TEXT

"by aligning the travel and work rhythms of the
city with the innovation and promotion rhythms of the commodity, advertising enacts
or performs a new connection between people moving around cities and the massed
populations of commodities"

Anne M Cronin - 'Advertising and the Metabolism of the City' 2004

Frenzy Promo

In 1972 Alfred Hitchcock experimented with guerrilla marketing to promote the release of his film 'Frenzy' in 1972

Urban Riddim

Very initial montage of ideas relating to urban semiotics in the search for meaning in the surrounding arterial routes of the Westfield Centre.

I am currently looking at developing a methodology of facade implementation that holds true to the notion of brand.

What location holds the most weight in terms of captive audience?
What variables are involved with human attention span?
What irony can be portrayed with the Westfield Centre as the Backdrop?
How do these factors translate back into the area besieging the Westfield Centre?

The Image of Trash Couture

How does branding represent a company?

Companies require consumer trust. This trust can only be gained through the provision of goods and services that meet the expectations and requirements of the consumer. This puts the consumer in power.

Branding, within companies in the global economy, counts for a large portion of value and increasingly as the main source of profit. Companies therefore have and do focus on marketing aspirations, image and lifestyle, opposed to previously concentrating on product production only.

The basis of the branding process begins with the fundamental point of retaining consumer trust. Companies that expose their brand values are therefore required to address and respond to moral and ethical issues manifested in consumer perceptions of corporations and brand owners.

In an age of accelerated consumption the idea that corporations can ignore such issues is wrong. As the two quotations in the previous post suggest there is and increasing need for brands to show willing in order to retain the business they need.

How do you show willing?

There are many third party effects resulting from the processes undertaken to meet the requirements of consumption. Economies change, Social Structures change and the Environment changes. Within these effects the notion of brand response can demonstrate changing attitudes towards these externalities.

For example the idea of turning ‘Poo into Gold’ can be seen either as a money making venture or an ethical venture. Companies that demonstrate these efforts are responding directly to consumer loyalty, if they don’t they lose business. If the incentives are to increase profit then so be it, but at the end of the day it is lead by the opinion of the consumer. Therefore, if consumptions exists, the incentive to adapt exists and simultaneously the end result will favour the brand owners as well as confront the by products of consumer culture.

How does one portray the values mentioned above?

The image can be derived from the nature of the products. If the products are promoting ethical values, the architecture should reflect this attitude and brand it. Therefore through a reassessment of brand values the architecture is integrated into the process of improving consumer awareness, which will inevitably act as an advertisement of the flagship that corporations should follow, respond to and compete with.

I suppose the conclusion is that:

1. Consumer trust is pivotal to branding.

2. Branding is the fundamental to corporations that want to make money.

These two added together equate to an economic environment that catalyzes moral decisions, economic decisions, and innovative decisions that all need a place to live…

My Building………

Traid-Remade Fashion Line

http://www.traid.org.uk/#images/tenth/intro.jpg

Nike Grind

Nike’s Shoe Recycling & Sustainability Program | Reuse-A-Shoe & Nike Grind

TEXT

"The more companies promote the value of their brands, the more they will need to seem ethically robust and environmentally pure"

The Economist - The Case for the Brands, 2001

"Is the brand immoral, can it get us to do things we don't want to? No. When we like a brand we manifest our loyalty in cash. If we don't like it, we walk away. Customers are in charge."

Wally Olins - Brand Consultant

Night Scenes

These servicing yard access points are where the designated areas where waste material is disposed of. Situated on the East of the site access is provided by the service road running parallel to the rail line that provides a division between the Westfield Centre and the neighbouring Queensdale Crescent Estate

The following 3 shots represent the no mans land area to the south of the Westfield Centre that borders on to the rear boundaries of the victorian terrace block housing situated adjacent to the Centre



No mans land that borders on to the rear boundaries of the victorian terrace block housing situated adjacent to the Westfield Centre

Glitches

The refinement of site is leading to the gray zones of the Westfield Centres Envelope. Portrayed with a array of consturction elements the rear facade presents areas of overlapped materiality and form that are in need of exploration. Exposing these glitches may uncover the potential reservoirs that will in turn fuel the re-appropriation facility.

Processing

The central processing unit transforming Polythene bags into Polyester for textiles. Kale plant cultivation for cutin harvesting to be combined with the polythene in order to form the Polyester.

Cultivation of Cotton on the Higher levels using heat recovery to simulate the hotter growing conditions necessary for the shrubs to grow

Sustainable Textiles

The local demographics of the Shepherd's Bush area indicate a divide between areas of deprivation and those of the bourgeois class. Interestingly in the immediate area surrounding the Westfield centre there are two distinct zones of deprived households indicated in black. The question that is being asked is why, and is there a way to begin to bridge this gap?

The Westfield Centre along with all consumerism produces large quantities of waste, whether it be physical waste, social waste or environmental waste. These are all disposed of through whatever plans and management systems that have been setup by the Westfield Group. Is there a way that this matter can be re-appropriated so that it addresses the ethics that need to be nurtured within consumerism. In turn can this transformation be translated and put back into the surrounding social environment?



The initial choice of site was that of the Former Odeon Pavilion Cinema situated adjacent to the Shepherd's Bush common. Being central within the Shepherd's Bush area it could act as a beacon symbolising a movement against the mega brands residing in the Westfield Centre.



The central element of the proposed building would be to facilitate a processing unit to tranform the waste form the mall into usable material.

The Heat Sink

Through the process of waste re appropriation, there is the possibility to capture embodied energy in the form of heat and redistribute the energy to service the institute.

The Process

Collusion amongst brands and the waste disposal/recycling unit from the Westfield Centre has led to the agreement to set aside quantities of waste to be put back into the guerrilla couture initiative in a bid to capture lost revenue that has arisen as a result of the growing rift Westfield users & non-users.

Collections of materials

Collection of materials.

Where to find the anti-cool

The distribution

Delivery of the guerilla couture

The sense of exclusion

The production of garments, product, consumables will be pumped back into the local and wider areas.

If a sense of anti-cool can be nutured, the appeal will rise and attract higher levels of revenue.

Initial 3D analysis of the Westfield Site. The aim is to create a link by a systematic program setup in a Guerrilla manner that is powered by the re appropriation of brand power.

Guerrilla Couture

The decision to move out of the immediate shadow of the gargantuan Westfield Centre has been made. The physical link may now seem more distant but the function of the project is such that it incorporates many variables that are subjugated by consumer ethos and corporate brands. Corporate brands play the main stakeholders in a setup that aims to subversively pump back the ideals and brand power that is strongly aimed at those with high spending power.

What Does The Westfield Centre Need?

I looked into functions, environments & possible interventions that the Westfield Centre lacks. It is not to say that these ideas are definitely what the centre needs. It is more so to highlight potential functions that could be developed, whether it be physically within the centre or on a slightly more widespread level, that address the issue of exclusivity that has been emerging in the Shepherd's Bush area.

The Anti-cool

Imitation Facade

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

The facade acts as manipulable surface which in turn could iterate the language of a consumer domain presenting a constant changing viral of consumer driven thought processes. The Detournement of existing consumer spaces could then be represented and relayed back within contrasting social domains to address parallel consumer needs.