strong essence of boundary and restriction as the buildings are listed and remain in the time that they were built- the early 19th century. As a consequence the buildings and the spaces created are locked in time. Immediately one of the most obvious elements of the Northern Quarter is its restriction In height. Limited to around seven stories, due to a restriction in available technologies, an observer would think that there would be more light available, yet due to the large mass and close proximity to the surrounding buildings alleyways and footpaths are often dark.

However when opening to a street the area is immediately filled with light, where a hierarchy of light availability is asserted in the design of the streets and buildings.

Original form re-purposed as modern offices.

Networks & Nodes

ROAD NETWORK MAPPING

RAIL NETWORK MAPPING

MACRO SCALE NQ ACCESS T was important for our study to analyse access at a greater scale to the NQ. This allowed us to develop an understanding of how users of all kinds, be that tourists, commuters of residents access and circulate the site. Where the nodes of transport area and what influences users on their travels, be that streetscapes of way-finding landmarks or nodes.

NQ Void Extraction & Public Space

LITTLE LEVER ST CAR PARK

CHURCH ST CAR PARK (NOW SOLID)

STEVENSON SQ

ANCOATS CAR PARKS PCDLY GARDENS PCDLY CAR PARKS

BLOOM ST CAR PARK

MAYFIELD CAR PARKS

MINSHULL ST CAR PARK

USER ACCESS TO OPEN SPACE Does the user experience and route reflect a draw towards open or public space. These nodes of open areas linking the NQ? Or is the density navigated by backstreet and alley ways. Looking deeper at these void spaces was crucial to understand what the cultural impact of the strict arrangement of the NQ. The NQ has the highest density of conservation

listed buildings in the city and few large open areas or public space respectively. These smaller niche voids are arguably more interesting as they are closely woven with the rich typology and urban grain. We will later look at ways of expanding and enriching these spaces after further analysis

The NQ axial grid system leads to FlatIron like building node.

Fluid Dynamics Through Streetscape PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE COMPARISON An interesting study was carried out using fluid dynamics software to investigate the effect of the NQ density on navigating the city on a MESO scale. This mapping shows the flow of movement from the N.W to S.E; at a tangent to the axial relationship between the NQ’s grid layout and FlatIron building. It becomes apparent that the NQ is in-fact difficult to penetrate due to its fine grain

The open spaces and major routes such as Piccadilly gardens or great ancoats street are far more frequent paths. We sought to explore this further by looking at the hotspots in these mappings and what’s going on with user experience at these points.

What landmarks, buildings, nodes and experiential factors influence the actual pathways and routes of people.

HIGH ST./ SHUDEHILL

NQ SITE

GREAT ANCOATS ST.

MARKET ST.

PICCADILLY GARDENS

SITE

THE CITY AS AN ORGANISM POROUS MEMBRANE OF THE NQ A this point we became increasingly aware of Sennetts points on a city like an organism,with a porous yet barrier membrane. In the software analysis shown here, the NQ density is only penetrated at it’s axis FlatIron building node. We know however that the NQ is a buzzing environment despite being off the direct path of least resistance. We looked to use Sennetts template and explore what

Experiential factors were at play causing the user to decide to go off path and enter the porous membrane. This analysis is using S.E to N.W orientation imitating the common route from Piccadilly into the city centre towards the Arndale and then onto Victoria Station and the MEN.

GREAT ANCOATS ST.

NEWTON ST.

PORT ST.

ARNDALE CENTRE

PICCADILLY GARDENS

MARKET ST.

SITE

DUAL MEMBRANE QUALITY BARRIER OF DENSITY CREATING EXPERIENTIAL NAVIGATION When editing the orientation of flow in the fluid dynamics software to line up with market street rather than one of the NQ axis, the boundary and as Sennett describes,’membrane’ can be clearly seen. Again the NQ’s density is now impermeable and for users new to the city following obvious landmarks such as Piccadilly gardens, the NQ could be missed

entirely. The next stage of this analysis is to identify the notes and gatekeepers. The spaces where users are likely to deviate from the path and what experiential factors of design are implemented.

MILLER ST.

PICCADILLY GARDENS

PICCADILLY STATION

SITE

Newton St. is one of the more heavily used routes across the organism membrane.

USER WAY-FINDING STUDY

FROM VICTORIA STATION

THE OPEN CITY AND THE WAY-FINDING USER

VICTORIA STATION

To continue the study we compared information from the void, network and fluid dynamics studies to investigate the two most common routes to the site by foot. One from Piccadilly Station and one from Victoria Station. The aim was to analyse how a way-finder might orientate themselves and what buildings or spaces they are drawn to or navigate with.

FOOTBALL MUSEUM

HISTORIC MARKET

NQ CRAFT CENTRE

FROM PICCADILLY STATION

PICCADILLY STATION

GATEWAY HOUSE

BRIDEGWATER CANAL

ONE PORTLAND ST. SITE

SITE

USER WAY-FINDING STUDY ARRIVING ON SITE With our findings from the light study, we wanted to look further at the south facing Dale Street elevations. The wider void shown in this mapping allows far superior light penetration drawing the eye to these buildings in particular. It’s likely that when approaching the site from either direction highlighted in the way-finding that these elevations will be crucial markers.

Lever St. Facade catches the light drawing the eye up and out of the darker street plane.

DARK AND LIGHT BARRIER LIGHTING THE FINE GRAIN To further understand what people experience throughout the NQ beyond just its typologies and grid arrangement we decided to look at how the lighting of the narrower alleys and back passages effected their use. Were people drawn into the quieter back streets for the experience themselves, or did the sectional expression of the area mean certain buildings or faรงades caught the light, drawing you into the next space subconsciously.

SUN ALTITUDE: 58.2 - 8.99 degrees DAYLIGHT DURATION: 17h3m6s - 7h29m31s SHADOW LENGTH: 0.62m - 6.32m (For object of 1m height)

DARK AND LIGHT BARRIER PENETRATING THE VOID

1000hrs 1200hrs 1400hrs

The study was focused on the site void. Software analysis compared with on site anthropology throughout the day. We observed direct changes in behaviour and movement to solar-path and shadowing. With particular faรงades catching the light at certain causing people to look where they may not have before. Some streets being used frequently then later not as people choose to walk in the sun rather than down a now dark alleyway. These findings lead us to further study typological elements and how they interacted with the light, user and overall network when experienced as a whole of parts.

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01/04

01/07

01/10

Looking at fenestration arrangement on shaded side of street. Note the sub-basement windows.

VOID AMALGAMATION CAPTURING THE GRAIN SPACE

With this collage we have tried to capture what all of these factors really mean and what these changing void spaces actually feel like. With the NQ like and ever shifting organism bound by form but in no way dynamism or programme.

MULTIFACETED MAPPING NETWORKS, NODES, VOIDS: SPACES THEY CREATE “That duel quality of the membrane is…an important principle for visualising more modern living urban forms.

Whenever we construct a barrier, we have to equally make the barrier porous; the distinction between inside and outside has to be reachable, if not ambiguous.” -Richard Sennett We look at the connection between environments as working places and the exterior spaces that are created as a result of building construction.

We base the foundation for our analysis on how people use the area as our interaction with space is derived from walls: the membrane of the NQ.