Repeating, casting, extending, jointing, bearing

When one thinks of the urban one thinks in terms such as axis, grids, and the conventions that classify city spaces (squares, streets, arcades and parks). The statutory agents charged with the task of controlling the development in Britain employ zoning diagrams, density ratios, and ultimately advocate continuity as the basis for their assessment of any new proposal. In our minds this seems useful up to a certain point, but ultimately distant from the conditions we observe all around us.
In many ways London is an extreme version of the contemporary European city. Early on in its development it was freed from the contraints of a city wall. In a period of 200 years London grew in an almost unchecked and unaccountable manner, its urban solutions left in the hands of the private developer / builder. At times this was successful: as can be seen in areas like Bloomsbury and Mayfair. More often than not it resulted in loosely planned and poorly built urban legacy that we have inherited. Inspite of stricter planning control this condition still seems to prevail.Strategy Plan
Your task this semester will be to develop a conceptual strategy for the area north St Pancras and Kings Cross railway stations, known as Kings Cross Central. This is currently the largest development site available in central europe. This is not a masterplan but rather a strategy plan or enabling plan. The plan should explore the possibility of employing repetition as a device to (re) structure the site.
In the development of a strategy plan we are interested in the role that observation can play. Up until the first pin-up on 17th November you should be developing a concept for the whole site. Projects should be explored by means that are experimental and critical. This should be explored through models, photomontage drawings or castings rather than a reliance on figure/ground plans. When making this work you should draw upon your experience and memories of the place you are working with. What is the feeling of the place? What are the forces that are currently exerted upon it? Consider how it evolved and grew in terms of infrastructure and its industrial purpose.
All projects need to be realisable and for this reason we are expecting your proposals to conform to a minimum density of 2:1 and the same allocation of uses that the existing masterplan is working to. It is also necessary for you to retain a number of large industrial buildings on the site and to incorporate into your proposals the new and proposed transport elements*. Testing
The main body of work will require the testing of assumptions you may have made in the strategy plan by looking at it in detail. The manner in which you decide to test the strategy plan should be determined on a case by case basis. Some projects will require the continuing study of the entire site while others might focus on building typology or urban block that is understood to be a repeated fragment within the whole.