REFLECTIONS ON BRICK LANE

Within the car park, I was struck by the existing accommodation of different uses of space. The use of extendable frames for the weekend market seemed a useful way of addressing different functions from a large open plan space for cars to more defined and intimate areas defined by the market stalls, whilst retaining the existing floor-plan. This seemed an interesting solution to containing and organizing more open plan environments, whilst allowing form to change depending upon use. As we discovered on the day, access is a real problem and I think this shows how the whole access is is still about "us" and "them", and the sheer openness of the space allows for a more integrated approach. I also liked the car-park attendant hut as a means to introduce manageable and practical modular environments, whilst retaining the open space feel.

The examples of visible utilities and existing technology including lifts, shutters, interconnecting forms and pulleys etc. suggested the use of simple solutions to practical problems and allowing for existing structures and the possibility of making utilitarian features visible as part of the overall design, which would again provide flexibility, cheaper costs and provide a link to the buildings history.

The Interior spaces allowed for existing ramps and again the ability to affix new utilities to the existing interior and wall space. I was struck by the rather daunting scale and how quickly the students talked of scaling down the space and how we naturally clustered together, raising all sorts of interesting questions around scale, comfort and the need to manage and control large spaces.