Week 2 Design Charette - Future Visions and Scenarios

The design charette following the lecture explored the individual themes: 

• Urban, 

• Suburban, 

• Regional 

• Virtual

Urban: 
What if Brisbane City Council decided to introduce a London style congestion change to CBD in 2020 to heavily reduce traffic congestion in the area?

All four future scenarios where based around the major factor of economy. We all agreed economy is a major factor in the future scenarios of Brisbane’s CBD, as a CBD is the driving centre for economy. We addressed the scenario of if a congestion tax were applied to Brisbane’s CBD, what issues would arise, and how would this change people’s lifestyles. On a larger scale we all agreed that the exclusion of public vehicles would greatly benefit public transport, and from this we would see a rapid advancement in the technology and use of it. Not only would public transport be benefited, but people would also resort to downsizing more efficient vehicles, which would also somewhat affect Australia’s car industry. People would also be walking more, therefore becoming fitter, but also interacting more along the way and strengthening the sense of community.  We also discussed the necessity for the centralisation of the CBD. With all these aspects taking affect from the congestion tax, would companies and stores branch out of the CBD and possibly look elsewhere to go.

Suburban:
What if all retail stores in Paddington Central stopped selling goods in favor of online stores but decided to keep physical presence in the stores?

 This is where we branched off from the idea of the de-centralisation of the CBD. Digital shopping is the new norm, and storefronts in the CBD become replaced with retail exhibitions. These storefronts will focus on benefiting the community by creating event hubs and focusing on product experience. It would also benefit the companies who are displaying new and up and coming products through data accumulation and public reaction. Then we discussed if it was really necessary to have a set storefront, and looked at the possibility of a store being completely mobile. For example when a company has a new range of products, the store comes to you, rather than you go to the store. This idea it challenges the whole idea of the central business district, and whether it will remain central.  This would could affect the economy, with less cost for real estate and labour, yet cost more for transport and delivery.

Regional:
What if Woodford Folk Festival site were to become a self-sufficient community to be managed and operated self sufficiently?

This seemed like a much more vast theme, as we discussed all the major elements that went into a community in order to make it work. These were things such as diversity, skills, resources, employments, education, trade, economy, exports and even a communal government. We also questioned whether it could actually work as to the sheer number of exports and imports needed for all those elements, as well as skills and resources that we have become accustomed to in the modern times. Things such as medical facilities or even power are not practical or feasible to provide to such a premature, small community. The term self sufficient has its own element of fantasy to it, as being totally self sufficient has many complications when you delve into its possibilities. 

Virtual:
What if Queensland's government's key strategy were to resolve urban, suburban and regional issues?

To be honest we did rush through this last theme as we were running out of time. The meaning of virtual was not completely understood by our group, but we settled on technology becoming a virtual provider to problem solving for future developments. The main themes we discussed were advertisement, communication, media and social media. We agreed that the virtual theme in some way is applicable to all the previously discussed themes, with the idea of a virtual reality.