Interiors Year 3 Studio 02

Studio brief

We would like you to consider the notion of the civic and cultural commons that exists with our everyday day public spaces, in this case Euston Station. Euston Station was re-imagined as a modernist international style open concourse in 1968. Its space and station environment is now currently being designed to accept the new London to Birmingham HS2 line.

London stations in the Victorian era were designed to impress and act as symbols of technological advancement presented to the rest of the world. HS2 is a part of the railways low carbon future and a mission to bring prosperity to the Midlands and the North rebalancing the North/South divide.

Part 1

We'd like you to develop a concept to design a series of temporary homeless shelters within Euston Station. The shelters are there to provide a place for those that have been displaced or become homeless to reflect within and through support plan and prepare a new future.

Consider your environment, the station is a public space used by commuters, visitors and holiday makers; how might they further engage or connect positively to the shelters? How can the notion and the design of a homeless shelter need to alter the public perceptions? How do you design, through the shelters, new and progressive thinking that allow for change and participation?

We will be working with a team of Industry professionals, bringing in expertise from non for profit organisations to enable you to understand the plight of the homeless. This is a live project, you will be a part of the team and contribute to the research and development of the design of a new homeless shelter.

Part 2

This brief is centered around the future use of station concourses, what is their purpose and how should they be redesigned?

You are asked to redesign the concourse of Euston Station? Research and investigate the station environment through the normal cycle of peak and off peak travel, analyse the volumes of people and opportunities that exist within the space to engender a sense of community. Record how people wait, where they stand and how they congregate? How does the space support the post-Covid commuter? How can the space work together with local communities?