Artist design statement produced by David Patten 

ELECTRIC WHARF 

ART & ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STATEMENT  (DP 08/02)

1.	SITE ASSETS

Victorian and early-20th century industrial buildings of the former power station and a 400m canal frontage.

Buildings of scale set out on a table top (and a sense of things happening under the table).

A new pedestrian link to the canal from the Sandy Lane entrance.

A place that has always been connected to the city of Coventry  land ownership, transportation, electricity generation.

A commitment to the future of Coventry  an exemplar.

2. MATERIALS PALETTE

The existing buildings set the materials palette.  Materials retained or re-used  particularly the possibilities of re-siting externally existing internal and external surfaces.

The introduction of new materials  particularly wooden decking to create new external floorscapes and stainless steel mesh used as 2D vertical screens and as 3D containers (gabions) filled with memories of the former power station.

beam, gleam, glare,
glow, glint, glimmering,
play of light,
flush, flash,
sparkling, spangles

Spread the use of the new materials, and, in so doing, link different site components together to achieve scale and coherence/legibility.  For example, the decking is along the whole canal edge, linked through as part of the container structure for the external transformers and linked through further to connect to the decking in Courtyard BGE.  Similarly, the use of the stainless steel mesh at Block A extended to the canal edge to visually knit the upper and lower sides of the site together.

3. COLOUR EFFECT

The existing colour field (buildings and hard and soft landscaping, the canal) shot through by electric blue (planting), decking and stainless steel.  

amaze, animate, 
astonish, astound,
excite, 
take one’s breath away  

The colour effect for Electric Wharf is conditioned and predetermined by:

 - the remains of the former power station (external vertical and horizontal surfaces);

 - expressions of the site’s previous function (wires, cable, planting);

 - the general colour field of this part of Coventry (including the canal corridor);

 - the palette of new materials being introduced to create Electric Wharf.

The development of Electric Wharf assumes that the development of the overall form, scale and colour of buildings and immediate surroundings, combined with the exploitation of natural light and use of artificial light, can create a flourish which is both landmark and gateway.

The colour effect for Electric Wharf :

- recognises the existing built and immediate natural landscape as one of its greatest assets;

- emphasises a sense of place to enhance user activity;

- articulates natural routes and movements and emphasises the principal entrance;

- is an expression of Electric Wharf in its surrounding urban framework.

The colour effect is also about visual excitement and positive human values.

4. ARRANGEMENT

The canal frontage and new pedestrian route to Sandy Lane treated as a single design environment, pivoted on a new canal bridge with integrated cafe facility.  The bridge/cafe as event  part of the walk and not as discrete object.  

A canalside flourish.

Wharf (defined as a wooden or stone platform).

Literally take the canal to Sandy Lane and vice versa.  An exchange between the canal and the neighbouring streetscape  natural landscape structure (canal) as pocket park (Sandy Lane).  A single design environment of (city rather than domestic) scale comprising repeated elements, seating, raised edging, etc. signifying Electric Wharf.

5. GATHERING PLACES

Electric Wharf is a place where people both live and work.  As such we need to think about where (and possibly how) people gather.

There are five gathering zones with a hierarchy of functions:

1.    the area between Blocks A, B and C where people might greet visitors and/or have a quick smoke.  This is an area for short dwell durations.

2 & 3.    the two garden/courtyard areas where people might sit out on the steps or decking with friends/colleagues.  These are possibly medium dwell durations (packed lunch, etc.) with the possibility of people inventing additional uses for these areas (game playing, etc.).

4.    the canal edge at Block D where people might sit out to take the view  passive interaction with strangers and a sense of the communal.  This is a medium to long dwell duration.

5.    the cafe where people will actively interact with others over food and drink.  This is a medium to long dwell duration.

6. SEATING & EDGING

Over-long benching on the decked area to the canal  three 12 metre long benches with curved seat and back made of the decking material on steel formers.  The visual intent is that these structures are not read as seats on a surface, but as the surface rising up to create an undulated sculptural edge to the decking.  This protects the decked area from parking cars creeping beyond their designated parking pays.  It also supports the notion of communal experience for this area.  The decking as currently drawn (BPN) is re-orientated to run parallel with the seating, although the orientation might change again at the canal edge.

The primary location for this proposal is the decked area between Block D and the canal, but secondary locations include an area near the bridge (to be considered as the bridge and cafe are developed); Courtyard BGE (where it might relate to the existing deck area to Block B); and the pocket park at the Sandy Lane entrance.  At Sandy Lane the seat will read as a discrete object  a strange intervention in the everyday streetscape running along the side of the shop, and an external signifier of EW connecting the wharf to the public highway.

A variation on the undulated form (the seat back) can also be used at ground level around the external transformers to a height to be agreed.  This may help baffle the hum from the transformers as well as articulate how the mesh container for the external transformers hits the ground.

7. COLLABORATION & PROCESS

Collaboration is a “coordinated, synchronous activity that is the result of a continued attempt to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem'.  Or, more simply, the mutual engagement of participants in a coordinated effort to solve the problem together.”

At Electric Wharf we are doing three things:

 - we accept the properties of place and the dimensions of site of the former Sandy Lane Power Station;

 - in terms of the site, we are re-shaping the former Power Station in an unexpected and new way to produce Electric Wharf.  Examples of this include the vertical glass box being inserted into the centre of Block D and the horizontal stretching of timber seating from one end of the site (the canal) to the other (the street);

- in terms of place, we are emphasising the vestiges or traces of the former Power Station to produce a narrative richness for Electric Wharf.