Design Context: December 2010

When we received our new group brief we collected all of our research and began to focus on how many un-used/closed down shops there are in Leeds City center. Most of our pictures/statistics aimed in this direction so we felt the most natural thing would be to start researching derelict buildings in Leeds.

We used Google maps to start locating the unused buildings and shut down shops so we had an idea of what we could work with. Below are some screen shots from Google maps showing just a few of the buildings that we found.

After deciding on what subject we were going to focus on we came up with the outline of our initial problem and hopefully how we were going to solve it. The sheets below were just guidelines on what we intended to do.

Problem

Evidence

Solution

We decided that we could create an interactive poster to pin up on the buildings for our audience to write their ideas onto. Rather than basing our interactive poster on all of the diss-used shops in leeds we decided to focus on the area with the biggest cluster of empty spaces, in this scenario is happened to be "Boar Lane" as the pictures show below.

From this point our direction was to focus on turning these spaces into something that the public of Leeds would value rather than just being refurbished into another shopping centre. We created a facebook group and forum that people could post their ideas on.

The response from our forum that seemed to be the most achievable was to go down the route of putting art in the windows of the shops and unused buildings to almost give the public something to look at. So rather than trying to make a drastic change to the buildings instead we could simply just focus on how to make them look better.

For our New brief after handing in module One we had to collect 100 things to do with Leeds and below is my body of research. I wanted to look at the project in a different light so i started by just going out in Leeds and taking as many photo's as i could. I found that i really liked photographing the more scummy areas of Leeds, for example run down buildings and areas with lots of graffiti.

Opinions of others about their 5 favourite places in Leeds

Me;
    1.    Dry dock
    2.    Cockpit
    3.    Tribe Records
    4.    On the Wall
    5.    Welcome Skateshop

James Flanagan;
    1.    College
    2.    Liberty Park
    3.    Factory X
    4.    The fox and Newt
    5.    The takeaway at the top of the road

Michael Mooney;
    1.    212b
    2.    Printing rooms
    3.    West Indian Centre
    4.    TK Max
    5.    Tribe Records

Charlie Crosby;
    1.    Dry Dock
    2.    Elbow Room
    3.    College
    4.    German Market
    5.    Liberty park (especially in my bed)

Christoffel Van Niekerk
    1.    Weatherspoons
    2.    City Centre
    3.    Hyde Park
    4.    Leeds Union
    5.    542 liberty Park

Frankie Roberts
    1.    Nandos
    2.    German Market
    3.    Hyde Park
    4.    Leeds Metropolis
    5.    Liberty Park

Gina Martin;
    1.    Starbucks
    2.    Cool Beans
    3.    Mint
    4.    Terrace
    5.    German Market

Facts About Leeds

Leeds’ population
• 750,000 people make Leeds the second-largest metropolitan district in England.

Business in Leeds

• 112,000 people work in the city’s financial and business sectors

• Leeds is the UK’s third-largest manufacturing centre, with 1,800 companies employing over 39,000 people. It has recognised strengths in advanced engineering, printing, chemicals and food industries

• The city is fast developing as a centre for the new, online economy.
• The city's media, communications & advertising sector is growing by about 10% a year.
Leeds’ economy

    •    The city has the most diverse economy in the UK
    •    Leeds has a GVA of £15.4bn
    •    Around a third of GVA is generated by the financial & business services sectors.
Transport in Leeds
    •    Leeds Bradford International Airport serves 70 destinations in 30 countries, including North America and Asia
    •    Leeds is linked by road to London and Edinburgh via the M1 and A1 and to the east and west coast ports via the M62

• London Kings Cross can be reached by rail in just over two hours
• Manchester International Airport can be reached in just over an hour by road or direct rail link.
Telecommunications

• BT regards Leeds as its second city, so advanced is the design and efficiency of equipment. It is the headquarters of BT Applied Technology and of BT's Northern Region which covers the whole of the north of England and Scotland
• Across the city, all BT exchanges are broadband-enabled, providing both homes and business with fast track access to the internet

• Thorpe Park, one of the largest business parks in Europe, has been selected as one of BT's strategic eLocations. Premises are pre-equipped with the latest telecommunications infrastructure, including robust dual optical-fibre network.
Tourism and leisure in Leeds

    •    Leeds is home to the West Yorkshire Playhouse (staging more productions each year than any other theatre outside London), Opera North, the Northern Ballet and the Phoenix Dance Company
    •    The city centre has 2 miles of traffic-free shopping and over 1,000 shops
    •    Leeds is one of the greenest cities in Europe, with greenbelt land covering over two-thirds of its total area

    •    The city centre is less than 20 miles from the Yorkshire Dales National Park
    •    Leeds was named ‘Best Place in Britain to Live’ by Henley Management Centre
    •    It was also named ‘The UK’s Favourite City’ by Condé Nast Traveller Magazine.
Education in Leeds

• Leeds is one of the top student destinations in the UK and the University of Leeds is one of the UK's top ten research universities

• There are over 200,000 students here, 64,000 of whom are degree students at Leeds’ two internationally acclaimed universities

• Leeds Metropolitan University is home to the largest business school of its kind, and is rated in the top 50 globally

• The Independent called Leeds the ‘Best UK University Destination’.

20 words to describe Leeds

Huge

Excting

Busy

Energetic

Spacious

Friendly

Cold