In the distant future, when/if Argent finish the redevelopment of the railway lands behind kings cross station, a new London University of the Arts will take up residence in Lewis Cubitt’s Granary building (the huge Victorian building in the middle of the site). The Flickr photo feed on this site led me to a project by some students at Central St Martins on how to bring the square in front of the Granary to life.
It’s bleeding edge stuff but reflects how young designers see urban spaces and the relationship of younger people with technology. My favourite concept is a Nintendo Wii style fishing game alongside Regents Canal using mobile phones. You can see their tutor’s views here and a set of photos here. If you haven’t used a Wii you might not get this. But i have fond memories of my 64 y.o. mother playing a great game of Wii tennis at Xmas.
I believe that this level of interactivity within the concept of the Wii styled proposal, press_start, does initially appeal to a younger user-type. when the Argent development does come to fruition, todays youth generation of video game players will (hopefully) be the office workers of that future. the Guardian, British Museum and newly proposed Children’s Museum will all be there, not to mention a host of newly proposed small-business opportunities.
also interesting to me is the potential to make Kings Cross more then a community held together by retail. the biggest challenge of the Argent Proposal is in fact creating that indescribable cozy feeling that one may feel walking into borough market, camden, shorditch, kentish town, notting hill, etc. hopefully Kings Cross’ current grittiness caries over and remediates itself when the development is complete.
If you look at Museums Quartier in Vienna, Austria, (http://quartier21.mqw.at/structure/) many of the smaller shops are community driven grass-roots business initiatives. some of the qualities of this example could be introduced to KX. in fact, i am getting an idea for a proposal to Argent as i type this.
your website is an invaluable resource for those interested in the Kings Cross geographic community, btw. keep up the good work.