Southampton Station Quarter North & 'Canal Shore'.

The project focuses on the Southampton Central Station Quarter interchange and surrounding areas of public realm and highway. At the heart of the site is the transportation hub where trains, buses, taxis, cycles, cars and pedestrians all meet. Consultation and feedback has been gathered from all user groups and was used to develop the proposals. My role was to create a contextual response to the site which would exert a positive influence on the design process and outcomes, with a particular emphasis on the interpretation of the public realm. I undertook a detailed investigation into the neighborhood’s social history, geography, ecology and culture to uncover contextual information, which inform the area’s current form, identity & reputation. This site-specific & research-led activity assisted in driving the creative concept & rationale, which now underpins the general spatial layout, character and interpretation of the new public realm proposals. An understanding of the site’s past physical condition drives the overall theme and character of the landscape & public realm interventions: a wooded valley, a meandering stream, the curve of the historic shoreline & the ill fated Salisbury to Southampton Canal. The primary human activities on the site over time, as evidenced by residential, industrial & cultural histories have been influential in drawing individual & collective ‘voices’ from the locality, which will serve to imbue any outcomes with a distinctive vernacular. The ‘Canal Shore’ artwork is a critical element within the scheme. Contextually it marks the high tide line of the historic north shoreline of the River Test Estuary, which, up until the 1930’s Western Docks expansion, ran along the Southern edge of Blechynden Terrace. This shoreline, since medieval times had provided the east to west transportation route out of Southampton along what was known as The Strand. The ill fated Southampton to Salisbury Canal, 1795 – 1808 had also run along this same route, its long filled in canal basin now under Blechynden Terrace. The work marks a significant threshold for the confluence of transport routes, waterways, land & sea, both historic & contemporary. The Black Basalt kerb, itself an emphatic 700mm wide, is inlaid, throughout its 205m length with white granite water jet cut text. The text further explores and narrates the events that have shaped this site for almost a thousand years. Its functionality is also critical to the scheme; its length articulated with elegant but robust dropped kerbs, transitions setts & crossing points, allowing for fluid & streamlined vehicular, cycle and pedestrian movement through the site, which further emphasizes its importance as a transport interchange.