To clarify my brief I conducted a cursory review of Coventry city centre’s materiality and land use. The conclusions were clear: an overabundance of commercial space that is being tested by online competition leading to vacant units all over the city, giving public spaces a run-down and uncared for semblance; a lack of significant green space that acts as a destination; a growing presence of cultural leisure as the city changes its identity; an increasing density of residential areas as land prices increase.
The response to this is the creation of a hybrid commercial/public/leisure space with a strong park-like feel and I’ve searched for similar projects to use as precedent.
Gasholder Park, Bell Phillips Architects, 2018, King’s Cross, London
Gasholder Park in London is a RIBA London Award Winner for 2018, repurposing a listed grade II former gasholder to create an urban green space. The green surface hugs reclining visitors, offering up a slightly raised embankment along its perimeter – this coupled with the soaring metal columns and interlinked supports give a strong sense of space definition although one that is entirely permeable.
The use of cleverly designed mirror clad surfaces echo the aspects of the landscaping that the architects are most keen to emphasise, moving your attention away from the urban background and instead focusing on the green interior.
Delft University of Technology Library, Mecanoo, 1997, Delft, Netherlands
Local architects Mecanoo designed this library to provide the function of a learning space, giving students the choice to study protected from or enjoying the elements. Despite working with a constrained site, the building blends into an adjacent flat park.
The form is additive and subtractive in parts: the entrance being bordered with retaining walls that return the sweeping green roof to ground level; the elongated steeple-like tower adding a focal reference point to the campus and serving to offer diffracted light to the study area below.
Klyde Warren Park, The Office of James Burnett, 2012, Dallas, Texas, USA
The Klyde Warren Park, part of the High Line Network that also includes the eponymous New York structure, is an urban park constructed over a ten lane freeway, linking two previously severed neighourhoods of the city.
The park is pedestrian focused and offers a multitude of spaces given over to active or passive participation: a children’s park and water play features, a dog park, a green or ‘great lawn’, a performance pavilion and a 560m2 restaurant accompany a botanical garden, a reading and game room as well as numerous jogging routes.
Matt's Architecture 