Back

Free, At Last - Ellen Melville Centre

Year: 2022

Category: Public Architecture

Skills: Photoshop, Rhino, Illustrator, Model Making

Public spaces are not truly public unless they are free to access and free of charge. A place called “the most powerful public space in the city's center,” yet equipped with locks and cashier boxes is anything but. The EMC or Ellen Melville Centre, adjoining Freyberg Square, was built in the late 1950s and renovated extensively in 2017, promising to “[deliver] contemporary community spaces for the people of the city.”Today, EMC is treated as a venue to generate income by using bookable rooms for events and activities, thus limiting access for the general public. “Borderless” studio seeks to design without traditional borders, that is, property lines, but instead, to create within the local context, considering environmental, economic, and human factors.

lightbox

Design Iteration

This design method promotes sustainability in how we build, beyond merely the product’s sustainable qualities or energy calculations. This paper aims to remove the restrictions at EMC and simultaneously elevate public interaction and experiences of the public space more meaningfully. The process includes understanding the existing conditions, such as site context, the flow of foot traffic, and floor plans of the existing building. Thereafter, iterated physical models are made, examining the connection between existing elements, old and new, out and in. Volumes are stacked and offset, creating an extension that reaches outward from the building, thus bringing the park into the building.

A series of “landings” is offered to the public without restriction: no doors, gates, or fences. This proposes a design that enhances the experience of interacting with the space by bridging the gap between the ins and outs of the EMC building and Freyberg Square.

lightbox

Spatial Distribution

lightbox
lightbox
lightbox
profile image

AN LE