Week 5 - Taxonomy of the Existing Peninsula

Following on from the consideration of a vertical limitation to the ownership of the site, I undertook a study of the existing objects on the site. The study focussed on objects which may be deemed undesirable on a developed future peninsula.

The above image identifies this taxonomy of the existing Peninsula and was constructed by my physical cutting of the objects from a printed aerial image of the Peninsula.

Week 4 - Speculative Precedent

On visiting Foster's Vieux Port pavilion in Marseille I took the above photograph. The orientational ambiguity of the image visually addresses the implications around a secondary vertical plane above the Peninsula.  

Week 4 - Peninsula above the Peninsula

With the consideration of the ownership of space above the the ground, I aimed to begin investigating the limit at which this spacial privitisation ends vertically. That is, at what point the gated Peninsula community ends.

The above image addresses the implications of constructing a physical boundary at this vertical limit, raising questions regarding how this would be used or misused.

Week 3 - Air Pockets

Following my interest in the the privatisation and autonomy of land ownership on the peninsula I began to consider the potential vertical implications.

Using the existing elevational variation of the site, recorded using a GPS device, I applied the swell factor to the existing land. In doing this, I found that defined air pockets appeared within the topology of the Peninsula. 

In finding these air pockets I than began to consider what new architectural vernacular would form within these invisible terrains. 

This experiment aimed to speculate how we treat the space above the land we own, a provocation for the seemingly limitless potential of growth above privately owned public space. 

Week 3 - Boundaries

Produced by Berndnaut Smilde since its conception for the Probe exhibition space in 2010 (see above), the nimbus series was conceived as being, in the artists words, 'the ultimate work of disappointment'. Smilde wanted the viewer to enter a space and be confronted with nothing, but a nothing which may just rain on you as well.

The spatial tensions he addresses in the work suggest an exploration into boundaries, and interestingly how you cannot readily define them in open space, or open air. The cloud then, not yet solid but none the less present, could be seen to signify an in-between space.

Earlier this year Smilde formed one of his clouds in Portland Place, London. Yet it is the procedure by which the formations are created that is of particular interest. The delicate sculptures involve 'a mad assemblage of items as mundane as seat-belt brackets, which hold up two smoke machines hired from a theatrical company, and ventilators taped to tripods'. More a composer than a sculptor, Smilde sprays water on the surfaces of the spaces to ensure a humidity which allows the longevity of the clouds. For him, the idea is about not what the objects do to the space, but more what the space brings out of the object. 

Recently, his collaboration with Harper's Bazaar has seen the clouds used as iconography. If his aim is to see what a space brings out of an object, it seems then that even a cloud can be subsumed into advertising.

All images taken from:

www.berndnaut.nl/works.htm

Quotes taken from:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/10727195/The-cloud-maker-Berndnaut-Smilde.html

Week 3 - Who owns the sky?

Following my exploration into the population swell as being physically manifest through the existing building form on the Peninsula, I produced a short animation portraying this growth and its spatial impact on the city.

In constructing this I have become interested in the question of verticality in the city context. This exploration has raised numerous questions regarding ownership, function and limitation. If the development of thousands of square metres of land can fall upon one autonomous corporation, where does this ownership end?

Week 2 - Swell

Following the presentation and discussion of my explorations in week 1, the relationship between the inevitable population and density swell of the peninsula and its current built form became my point of focus. The above image aims to draw into focus and challenge the seemingly ungovernable approach of mass developers to mass developments.

The extensive proposals by Knight Dragon to embellish the Peninsula over the coming decades led me to investigate what the impact of such a mass urban scale proposal could have. Knight Dragon first became involved with Greenwich Peninsula Regeneration Limited (GPRL) in July 2012, purchasing a 60% share alongside Britain based regeneration specialist Quintain. The company went on to purchase the remaining 40% of shares from Quintain in November 2013, renaming the GPRL as Knight Dragon Investment Limited.

Dr Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, Knight Dragons owner, is also the chairmen of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited, a company which controls New World Development Company Limited (NWD). NWD, a major conglomerate listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, stated that their 'quality developments give a city its identity'.

Taking this intent literally, I calculated the speculative population swell of the peninsula and its current icon, the O2 Arena, using the city of Hong Kong as a precedent. Hong Kong has one of the densest populations, with 25,900 persons per square kilometre. Applying this density to the 2.65 square kilometre Peninsula gives a new population of 68,635, an increase of 54,584 persons or 488.5%.

The above city plan applies this scale factor to the O2 Arena, previously the Millennium Dome, with the extremity of the impending swell aiming to act as a speculative provocation. The Dome here stands not as an icon of the city of London, but as a symbol for the conglomerate owned and directed mass developments which may threaten it.

'London is a gently anarchic city that has always grown haphazardly in fits and starts, and it is that quality that lies behind its long-term robust good health.' Desan Sudjic