#Carlos Climate Change Strongman

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Oxford Innovation District Competition Shortlist

Oxford Innovation District Competition Shortlist News, Legal & General Capital Architecture Contest

Oxford Innovation District Design Competition Shortlist

12 January 2022

Location: Begbroke Science Park, Begbroke Lane, Yarnton, Kidlington OX5 1PF, UK

Shortlist of five announced for design team competition for £1bn Innovation District to north of Oxford

image courtesy of competition organiser

Oxford Innovation District Competition Shortlist News

Allies and Morrison, Carlo Ratti Associati, Grimshaw, Hawkins Brown and Prior + Partners through to Stage Two

Wednesday 12 January 2022 – Oxford University Development, a £4bn joint venture between the University of Oxford and Legal & General Capital, today reveals the shortlist of five teams proceeding to the second stage of its international design competition for the masterplan team for its world-leading £1 billion, 190-hectare mixed-use Innovation District at Begbroke, to the north of Oxford.

The lead consultants of the shortlisted teams are: Allies and Morrison; Carlo Ratti Associati; Grimshaw; Hawkins Brown; and Prior + Partners. The shortlist was selected by the jury panel from an exceptionally strong field of 40 entries. In an extremely competitive field, all shortlisted teams scored highly against the stage 1 criteria of creative ability, problem definition, collaborative thinking, communication skills and the overall diversity and inclusivity of the team.

Anna Strongman, CEO, Oxford University Development, said:

“We were inspired by the high quality of the entries and excited by the potential of Begbroke outlined by the teams. Practices and collaborations grasped the challenge of creating a place of world leading research alongside a community calling Begbroke home. We look forward to engaging with the short-listed teams to explore ideas further in stage 2.’’

The winning design team will set the bold ambition and design intent for a project that will transform the area around the University’s Begbroke Science Park, to the north of Oxford. The project will also create a community of up to 2,000 quality homes, with new schools, public park and nature reserve.

OUD’s aspiration is to create a boundary-pushing scheme that demonstrably achieves a step-change in sustainable design, delivery, and operation. The new district will seek to attract the very best minds, while driving economic growth, improving transport connections, delivering benefits for local people, as well as enhancing the surrounding natural landscape for public access. The site will provide an exemplary new setting for the University’s world-leading science and innovation, which will help address key global challenges facing humanity – from food security and biodiversity to climate change and the urgent need to move to a zero-carbon economy.

The ambition for Begbroke is anchored by Cherwell District Council’s Local Plan Partial Review, which has identified the site for a high-quality mixed-use development, comprising a range of research & development, residential, and associated social and physical infrastructure uses, such as schools, local centres, amenity space and recreation/leisure uses, as well as excellent connectivity to the City of Oxford by sustainable means.

The first phase of the scheme will bring forward new facilities for University research, as well as providing space to incubate spin-out companies.

The competition is being managed by Colander Associates. All 40 Stage One entrants can be viewed online at: https://www.colander.co.uk/journal/begbroke-competition-entries.

Oxford Innovation District Competition Shortlist Teams

Lead Consultant: Allies and Morrison

Mecanoo (Netherlands); Gort Scott; DK-CM; Hargreaves Jones (USA); BuroHappold; Systematica (USA); HR&A (USA)

Lead Consultant: Carlo Ratti Associati

Outcomist; Martha Schwartz Partners; Ove Arup & Partners; Studio 20-20; Groupwork Architects; Tsuruta Architects; Theatrum Mundi; Fabienne Nicholas; Mobility in Chain; Soundings; Indeed Innovation (Germany)

Lead Consultant: Grimshaw

Hoare Lea; BuroHappold; Logika Consultants; McGregor Coxall; Jas Bhalla Architects; Openstudio Architects; XCO2

Lead Consultant: Hawkins Brown

OKRA (Netherlands); BuroHappold and C:Lab; RCKa; Ooze (Netherlands); Ecological Land Cooperative; Wordsearch Place

Lead Consultant: Prior + Partners

The Place Bureau; Alison Brooks Architects; Wilkinson Eyre Architects; dRMM; Gillespies (Oxford); Spacehub; Ramboll; Stantec; Hoare Lea; Keith Orlesky; Philipp Bouteiller; Pooran Desai; Transition by Design (Oxford); Transsolar (Germany); Usman Haque; Jonathan Rose Companies (USA)

Previously on e-architect:

8 November 2021

Oxford Innovation District Competition image courtesy of competition organiser Oxford Innovation District Competition

Oxford Innovation District Competition Shortlist images / information received 120122

Address: Begbroke Ln, Yarnton, Kidlington OX5 1PF, United Kingdom Phone: +44 1865 283700

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Comments / photos for the Oxford Innovation District Competition Shortlist at Begbroke Science Park page welcome

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[getyourgreenon]

Reflective Blog Cross Media Production 2013

Character made with the help of stripgenerator.com

In your own words describe the character. What type of character is it ? What is the characters attitude to sustainability issues ?

 Carlos is a strongman both physically and morally. He has dedicated his life to the service of the planet after years of witnessing its degradation by humans all around the world, he believes it's his mission to save the planet one university at a time. Sometimes stubborn sometimes free thinking Carlos believes the only real way to get the message across it through brutal force. Growing up in a circus for most of his life he also appreciates the small things and what it takes to laugh and have fun. He needs to show people the proper way to look after the planet as if it was do or die for him.

Describe the audience that this character was designed to attract.

This character was designed to attract people with a sense of humor, those who appreciate comics and those who like the idea of heros vs villains. Naturally not everyone will be into such things so it is important that I tailor my platforms so that everyone can experience the greatness that is Carlos. 

  Describe the platforms that YOU developed the character on. (should be at least 2)

I developed my character through two different platforms, one being more accessible to the wider audience which is Facebook and the other being Strip Generator which is targeted more at the niche audience of comic strip fans. They can both crossover relatively easy.

Provide links to what you consider the best piece of content that YOU developed on each platform.

Two of the best pieces of content that I've created for my audience would have to be the poll on facebook with the question 'What is the most sustainable way to get to uni?' with the results being enlightening to say the least.

https://www.facebook.com/CarlosClimateChangeStrongman

And the comic strip intro where the other characters of Carlos' adventure are introduced in a vividly comic style.

http://stripgenerator.com/strip/741626/introducing-carlos-climate-change-strongman/

Provide documentation of your characters rabbit hole on campus. Give credit for the idea and implementation. Did any audience come through the rabbit hole ? How do you know ?

Here is a simple example of my rabbit hole on campus. The poster provides the attention grabbing ploy while the small print provides the information necessary for the individual to 'follow' the rabbit down the hole. I got the idea from my peers who had started posting similar posters around campus, they reported some interesting results so I agreed to use this method over others. Unfortunately my facebook page did not gather enough likes and so was not enabled to examine data and so as much as I'd like to speculate I'll leave the results at null for now.    

Upload an image of the poster that you created, and describe where you put it, and why you put it there.

This is my basic design for Carlos Climate Change Strongman posters, I put them in high traffic areas along with other posters so people could get a feel for the variety of characters while absorbing the message of sustainability as a whole. There is one right next to the Media Store room as well where people are often seen waiting in a line, hopefully they will get to read my poster while they do so.

What cues did you use to transition the audience across platforms ?

I managed to use a number of cues to transition my audience from one platform to another. A QR Code and website address was used from the poster to the net, then on facebook my main cues were status updates which informed the audience of the strip generator website and the comic strip stories I had created for Carlos.

Which parts of the narrative did you tell on each platform ?

I told the back story for Carlos on the stripgenerator platform and then climate change narrative on facebook. 

Reflect on what you have observed and learned from the experimental phase. 

From looking back on what I've learned over the experimental phase I see that the transition from design stage into experimental is not always without problems and unforeseen circumstances. In fact for me it was relatively smooth but from hearing other stories and reading blogs things can fall apart if you try and be too ambitious, this is where I like to go back to the design principle of simplifying. Any great idea can and should be boiled down to its main constituents if ever the process of building goes astray, usually we as creative practitioners lose sight of our message and so simple is better in regards to design.  

What would you do differently next time around ? 

I would employ more platforms with more access to students. So instead of centralizing my character around comics and facebook I would take the charaqcter to them, possibly through the use of enticing free stuff or a mascot. Perhaps both. 

What you would do if you could get funding to develop your character further ?

I would develop a short animation based on the comic strip series, perhaps I could follow Emma Keltie's model for success in web series and trans-media. 

What are your thoughts regarding the Design Challenge "Can we use Transmedia to Inspire a Culture of Sustainability at UC ?" Do you think we have succeeded ? Do you have suggestions on what to do next time if we tried this challenge again ? 

I think cross media is one of those developing concepts where just about anything is possible if we put our minds to it. Engaging a transitory audience with a potential size of thousands is also difficult; to get the best results I think localizing it to niche markets within this wider audience of UC would be the best approach (take comic fans for an example). Promoting the message of sustainability on campus, or any just cause for that matter, is probably the most worthwhile application for cross media at this stage of it's development, however it is not usually a worthy cause that develops new technology but rather the consumer's needs and desires which don't always fit in that spectrum of 'just causes'.

I think aspiring for a culture of anything is a well deserved goal for such exercises, though in short, I don't think we achieved it this time around. This may be due to a number of factors; while we did raise awareness to our cause by such exercises as poster blitz we may have pushed it into the audience's face a little too much. Overkill is a deadly sin in any marketing campaign, I believe the trick, and maybe for future attempts, will be to entice the audience into creating a culture for themselves, whether this is done by hype campaigns or even shock campaigns is completely up to the next class but it is well worth taking what we've learned here and thinking about it for next time.

Has the integration of the topic of sustainability into this unit changed your behaviour in any way?

Somewhat.

[getyourgreenon]

Poster Blitz

This week we focused on getting our characters into the wide world of the UC Campus. With so many options and not a lot of time I decided to streamline my design and keep it simple with the posters only showing Carlos his message, a website and a QR Code. The poster blitz began well but since as I am behind I found that most of the 'good spots' were already taken, the 'good spots' are usually high traffic areas, sometimes near or on signs and places where people might have a bit of spare time to whip out their phone and access the QR code. No matter I found a few alternative spots that other people hadn't yet thought of but you're just going to have to find those for yourself.

The poster allows stimulating engagement while not giving away too much so as to build the interpreter's intrigue, hopefully leading them onto more investigation through the rabbit hole and onto one of the websites provided. By having a simple message that conveys humor as well as getting the point across about climate change the interpreter can understand what the whole campaign is about just from a simple picture and slogan. The slogans I came up with are in keeping with Carlos' fierce Strongman persona 'Recycle or I'll crush you', 'Turn off that light or I'll crush you' and 'Drive to school and I'll crush you'. So far these are trial slogans and I'm hoping to get some feedback off my peers as to their effectiveness. In the meantime I'll continue to come up with classier slogans that convey a simple message.

 I've also joined Hipster Barista's portal on Panoramio where I've uploaded the poster positions with all the other characters.

http://www.panoramio.com/user/7667884

[getyourgreenon]

Tutorial - Experimentation

 This week's class was all about experimenting with our design ideas relating to sustainability. After the character design exercise in last week's workshop we were ready to build on the concept of creating characters and their importance in the role of trans-media. For my sustainability campaign at UC I thought long and hard about what would be most acceptable, something students at UC could really relate to. After a few initial drawings that ended up in the scrap I used my digital skills to bring to life my character, Carlos Climate Change Strongman.

A few of the previous character designs.

Carlos Climate Change Strongman.

 Creating the character from geometric shapes was simple enough but developing him into a well rounded hero with the qualities of a saint was another thing completely. Having an engaging back story is essential for any comic hero, incorporating this story into the theme of sustainability and tackling climate change was a little more challenging. The back story of my character is as follows: Carlos lived in an orphanage in the outskirts of Mexico City up until he was 15. The orphanage was run by an evil Baron who sold children into inhumane experiments run by an evil doctor. Some of the children survived these experiments and went on to become villains and super heroes in their own right. Carlos appalled at the unsustainable practices the Baron was running in the orphanage, along with the experiments, seized his opportunity to escape and joined a visiting circus. Hidden under the fat of an elephant Carlos snuck out of the God forsaken place he had grown up in and into the wide world of climate change. He spent several years touring with the circus as their strongman before returning to the place he once lived. Freeing the children from their bonds, Carlos defeated the Baron and his men only to have the evil doctor escape with a few of his experiments. Carlos vowed to stop unsustainable practices in universities across Australia and he started with UC, to this day the evil doctor haunts him by unleashing his minions to wreak havoc and make Carlo's mission harder. And so the saga begins...

 To promote the story of Carlos and his message I have decided to go with a few options. Having a range of platforms when promoting a product or message in trans-media goes to the very core of what  trans-media is all about. The more varied dissemination techniques available to me the more people I'm likely to reach. My main two platforms for this project will be Facebook which has the potential to reach millions of people all over the world and comic strips in the form of posters around UC. By having these two platforms spearheading my campaign I think I'll have a good balance of both students and people who aren't familiar with UC or XMP and so increasing my chance of effectiveness.   

The Facebook page for Carlos:

https://www.facebook.com/CarlosClimateChangeStrongman

  Comic strip Online:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/stripgenerator/strip/62/61/47/00/00/full.png