Roof Shape Concepts

MORE TO FOLLOW

Brief - More Thoughts

An untitled reading on Norman Foster's British Museum Great Court gave me a couple more ideas on the development of the brief.

http://designmuseum.org/__entry/74511?style=design_image_popup
British Museum Great Court - Norman Foster

Covering the Great Court creates a microclimate which allows people to use the spaces in ways they would not be able to outside. It also gives a different experience of the space to what was originally intended in the Great Court.

Covering parliament house could also create a new microclimate and give the space a new feeling.

What kind of feeling should it have?

What does it feel like now?

Should it change?

Changes that a skin or roof could make to parliament house:

shade - it shouldn't become so shaded that the grass dies, there are also skylights on top of the hill.

openness - people walking above parliament house on the hill are in the open, exposed to the weather, a roof or skin could retain this but it could also allow for all weather access, or it could do both using different layers

weather - a skin or roof could create a microclimate,

wind - if wind cant pass through the flag will no longer fly

MORE TO FOLLOW

Exemplar - Maison a Montbernier

I thought this was another good exemplar of Flexible architecture by French architects Tectoniques. Maison a Montbernier is "based on a series of of posts and beams forming a generic skeleton of which part has deliberately been left free. In particular, 3 bays are available for future utilisation." The bays are spaced so standard sized components can added between them and the occupants could extend the house easily when required. 

Just as easily, I imagine, a new owner could take down the components and build a new house that suited them inside the skeleton.

(photos from the book Tectoniques Architectes Unplugged as I couldn't find any photos online)

Research on New parliament House

From: "Back to the Future: The Pragmatic Classicism of Australia's Parliament House" by Paolo Tombesi

• criticised for avoiding Australia's past and present cultural rifts and socio-ethnical conflicts
• absence of a clear ideological stance in the design
• landmark objects - wall, hill, flagmast
• no larrikinist spirit
• important considerations in design - flexibility, security, circulation, construction methods, symbolism, building use patterns, the site
• brief - "the building had to allow for future (and as yet undefined) physical growth, to occur independently in monumental areas, offices, parliamentary suites, and service spaces, either by addition or by expansion and without encroaching upon existing circulation patterns, the latter conceived with the minimum number of interface points."
• it is a statement that takes place at a large scale to allow for flexibility within
• the project was used to develop new skills for the country

Many of the above points on new parliament house, especially the brief considerations and new skills creation will also apply to my design. Really the design will just be an extension on the original brief for new parliament house. New parliament house was required to be flexible in allowing changes in the future, my design will fit in with these changes adding a new function to parliament which represents the future of democracy.

Project Two Criteria

Notes on criteria for Project 2


Infrastructure
Strategy

• identify the existing infrastructure, visible and invisible
• and/or propose new infrastructure, justify
• communicate with:
• diagrams
• at an urban scale
• icons are useful
• wireframe of building may be useful

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

Logistics

• deal with during the design process
• make it a part of the design
• use drawings to describe what happens
• it could be all about logistics
• describe the process of building, unbuilding, recycling, the whole lifecycle
• how does it happen?
• how do sizes, shapes etc fit in with infrastructure

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

Tectonic

Purpose and Function

• simplify and diagram to explain
• pick a good angle that explains it best
• show life and purpose in plans

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

Circulation and Access

• how, explain process
• use exploded diagrams, exploded into floors or components
• simplify it
• can use 2D diagrams, plans or something abstract
• use digital media to present more, make a story
• 10 simple diagrams are better than 1 complex

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

Structural/Operational Integrity

• use exploded/assembly diagrams
• use these to help resolve design as well
• show possible outcomes /examples to explain how it works

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

Poetic

Presence and Identity

• renderings
• show in context
• exaggerate
• take photos

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

User Experience

• Video, animation
• show a scenario
• storyboard
• show context

http://infranetlab.org/blog/

Aesthetic Rigor

• Think about every drawing
• think about blog
• organised
• easy to read through

The Citizens Assembly

In order to understand how parliament can be changed for the better, I looked at http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/ for some alternatives. From here I found out about the Citizens Assembly that was held in Canberra in 2009.

Brief

An attempt at a more refined brief:
(Based in part on the Australian Citizens' Parliament held in 2009)


How the Citizens Parliament Works

• 150 citizens are chosen (same size as the House of Representatives), one from each electorate, representative of the population based on census data. They will form the Citizens' Parliament for the next year.
• Initially regional meetings are held to brief the Citizen Parliamentarians and let them get to know each other.
•  Citizen Parliamentarians then work from home in their spare time, generating and debating policy proposals on an online forum. Enough Citizen Parliamentarians need to join in each proposal to keep it going, proposals are rated on importance.
• Regional meetings are held monthly to brief Citizen Parliamentarians on current issues and keep interest.
• At the end of the year (in Spring? when the weather is not too bad) the Citizens' Parliament meets in Parliament House. The top 12(?) policy proposals are debated and refined over a week and then presented to the government where they are voted on in the House and the Senate.

Issues to Consider

Where will regional meetings be held?

Each regional meeting will have the same amount on Citizen Parliamentarians. Could be 10 or 15. They would need to be held in places central to these 10 or 15 electorates.

Some electorates cover huge areas and there is a big distance between them, how will this work?

Map Showing Electorates
http://carefullyscriptedremarks.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/aec-map.jpg

• Parliamentarians could be flown to a central place. - expense, pollution, time
• Numbers in meetings could vary. - still a long way to travel for many people
• Physical meetings may be difficult
• Virtual meetings could be held, with current technology is possible. - are people less likely to keep interest? what if they don't have access to technology?
• A kit could be sent to each parliamentarian that gives them the equipment, or a space with the equipment, to participate, regardless of their situation. 

Where will the Citizen Parliamentarians live while in Canberra?

• Previous Citizens Parliament used student accommodation - makes use of existing infrastructure, but needs to be when students are not living there.
• Something purpose built would only be used once a year. - unless it had another function at other times.
• The kit sent out to Parliamentarians could be a living space. - travels to Canberra with them, already been used by them for a year, plugs into Parliament House where they live during the Citizens' Parliament. - is there space for 150 living units?
• Living spaces that are used for something else the rest of the year could be built over Parliament House. - used for what? tourists? 

Why not only hold the Citizens' Parliament online? Why go to Canberra at all? Why only once a year?

• Travelling to Canberra and being in Parliament House gives a greater sense of legitimacy, being with the rest of parliament.
• Working in Parliament House would give a greater insight into the workings of parliament for those involved.
• If more than once a year it coud impact on the Citizen Parliamentarians' other jobs and commitments.
• Changing Citizen Parliamentarians each year gives more people a chance to be involved.

Why is a Citizens' Parliament needed at all?

• People would have more respect for policy decisions if they were involved and knew how it worked. 
• People would have more respect for government as there would be a greater feeling of democracy if citizens were actually involved in policy making.
• It would allow for policy to be made without political parties being involved, policy that is good for Australia, not just good for getting a political party into power.
• Policy for the long term would be generated as the parliamentarians know they are only there for one year and don't need to think about elections. 

Week 6 Statement

Week 6 Presentation

Week 6 Presentation Boards, statement to follow soon.

The Problem with Parliament

A summary of some of my research into the problems parliament faces and possible solutions.

I have explored a number of other problems, such as changes that may be needed to the parliamentary library, below is a summary of the research relevant to the problem presented in the week 6 presentation.

From-
The New Democracy Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/

"In civic life, democracy is a significant reference point for our sense of well-being. When our faith in the political system is undermined by the realities of the current system, we become exasperated and disillusioned- with our politicians and with ourselves. There is no doubt that most politicians are well intentioned but the way our system currently works means that their focus is too often on winning and retaining office: the electioneering imperative."

As has been made obvious by the problems we see facing a minority government, Australian citizens feel left out of the policy making process resulting in a sense of a lack of democratic legitimacy. Currently policy is increasingly difficult to implement. Apart from during elections, there is a lack of integration of citizens in the parliament system.


From -
Hartz-Karp, J., & Anderson, P., & Gasti, J., & Felicetti, A. (2010). The Australian Citizens' Parliament: forging shared identity through public deliberation. Journal of Public Affairs (10) 353-371

"Active citizen participation is increasingly being recognized as essential to effective public policymaking. A key challenge for public administrators is how to effectively engage constituents' diverse viewpoints in sound deliberation that will likely result in coherent, agreed judgments."

"How is it possible to harness disparate voices, enjoin them in egalitarian, analytic problem solving and facilitate coherent agreed outcomes."

This paper refers to a Citizens' Parliament of randomly selected Australians held in old parliament house in 2009. The participants began by posting proposals online which were then voted in order of importance and further discussed when they got together in the Citizens' Parliament in Canberra. By the end of the talks the participants felt a shared sense of identity of being Australian and that they were doing important work for all Australians.

"My country has called. I had to be here."

"importance of being part of something bigger." 

"The thing is we've all become a part of the history of this building now."

"The collective repositioning of participants that resulted from being asked to take responsibility for formulating effective reforms for the future of all Australians, and to do so through an egalitarian process with ethnically and attitudinally diverse others, proved to be critical in the emergence of identity at the Australian Citizens' Parliament."

The proposals that emerged from the talks however were not binding and were only presented to a representative of the government.

If a space could be created to cater for a permanent Citizens' Parliament that acted as a third house of parliament this would offer a solution. Of course the members of the Citizens' Parliament would not attend full time and much of the lead up work could be by members while they are at home. Such a space would need to be adaptable enough to represent all members of the Citizens' Parliament while they are not in Canberra, while some are in Canberra and while they all meet in Canberra.