the Underpass: Concept Ideas

In order to explain this process, we need to divide the experience in three parts. The old Pontefract town centre is area ‘1’, the Underpass is area ‘2’ and the new Prince of Wales development is area ‘3’.

The interaction between these three areas should not be isolated from each other. In the diagram below, we can see all the possible interrelations between the three key points in no particular order. In simple words, we are not seeking a logical progress from point 1 to point 2 and then 3 but more an experience that can jump from point 1 to 3, then 2 to 1 and back to 2, 3 and so on.

This can be achieved by mixing the qualities of these three points (either by the use of sound, light or any other technologies) and therefore ‘brake’ each point’s individuality. Therefore point 1 becomes another version of point 2 or 3 and vice versa. These ideas should be more developed in future research and ideas as well actual facts that will be posted here soon.

the Underpass: Initial Sketches

Here are some initial sketches in order to study the flow of movement through the underpass. By extending the actual area of the Underpass experience, we can manage to eliminate the ‘dangerous’ aspects of it. A logical progress from one side to the other can be established with a series of events. A series of events that progress as the user walks through the Underpass from one side to the other.

the Underpass: Brainstorming

first notes on project approach

Interaction Design

Interaction Design (IxD or IaD) is the discipline of defining and creating the behavior of technical, biological, environmental and organizational systems. Examples of these systems are software, products, mobile devices, environments, services, wearables, and even organizations themselves. Interaction design defines the behavior (the "interaction") of an artifact or system in response to its users over time.

Interaction designers are typically informed by user research, design with an emphasis on behavior as well as form, and evaluate design in terms of usability and emotional factors.

Existing Underpass Video

Research: Greyworld - The Layer

' The Layer is an art system created to articulate transit spaces through a series of contact sculptures.

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel was the first installation in a public space to use the Layer system. We had been experimenting with different ways to articulate these transit spaces, from purely analogue methods of sound capture and distortion, to more complex means of digesting movement and form.

A long blue carpet was installed in the dark tunnel running underneath the Thames. Tiny sensors, beneath the carpet detected the direction weight and speed of pedestrians as they passed along its length and translated this information into a generatively produced sound environment. An album - 'Various Walkers' was created by recording these performances.

The installation was commissioned by the London Docklands Commission and sponsored by the Daily Telegraph.

The Layer has undergone many changes since the Greenwich foot tunnel. These allow both a wider range of inputs to be used, such as colour and shape as well as a large range of expressive outputs, such as light and generative display. Essentially though, it is the legibility of the installation to a broad public that remains paramount to us.

The work of art was also installed along the Millennium Bridge that runs across the Iffey in Dublin, Ireland. It gave pedestrians crossing an opportunity to crate and interact, simply by passing through the space. The installation was a counterpoint to another work of art, which we installed in the Guinness Storehouse.

We installed a bright blue carpet along the bridge, to signify that something was different in the centre of Dublin. We then embedded sensors in the carpet that responded to each footstep across the bridge, generating unexpected sounds and melodies - a plaintive piano phrase or the sounds of footsteps crunching through snow or sploshing through puddles. '

extract from Greyworld's website

The Underpass Project

A new project.
The Underpass Project is a side project of the larger Prince of Wales regeneration in Pontefract, Yorkshire.

Prince of Wales Masterplan (copyright Spawforths)

Spawforths have been working for the last two years for UKCoal on a Development Framework and Masterplan for the re-development of Pontefract Pit Yard Colliery Site (Prince of Wales) and recently, in December 2006 submitted an outline planning application to Wakefield MDC.
At the moment, Spawforths - alongside sub-consultants - are working on a Design Code for this proposed development, which explores detailed design aspects.

The Underpass is an existing pedestrian link between Pontefract town centre and the Prince of Wales site. The opportunity to improve and urbanise Colonels Walk will help to promote it as a key pedestrian connection between the new development and the old town centre.

The Underpass detail

I am really excited to work on this particular project that can definitely test some ideas of how graphic design can co-exist with architecture and urbanism. This is an opportunity to apply graphic design to a wider context, to make it become part of the design process and introduce it to other disciplines.

This is a project to explore cultural factors, experiences, spatial environments and links. An exciting process after all that can introduce new ways of thinking about design solutions and will attempt to explore opportunities of a multi-discipline approach.