About my Blog...

Welcome to my Blog!!

This blog is a personal record of my experiences over the past year. The entries are labelled accordingly with the following categories to ease navigation around my site:

Carlyon Bay
When I visited Cornwall in September 2006 I took an interest in a £200 million project, on the south coast, to build a holiday resort on a brownfield site. Planning permission was originally granted for this scheme in the 1990s, however, due to the need for improved sea-defences the project is now on hold pending the outcome of a planning inquiry. I found the debate over rising sea-levels, environmental concerns and the sustainability of sea-defences surrounding this project really exciting and have followed the progress of the inquiry throughout the year.

Events and Exhibitions
In this chapter of the blog I have recorded events and exhibitions I have attended throughout the year and given a personal account of my experience.

Interests and Inspiration
Throughout the year I have added posts recording websites, plays and research that I have found inspirational or of interest to me. Some of these are not directly related to landscape but they have all influenced my design work and broadened my imagination and creativity.

LASE (Landscape Architecture South East)
This year I became a member of LASE as part of the working group ‘Creative Places’. This group is responsible for hosting an exhibition and workshop, bringing together landscape architects, artists, engineers, architects and environmental scientists under the premise of design. I have enjoyed being part of this group and having the chance to get involved with practitioners of a variety of disciplines.

Lectures
I have been lucky enough to attend a variety of lectures this year, including Think 07, Cityscape and Shifting Sands. In my blog I have reflected upon the lectures and given an account of what I have learnt from them.

LSEA (London Schools Environment Award)
This year I took part in the LSEA scheme. This entailed volunteering at a local primary school to teach the children about the importance of looking after our environment. This was one of the highlights of my year as I was able to get involved with teaching a future generation about the significance of the welfare of our planet.

Projects
I have included some of my project work from this year, in order to evaluate my work which will help with its development. I also welcome any criticism from anyone who views my blog.

Public Space
In this category I have reviewed parks, squares, gardens and other public spaces I have visited over the year. I have explored how these spaces work, their effectiveness as a public space and how people use them. I have found that investigating each of these places has given me a much broader understanding of how a good public space works and I have used this to help with my design work.

Sculptures and their Landscapes
In this section I look at how art can be enhanced by its environment and how the siting of a sculpture can be as important as the design of the piece itself. I have especially enjoyed exploring how some sculptures are improved by an overt contrast with their surroundings while others will be bettered by corresponding setting.

Sheffield Regeneration
On a visit to Sheffield in February I learnt a great deal about the regeneration that the city has undergone. The transformation of the Sheffield’s public space and master planning of the city as a whole were of great interest.

SLIC (Student Landscape Institute Council)
This year I became a representative of Kingston University for SLIC. This role has enabled me to gain a much greater insight into how the Landscape Institute works and I have really enjoyed the opportunity to meet with students from different courses and visit their universities. Through this role I have been responsible for facilitating communication between practicing members and student members of the Landscape Institute, as well as students from different universities. I have also been involved in administrating the SLIC website and helping to assemble the centrepiece ‘Streetscene’ at Cityscape. My blog records the endeavours of the SLIC meetings and the accomplishments of the council throughout the year.

Think!

Think is a conference and exhibition that brings together some of the world’s leading opinion formers and thinkers to debate:

• How the built environment meet today’s changing environmental, economic and social needs
  
• What needs to happen to make the built environment truly ‘fit for purpose’ in a carbon-constrained world
  
• What sustainability means for the private sector and government bodies involved in regeneration?
  
• The wider responsibilities of the property and construction industries as we deal with the issues of climate change, urban renewal and redevelopment

At the event I was able to hear Al Gore give a keynote speech on climate change and John Prescott discuss how the government are working towards reducing the country’s carbon footprint. I was also able to talk to someone from LDA Design about some of their current projects and see some examples of their work. I thought the event was definitely worth attending and I was able to take away some interesting information.

Sacred Monsters

“Sacred Monsters unites two ravishingly beautiful movers from opposing classical disciplines - ballet and kathak - and takes them to amazing places neither has gone before. An extraordinary meeting of minds and bodies ” -The Times

Sacred Monsters was powerful and exhilarating performance and I found that it was enhanced by the design of the Sadler's Wells Theatre, by Nicholas Hare Architects. The auditorium is lined with metal gauze panels upon which images and lights can be projected to radically transform the theatre and unite audience and performers.

Sadler's Wells Theatre

Equus -Gielgud Theatre

I really enjoyed this production of Equus. I particularly like the innovative design of the costumes for the horses. For this costume the actors wore a horse's head and hooves shaped out of wire. The hooves gave the actors much more height and the masks were made the costume very intimidating helping to create a sense of apprehension. The low lighting of the set, smoke and sinister music also added to the feel of unease, making the play more convincing.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Designed over 200 years ago as a private pleasure ground, much thought and attention has been given to the planting of exotic trees, modelling of the hills and valleys and the use of water and architectural features in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP). The park was split up in the 1940’s but was brought back together 30 years ago by the YSP along with a integrated landscape management plan.

Now the 500 acres of rolling rural north accommodate a wide range of exhibitions, instillations and commissions. The spirit of the historic landscape’s design is preserved through a team of working farmers, foresters and artists.

The new Underground Gallery, designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley is sensitively sited within the landscape. It is set into the hillside of the historic Bothy Gardens and is designed to have minimum impact on the surrounding landscape. A glazed concourse links the four galleries and allows them to be naturally lit throughout the day.

The fields, lakes and open countryside complement the sculptures beautifully, evoking different sensory experiences throughout the changing seasons.


Andy Goldsworthy

Currently the YSP is home to a specially commissioned series of outdoor works and interventions by Andy Goldsworthy. The principal themes are: holes; walking and journeying; consideration of nature and time; historical agricultural structuring and layering of the landscape; performance and the body.

Upon entering the Underground Gallery I was instantly confronted with a large, interwoven egg-shaped form of interlocking oak branches. At first this intervention felt intimidating as I shuffled around the work, with my back pressed to the wall, along with the other visitors. It seemed amazing that the whole structure could be self-supporting.

Moving through the gallery I found myself inside what felt like a giant upside down nest. The smell of wood was intense and the intervention gave a feeling of security and calm.

One of my favourite pieces was an intricate floor to ceiling web of sycamore stems held together by black thorns. The piece seemed to have a lyrical beauty to it, indicative of the delicacy and fragile complexity of nature.

Outside Goldsworthy had placed a series of stone enclosures, containing the twisted skeletons of fallen trees. I watched as visitors eagerly approaches these ‘tombs’ and reacted with excitement and awe as they peered inside.

I was less impressed with the impenetrable, circular sculpture, ‘Enclosure’, intended to evoke memories of the Enclosure Act which prevented so many people from wandering through the countryside freely. After satisfying a mild curiosity to see what was inside the wall, by climbing onto my brother’s shoulders, I was disappointed to find nothing and felt let down by Goldsworthy for not rewarding my curiosity, as he had with the stone ‘tombs’ mentioned earlier.

More disappointing still were Goldsworthy’s attempts at profundity in sheep shit and blood of road-kill. Unlike Goldsworthy’s other work at the YSP these particular pieces were not able to evoke my sense of excitement or curiosity.

Dare to Bare

Dare to Bare is a project based at the Uni-Bank Headquarters, Copenhagen. It uses hydrotherapy to relieve stress and improve productivity within the workplace. A series of water treatment areas are designed around the offices, using hot and cold water to invigorate, inspire and refresh the uni-bank employees.

Upon first submission of this project my work lacked detailed drawings and plans of each treatment area. Since then I have added these to the project and some of them can be seen in the slide reel above.

Shifting Sands

Shifting Sands was a particularly interesting lecture due to it's relevance to Kingston's current North Sea Faring projects. The lecture included a variety of speakers talking about seaside regeneration.

I particularly enjoyed hearing from Thomas Heatherwick about the East Beach Cafe he has designed in Littlehampton. The cafe is designed to shelter visitors making them feel secure and protected from the elements while presenting them with panoramic views out to sea. The ridged design of the building was a result of finding a design solution to disguise the shutter boxes above the windows. I found it really interesting to hear how Heatherwick problem solving led to the final design. After the lecture we were able to visit the cafe, which is still under construction. This made the whole project come to life and I hope to visit the cafe when it is completed to see the final result.