Week Thirteen : Architectural Entity Context

Through established avenues of communication Paddington Exchange is not only an attempt to nurture action and engagement at the scale of merely Paddington it is further intended to fit within a broader network of collaborative initiatives. In this sense not only is the entity permeable to the rich diversity of Paddington but through a process of mutual transaction and enrichment; via transient vendors, open invitation and a transparent offering; it contributes to both regional and national amenity. Multiple hubs of a similar nature would generate networks of activity within the subculutral regions of Brisbane, and function to both stimulate the everyday and spark innovation. These nodes form communities of practise and through varied means transact both physically, socially, culturally and economically with one another through open events, open forms of intellectual property, shared ideas, resources and dialogue. Collectively they feed back to a Brisbane City Terminal through both artists and thinkers in residence which act on behalf of the needs of their citizens to collaborate with the Brisbane centre. The below diagram illustrates more thinking more explicitly.

Week Thirteen : Architectural Entity

In attempting to gather together all these diverse threads of research, exploration and reflection the following is my delineation of the three both physical, ephemeral and conceptual offers of Paddington Exchange; the marketplace, openhouse and clubhouse.

Paddington Exchange as a platform : The marketplace 

The Paddington Exchange marketplace is a platform for citizen engagement. It is comprised of core long term retail services which share premises with emergent pop up markets and travelling vendors.

Its sustainment is underpinned by relational capital, which is both the knowledge and trust built up between a venture and its users and suppliers and the relationship between a venture and its staff and circle of volunteers. As a social venture this is the foundation of its strength and distinctiveness.

The space encourages participatory urbanism with several mechanisms that allow a continual re-configuration of physical settings. It operates to en-culture Paddington Exchange by showcasing a range of activities and performances, acting as a living entity by playing host to both local interactivity and transient vendors.

Not only does the marketplace perpetuates the artisinary culture of Paddington but it also advocates local consumption by creating avenues for exchange of home grown produce and open source design. This platform further transacts with a storage and distribution centre in the below retrofitted parking structure.

The marketplace is comprised of several defining spaces and services, including;

Central Market Square: Open platform scored by channels that allow market carriages to move in and out of the space. Capable of containing innumerable activities and bordered by a vast staircase for overview seating.

Community Owned Shops: Individual premises which share market carriages with transient vendors in the market square. Fitted out with a fly system to allow for a theatrical use of space and ongoing transformation.

Inhabitable Loading Docks: Loading spaces for the community shops open onto Warmington Street to allow for drive in trade. Electric vans fitted to sell local produce create an immediate connection between producer and consumer.

Paddington Exchange for the people: Openhouse

The Paddington Exchange openhouse is a space for leveraging connection and enhancing community collaboration. It sets the context and creates hospitable space to build capacity by offering physical infrastructure to encourage meaningful contribution and connect diverse perspectives.

Openhouse perpetuates the idea of conversation as a core process and offers the opportunity for deep cultural exchange by engaging people in conversations that matter. It provides a physical setting for the citizens of Paddington to make problems visible and explore tangible propositions. It nurtures a community of practise through participatory workshops and open space events. As a think tank space, several community groups including the Paddington Ideas Bank operate in association.

The subculture of Paddington is visibly manifested in openhouse, it offers democratic participation and community ownership, reinforcing embedded social agency in the community. The Latrobe frontage creates an active street scape which even at the close of business provides a space for community gathering and use. 

Openhouse is further comprised of several defining spaces and services, including; 

Market Cafe & Coffee Shop: A community owned and supplied café and coffee shop offer the flavours of Paddington to both its citizens and visitors.

Paddington Lounge: Lounge spaces embedded into the street scape offer a physical setting for informal gathering and organised events whilst also presenting homeless persons a space to shelter at night.

The Cafeteria: The cafeteria is a space with the capacity for both individual activity and workshop/ seminar events. It offers a more structured setting for community use.

Resource Studios: Several resource studios offer infrastructure and service otherwise not freely available to everyday citizens such as printing, prototyping, finishing and the borrowing of tools and instruments.

Informal Meeting Space, Installation Space and Technical Support

Paddington Exchange as a facilitator: The clubhouse

The Paddington Exchange clubhouse acts as a facilitator to the social gathering of local groups, who work independently but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space. It facilitates a culture of co-working.

The clubhouse goes well beyond the tangible benefits of collaboration; quality of life is improved by building relationships, heightened productivity and accessible urban amenities. It fosters a process of enrichment and offers feasible economic opportunity by encompassing the needs and requirements of local community groups and businesses.

The clubhouse is comprised of several defining spaces and services, including;

Informal Workspace: Several spaces are designed for population with a range of loose furniture configurations . In order to allow occupants to arrange and in-habitat the space according to their own individual needs and priorities.

Studio Space: Multiple studio rooms are available for tenancy by community groups and local businesses, offering a central location and access to multiple shared resources.

Resource Centre: Resources centres offer infrastructure and hardware in order make tangible ideas and proposals visible. Services include printing, prototyping and finishing. In addition to a range of device for borrowing.

Skype Booths: Skype booths offer a secluded setting in which to access virtual information and undertake online meeting and collaboration.

Indoor/ Outdoor Workspace

Week Thirteen : Architectural Entity Physical Context

Paddington Exchange is intended to knit together the diverse threads of Paddington in such a way that encourages both individuals and local groups to organise themselves into a collaborative community. As such its spatial relation to the physical environment is designed in a way that slots the entity within Paddington's existing urban fabric. The entity purposefully activates the street edges and through an open gesture invites further exploration deep into the site. At the Northern boundary it is intended that access will be provided to an urban agricultural corridor (as can be seen in an earlier master plan for the future precinct of Paddington) and the existing parking structure be converted to a storage and distribution centre. The rooftop of this infrastructure will additional be converted to an urban garden, so to create a rich experiential progression from the Latrobe Terrace streetscape to the animated marketplace and lastly to an urban oasis. Also on the Western side of the site Paddington Exchange engages a recycle/up cycle centre owned and operated by community residents.

Weel Thirteen : Architectural Entity Scale

While much of the buildings elevations have a vast height; ground planes are intended to be lived on and engaged at the human scale. Much of the permanent intervention at this level is meant as furniture in itself, with inhabitation of several structural elements. Subsequent to this is a layer of humanity only achievable through human use. The worn furniture, the stacked bikes, the footprints and impressions left and created by those that the building in intended to serve. The following images are exploration of such concepts through my physical model and I think that these quite eloquently capture the connection between my entity and the touch of human hands.

Week Thirteen : Thoughts on Feedback

While wholly positive, feedback this week implored me to understand the gesture of my entity more explicitly. In attempting to emulate a social invitation to the community; for Paddington's citizens to take up residence and create this hub of animation and exchange the entity needs to speak a language of complete transparency with not only its physical setting but also that of the wider regional context. While serving defined purpose aspects of the building should remain public for free community use and although removed from the streetscape, the building should openly gesture to the marketplace below, though obvious dialogue and glimpses of animation. In refining the design I believe that obvious emphasis to its humanity should underpin these final days of its refinement.