POROUS BOUNDARIES
International urban competition for the “Royal Adelaide Hospital Site Design Competition”
Status: urban design proposal, competition entry
Principle Architects: Maria Hadjisoteriou
Collaborators: Zintilis Anastasi, Christina Philippou (Architects)
Marios Stavrinides, Christopher Varnakides (Architecture students)
Location: City of Adelaide, South Australia
Date: 2013
Client: Adelaite Municipality Authorities
Design Principles
The Site although, “…located within the State’s most important civic and cultural hub therefore carries significant potential…” in its existing condition is isolated physically and psychologically.
The goal of the project is to act as a “connective urban surface” that evolves through time, in order to organise not only built forms but processes, events and landscapes that run through it; thus creating new relationships and interactions among built forms and urban landscapes, in diverse scales.
Our project seeks to redefine the concept of the “in-between” and investigate potentials of the “charged void” and “porous boundaries” as major elements in the definition of the urban surface.
Focusing on the statement of the brief that “…open public spaces within the Site hold the potential to help mediate this transition from urban grid to urban park…” our project defines three zones, the “civic public zone”, the in-between “hybrid porous spine”and the “nature healing zone”, thus allowing a smooth transition from a civic-scape to a land-scape. The “Central Path” to the north, runs through all, linking them back to the city’s pedestrian flows.
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