Liminal: A Zone of Transition
The project
Liminal is designed as part of the final master's degree project. It is a system of components that come together to create an intermediary space in the city around the transit stations. The system prompts people to re-centre themselves as they move between their professional and personal lives. Liminal offers a flexible way to insert these oases of calm into the urban landscape.
Thesis Synopsys
How are millennials changing work?
The way one has worked has always changed to suit the generation’s lifestyle. However, in today’s landscape, the aspect of work has grown so much that it is taking over the personal lives of many, especially the younger generations.
The increased connectivity is blurring the boundaries, creating a situation where the aspects of work and personal life are interwoven making it difficult for this generation to achieve a “Work-Life Balance“.
User interviews
3 millennials, 3 countries, 3 lifestyles. I conducted a set of telephonic interviews where each lasted from 45 minutes to 1 hour each. The interviews focused on understanding their typical day, noting their experiences and their pain points throughout the day.
Travel patterns
In conjunction with the interviews, travel patterns and shift in population densities have been observed to pinpoint the zone of transition for the project to be implemented in.
The system
Liminal is an urban system deviced to break the journey of the commuters by creating a network of services, amenities and experience around a metro station.
Elements in the system
In order to create the necessary environment of relaxation, I have imbued the system with 6 spatial elements, namely, vegetation, rest area, service kiosk, amenities, seating area and entertainment zone.
system taxonomy
The spatial qualities of each element can be further combined to form spaces with mixed environments and the number of combination only limited by the quality of space aimed to be created
Adjacency matrix
The adjacency matrix is devised to aid in the arrangement of the elements in correlation to each other. This is to avoid any undesirable combination of elements such as rest area with entertainment or amenities with the place of eating and so on.
Building blocks of the system
The six elements of the design can be formed by utilizing a set of five tiles and placing furniture on them to achieve modularity and dynamism in the design.
Perforated tiles
Deck tiles
Fixture tiles
Paving tiles
Landscaping tiles
system realisation
Using an existing metro station to explain how the system could be used to enhance the spatial quality around the station.
User scenario
With the necessary break taken the user is all set for the next role.
The day begins busy...
Going through unresponsive environment
Until they exits the station...
Liminal provides environmental stimuli to allow the user to recenter himself before playing the next role in his day.
Views
Views
Alternate scenario
What if the area chosen does not have enough space around it?
In such situations, the system can use the tiles to form a parklet of appropriate size and place then in the vicinity of the station to create this zone of relaxation.
Working of the system
Walkthrough of the design
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