6: Individual Project One Statement

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Due to Brisbane's economic dependence on mining, the city will be left financially destraught when Australia's resources boom inevitably ends. Facing a growing unemployment rate, higher living costs, and a crippling economic recession, Brisbane will have to go to extreme measures to save itself from mounting debt. Eventually, Brisbane will turn to the great financial powers of the world, asking for financial support. In return, Brisbane can offer these corporate giants hundreds of thousands of willing employees, commercial development opportunities, and the monopoly on entire markets. Five international companies answer the call, giving Brisbane economic and financial sustainability, whilst maintaining a healthy profit of their own.

This project truly was the culmination of amazing team work - everyone researching and collaborating to create this (I believe) amazing presentation. Because we truly immersed ourselves in the environment of our future scenario, with each of us 'adopting' a character and experiencing their journey through Brisbane's changes, we created a really comprehensive understanding of our proposal. It also left us with quite a personal investment in our architectural outcomes, truly wanting the best for our characters.

Our panels are broken into 4 major sections:

1. Future Scenario and People and Lifestyles timeline. In this section (the largest section of the presentation) we went into extensive research, breaking down year by year what will happen in the future to lead us to our propsed scenario. To personalise this timeline we included our character's perspectives, turning a historical timeline into a running social commentary. To the left of the timeline we also included a simple pie chart for each character, briefly summarising their own 'programs', allowing us to organise our character's priorities in a quick snap shot.
2. Sustainable Futures. In the running strip along the base of the panels, we've analysed the sustainability of our future scenario with respect to economics, finance and governance. In one diagram, you can see how Brisbane can maintain the 'illusion' of sustainable governance in the same structure they experience today. However, due to the financial power of the "Big 5", such power will leak into the government structure, thus making the system sustainable for the corporations. Another diagram shows the map of Australia broken up into all the services it requires to make itself economically sustainable. Each of these elements are then translated into the company profiles, showing that each company provides all that Brisbane's economy needs, and how they can make a stronger profit by investing in alternative business models.
3. Architectural Outcomes. This section, culminating as the conclusion of the timeline, are the architectural outcomes gleaned from our character's experiences in the future scenario. A render is also provided showing Queen Street's commercial transformation as a 'show room' for the "Big 5".
4. Future Scenario masterplan. At the end of the presentation we have included maps showing how Brisbane will physically transform by 2034: the introduction of more efficient public transport to accommodate the pedestrianisation of the city centre (in order to allow people to interact with the buildings, and therefore feel a connection to the "Big 5" and feel more inclined to purchase their wares); and the allocation of now vacant spaces, such as the administrative offices of mining companies and carparks.

 I am incredibly proud of this assignment, and couldn't have asked for a better team to work on it with.