This project is a response to the JAD International Design Competition brief, entitled ‘Softspace’.
To read more about the theme of the competition, please visit the JAD website.
With consideration given to the current worldwide economic crisis, the competition brief asks the question of whether design can take advantage of these ‘hard times’ to offer a stimulating mediator in the lives of people, speculating that ‘softspace’ might provide such mediation to financial turmoil.
This is a fundamental factor to be taken into account when considering design propositions for the brief, although the scope and impact of the intervention is not purely limited to the current narratives of the crisis. Instead, it should be used as an opportunity to explore how the current situation may provide a stepping stone towards a design proposition that may yield more than yet another profit-driven, consumption-oriented response to the urban condition of public space.
Coinciding with the competition brief we will be setting the project within an area situated along the length of Princes Street in central Edinburgh. This iconic, mile long street which marks the boundary between the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh is the focus of the City Centre Princes Street Development Framework (CCPSDF). The framework, created in 2007 is currently in place as a strategic plan to develop and coordinate principles of urban regeneration in response to the social ‘underperformance’ of Princes Street due to its ‘inadequate public realm,’ which is seen to ‘compromise the quality of a World Heritage Site’.
