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Karin (Kei) Nagano
Finding Counterpoint
Conceived as a New Town in the late 1960s, Milton Keynes has experienced rapid growth in the last five decades, housing multiple corporations and an expanding population. The city’s initial grid plan, catering for a car-centric, suburban lifestyle, emphasized landscaping and compartmentalization within MK, resulting to the intentional suppression of sound and absence of interaction between its different communities.
Finding Counterpoint is a proposal offering a counter-narrative for MK across both these lines. Specifically, its objectives are to bring sound to the forefront in the experience of the city and to act as a public space, connecting the otherwise isolated MK communities. Alternatively, Finding Counterpoint aspires to be an instrument, enabling the MK community to both further its expression and develop its ties.
Sited at the rear of Saxon Court, which is currently planned to be developed into two residential towers, Finding Counterpoint instead proposes a subsidized central space to house all local arts organizations, thus aiming to utilize the rare remaining pockets of public space to highlight cultural activity.
