Urban Intervention Finalist: Seattle Jelly Bean by PRAUD

In our last post, we published the finalist entries to Urban Intervention: The Howard S. Wright Design Ideas Competition for Public Space which invited designers to re-envision a nine-acre site in the heart of Seattle Center and use it to explore innovation in public space in the coming century. With their entry Seattle Jelly Bean, Boston architects PRAUD (Dongwoo Yim & Rafael Luna) were one of the three finalist teams which have now been invited to compete in the second phase of the competition through April until the final presentation in May.

Project Description from the Architects:

Because of its previous use, the site creates a discontinuity in scale from the surrounding blocks. In order to scale it down to a more human scale, similar to the general grid of Seattle, we introduced a new pattern onto the site. The logic of the pattern connects different access points from around the site. The pattern for pedestrian passage is not only down-scaling the site, but also improving accessibility to the site.

As an outcome of the new patterning, new courtyards are designed as inversion of passage pattern; courts become voids while passage remain as solid. Each solid and void creates its own topography, and thus the topography of the solid provides different experiences for pedestrians and joggers, while topography of the voids provide different types of functions and landscape fields.

To extend the logic of the surrounding fabric, not only multiple access points are introduced, but a dialect of South Fountain Lawn and International Fountain are repeated and manipulated in the proposed park. This is a way for the park to absorb the existing features and strengthen them.

Lastly, the Jelly Bean is proposed as  a new way of creating a dialog between the park and the city, park visitors, public at the Center Core, and communities in distance. It is a device that can control micro level climate, and thus, depends on the weather or public demand. It can create fog, cloud, rain and sunshine effects. Also, the bean will function as reflecting object during the day, reflecting other parts of the city from the park, while it can be used as a projection screen at night for new urban activities.

Check the image gallery below for more concept diagrams of the Seattle Jelly Bean.