Presentation requirements

Every team shall present a 1:500 model of the site showing the arrangement of the buildings to scale. Hint: FAR:1 means that the total building volume of all buildings on the site shall be the same as if the site was covered with a one story building.

The size of the overall site model shall not exceed A0 format (841mmx1189mm), and shall be exhibited horizontally.

In addition to the model, teams may use an additional A0 panel to be mounted vertically, to exhibit other representations of their project, such as plans, sections, elevations, 3D renderings, written explanations, etc.

It is assumed that a considerable thickness of soil now covering the site will have to be removed because of pollution. This makes it possible to economically construct parking facilities out of sight, below grade. The top of the parking facilities becomes the new ground level for some or all of the buildings. It is beyond the scope of this Charrette, and it is not expected that participants go into detail of this aspect. (Except indicating where parking garage access ramps might go).

Remember the three major development concepts: Density (Gross FAR=1), Variety (in housing types and occupancy types) and Connectivity. A new, convenient pedestrian/bicycle link between the site and downtown (across the Canal) should be considered. The old bridge now sitting in the middle of the Canal next to the Wellington bridge might be relocated and put to use for this purpose.

Take note of the remarks made about Preservation under Development concepts.

Joe Carter, an architect practicing in Beijing consulted on this project and suggestioned the following:

I find it’s useful when planning a large site to work at a large scale, for example 1:2000. This helps to stay focused on the larger, more important issues. It’s useful to stay at this scale before moving to smaller ones (1:1000 and 1:500). It’s also useful to go back to 1:2000 to be refreshed by the larger picture again.

If you ask the students to cut a sheet the same foorprint as the site, one story high, say 3.5 meters thick, (which is 7mm at a scale of 1:500), into pieces and then stack them up, they will know what FAR 1.0 is all about.

You might try this exercise at 1:1000 for starters just to get a feeling for the site, and then refine the cutting of the sheet for a more specific concept at 1:500.

Some students might need help knowing how wide to cut the strips. An office tower might be 25 meters thick, an apartment building or hotel with a double-loaded corridor could be 20 meters thick, a town house might be 6 meter wide by 12 meters deep, etc. You might cut half the big sheet into 24 meter wide strips for larger building types and 12 meter wide strips for smaller building types. You could decide the ratio of “fat” and “thin” buildings. If everyone started with these standards, then everyone is playing the same game. The students could then cut the strips various lengths, whatever they think is appropriate, and then have the great fun of using buildings to make spaces.

I have done this myself many times; you can block out a rough scheme in a half hour. It's like a 3D zoning/massing model. You can then photograph the various options (sunlight next to a window makes great shadows on the model). Open the images in the computer, print them out, put tracing paper over them, scribble some detail (windows, trees, people…..for scale), scan again, tweak with Photoshop, and brilliant images unfold.