North Place- Site analysis

from Shereen's portfolio 2023

by Shereen

Chaumont garden design competition

Project 7

SOC:

Open up site to clear sky and more sun light

Views into site from building need to appeal to building users

Requirement to retain frontageconsider vehicular views into site

Use vegetation screening? Or hard landscape boundary?

Building heights restrict right to light, noise considerations? Buffer with topography or vegetation?

A4019- St Margaret’s Road

Surrounding site- grade II listed building

Block construction of new development, it may contrast against the site development

Enhance view of grade II listed building: use buildings to frame the view?

Block out views of unappealing flats

North Place Road- key route

Contextually significantgrade II listed building

North Place

A1 Analysis

AD5605 - ASS02

Design Project 2

1:500

Leave in view of top of Brewery Quarter building as wayfinding to town centre

Again consider building development height and privacy of residents. Avoid leveliing out windows with residential building heights

The site was initially a desolated car park in Cheltenham, we were briefed to create a space that would be in use for 24 hours and had a specified amount of car park.

My design aimed to create a more cohesive Cheltenham, offering a space for a diversity of people to come together and enjoy a 365 day site, operating 24 hours through the use of the amphitheatre, businesses which would operate as a cafe during the day and bar at night and a seating area lit up at night by the cascading water wall. The site included space for local businesses to inhibit, a main plaza to host local events, vegetated planters with herbaceous planting for local restaurants to use, cycle ways, a sunken amphitheatre for cultural activity and an underground car park with kinaesthetic paving, re-using the collected energy for the site’s electrical usage.

A glass university eco-hub was designated to provide a study space for students on the 1st and 2nd floor with the ground floor being occupied by food shops.

Cheltenham’s Social Circle

Car park buildings with allotment roofs for service users across the road to engage with and create their own allotments.

A main plaza set with different coloured paving to celebrate Cheltenham’s diversity which would host temporary festivals. Cascading water wall to the north.

Cascading water wall with the purpose to block out the noise for the surrounding residential homes.

A sunken amphitheatre with a stage and wheelchair accessibility designed to encourage cultural activity such as music and arts.

A fountain with visibility for drivers passing by to look into the site, the fountain was specified to be made of the same material of the adjacent grade II listed building as an appreciation to the local history.

Visualisations

A shared pedestrian road with cobbled surfacing to ensure the safety of pedestrians.

LED lights in the tree crowns to light up the site at night in addition to glow stone aggregate activated at night.

With forward-thinking technology, a glass screen facade to the raised car park that displays the weather and time.

Paths lined with herbaceous planters for the local food businesses to use.

Permeable paths wide enough for wheelchair users, patterned flooring on the sides to create a more stationary area.

The main plaza with temporary market stalls and colourful kaenesthetic, mosaic paving to celebrate the cultural diversity.

A cotswold stone and oak sunken amphitheatre, with an internal elevator for wheelchair access and stage.

Castlemeads- Feasibility report

The brief was to conduct a feasibility report as a group and use this to decide what Gloucester’s local community need the most and prioritise this as a guide for our design concepts.

This group feasbility report was used to explore a wide range of aspects in relation to the site, from the current local politics, to current planning applications down to the exisitng soil and bedrock.

I found that through this extensive research a green space connection to the city was vital for the community to combat their current nature-deficit experience.

This was a quick visual made through a photo collaging technique that I often use to convey my vision for the site.

Adjacent are maps of the existing bedrock and soil, this is a personal interest that is useful in site analysis when considering planting.

My strategy for this abandoned wetland area is to design a space that inhibits the existing culture of Gloucester with a re-imagined ‘silk road.’ Through the use of market stalls, food stands and wetland areas to connect these spaces and educate the local community with bug hotels and information boards. This would suffice the communities’ current needs and in turn, the local councils.

Barnwood Arboretum- strategies

The brief was to alleviate the flooding on site so that it could be usable, at current the site situated in Gloucester was an open area that was constantly boggy. This deterred visitors from this area of the larger site but the council wanted it to be usable.

Hydrology

The area was re-contoured to create a lake (far right) as a means of retention and circular rain gardens for attenuation. A swale and mound was designed to direct the surface run off into these allocated areas.

Raised boardwalks were specified, a gabion retaining wall and cafe with a green roof for run off.

Vegetation

The aim was to re-introduce native species to establish a woodland with the first phase of planting including nurse species. This would then be supported with shrubs and marginal aquatic species for areas with water.