Barbican, London
The Barbican in London is a brutalist approach to a centre. It is performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory. It is highly successful in it's use of form and level to manipulate flows and senses of space. Using voids and volumes, it is able to dictate locations of gathering, locations of circulation and locations of refuge.
In section we can see how the use of levels achieves this. Giving the structure different defining elements and spaces for function and serving different purposes. The brutalist structure integrates into the street, encouraging people through and into it, creating a successful hub which brings a community together.
Oxford Circus, London
The Oxford Circus redesign is a successful solution to an issue and responds to how people actually use a space as oppose to how people "should" use a designed space. Prior to the redesign, pedestrian traffic was designed to be in a square, crossing each road. However, the natural flow did not match this, hence poor design. The natural flow of pedestrian traffic saw people move through the centre diagonally causing a backlog of people at each corner and in the centre. The redesign solves this.
Through the integration of a square like feature, pedestrians are catered for and made more of a priority. Although not a space for gathering, the "square" alleviates congestion and provides a far safer way to cross and navigate the circus. The buildings reflect this, with their massings encouraging a certain flow. The curved facades mimicking the circle they surround, encouraging a gentle flow around and through the "square".
This sort of solution with intentional and purposefully designed flanking buildings is something that can be employed into my own project looking at Palmerston Road and it's intersection with Claredon Road.
Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London
The Royal Festival Hall and National Theatre are also successful in integrating into a street. Much like the Barbican, their uses of voids and volumes on section provide multiple uses of space which a community can dictate.
National Theatre Denys Lasdun
Here we see that the proposed massings flank and encourage a certain "square" within the intersection of the roads. Similar to Oxford Circus, the shape of the volumes along with a well designed crossing, will improve flow of traffic and foot fall.
The massings themselves take inspiration from the Barbican and the Royal Theatre, using levels, volumes and voids to create an intersection with the street as well as spaces that are unbounded but rely on a community to "define" them.