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AGHAAZ |
collaborative
workspaces + third
places
Rao Umair Afzaal
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 1.................................................................................................................. 4
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 5
HYPOTHESIS............................................................................................................. 7
THESIS STATEMENT.................................................................................................. 8
OBJECTIVES............................................................................................................. 9
RATIONALE............................................................................................................ 11
SCOPE.................................................................................................................... 12
STRATEGIC PLAN.................................................................................................... 14
CHAPTER 2................................................................................................................ 15
RESEARCH.............................................................................................................. 16
METHODS............................................................................................................... 17
FRAME WORK......................................................................................................... 20
SITE SELECTION..................................................................................................... 21
RATIONALE............................................................................................................ 22
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................... 23
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The late 2000s has seen an emerging new kind of workplace, a place
designed to host creative people and entrepreneurs who endeavor to break
isolation and to find a convivial environment that favors meetings and
collaboration: the co working place. Basically inspired by the participatory
need and culture and the empowering nature of IT, co working spaces have
redefined the way we do our work. The trend was followed after the trend of
third places, the social surroundings separate from the two usual social
environments of home and the workplace. Overall there is a kind of informal
touch in these patterns, the humans being somewhat tired of the solid
difference between home and work, making them look for a third place.
The thesis intends to concentrate upon this trend of informal living , and how
it can be linked to formal architectural typology ( co-working ). It aims to
create an architectural intervention, an intervention that is basically an
extension to the co working spaces in terms of programs and builds upon the
two concepts, co-working and third places, to improve its present condition
in the city.
Islamabad as a city, has a lot of informal spaces, but whenever such
programs are consolidated in the specific buildings for them, they have been
failing to stabilize mainly due to financial issues, the thesis tends to address
that issue as well and look for the possible solutions to that. It also concludes
The thesis aims to solve the issues by seeking solutions to questions such as:
program?
what was the main issue behind the failure of co working and
role
in
accommodating
the
requirements?
HYPOTHESIS
THESIS STATEMENT
AGHAAZ- a collaborative workspace combined with third places to facilitate
better connected learning and creation through architectural expression.
OBJECTIVES
AGHAAZ will not be just a workspace, but will rather include a community
and corporate side to it as well. The community side involving recreation and
leisure facilities to help the stakeholders ( architects, designers etc, creative
industry ) get involved with the community and the corporate side to make
the space economically self sustainable.
SOCIAL:
involvement,
creative
ENVIRONMENT:
phase techniques,
effective use of natural and local sources, the materials used will be
RATIONALE
they reside within the buildings, mostly houses, those are not designed for
the purpose of collaborative working, and thus such architecture / buildings
are not being able to mould around to meet the demands of such
programmatic requirements and they end up either giving negative effects
on users, or are deserted.
Pakistan is the 5th largest country in the world in terms of freelancers and
with the number of educational institutes increasing the graduates and
professionals have increased as well, the need of such places in order to
avoid unemployment have never been more, and is actually increasing with
every passing day.
Islamabad is a city with creative minds from different walks of lives that tend
to start off an initiative but lacks a social space to inhabit it. The thesis aims
to design such a space that will provide the users with a platform to
showcase their skills and inculcate within the users a sense of ownership that
is borne out of such venture. It intends to design such a space that provides
a platform to establish a strong bond between the program and the user with
the help of architecture, it aims to establish a dialogue, an amalgamation of
social and practical life.
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SCOPE
The project basically aims to form the foundation of a new typology where
social, ecological and economic sustainability goes hand in hand. The main
aim of the project is to form a platform which is significant not only in terms
of programs but also architecturally expressive and significant as well.
Islamabad as a city has a lot of spaces which act as a platform for emerging
talents, but this hasn't been considered as a different building typology but
rather small houses have been converted into these places. programs and
administrative changes can only be successful to only a limited extent and
often end up closing due to the lack of funding, the project aims to take
those programs to a next level where they form a new typology and
incorporates other commercial aspects as well.
The scope of the work outlined is as follows:
culture
the project aims to a particular user segment, creative industry,
zone.
the spaces in the building will include multipurpose exhibition space, a
cafe, communal zones, interactive spaces, meeting and conference
12
rooms, casual and group meeting rooms along with the working spaces
future requirements
the building will be high rise in nature and the scale depending on the
spaces required
the scope is ambiguous for now but the method will be site criteria and
selection first, then the number of people to be accommodated in the
site considering its area and then the sizes of the interior programs will
be defined.
13
STRATEGIC PLAN
14
15
CHAPTER 2
16
RESEARCH
How can this trend of informal living linked with formal working spaces?
How can the growing need of workplaces in our society be catered? The
primary aim of the research is based on how can trend of informal living be
joined together and designed in such a way that it facilitates the learning
among users in co working environments and is focused on understanding
how these co working spaces have developed into one of the most successful
business hubs .
The second part of the research will focus more specifically on the situation
of Islamabad to explore and evaluate the opportunities through user
centered design, development and evaluation of such facilities. this research
will be focused on:
understand
the
user
attitudes
and
challenges
for
social
of
co
working
incorporate
design
strategies
and
programmatic
17
METHODS
The research aim as mentioned earlier is yet not achieved as to what exactly
can be the most beneficial work place for the users, so the research is still
worked on.
1. INTERVIEWS:
Over the course of the research interviews will be conducted with
people who are involved in the chosen topic. Their involvement is
either in terms of their professional background in Architecture or
entrepreneurship or based on their knowledge and opinion on the
topic. The aim of these interviews is to understand what kind of
problems they faced in the introduction of such programs in the
society, how they can be improved and what kind of design will suite
the programs the more.
Another important factor will be interviewing the people who started
such programs in the country but due to one reason or the other, the
objectives weren't achieved. This information achieved will form the
basis of the programs to be incorporated other than workspaces.
2. SURVEY:
19
Identification of kind of people who will be using the place. ( students fresh graduates- professionals looking for collaborative workspace ),
20
21
FRAME WORK
The methods of research pretty much include everything that will be done in
order to reach the aim of the research, but utilizing those findings is another
thing. The continuous check on different aspects of design is a must,
therefore the research is being categorized and structured in a way that the
findings and conclusions help in the decisions regarding Concept, Program
and Context.
1. The research based on context is more inclined towards observation
and the study of the city and statistics to understand the behavior of
the site and context. Understanding the tangibles and intangible
related to the site.
2. The research based on concept will be somewhat evolving till the
finalization of the programs, the concept is the base on which the
whole design will be built, in this case it is the understanding of what
needs to be done to improve co working spaces.
3. The programs will be finalized after the thorough understanding of the
concept and site, the major program of working space is finalized, but
the byproducts and additional programs will be dictated by the site.
22
SITE SELECTION
The criteria for the selection of ideal site are:
location along the fringe of the city, due to the nature of program, the
site should be in an importance place but not located in the heart of
city is preferred
23
RATIONALE
The above mentioned criteria requires the site to be in a well developed
area, that provides the program with a chance to be successful in terms of
acceptance
by
community
and
properly
developed
infrastructure,
considering all these aspects, the most suitable site location is Bahria Town,
Islamabad. The reason behind the selection of Bahria ,
the most important factor is the financial aspect, the whole idea behind
the co working space was being economical, sadly the financial gap
between Islamabad and Rawalpindi is evident and Bahria being on the
fringes on Islamabad will catch more people which the proposed
building will benefit.
24
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brien, Paul O'. "Evolve the Way you Work." n.d. Project Your Space. 15 October 2014.
Marshall, Fraser A. and Justin M Witman. Humantics: The science and design of
sustainable collaboration. 2010.
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