Next Project

Hypermedia Facility [Brighton]

Part 2 Project 2000
James Russell
University of Brighton | UK
Hypermedia Facility [Brighton]

The eleven acre Station Site is a forgotten, derelict, brownfield area in the centre of Brighton. Three students collaborated to investigate and formulate a master plan for this sensitive site, utilising the output of a public consultation weekend and integrating their own individually developed schemes.

The ‘Hypermedia Facility’ brief was informed by the site condition, an examination of Brighton’s requirements for a new library building (under competition) and my own research into the implications of information technology on the public library, new media and future society. The resultant program suggested the investigation of a spatially flexible, forward-thinking public building which would respond to user requirements, such as teleworking, liflelong learning and employment training facilities, whilst encouraging a sense of community and interaction: a social antidote to the threat of ‘digital segregation’.

James Russell


James has been nominated for a number of reasons, not least his ability to work on many tasks simultaneously, whether they be research questions or design ideas at vastly differing scales. This ability has served him well on this thesis project for a Hypermedia Centre as part of a masterplan for the vast Brighton Station goods yard site. A very strong instinctive designer and inventor, James was also well able to work as part of a team developing an overall masterplan for the site, before focusing on issues relating specifically to his particular area of research; the implications of information technologies upon the library. James' research activities enabled him to question the way we may utilise future libraries as well as speculate in some depth on the nature of the architechtonic environments we may inhabit while engaging with others in virtual space. James' enthusiasm for close focus study in terms of architectural space and technonic elements has enabled his vision of a civic building, the Hypermedia Centre, to provide a vivid explanation of what could be a very exciting future for tomorrows library users / information junkies.

2000
• Page Hits: 2241         • Entry Date: 09 February 2000         • Last Update: 10 May 2001