Briggate
PLEASE WALK ON THE GRASS
Redefine_Briggate supports the city’s synergistic network by fostering connections between people and places. Encouraging movement, exploration and animation it enhances the urban environment. The wider pedestrian network needs to be rebuilt with positive interventions to facilitate these interactions and provide an emotionally nourishing physical environment.
Propose_the homeless centre: rediscovering market street arcade
Applying the art of urban design to the run down Market Street Arcade, realise a new addition to the urban block replacing current neglected properties with vibrant new spaces for retail outlets which help sustain The Homeless Centre as the heart space of the improved arcade; creating a legitimate space for the people who currently seek refuge along the arcade. The centre will offer immediate solutions for the short term problem of people who find themselves on the streets, offering a breathing space aiming to prevent them falling into the institutional homeless system as is so often unnecessary and which can have detrimental effects, to both the individual and society as a whole. The façade of the building animates the arcade and it becomes a vibrant part of the cultural quarter facilitating links between Briggate and transport hubs. Market Street Arcade is common urban ground lost in the fog of conflicting interests, shoppers pass through with fear, but in order to connect both a city’s fabric and the people who shape it all must be accommodated for. The retail spaces at the ends of the arcade shelter the homeless drop in / advice and short term accommodation centre and nurture the inhabitants as a city should nurture its citizens, whilst the façade encourages movement and exploration that animates and informs the urban environment; creating interactions which foster connections between people and places, encouraging multiple experiences, to foster social and cultural exchange. The proposal aims to explore the interactive connectivity of the living urban fabric by connecting and repairing urban space.
