Here are a few images from a 1:1000 model which I have been working on. The initial response is to concentrate the massing to the north and to inhabit the existing piers with a pedestrian link across the Thames which will run through part of the proposal. The third part, as I like to think of it (part one being mass, part 2- pedestrian link) , is the external atrium which will run through the heart of the mass, providing a visual link between the various floors and functions.
At this stage I envisage the floors from each level being the most prominent aspect of the design, hence the reason behind modelling the mass though only planes which represent each floor. The floors could be separated using a truss or through the more conventional column. The reason for this is to maintain a maximum level of transparency and 'honesty' into the goings on within the building. The very last image is one I found of a germinating chamber under examination; the repetition and grid formation have been highly influential so far in terms of both structure and form of the building.

Blackfriars Bridge is the only bridge in London to have a direct north south axis. The axial model explores this notion further by depicting the relationships between the differing axis which surround the site. Over the coming few days I will look to investigate axial lines against isovist grids, both of which will heavily influence the parameters I have to work between. Both were recently outlined by Lydia Heard on the city walker website;

‘Axial lines should be used for intelligibility, global properties and movement; isovists for static local uses of space. Isovist grids, or visibility graphs, provide output that looks similar to that of axial line maps, but they really are measuring different things. Axial lines predict movement, or movement choices, which require some conscious thought. Isovists measure and predict behaviours which are more dependent upon environmental qualities, or perception and awareness’.