also, i’m used to hammering out a form, then figuring out what it ‘means’ – which most people think is backwards, but what can you do! probably good that we’re attacking the design from all sides.

The wine bar concept came out of the location of the site in an inner city area where the notion of having a drink after work is a realistic one. From the beginning the idea was to create an ambiguous space ie. is it landscape or architecture? (This is already embodied in the idea of a wine bar located [semi]out of doors. What needs to be achieved is a space that works equally well when activated with people or just as a contemplative garden for one person to look onto from above.

The moon garden concept came from the idea of a 24hr useage of the site that gave equal and balanced priority to what needs to be achieved within a garden, rather than just a functional interior architecture space.

All my favourite designs arise from highly constrained and challenging sites/design problems – that’s half the fun! (Perhaps our biggest challenge at present is loosing the integration of the concept. We will need to work hard on not losing that!)

seems to me we have three proposals

Tom – create a garden at ground level that can be rebuilt as a roof garden if development takes place

Stefan – raise the garden above the existing car park on a series of terraces

Christine – develop the site, raising the building so the garden flows underneath

perhaps we can put it to some sort of public vote!

From Corbusier’s 5 points of architecture exemplifed at Villa Savoye:

Point 1
The pilotis, or ground-level supporting columns, elevate the building from the damp earth allowing the garden to flow beneath. Photos @[http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/france/poissy/savoye/corbu.html]

Point 2
A flat roof terrace reclaims the area of the building site for URBAN purposes, including a garden area. Photos @ [http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/france/poissy/savoye/corbu7.html]

Why not have underground parking (if we assume we are to put back the car spaces we are replacing) and raise the new development (which will also cast shadows on the surroundings)on ‘pilotis’?

Let the garden flow across the site…..true to Corb Modernist principles. Perhaps the pilotis (and they need not be assumed to be square, circular etc) can be enclosed with glazed walls which can open up in fine weather and provide a canopy to deflect winds off the surface of the new development from the pedestrian spaces below? Maybe we can locate the hub of the wine bar here?

Then lets be Postmodern about it all and say we will have a roof garden as well. (either/or and both!)

It is worth noting the following about the urban environment AT GROUND LEVEL we are creating;

“While the addition of high buildings increases the density of the built up area, their impact can, in effect, be to increase substantially the overall urban wind speed. However, with specific arrangements, the high rise building can block the wind and reduce appreciably the wind speed in the urban area as a whole if this is desired.

The flow pattern around a highrise building depends on several factors;
a) the geometrical configuration of the building, expressed in a ratio of its height to its width (H/W)
b) whether the upwind facade is flat, concave or convex
c) the existence of lower buildings upwind from and on the sides of the highrise
d) the wind direction with respect to the facades of the building
e) specific design details of the highrise itself.”

Baruch Givoni Climate Considerations in Building and Urban Design p294

While AT ROOF LEVEL the wind experienced in this environment can depend, amongst other factors, on the elevation or height above ground of the roof garden, the design/shape of the building on which it is located as well as the surrounding buildings (whether they are low or highrise, their shape and the direction they face relative to the wind.)

Tom do you want to make some assumptions about this for us?