Defining the urban void?
Enclosed via the wrappings of facades of various building typologies. Hidden away, somewhat utilised. Although often, they secretly exist in perpetual flux, underutilised with no particular function.
Reimagining the facades that contain these spaces not as exterior frontages, but as interior walls defining the boundaries of each void. These urban voids evolve into a series of scattered interiors that have the potential to facilitate Architectural intervention.
With an increasingly limited availability of space for “new-build” within London, the scattered interior voids become the host for a contemporarily conscious kind of proposal. Sandwiched in between Kings Cross St. Pancreas and Euston Station, Somers Town becomes an ideal testing ground. A site with a community whimsically living off past glories. Present issues of youth unemployment, a rapidly growing population, an inability to adequately manage an increasing load of council waste. Mean that drastic and community conscious initiatives must be formulated and implemented to encourage Somers Town and its peoples to thrive in the near future.
Bridging the physical isolation between the scattering of voids concealed within Somers Town through a binding programme and intervention can begin to piece together a fractured community reassociating themselves within a modern context.
A strange urban vehicle that is controlled remotely. Through the reconfiguration of mutually exclusive objects, there is a uniquely reimagined perspective and understanding of the city.
Discarded furniture found in Somers Town. The systematic process of documented disassemblage and reassemblage that followed, using complementary connective junctions creating new linkages and objects.
Recyclable Council items collected by the fleet of Council vans are dropped into an intermediary site. With the possibility for upcycling, recombination and invention and trade at Chalton St Market.
Strategic cuts on the ground level through the existing Architecture of the underground car park carried out by the council masons will help facilitate the operation of materials collection.
Through the community-led build, further strategic cuts are made into the roof of the underground car park. Facilitating a direct connection between the workspace and the public.
A space that encourages a mix of items and a mix of concurrent programs. Simply using readily available scaffold board that connects to the grid of steel beams framing the openings.
The items make their way down the cut wall openings into collection cars, ready to be taken apart and reassembled throughout the workspace.
A shared workspace for Repair, Recycling, Upcycling & Invention. Involving various collaborative disciplines, woodwork through furniture, metalwork with bikes, plastics works, books, electronics et al.
The void above the community workspace is revitalized through the cuts. Recycled plastic & timber is community-build within the void. Encouraging revitalized means of informal urban void activity.
The urban void as a process: The reinvigoration of Somers Town through the interconnected externalization of three interior urban voids. All manifested through the appropriation of recyclable items.