Wk 9 Masterplans Reworked

Attempting to represent:

• building & change over time
• communication

2020 - Consultation & Communication Phase: La Nina & Bust

• 3 Festivals / Year – eg. Woodford Folk Festival, Splendour in the Grass, the Dreaming
• 3 Other Events
• The Planting

2021 to 2023 - Phase: El Nino & Bust

• Commence Building Program on degraded land – Cabins, Stage, Multipurpose Centre
• Stablising riparian zones
• Expanded Festivals – eg. Woodford Folk Festival, Dreaming, Splendour, Harvest, All Tomorrow’s Parties, other arts events

2024 to 2025 - Phase: El Nino & Economic Rebound

• Tourism grows – “Art City in Lush Native Forest” [references 500 year plan]
• Building Program - Sustainable Learning Centre – hub for tours of site, learning about sustainable building through the cabins, forest walks
• Expanded Events in addition to expanded festivals – functions, conferences, arts events, education programs & workshops [relates to economic rebound, events held in multipurpose centre, stage, sustainable learning centre]

2026 to 2028 - Phase: Economic Growth

• Site is in full operation – venues adapting for different purposes
• $ put into renewable energy power generation [so that in more difficult economic times the cost of running the events and festivals are drastically reduced “spend less, earn more” and the program of what is happening on the site is sustainable] – art, sustainability & economics intrinsically intertwined

Tutorial Feedback:

• Is ceremony hill the best place for a permanent arts venue? Would it be better to replace a temporary structure for a permanent structure in the festival village?
• Should smaller scale renewable power infrastructure (eg. rooftop solar panels on the cabins) be embedded within the site where the power is needed rather than large-scale infrastructure in the area isolated away from the site? Power loss in distribution will be a problem
• Test the capacities in each of the areas - ie. how is the festival capacity reduced as the cabins replace campsites
• More detail needed in the festival village

Some other thoughts I am having:

• There are too many plans - I need to find a better way to represent change in a more condensed way
• There are too many cabins - viability of building & maintaining these and too many campsites are lost

Wk 9 Script Development

The above diagram is the start of my 'fiction' (based on the wk8 sketch) and a draft narrative for the overall script & A1 panel.

Wk 8 Masterplan Development

The first version of the masterplan where I'm attempting to represent ideas such as:

• art-centred housing
• learning centred on social connection
• experiential (art / learning / connection) circulation
• connectivity between areas
• phenotropy; pattern language > pattern recognition; embracing turbulence
• outward looking site

The masterplan relies on existing infrastructure (roads, paths, water system) and does not propose changes significant change to the existing open spaces and festival locations. The large swathes of colour in blue, grey and orange are areas that I am not clear about yet.

The above diagram is an idea about sustainable housing linked to a learning centre.

Rough sketch in tutorial -  interconnected housing system with permanent framework and semi-permanent skin - linked to learning centre. Waste moves from the festival to the learning centre to the cabins as semi-permanent skins.










Feedback from the tutorial:

• keep on testing some of the ideas
• scale of waste - ie. you couldn't use all of the waste generated at the festival
• in the masterplan, the distance between the cabins & the function centre
• develop the story further (eg. how does the guy transition from property development to woodford?)

Wk 8 Refined Concept based on 2020-2030 timeframe

following on from the previous post...

Woodford Art City (working title - sounds like a theme park)

• economic & environmental/waste issues intrinsically linked (http://friends.woodfordfolkfestival.com/projects)
• raise funds to address the environmental/waste issues (hydro/wind power, rubbish, forest program, riparian zones, etc) through the establishment of an 'Art City'
• residential
• accommodation with revolving people & users (eg. artists/thinkers in residence)
• "lush parkland dedicated to the arts"  http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com/main/index.php?cID=2180&menuID=472&apply=&webpage=friends_of_woodford_2009
• "cultural precinct for south east queensland"  http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com/main/index.php?apply=&webpage=friends_of_woodford_2009&PHPSESSID=9059bbdf2b87533a42e00e1c654a02de&cID=2228&menuID=553
• change the festival model from 'protected, internal, isolated, at risk' to 'outward looking, accessible, agitator, long-term & active'
• “Last year’s festival, held in the middle of the Queensland floods, challenged us on many fronts. It took a while to understand that darker days gave us the opportunity to revisit our reason for being. If we wanted to overcome the challenges, we needed to deepen our resolve and strengthen those elements that bring us together. We realised that to continue, our festival must deliver more than an exuberant party for the young, challenging talks for our knowledge seekers and expressions of lore that lifts our souls. It needed purpose beyond that – to put our collaborative contribution to a world in need of nurturing; that our planet would be better for it” Bill Hauritz, Festival Director http://www.friendsofwoodford.com/aspiration
• "spend less, earn more"  http://friends.woodfordfolkfestival.com/structure
• Apart of 'destinations' in Moreton Bay Regional Council:  http://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/uploadedFiles/moretonbay/business/Destination%20Management%20Plan.pdf
• Redcliffe/Bribie Island - coastal/bayside family, leisure precinct
• Samford - modern country, residential, upmarket
• Dayboro - montville/blue mountains-esque
• Woodford - art city, social, sustainabilility
• MBRC - one of fastest growing regions in Australia: 2006 - 323,737; 2026 - 488,604

"Our town is growing bigger by the day and I am sure that these events contribute to the growth. It is both sad to see the small Country town go and great to see that more local people have jobs right here in our own backyard. If the town has be known for something, why not 'Woodford, home of the festivals'." http://woodfordnewspaper.com/woodford-the-home-of-the-festivals/

Wk 8 Script & Stage Development

Fleshing out the story a bit more & exploring interconnected spaces based on site contours...

Wk 7 Project 2 Development...Where to go from project 1?

My initial thinking for project 2 is an extension of what was presented for project 1. Below is a summary of my current thoughts, however, I still need to modify my thinking to the 2020-2030 timeframe that has now been specified...

The community will be a refuge for the lonely & disenfranchised, namely the:

• elderly (issue: aging population)
• non-religious (issue: declining religious affiliation; reference: Alain de Botton's Religion for Atheists)
• sole dwellers (issue: fastest growing household type; reference: Gratten Institute's Social Cities Report)
• emerging poor (issue: monetary pressures)
• people who are seeking a life away from technology and urban life

[note: this next bit might be too far-fetched]

The community will be based in a semi-finished & failed housing development. Population growth and sprawl in the Northern Growth Corridor as well as Council financial pressures led to the sale of the Woodfordia site by the Moreton Bay Regional Council who were antagonistic to and non-supportive of the Woodford Folk Festival organisation. [note: sale is probably not realistic ie. 50 year exclusive lease with buyback option] 

After public outcry and changes to the local government, the estate is given back to a reformed Woodford Folk Festival organisation that has been charged with the task of establishing an experimental community centred on the arts and the Woodford Folk Festival that will be a showcase for other failed housing estates around Australia (think: mcmansion estates north of Perth attached to the mining boom). 

My thinking around the new community is inspired by:

• a 21st Century reworking of The Oregan Experiment (and subsequent Pattern Language) - considering the challenges of implementing change and engaging people in change
• Archigram's concept of indeterminancy - as a way of responding to future issues & challenges as the world changes
• Ambiguity & Turbulence - Mark Wigley "Towards Turbulence"
• the island of Naoshima which I visited in 2009 - art & bottom-up community management in response to environmental degradation (refinery & smelter; polluted sea & subsequent loss of income for the locals; community run 'art houses' to engage locals from the bottom up in environmental regeneration)
• ideas around freedom & control & the rule-making nature of architecture; and learnings from and visions of failed utopian & modernist projects
• phenotropic - pattern recognition - 1970s computer science concept
• the Buell Hypothesis - "change the dream and you change the city" - CLab research project in response to the foreclosure crisis in America
• venice biennale exhibition documenting vertical slum in Caracas (see video below)