Pav Bharaj

CIVIC CAMPUS | NARRATIVE OF TYPE-FORMATION 

A Civic Campus where information-generation and exchange are open-access is proposed in response to the challenges of future flooding posed to Hull. This project is informed not only by a relationship with Hull’s past but also by introducing and dispersing water canal systems together with submerged data servers to produce a commons of data and open education within a productive plaza. This project offers a visionary treatment of the flooding by absorbing the water into productive processes for generating energy and as cooling systems. The project offers a new masterplan for Hull. Among other sites it targets Queen’s Gardens, a reclaimed dock which was the heart of Hull’s historical fishing and shipping industries. The proposal re-imagines the dock as a flexible urban space of open learning within a civic setting. The Campus inhabits and shapes a commons of data, knowledge-sharing and skill-building in publicly accessible pavilions and flexible building spaces that adapt to future scenarios. The structures draw on urban types historically generated within Hull to respond to challenges of managing its water-based economy. The vision also forms innovative types to forge a new urban connectivity and a new way of living with water.