Canal-full

Seoyeon Kim

#WHAT IS THE MEAING OF MY PROJECT??

The project name ‘Canal-full’ meaning was originated from the idea of (1) making the union canal to be ‘useful‘ more than now and through that (2) making the union canal more ‘full’ with people and nature.

#WHY DO WE HAVE TO MAKE THE CANAL MORE FULL OF PEOPLE ?? #WHAT IS MY PROJECT??

Some places are for people’s life, some places are for nature and animals. Like this, every places needs a purpose rather than being abandoned place, to be maintained, to be improved and to be sustainable. My first feeling about the winter union canal was ‘Scary’ in night time and ‘Not useful place’. It has a high potential to be more used place as it is near the city center and as it is along the whole Edinburgh. So I wanted to make this union canal to be more vibrant all over the year not being affected by the season or time by concentrating on 2 scales. First, in large scale, my project is going to improve the safety problem along the whole canal by good lighting strategy and other safety strategies(problem details below). Second, in small scale, make series of buildings depending on what people needs and what will help the canal to be more vibrant. And this will increase activities in canal and lead more people to make it more useful place.

#WHAT PROBLEMS ARE IN THE CANAL?

By walking along several times and researching about the canal, I was able to see many problems. Firstly, the main problem was about ‘safety’ which includes lightings, safety devices and signs. Many community members and the experience showed that the usage of canal at night time decreases significantly because of the poor lighting, which makes people feel unsafe. As you can see in the pictures, it is really creepy in night time. Also, it didn’t had any safety devices which protects people from darkness, especially children and pedestrians who tries to escape from cyclists. In addition, the canal didn’t had enough sign or map which shows canal accesses and location which made people more hard to use the canal fully.

The another problem was the huge difference between the seasons and times, especially, low usage in winter night time because it had no programs or facilities which are proper to night or winter. And also, there were no facilities which is responding or related to many local and community’s demand along the canal although it has a big potential to be more useful place with lots of things to do for residents and also tourists.

#HOW CAN WE MAKE IT MORE BETTER?

As the Union Canal has high potential to be more vibrant than now, I’ve decided to put series of small buildings rather than just locating many street lightings. Through this, buildings will not only act as a big lighting, but also provide lots of activities at the same time.

Also, because of the concerns of light pollution, the street lighting’s height will be reduced and the color temperature will be changed into more warmer color to not affect night sky and biodiversity. 

Therefore, in this project, buildings are not just buildings. Buildings in this project become lightings, become activities, become map and signs and become the strong connection between people and the canal.

#INITIAL BUILDING CONCEPT

All of the buildings are based on wiki house structure, which is high flexible structure. Wiki house is an open-source project for designing and building houses. Construction of Wiki house requires no special parts because the cut pieces of wood snap together with wedge and peg connections inspired by classical Korean architecture. So the frame of a Wiki house can be easily assembled in less than a day by people who has no previous knowledge. It has maximum width with 4m which makes space usage to be limited. But the length (span) can be unlimited as it can expand as much as it can.

# WIKI HOUSE LIMITATION

Possible sites were chosen based on whether they have enough ground area to locate the wiki house structure or not. Additionally, as the project goal is focusing on improvement of the connection between people and the canal, only the sites which are right next to the canal were chosen as  proper site. In total, 21 sites were selected to be available. 

However, those selected sites had all different ground conditions. Some had even terrain but some had sloped terrain or different ground level. Unfortunately, as the wiki house has restriction on site, many sites were not able to locate the wiki house without any devices on these chosen sites . 

Two significant limitation of Wiki-house was found.

1) Limited shape

2) Limited construction site

As the buildings will have various purposes and will be located in different ground conditions, alternative plan had to be considered to solve these limitations. Here, the new structure, ‘Deck’ concept came out to solve both limitations.

This deck platform will

1) Enable the Wiki-house to have more various shapes

2) Support the Wiki-house structure to be located regardless of ground conditions

#DECK’S OTHER USAGE

Furthermore, decks can be served not only as
1) Shelter area for rainy UK weather
2) But also a rest area where people can chill out

#FINAL BUILDING CONCEPT

Therefore, in every sites, the deck will be customized according to the ground condition so that it can be possible to locate the wiki house structure everywhere in various shapes. This new concept is a combination of traditional construction and new style assembly construction.

#SURVEY

To make this project more reliable and to make it more realistic, survey was done by community members who lives in Edinburgh. This was to gather ideas about building purposes, building shapes and building’s site.

Before the survey, the summary of this project was briefly introduced to help people understand more clearly. Also, as many people were unfamiliar with the wiki house concept, brief of wiki house concept was introduced also.

Survey had 3 parts. First, in the building purpose selection part, five questions, building purpose, reason, detailed indoor activities, other available usage and expected size were asked. Here, as the wiki house has a maximum width of 4m, this limitation was importantly mentioned so that they can answer more clearly.

In part 2, two questions about building shape were asked. By providing a category for people, they were able to choose a proper shape for the building they wants. It could be about circulation style or space usage style.

In part 3, proper site for their building was asked. It could be various reason. Lack of facility, undeveloped area, similar activity exist or residential area have been as answer.

**Survey Link :https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSemhcFtWFU5xKp2YpAqIHbTIEiREb55I2_K0zA1TNBX5PM9Bg/viewform?usp=sf_link

#SURVEY RESULT

#WORKSHOP HUB

The workshop hub is divided into 3 parts. One is the workshop area for Wiki-house and one is the workshop area for the deck construction. The medium space is a intermediate area between two workshop area but also has a role of rest and kids area.

The workshop HUB will be located at Hailes Quarry Park which is in the most dark area from the site analysis and which is also in the middle point of the canal.  Originally there were only soccer area and small playground area.

The workshop HUB is mainly outdoor activity area but has a small wiki house buildings for material storage, lecture room, office and toilet for all users. And also, some area will be covered by roof so that people can also continue activities regardless of the rainy weather.

By filling the empty space to be a workshop area, there will be more various activities going around in Hailes Quarry Park making the mood more vibrant.

The workshop HUB will act as a root for all of the buildings along the canal. Here, people from Edinburgh or tourists regardless of age or gender will create a building through the workshop and these created buildings will be moved to the needed area.

-WORKSHOP HUB ; PART 1

Here, wiki house workshop will be opened. By less than 1 day, you can build up the house structure. It is available to participate even people do not have previous knowledge.

After doing the workshop, the parts will be easily disassembled for the next workshop or can be shipped to another place where it is needed.  So it is an activity that Edinburgh people make a building by themselves for themselves.

Wiki house structure is assembly structure. Therefore the workshop can be continued by assembling and disassembling the basic structure. Also the materials are all sustainable and recycled.

-WORKSHOP HUB ; PART 2

There will be a little house which children had made up, and here, children can play inside avoiding rain or strong sunlight.

There will be a miniature model for the children so they can indirectly experience how to build up the wiki houses.

The events which uses children’s drawings for wiki house’s cladding will make children to be more creative and help to understand the construction in more detail. This can be expanded by engaging local artists and residents.

-WORKSHOP HUB ; PART 3

Here, the workshop for deck construction is going on.

It is a bit different style from the Wiki-house workshop so it will not be disassembled that day

The existing wall in this area will be destroyed so that people can move along to this place easily.

Also, getting rid of the existing wall will help people to look over the canal and have a peaceful time.

#EXAMPLE BUILDING

Wiki house has a restricted shape but the indoor spaces can be flexible enough. One respondent answered that he/she want to have flea market in Harrison park and if it can be a other space, exhibition space will be good.

#UTOPIAN IMAGE

By locating the buildings the canal will be more safe area and will lead people to gather around the canal more than before regardless of weather or time.

To Reduce Light Pollution, reduced the height of street lighting and changed the color into more warmer temperature colour and covered the light with shield.

By locate lightings along to the building entrance, it can increase access and connection between canal and people

THANK YOU