Designing this kind of transient space is not as simple as it may look.
On the one hand, you need to decide what the optimum height for the ground floor may be and find a balance between commercial demand (ground floor with or without mezzanine) and impact on the street (headroom).
Then, you need to find a balance planning how the buildings will be facing the area... We know that more eyes on the street can make spaces safer but buildings have service rooms that need to be accessed for maintenance .
Of course you have to think about the materials you will choose (how they will impact the space, what durability they will have etc) . On the soffit (ceiling) for example , you will need to decide what is the priority (sound, light, reflectivity, ease of maintenance...) and even establish how it will need to perform thermally (after all it is like a roof that needs to be insulated) .
You will also need to decide whether lighting is required and this is often a tricky decision. If located on the soffit, will maintenance close the road? Will it be safe to be done by one person? Would you need two? If it is on the walls, whose wall? Who will maintain them/switch them on etc?
And if you thought this is unnecessarily complicated, allow me to share that it can get even more complicated if this is an access route to a private land!
I am sharing all this because when I first started working in the industry and sat through meetings where people argued for an hour about places such as these , I could not believe it but the UK, like all other countries, has some very specific rules we all need to work within and those can involved many layers of stakeholders and invested parties.
So if you are choosing to join the Built Environment as your career, practice patience and if you walk along cities wondering why things are the way the are ... Keep reading because I try my best to share insights in my posts.
