Farringdon
Farringdon is the wider context of the project, a series of small industries and artisanal spaces are sample and reintroduced into the masterplan of the station.
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London as a city is constantly reinventing itself, it exists in a continuous flux of renewal and decay. However, as the city becomes a larger beast, the players which can influence it are fewer bigger and further. Today the future of London is being planned out in large chunks of land and large wads of money.
Farringdon station and it's surrounding area are the example of this process.
Once a delicate urban fabric on the Edge of the City of London which was a connective boundary of trade and production between the city and it's surroundings.
Today a place of rapid and large scale development which creates generic office slabs and only preserves the facades of it's former character.
The arrival of Crossrail and the redevelopment of Farringdon station are an opportunity to strengthen rather than erode the existing patterns of use, consumption, and distribution which are the real character of this area rather than just an aesthetic quality.
While the development of a new station is a given, the projects proposes to make adjustments to the existing plan of the development in order to reconfigure the boundaries of this hermetic master-plan allowing the city to rightfully retain spaces for creative development.
The role of Farringdon Station is defined not only as a circulation hub for people but also as a circulation hub for local materials and processes.
Farringdon is the wider context of the project, a series of small industries and artisanal spaces are sample and reintroduced into the masterplan of the station.
Collage is used as a tool to build an architectural vocabulary of Farringdon. The site is defined in relation to it's sampled context and not only in relation to it's physical one. The idea of inclusiveness in architectural language is combined with the idea of inclusiveness in use and activity.
A series of models interprets the architectural language of the station and the collaged samples. The differences between new and old are articulated in cast vs. solid materials. The models create alternative fragments to the generic station.
The Industrial corridor connects turnmill street on the right with Farringdon road on the left.
As one passes through the corridor one is exposed to the variety of architectural layers which define the site. (From left to right) The concrete piles and columns of future Cardinal Tower, the Brick Jack arch basement of the old Port Authority Building, the old metropolitan line tunnels leading to Smithfield and the exposed basements of the old residential buildings opposite the site.
In order to argue for the viability of the proposal, a series of curated uses are introduced into the station, allowing dynamism and material exchange to occur between them. This ties the station maintenance facilities on one hand to the small local businesses and artisans on the other.
The proposal is explained as a continuous patch of city which is activated at different times of the day according to the arrival of passengers or maintenance activities within the station.
The idea of time is highlighted through all scales in the project. Time informs the sequential strategy of developing the masterplan and this sequence is captured in a series of details which combine the new elements with the existing fabric of the site. The dichotomy of New development/Frozen preservation is broken up, allowing this patch of city to continue to transform itself while claiming the right to exist not only as a monoculture of office blocks.
Station maintenance facilities (Control room, Mess hall, Changing room) are moved to a vertical core in the back of the station and a connection to relevant activities opposite (dry cleaner's, food preparation) is highlighted.
The corridor meets Farringdon Station as a cut beneath the Ticket Hall. A new entrance to the station is opened up via a cast slab at the upper Ticket Level. From the slab view towards the corridor are opened up from above. The boundary of the enclosed station is opened up, dissolving it’s hard boundary and creating a new passage way perpendicular to the railway.
As passengers exit the station via the souther connection to the basement level the corridor fills up with passenger and inahbitants of the local industrial spaces alike. The passage is articulated as a cut between the different archeaological and tectonic layers of new and old Farringdon. On the left the brick arches of the old Port Authority building are exposed and inhabited by small businesses. On the right the basement level of new Cardinal Tower is opened and connected to the station housing maintenace facilities.
