The Lift

Having My Say

April Natasha Francis

Architecture Crew member, April Natasha Francis tells us about her journey as one of the seven community jurors taking part in the Lift New Parliament architecture competition.

Going to the Lift office was a tremendous experience. I have learned so much, such as communicating in small groups and not having to be shy to make a suggestion or comment. And I travelled by tube for the first time on my own!
 
Through my involvement with the Architecture Crew I was invited to be one of the judges for the Lift New Parliament. I attended a training workshop where we discussed different ideas about social and meeting spaces. Where do people mix...in the cinema or in the theatre? Where would a favourite meeting place be?

On Saturday 1 July 2006, there was the presentation from the four short listed architectural practices (the lucky four architects were chosen from loads of architects, so it was like the semi-finals when they had to present to us, the jurors!). Each architect’s practice gave a 10 minute presentation to the jury and then we grilled them for 30 minutes. We asked questions like: Why is your design special? How important is Community Participation? Will you go over budget? What makes your design work? Why should I or we as a community pick your design? What inspired you to do this design?

The designs were all very creative and innovative. One was a building with bamboo sticks on the outside; another was a tent structure with different sections for meeting spaces, performance spaces, cafes etc. The third was a stone/cave shaped structureand the fourth was a design where the ground floor had big spaces with different shapes and sizes and the top floor had a humungous, eye-catching Power Cloud.

It feels very exciting to be a part of the jury and having my say and making a large difference to the upcoming New Parliament in 2008, so in two years time I could be looking at the building itself and just say to myself, I was involved in the existence of this very building, which is just amazing.

AOC are the winning architects. What I loved about their design and their presentation was that they had a greater concern and passion towards making the building ideal for the community. Congratulations to AOC!