Park Shelter for the 21st Century
Brief
What do you like to do in the park?
How would you use a shelter?
How do you think other people would use a shelter?
Do people have different needs now that weren't planned for in the past?
You are invited to design a shelter for the users of Hyde Park. Choose from one of the following activities;
Skateboarding
Barbecues
General
Woodhouse Moor Park is situated 1.6Km North West of Leeds city centre and is approximately 26 hectares in size.The park is surrounded on three sides by residential and commercial development most of which is linked to the cities two Universities i.e. student accommodation and teaching facilities. Woodhouse Lane also known as the A660 runs along the east boundary of the site. This is a major commuter route for people travelling from outer city suburban areas such as Headingley and Hyde Park to Leeds city centre and to both Leeds Metropolitan and Leeds University.
The parks main entrance is in the south east corner of the site off woodhouse Lane, but there are access/egress points on each corner of the site as well as those to Moorland Road and Hyde park Road. These entrances lead to the network of tree lined paths which split the park as a whole into various grassy open spaces. The entrances at the north and south corners of the site lead to its arterial route, the main path splitting the site in two sees by far the most pedestrian traffic as it is used as a more direct route from the universities to Headingley and Hyde Park, which are mainly populated by students.
The park has a variety of uses such as allotments, bowling greens, tennis courts, skate park and play area. The park’s wide open green spaces attract the large surrounding student community who gather on them in the summer months to socialise as very little garden space is provided by the surrounding university accommodation. The park’s main use however seems to be a commuter route.
I have used this to my advantage and positioned my shelter alongside the main path people use to cut through the park. As the park is within close proximity to Leeds/Leeds Met university and also near Headingly where a lot of students reside I thought a gallery type space would be the most effective way of attracting attention. I want to get people to make the most of the park, and not just blindly walking through. My aim is to make people stop and look and hopefully through this, discover other areas of the park.
The multiple paths through the park cut it up into triangles so I drew upon these shapes and arranged them so that the building uses natural light that is
reflected onto the display surface. I have carefully positioned the triangles so they constantly attract sunlight throughout day, illuminating various installations at different parts of the day.
From researching further I came to find that using any sort of mirrored surface would be impractical as it would be too in your face / blinding. However I also found out that a white emulsion would reflect a suffient amount of light without dazing people.
sketch model
Birds eye view of the arranged triangles form the shape of an eye which is relevant to the nature of the shelter - a viewing gallery.
