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London.MixUseDevelopments 1.

Autumn.2016

CENTRAL SAINT GILES vs ONE NEW CHANGE

Cities are in constant evolution, in constant change; the new and the old coexist in a constant flux of activity. Within this dynamic state some buildings remain, some are transformed for different use, others are substitute by new construction.

Inserting new developments in a consolidated city fabric faces many challenges but could also offer new opportunities.

It is interesting to see that many of the new development can be interpreted as very insular entities that respond to trends of the economic market rather than contributing to create better urban environments that improve city live. In a respond to the fast growth of new developments in London we are going to look at two examples: Central Saint Giles by Renzo Piano and One New Change by Jean Nouvel. The students explored the way these projects perform in a complex city conditions as these selected projects have responded to the challenges of creating a succeful dialogue with the surrounding urban context through their unique designs.

Even though Central Saint Giles is a mixed used development and One New Change a major office retail development, student explored ways in which their design react to similar challenges of circulation, scale, materiality and performance. The elements explored deal with tangible and intangible attributes so that the unseen essence is unveiled. The topics to explored were:

1-Circulation and Flow
2-Infrastructure and Network
3-Activity and Time
4-Scale and Rhythm
5-Edge and Boundaries
6- Sold and Void