The
‘Roundabout living’ is a speculative prototype of alternative inner city
residential development which occupies redundant central island spaces found at
the large roundabout intersections in London’s traffic network.
We
wanted use the development to reconnect rather fragmented surrounding urban
spaces as well as reclaim this redundant traffic island as a valuable public
space. In order for this to happen the space needed to be accessible without
having to cross the busy road, but at the same time rather than trying to force
it to be a destination, we wanted the space to be naturally situated within
spontaneously generated foot traffic. The ring shape walkway provides small
retail areas underneath providing amenities and also barricading the space from
the noise and fumes generated by car traffic and bring tranquility to the
space.
On
top of the reclaimed public space, a 48 story residential tower is proposed
hovering 20 meters above the ground. The structure of the tower is made of a
network of diagonal peripheral cores which include lifts and services. This
network forms the basis of both functional and structural integrity of the
proposal. It creates a series of residential clusters and nodes of transitions
so that the large numbers of units are subdivided into smaller groups hence
increase sense of community.