A new Polling Station
Belle Isle Branch library, Belle Isle Meanwood Community Cenre, Meanwood
Wetherby St James, C of E Primary School, Wetherby
Calton Primary School, Calton
Otley Civic Centre, Otley, Warfedale
Seacroft Library, Seacroft
Sisterhood Room, Methodist School Room, Lofthouse Portable building, land adjoining, Bancrost towers, Seacroft
Venerable Bede Parish Church, Bramley Dance Studio, Bramley Baths, Bramley
Harewood Village Hall, Harewood Old Halfway House Pub, Robin Hood, Wakefield
Exisitng polling stations in Leeds
Can the architecture of voting be re-thought to make this vital democratic act an engaging social and spatial ritual?
My last vote
examples from accross the world
What a mobile polling station could be
Papua New Guinee
Norway
Jerusalem
Description of my last vote
Arthington village hall stands as an anonymous single story structure, replete with pitched roof and white rendered walls. Its entrance faces onto the car-park, its windows too high for the passer by to look into from the busy Poole to Harewood stretch of the A659. The hall is one of 367 polling stations in the Leeds constituency, and part of a division of 33 wards for the General Election. The signage exclaims ‘POLLING BOOTH’ and ‘WAY IN’, the lettering is clean, alert and upright, optimistic but in no nonsense instructive manner, the spaces between letters make each one stand out creating a clear instruction to act. The car-park is empty, I am on foot and make my way inside, I am greeted by the presiding officer and her assistant sitting at a collapsible table, I register, then take the ballot paper and enter one of the wooden booths. After crossing a box from a list of unknown candidates, for parties I am familiar with, I fold and post the ballot paper into a plastic ballot box. I ask the women if it has been busy today, they remark on the weather. I notice the curtains and leave.
12.5 Ecterior Grade Plywood Shire Timber yard, Cross Green industiral estate, Leeds
Southampton Docks
Port of Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia
Plywood Factory, Sibu, Malaysia
Malaysian Tropical Forrest
Tracing the global journey of the plywood
Making every voting booth (the stage for the democratic act) involves a supply chain of global capitalism
Machining the logs into ply
Making the plywood Voting Booth in the workshop
Trade and Democracy
Birmingham grew during the early industiral revolution as a centre for making and inovation - The Jewellery quarter and the Soho area of the city were central to the growth of UK manufacturing at the end of the 18th century , utilising a new and exstensive canal network, and the local specialisim in steam power and engineering.
Major links between trade, workers rights, civic pride and democracy were developed in Birmingham during the Victorian period.
Notably Joseph Chamberlain - A Birmingham screw manufacturer became one of Britains most influential 19th century politicians.
Birmingham, the city of 1000 trades correspondingly became a centre for workers rights, civic pride and democracyA Local link between trade and democracy
Gold Gold Bar Jewellery smiths workstation in the Jewellery Quarter Musuem
Boulton and Watt Soho Manufactury, Birmingham 1800, a worldleader in steam engine technological and engineering development.
Mathew Boulton, Candle Vase Mathew Boulton, Candle Vase, dimantled into its many complexelements
Global distribution of products made at Boulton’s Birmingham steam powered mint. Chart showing where vistors to Boulton and Watt Manufactury came from at the end of the 18th Century
Joseph Chamberlain
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Birmingham
Arrive Birmingham New Street Station
Walking from Birmingham New Street station to the site, out of the city centre towards the Jewellery Quarter
Pedestrian bridge accross dual carriageway
Encounter with the site - Brindley House and the BT tower
Site
Pla
n 1-
500
1 2 3 4 5
SITE BOUNDARY LINE
Propose
d building fo
otprin
t
N
1
2
3
4
5
NEWHALL
STREET
LIONEL STREET
LUDGATE
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L
to C
ity C
entre an
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welle
ry Q
uarte
r
BT to
wer
Brindle
y House
Access to site
Existing movement through site
1. Access to the site from street level on Lionel Street over an exisitng building with a carpark on its roof.
2. Access from Newhall Road along the tow path
3. Potential access to the site from the side road running parralell with the canal
4. The canal towpath runs under Ludgate Hill
5. Access from Ludgate Hill
6. Boat access along the canal
LUDGATE HILL
NEWHALL STREET
LIO
NEL
STR
EET
LUDGATE HILL
NEWHALL STREET
LIO
NEL
STRE
ET
Brindley House
BTTower
Illustration shows the site without Brindley House and the BT Tower
Birmingham
Canals and waterways
Site as central node in communications and transport network
Birmingham
Motorways and trunk roads
Birmingham
Rail network
Road link to M6 Motorway
Rail link nearby
BT tower links to satalite communicationshh
Pedestrian bridge to City centre
Site sits over the canal
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William Hogarth, 1755 Chairing the member. Oil on canvas, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London
LUD
GATE H
ILL
Hea
vy d
uty
grill
over
can
al
areas reserved for media and event tents
work zone - no pedestrian access
Office for electoral events team
Courtyard 1
2
1. The courtyard to the left of the building is utilised for events in the run up to elections, including parties canvassing for votes, speakers corners, and media interviews. There is space at the rear of the courtyard for media and events tents.
2. The canal is vital to the life of the building. It is accesable from the street and becomes an inhabited public space, for canvassing and events. Each pollitical party might have a boat moored on the canal.
Run up to the election, showing courtyard use and utilisation of the canal 1:200
Two tier registration
Initial registration takes place at the front of the building, the two tier registration system, (the final check takes place just before the voting booths) is akin to checking in for a flight. It allows voters to quickly ‘check in’ before 10pm, enabling them to wander around the building, or if busy que to vote until midnight. This new two tier system will avoid any people being stuck in a que to register at 10pm and therfor unable to vote, as happened at the 2010 general election.
Initial registration
1:20 detail of Registration
Key moment 5/7 following the path
Store for Electoral Sundries
Hundreds of objects are collected by the presiding officers the evening before an election.
Events office of Electoral Commission
1:200 Plans
Debatte chamber
Gangways for counitng ballots
First floor
Ground floor
Top down view
LUD
GATE H
ILL
polling booths
exit stairs
un-covered ramp up
lift access
lift access
ballot boxelectoral official
workshops
events office
Events Courtyard
Reg
istr
atio
n
off
ice
public toilet public toilet
areas reserved for Media and event tents
voting promenade route
canal
to city centre
to the jewellery quarter
Workers zone between buildings
fold out candidate information panels
LUD
GATE H
ILL
Showing deliveries of ballot boxes from polling stations accross the West Midlands after the Polling Stations have closed 1:200
main road networks
marked off pedestrian area
Hea
vy d
uty
grill
over
can
al
areas reserved for Media and event tents
workshop rooms become counting and sorting areastrolley takes ballot boxes to the liftand up to levels in main counting wall
vans and cars arrive with
ballot boxes
unloading
work zone - no pedestrian access
electoralofficialsdirect traffic and pedestrians
registrationof deliveries
1. Registration desks
2. Choice of short route, or longer procession
3. View and walk past the counting wall showing every Birmingham polling station, and the 59 electoral candidate
4. Bridge under Brindley house, utilising existing canal concrete structures
1
2
3
4
5
7
812
10 11
6
Showing key eleciton day moments 1:200
9
5. View up the steps (and option to take lift)
6. Conversation moment, looking over the city
7. Fold out information boards with info about canditates
8. Crossing between the two buildings
9. Final document check by electoral official
10. Enclosed, quiet, and non distracting place in which voting takes place.
11. Placing the ballot in the vessel top, back out in the open.
12. Descending through building two to the entrance courtyard
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