DESA1002 'Nine Quarter City' - Adam Linton

Abstract

A better balanced urban environment: Dubrovnik is a historic world renowned city, designed and built in an age free of motor cars. Originally designed with an emphasis on compact living, it was left bereft of open spaces and crisscrossed with narrow pedestrian lanes. Although not seen as necessary in the 1300’s, today's sedentary lifestyle leaves the people of Dubrovnik in need of somewhere for a “time out experience.” For example:  A moment to pause and smell the roses and orchids growing in the conservatory as part of the public domain. To sit and relax in the shade of a tree while the children play close by in the public park. The residents of the building may choose to enjoy a rooftop barbeque with a few friends on a summer evening. To this end I chose to incorporate these features into my new building. As a group our task was to identify a range of building types that our quarter of the city needed. I was allocated a block on the south-western corner of the city that appeared to be in need of some additional residential housing and some open space landscaping. My aim was to blend the design of a new apartment building into the existing city, ensuring its overall form and shape is similar to the surrounding buildings, whilst utilising the most modern of design features internally. Achieving such a design on the allocated footprint wasn’t easy but with the help of a massing model I identified three possibilities: 1. My first configuration is that of a single main tower of apartments that has a small footprint whilst providing sufficient building floor space and a large open garden. 2. The second configuration was one which would provide maximum floor space. However, in doing so, it would almost completely negate the possibility of any open space, conflicting with the original design concept. 3. The third configuration was an attempt to spread out the footprint, in order to gain the same amount of floor space as the first configuration, without having it loom over the surrounding buildings. This configuration was eventually used in my actual design; however it was rotated 180° thereby walling in the vacant space to create a more private courtyard. In conclusion I think the people of Dubrovnik would welcome a building such as mine into their urban environment. I feel certain they would derive great pleasure from the public courtyard, play area and rooftop conservatory.