[Basin and Range]*
With the great public realm already created in the Waterfront development in Phase One, the Lex Walsall seeks to further enhance, and complement, on the great public corridor extending all the way from downtown Park Street to the Pleck Road canal waterfront.
Some 350 metres from the New Art Gallery, the Lex Walsall site acts as an excellent area for a momentarily hang-out location after a roughly 5-minute walk from the downtown area. The canal edges bordering the site further suggest the Lex site’s potential for gatherings and a culmination of different activities. This proposal capitalizes on this unique quality by creating a public ‘Basin’ that allows improvised performances, people watching, casual interactions, and the likes.
The typical horizontal movement in public spaces turns into a vertical moving manner in this proposal, allowing people to follow gentle steps into the ‘Basin’, which is opened on all sides and affords a better view of the canals from a higher elevation. The Basin allows all sorts of public activities to happen while the sloped landscape, resembling mountain ranges, presents a gentle curving surface for spectators.This public space is also located centrally with respects to the offices and luxury apartments above, encouraging interactions and exchanges between people from Walsall and visitors from other parts of the world.
The building volume rises as another mountain range with floor plates gradually receding from three sides as it goes up, carefully calibrated to enjoy the canal views.
*title borrowed from John McPhee