Stranded: Reintegrating the Potentials of Leftover Landscapes

Phillip Mitchell

[email protected]
Potential Cover Page Xxxx 1116 X 1116 Px

This thesis concerns itself with identifying and remediating the issues of leftover landscapes within the urban plane. By associating their famished potentials with the twin theories, Junkspace and Drosscape, this thesis dissects and then relinks the seminal theories concerning their wider context. Identifying the core issues of each (the lack of identity within Junkspace and the constant covering and sweeping over of Drosscape), this thesis critically examines the implications for both of these conditions in relation to their contributions to urban voids.

Junkspace Vs Drosscape Diagram 800 X 2460Px
Fig 1. Diagram displaying the full potential of Junkspace and Drosscape's reach within architecture.
Stim Dross Biome Template 1 798 X 1462Px
Fig 2. Diagram of the thesis's eventual application to the site's issues: Stim, Dross and Biome.
Holey Plane 798 X 798Px
Fig 3. Lerup's Holey Plane, the seminal influence for the leftover void.
Base Image Of Site 2460 X 800 Px
Fig 4. The abandoned Strand Station, the host for this thesis.

Through a process of research, critique and dissection, and a spatial application of layering, three emergent theories are discovered: Stim, the architecture of attraction and consumption; Dross, the byproducts and requirements of the city and Biome, the ecological integration between architecture and landscape. After exploring these conditions in theories and precedents, a series of layers are superimposed, synthesised and edited to form a methodology to develop each of the three theories in relation to each other. The byproduct of this process is an architectural infrastructure where four points are identified as intersections to disrupt the flow and introduce an architectural consistency to the three concepts. These four nodes are developed and explored as an emergent architecture. The process used within the thesis reveals a mode of layering several smaller elements to form a collected imposition. This method informed the writing style upon analysing the theories, creating a case of building and joining links between Drosscape and Junkspace. A byproduct of the writing and spatial processes is an architectural infrastructure and a developed intervention of the four nodes, presented as a scheme in place within the city. This process of layering and editing informs a methodology applicable to future projects within the practice of the author, as their architecture develops from a superficial representation of theory to a conduit and design module that embodies and critiques both theory and contextual issues.

The Rack 798 X 798 Px
Fig 5. The 2m tall Rack, the device used to test theory as laminated layers.
Synthesis Of Layers Of Site 2460 X 800 Px
Fig 6. The Synthesis of 9 layers of intervention, informing the Strand's response.
Collage Line Up 820 X 2460 Px
Fig 7. A series of selected collages showing moments of the newly connected 'Flowing Island' - the antithesis to the disconnection of the Strand.
Modelled Elements A 798 X 1462 Px
Fig 8. Photograph of flowing intersection across final presentation model.
Detail Model 1
Fig 9. Photo of modeled intersection between littoral connections.