I propose to implement a Public Committee Interaction Hub, to improve on the public interaction and involvement with the existing Parliamentary Committee Room and members. The existing Australian Parliament House Committee Rooms on Level 1 and 2 are currently off limits to the public visitation and interaction, so I intend on designing a hub for the Public to interact!
The Public Committee Interaction Hub will involve:
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Café/ Eatery and Decking Spaces(On the Ground Floor)
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One Committee Conference Room for House of Representatives Committee
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One Committee Conference Room for the Senate Chamber Committee
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Toilet Facilities (Ground and Underground Floors)
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Staff Offices
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Staff Lunch Room
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Storage Rooms
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Technician Rooms
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Parliamentary Display Rooms and Gallery
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Reception
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Access to the Underground – Lifts and Stairs from the Café space
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All spaces except the Cafe will be on the Underground Floor
The public would voice their campaigns and problems on the online Parliament House Committee forums and facebook pages (Which are controlled by the staff members), and then will further request to be present on the day of the Committee Meeting. The public committee interaction hub staff members will then review all these requests and will email each public member whether they are successful or unsuccessful, and if successful they will aslo include information regarding the meeting place and time. These hub staff members will work out of their group collaborative staff offices in the Back of House area in the Underground section.
The Public would then arrive at Parliament House on Parliament Drive and proceed to enter through the café/ Ground Level area and them use the lifts/ stairs to access the underground hub area. They would then check in with the security check point at the Reception and then go through a gallery/ display area, and after will distribute to their respective Conference Committee Rooms that they are required to attend, either left or right. The toilets are accessed from in the gallery/ display area.
The main area in the centre of the underground hub will act as a flexible space, with the gallery and display items constanly changing in aqccordance with the Committee session topics or the time of the year etc. The Conference Committee Rooms will also act as flexible and ever changing spaces, controlled by the hub staff members.
The live Committee Meeting from within the Parliament House will be streamed to each of conference committee rooms and will allow for public interaction, by being able to ask questions to the Committee Members during the session question times. Each of the Conference Committee Room – House of Representatives and the Senate Chamber will expand and contract to the amount of public visiting and exhibiting these rooms (demand required from the Public). The rooms will cater for all sizes of peopleup to a total of 99 people and these number will as already mentioned, be determined by the amount of public demand, as recorded by the staff of the Hub. These staff members will set up each room for the sizes required, by sliding the doors in piece for the correct amount of room and adapting the amounts of seating required for the committee meeting. The main wall will be installed on adaptable wheels and will slide against the two adjacent walls to be put in place, and then the necessary amount of furniture and equipment will be installed (all stored in the Storage spaces at each end of the hub, for each of the respective Conference committee rooms).
Each of the these Committee Conference Rooms will have a large TV screens for the live streams and each public member will be on a desk for 3 people. Each public member with be given a response pad/ voting device and a microphone is installed into these voting devices to interact with the Committe Members.
The technician rooms will control the live streams, and the interaction between the public and the Committee Members.
I propose to do this at the North Eastern corner of Parliament House, however the foyer/ recpectio, gallery spaces, main conference committee rooms, toilets, staff offices, storage facilities, lunch room, technician rooms and the plant room will be developed underground, so that the hub wont be imposing to the existing site extents and allowing for the adaption of flexible spaces on the ground floor. The majority of the underground spaces will be mechanically ventilated self sufficient under its own Plant Room, and a back up generator as well as using artificial lighting for the Back of Houses spaces. However also some of the Eastern facing underground spaces will have some natural lighting.
All the electrical services, telecommunication and sewerage services will be also used directly from Parliament Houses Services.
