CV

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SKETCH BOOK

My initial thoughts for the site are the disused piers to the west of the current Blackfriars railway bridge, London. They are in fact the remnants of the original London Chatham and Dover railway bridge.

BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE

Blackfriars Bridge from Andrew Morrison on Vimeo.

I have spent most this week on 'site', in and around the area of Blackfriars, London. Blackfriars has two operational bridges at present, the earliest of which is the road and foot bridge (the furthest one on the left in the video), built in 1769 and the other, the rail bridge is used by Thameslink and was built in 1886. The pilars in between the two indicate where the original 1864 bridge stood and are what I intend to inhabit as part of my proposal. By the mid 20th century, the original bridge was considered too weak to carry modern trains and so was demolished in 1985.

Blackfriars are the only bridges in central London to have a direct north south orientation; providing the framework for potentially the ideal urban growing environment.

The video above was taken from Ludgate House, an office building opposite the site. Thanks must go to Katherine Hayes from BD who booked out one of the meeting rooms, without which I wouldn't have been able to film. What I think is highlighted in the film is the amount of activity which surrounds the site. The static piers depict the remnants of the old London Chatcham and Dover Railway, whilst in stark contrast, the rail and road bridges carry a hive of activity. Perpendicular to all this lies the Thames, a means to ferry passengers from east to west London. These components all contribute to the sites characteristics of an orthogonal and nodal transport interchange.

AXIAL MAPPING

Blackfriars Bridge is the only bridge in London to have a direct north south axis. The axial model explores this notion further by depicting the relationships between the differing axis which surround the site. Over the coming few days I will look to investigate axial lines against isovist grids, both of which will heavily influence the parameters I have to work between. Both were recently outlined by Lydia Heard on the city walker website;

'Axial lines should be used for intelligibility, global properties and movement; isovists for static local uses of space. Isovist grids, or visibility graphs, provide output that looks similar to that of axial line maps, but they really are measuring different things. Axial lines predict movement, or movement choices, which require some conscious thought. Isovists measure and predict behaviours which are more dependent upon environmental qualities, or perception and awareness'.

SKETCH INTERCHANGE MODEL

here is a sketch of what I propose to build over the coming few days; initial thoughts are that it will be a plaster of paris base with differing grades of wire denoting separate routes and copper pipe showing tunnels.

The two bridges are surrounded by a network of interchanges.

WHERE SYSTEMS MEET

Here are a few pics from the model. I imagine it to become ever more intricate as the project moves forward, with the building being 'wired' into position as it evolves. I have stated to suggest how the proposal will react to the different systems (the perforated plane) which surround the site, all of which is paramount to the success of the project. Now time for some programming........

SKETCH BOOK

After the crit on Monday, I have decided to refine the programme. I believe the proposal should revolve around the idea of a service station for allotments- which would predominantly be floating but could also help to provide materials, seeds etc to one of the many traditional allotments in the borough of Southwark. The reason for this is to ensure the programme informs the architecture, rather than the contrary. The programme is extremely unusual, along with the choice of site and I believe that it is this aspect of the thesis which should  be as visible as possible when viewing the project at later dates. This process of refinement has led me to believe that I should trim out aspects such as auditoria, meeting rooms, libraries etc and concentrate on the functional requirements of a service station. Offices, storage (for materials which are later sold to the public) and the market are the aspects which I intend to keep, with cranes and robotic arms spanning between the existing piers tending to the barges below.

I have started to calculate the potential 'growing power' of the barges, which I will comment more on at a later date, but initial calculations suggest that the area between Tower Bridge and Waterloo (a 3km stetch of the Thames) could serve upto 836 people. This is based on the fact that there are currently 55 barges occupying this stretch of water, covering 33,000m2. A traditional allotment of 250m2 during the Second World War was estimated at providing enough fresh vegetables to cater for the annual needs of 6 people. These calculations do not take into consideration the fact that that farming hydroponically on the barges could increase this figure. If London's average population density of 4,800 ppl/km2 is applied to this data, then, if only the EXISTING barges are devoted to food production then this area of the Thames could cater for 34% of the population. There is the potential for this figure to increase if additional structures are proposd.



Green spaces in London- Including back-gardens, parks and waterways. All of which, if utilized, could help to increase the amount of food we produce in the capital.