Wednesday 24th February 

Antony Gormley Sculpture - St. Pauls

Flare II is the new sculpture which has been unveiled today in St. Pauls cathedral. the sculpture by Antony Gormley is a mesh of wire in a cloud form with a falling figure hanging in the cloud. The staircase is not usually open to the public, although it has featured in a few films, including Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes, so it will be a unique chance to see the geometric stair case. The staircase itself looks so beautiful I would love to go purely to see Christophers Wren's inspiring architecture, although the sculpture looks very interesting aswell. Photographs I have seen of it are not so clear so really need to see it in reality! Flare II is part of the cathedrals programme of artworks designed "to explore the encounter between art and faith".

Canon Giles Fraser (the cathedral's chancellor):  "Gormley's work on the human form was an apt art for a Christian church which believes in incarnation — where God becomes human: “We're just really excited at being the place where people are asking questions — about the nature of the body and about physicality and vulnerability.”"

 Antony Gormley: “Wren understood proportion, space and gravitational dynamics as no other British architect of his time, and the Geometric Staircase is a supreme and elegant outcome of this understanding,”

“Flare II is my attempt to use applied geometry to construct an energy field describing a human space in space.”  

"Stratford goes for gold with £3m Olympic metal leaves that sway in breeze"

Evening Standard- thursday 18 february

I read an article in the standard today about drawings for a string of tree sculptures designed to give a sense of arrival to Stratford (for the olympics), the sculptures are up to 16 metres tall and have large plates of titanium as leaves which are designed to sway in the wind. The height and scale of the sculptures would make them the largest kinetic sculptures in Britain. I personally really like the idea of sculptural landscapes. I think the sculptures will give Stratford a distinctive identity. I proposed for a project in Paddington Basin a tree sculpture with wide glass plates as leaves, which is a similar design, which I made a model for. I guess that is what really caught my imagination is the combination of art and landscape architecture in such a direct way, up until this degree (in landscape architecture) my focus was always fine art, i chose to specialise in fine art for the majority of the Foundation in art and design in Norwich, and have always relied on that fine art background to influence my own designs.  

"A report on the project warns that at present the streets trapped within the traffic-logged Newham gyratory system — dubbed “the island” — are scruffy and depressing, yet they will also provide the first impression for millions of visitors to the area in 2012.

“In its current condition, Stratford town centre runs the risk of being overshadowed by adjacent new developments,” warns the report. “The island needs to be more exciting to attract new businesses, residents and visitors.”"

Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter, London Evening Standard.

A model I made for a project in my first year at uni. It was proposed to be a shelter made from steel with  glass leaves in Paddington basin. 

A sleek facade I saw hiding along Oxford street, I love the way I notice loads of different things everytime i'm in central.

South Kensington  - 17th February 2010

Tree management in South Kensington. Interesting (after looking into landscape management) to see the trees in before and after stages of being pollarded. Pollarding of tree avenues is very common especially in urban situations, these are Platinus Hispanica (London plane) again very common for use in avenues in urban situations and a tree which responds well to pollarding.

http://www.cabe.org.uk/files/the-value-of-public-space.pdf

CABE document on the values of of public space. V interesting. Touches on economical issues, values of public space in terms of health and mental well being, values from biodiversity and nature, moving between public space etc etc. . . 

The Photographers' Gallery
17th February 2010
Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2010

http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbag/dispatch/en/kir/gdb_navigation/about_us/30_Art_Collection/25_photography_prize

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, who has made the most significant contribution, in exhibition or publication format, to the medium of photography over the previous year.'

I went to the photographers gallery to see the work of the four finalists; Zoe Leonard, Anna Fox, Sophie Ristelheuber and Donovan Wylie. I found looking at the work really interesting, i decided to look through the whole exhibition without reading any of the accompanying explanation/ commentary, so as to interpret the photographs as they are, with no preconceptions or expectations. And it was really refreshing. They were depressing, impending, bizarre, and very different from artist to artist. All seemed to demand attention and evoke a strong feeling. After having read the accompanying notes about the photographers and their chosen subject matter, i just felt the same reactions in a more comprehensible context.

The photographs which had the most dramatic effect, for me, were by Donovan Wylie. He exhibited a series of photographs of the Maze prison, which once housed both loyalist and republican prisoners in Ireland. I think he really conveyed a sense of weight with the photographs, I felt that the series was photographed in reflection to his own personal experience of the building and feelings about the building. There was a wall display of clippings and artefacts from a scrap book on the opposite wall to the photographs, which visually gave the exhibition more context and a vague explanation. It was clear from the scrap book clippings what the show was about, but the photographs had an eery mystery about them. I can clearly picture now the strong lines and use of perspective to direct the viewer to through the photograph, there was something very blunt about the images.

(http://blog.magnumphotos.com/images/wylie_LON83745_Comp.jpg)

V&A    Decode    8.2.10

I went to the V&A to see the Decode exhibition, i'd heard a lot about it before going, so my expectations were high. I was not disappointed, I thought it was awesome. The exhibition was based digital and interactive design, works featured were mostly existing although a few were created especially for the exhibition. One thing that I really liked about the exhibition was that it was fun for everyone, you don't have to be into art or design specifically to enjoy the exhibition.  

"The exhibition explores three themes: Code presents pieces that use computer code to create new works and looks at how code can be programmed to create constantly fluid and ever-changing works.Interactivity looks at works that are directly influenced by the viewer. Visitors will be invited to interact with and contribute to the development of the exhibits. Network focuses on works that comment on and utilise the digital traces left behind by everyday communications and looks at how advanced technologies and the internet have enabled new types of social interaction and mediums of self-expression."

http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/decode/

Outside in the John Madejski garden there were a series of small screens in the water as you approach the screens you see yourself digitally reflected on the various screens, the reflections are then reflected again into the water, it's strangely calming and sombre feeling.   

I followed two little girls around the exhibition and they loved it, it was good for  me to see how responsive the interactive peices were, because they got really in to it. very good, loved it.

V&A Decode generative identity from postspectacular on Vimeo.

The Unilever Series: How It Is

Miroslaw Balka

6.2.10

"The latest commission in The Unilever Series How It Is by Polish artist Miroslaw Balka is a giant grey steel structure with a vast dark chamber, which in construction reflects the surrounding architecture - almost as if the interior space of the Turbine Hall has been turned inside out. Hovering somewhere between sculpture and architecture, on 2 metre stilts, it stands 13 metres high and 30 metres long. Visitors can walk underneath it, listening to the echoing sound of footsteps on steel, or enter via a ramp into a pitch black interior, creating a sense of unease.

Underlying this chamber is a number of allusions to recent Polish history – the ramp at the entrance to the Ghetto in Warsaw, or the trucks which took Jews away to the camps of Treblinka or Auschwitz, for example. By entering the dark space, visitors place considerable trust in the organisation, something that could also be seen in relation to the recent risks often taken by immigrants travelling. Balka intends to provide an experience for visitors which is both personal and collective, creating a range of sensory and emotional experiences through sound, contrasting light and shade, individual experience and awareness of others, perhaps provoking feelings of apprehension, excitement or intrigue."

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unilevermiroslawbalka/default.shtm

VAN DOESBURG & the international avant garde

Constructing a new world

Tate modern 6th February 2010

I went to the tate modern today to check out the new Van Doesburg exhibition, which is running until May. It was fantastic. The range of design genre he dipped into during his career was phenomonal and cutting edge for the era. he originally trained briefly as a singer/ actor until he decided to be a painter and then gradually through his career became interested in typography, design and architecture. Theo van Doesburg was born as Christian Emil Marie Küpper in 1883 in Uttrecht, and his early paintings were reminiscent in style and subject matter to the Amsterdam Impressionists. In 1913 Van Doesburg was heavily influenced by Wassily Kandinsky, after reading his book 'Rückblicke', and began to experiment with abstraction.

"Like kandinsky, he saw abstraction as directly embodying the spiritual qualities that he believed to be fundamental to all works of art. It could be means of expressing the artists inner emotions, or of representing the mystical forces underlying the visible world, reflecting the doctrine known as theosophy."

(Gladys Fabre)

During Van Doesburgs two year service to the army in 1915, he came into contact with the work of Piet Mondrian. The complete abstraction of reality portrayed in Mondrian's work appealed to van Doesburg and he contacted Mondrian. Together with other artists Bart van der Leck, Anthony Kok, Vilmos Huszar and J J P Oud, he and Mondrian founded the magazine De Stijl. De Stijl, as a magazine and a movement, was a major element in Van Doesburgs life and featured broadly in this exhibition. The paintings were predominantly large canvases of vertical and horizontal grids with blocks of solid primary colour, although Mondrian often strayed from the restricted palette of primary colours. The paintings originally were based on a physical object or form, but evolved eventually into independent compositions of geometric grid and colour. I found the paintings bizarrely enchanting.

Theo van Doesburg: Counter composition VI 1925

In 1919 Van Doesburg created a new type face which i recognised instantly; It is created in line with the De Stijl movement of straight lines with no curves in squares and blocks, with capitals used where necessary, to keep the uniform shape. It was fascinating to see how this was developed and to understand the reasoning behind it. Van Doesburg felt a unity between his De Stijl movement and the Dada movement in the early 20's, there was a whole room dedicated to this during the exhibition, which i found really interesting. I was introduced to the ideals of Dadaism in my foundation year in Norwich where I had a fantastic lecture on it, however I have never properly looked into it, so it was interesting to see a portion of the exhibition focused on Dada.

Theo van Doesburg/ Cornelus van Eesteren: Perspective with final colour design, shopping arcade with bar restaurant, Laan van Meerdervoort, The hague 1924.

Van Doesburg's major inputs into the design and architecture world where during the period between 1923 - 1930. He met architect Cornelis Van Eesteren in 1922 and collaberated with him in creating a series of architectural models based on the idea of planes floating in space using black and white and the primary colours. The ideas behing De Stijl architecture and design influenced, Rietveld, Oud, De Marle, Gorin and Eileen Gray. the major project displayed in the exhibition was the Aubette building in Strasbourg. This was redeveloped in partnership with Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp into a Cafe, restaurant, Ballroom and Cinema complex. the new aethetic he created with this design he termed Elementarism. Displayed along with the ork in this room was a fantastic quote from van Doesburg:

"The point is to situate man within painting, rather than in front of it . . . Man does not live in the construction but in the atmosphere generated by the surfaces."

Burgess Park

05/02/10

I went to Burgess park to pick up a management report in order to inform a written part to my course in which you have to choose a medium scale landscape and write an in depth study of it's management. I thought Burgess park would be an interesting site to look at due to the amount of redevelopment planned in the area. The Aylesbury Estate, (opposite the park, on the Northern perimeter) has been due for redevelopment for some time and is due to be taken down in stages and rebuilt over the next fifteen years. What is proposed to be the new main entrance to the park which is located along the northern perimeter, linking the estate and the park, is nearing completion in it's new design as a very playful landscape (see previous blog). And of course the park itself has been awarded £6 million pounds of government funding for a redevelopment which LDA Design won the bidding for in November last year. The park is a strange mixture of modern (new sports pitches and community sports centre designed by Studio E Architects, which was awarded as a finalist LGC & HSJ sustainable communities award) and old ( Eg. Chumleigh Gardens, a group of  female almshouses built in 1921, now grade II listed buildings), the mix match feel of the park is consolidated by a hitch hatch almost grid of dis-used and still used roads. The majority of these roads lead into the park and stop abruptly, the condition of them is very bad and they give the park a vaguely derelict asthetic. There are problems in the park relating to dog fighting and training fighting dogs, which mean a lot of the trees are damaged. other than that the park is mainly open green space which provides enough room to hold events and festivals in the summer. The main path leading through the park follows the route of the Grand Surrey Canal, with reminders along the way such as a remaining bridge and an old lime kiln used when the area was at it's industrial peak and the canal was in working order. The canal was finally closed in 1970. The park was created under the Abercrombie plan, for the creation of green spaces after the war, the plan to create burgess park was conceived in 1943, many houses destroyed by the air raids in the war were torn down along with many untouched houses, which is why today we can still see the scars of that infrastructure left on the landscape of the park. I Can't say I found the park very pleasent to walk around, however green space is always better than no green space and I look forward to the new Burgess park by LDA Design.

Panoramic view of Burgess park from the new entrance.

New entrance to Burgess Park.

Friday 5th February 2010

The new entrance for Burgess park is intended to link up the soon to be redeveloped park and the also soon to be redeveloped Aylesbury Estate. I was taken on a tour of the site on the 14th January by Richard Peckam, so to see how the site has taken shape over the past month was really interesting. The turf has now been laid so the form of the site now is a beautifully undulating green landscape with play equipment and access paths tucked neatly between and amongst the mounds and dips. It was really nice to see some change finally to an area which has been promised redevelopment for a while. It was good to see how a construction site developes and also put a time scale to it. The last time i visited the site the form of the mounds was there but the turf had not been laid, there was a lack of furniture and a fencing the first time round which was present this time. It looks very close to finish now and i really like the finished effect. 

Photos i took peering through the fence at the site.

The National Portrait Gallery

31st January 2010 

Had a wonder around the National Portrait Gallery, through the gallery displays. One of the displays I found interesting was the "Twiggy: A life in photographs". It was interesting to see the style changing with Twiggy's age. She was so iconic as a model and the images in the show were iconic  in representing the times as well as the person. Other gallery displays at the time i visited included; John Gibbons: Portraits, Chasing mirrors, Jane Bown, Format Photography Agency 1983-2002, Salome: Oscar Wilde and Maud Allan.

January  2010

Interesting short video by the BBC, describing the difficulties of building the city around St. Pauls cathedral and the development of the city since the ideas of Lord Abercrombie.

David Adjaye

In march the design museum are hosting an exhibition based on David Adjaye's study of urbanism in Africa. I'm really excited about it, having previously traveled in Africa, and I also find his work and his design ethic interesting. 

"This detailed survey will reveal a unique snapshot of life in Africa today, documenting the nature of urban life in a developing country, a unique geo-cultural survey profiling the African city in a global context."

(http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/2010/urban-africa-a-photographic-journey-by-david-adjaye)

His design for a bus shelter featured in a previous exhibition at the design museum last summer (video below)

Monday 18th january 2010

Lecture by Kate Digney;

Whitelaw Turkington

As part of the 'Detail' project we are working on at the moment (The brief is to study a Landscape project which has a particular detail which represents the identity of the overall site, and detail the project, in the classic sense but also in a more creative way. The idea is to make the details more easily readable and interesting) there are a series of lectures organised by the landscape department, by professionals in the field of Landscape Architecture. Several of these have been very interesting and helpful. In partic

ular I found the lecture from Kate Digney (who works as a senior landscape architect for Whitelaw Turkington) very inspiring and interesting. I have studied two projects run by Whitelaw Turkington in previous written assignments, so it was very interesting to hear about the projects from the point of view of someone who potentially had a design input to them. One of these projects was Gillett Square in Dalston, which I studied and critiqued for a written project last year; it was interesting because some of the criticism I had for the project was considered during the design stage but, when it came to the final stages of the project it wasn't included for money reasons (for example). 

Another thing I took away from the talk was the idea that initial design intentions and concepts that are held by the architects for a project are sometimes lost in translation. This was picked up on when we were shown the design of the shared space created in Ashford with Elwick Square at the centre of the development. The design of the paving was based on leather templates and patterns laid on top of one another which formed a jagged pattern with different styles of paving in different colours interlocking. This was based on the areas past as a leather works. The paving is very bold and geometric, I think you would either love or hate it, but not necessarily relate the pattern to the past of the area unless you were told. 

 I especially thought about the way a concept can sometimes be misrepresented or lost in a design when Kate was talking about the concept behind Peninsula Square. (which was another project I have studied, in first year) She said the concept was based on the fissuring of stone and the areas industrial past, when I was looking into the project I read very different ideas as to the concept behind the design. But I think that concepts can be watered down by different inputs along the way.

Gillett Square and Peninsula Square

http://www.wtlandscape.com/#

NLA

15th January 2010

"Our programme of exhibitions, events and publications brings together leading professionals in the public and private sector, politicians and the general public, to share knowledge and identify the challenges and opportunities of the capital's built environment."

I went to the NLA for a morning talk and a wonder around the exhibits which are there, amongst which is the fantastic model of central London by Pipers- 'International leaders in architectural model making'. It is a beautiful model and I always find it fascinating to see London from that perspective, on my flight to japan in the summer i noticed the city from above. It is so huge and such an iconic landscape. 

LINK to Pipers Architectural Models website

LINK to NLA website

Londons Natural Signatures NLA 

15/01/2009

I attended a breakfast talk at the NLA, the centre for London's built environment, which was called Londons natural signatures and was based on a study complied by Natural England. The two speakers; Alison Barnes from Natural England and William Filmer-Sankey from Alan Baxter & Associates, presented the report  which aims to reconnect Londoners with the underlying nature of the city and highlight the integrity of natural features to London’s local character. The aim is to highlight the nature of the city in order to create new natural identities  based on the geology, ecology and landforms of London.

" We wish to re establish a sense of connection to the fascinating range of landscapes that can be recognised beneath our towns and cities. By publishing Londons Natural Signatures , Natural England is looking to ensure that these landsvapes are more clearly reflected within the regeneration and renewal of the capital. Incorporating natural areas into the way our cities are designed can offer enormous benefits to people's quality of life, stimulating jobs, improving people's health, creating greater urban resiliance to climate change and reconnecting people with nature."

Helen Philips, Natural England's Chief Executive

One of the points which I found especially interesting was that the topography of London has not actually changed drastically over time, but knowledge of it has been supressed by the presence of the tube system. Also in the quote above: "enormous benefits to people's quality of life, stimulating jobs, improving people's health, creating greater urban resiliance to climate change and reconnecting people with nature." The use of nature and the environment to improve peoples quality of life is something i am very interested in, I am looking into Ecopsychology for my dissertation. One of the main ideas is to create a series of small green spaces in a grid accross London creating an overall greening rather than a single largescale project, using the smaller projects to connect the green space across the city.

 The city is split, in the report, into 22 zones of different landscape character types, which each have their own natural signature and through that a design clue is given. For example; Hampstead Ridge, Natural Signature - Mosaic of ancient woodland and scrub and acid grasslands along ridgetop summits with panoramic views. Therefore the design clue for this example is the creation of wild areas.

 Overall it was a really interesting and inspiring presentation. Although some one made an interesting point at the end, which was that London's history is of change, and to try to stop that is almost contradicting the idea itself.

The full Report

Site tour of the new entrance to Burgess Park 

14th january 2010

The new entrance for Burgess park is intended to link up the soon to be redeveloped park and the also soon to be redeveloped Aylesbury Estate. The entrance is along the northern edge of the park and is in line with Chumleigh Gardens, the only remaining buildings in Burgess Park which was once a hub of industrial and residential infrastructure with important transport links. The design of the area was based on being a playful landscape and involves triangular segments of land with the pathways running through them, which are shaped as mounds or troughs alternatively. There is a playground in the area which fits into the undulating landscape. I went with a small group of students to visit the site, which is in its final stages of construction. Richard Peckam, from Shape Landscape Architects, gave us a tour of the site focusing especially on the detailing and what has to be specified where. It was fascinating to see the site at this point and to realise the exact amount of detail which is required in drawing for construction. There were a few aspects around the site which Richard pointed out as being things which weren't quite to his liking, or not what he'd imagined, which he then went on to explain that the detailing for that piece was not detailed enough or slightly wrong etc. 

  Walking around the site also made me realise how much the client or the brief dictates some of the design, for example, there was a need for vehicular access through the site, which had to be accommodated for. Another example of this would be the fact that the playground had to be dog-proof, so fenced off, therefore creating a harsh boundary, which was delt with is an interesting and asthetically pleasing way in this case. Part of the boundary was taken up by a custom built high backed bench, which was shaped in such a way that you could site on both sides of the boundary.

 I was suprised by the amount of work and detailing which has to go into absolutely everything on the site, and it was very interesting to hear from someone who was working on the project what he thought had gone well and vice versa.

Photos of the site, showing how the newley created contours provide an area for play. Also showing the double sided dog proof bench.  

LINK to Shape Landscape Architects website

14/01/10

"The Co-op, UK

•  
•  

BrightFarm Systems is part of the winning team chosen to develop a master plan for the redevelopment of an eight-hectare site in central Manchester, United Kingdom. Our design team was chosen by global engineering firm Arup to develop carbon neutral, local food production systems."

http://brightfarmsystems.com/projects/the-co-op-uk

Brightfarm systems are involved in several interesting projects based around urban agriculture and other design solutions to environmental and sustainability issues. One project that they have built, which interests me particularly is The  Science Barge, located on the Hudson river New York. It is a barge which demonstrates systems which can be used to create an entirely sustainable food production using renewable energy, to the public. The designer of the barge itself was Ted Caplow, who is the executive director of New York Sun Works Centre for Sustainable Engineering.

http://brightfarmsystems.com/projects/nysw-usa

Video prepared by Arup (global engineering company). Showing the transformation of a city (Manchester) into a system using rooftop food production, smart bus systems and turning buildings into photovoltaic and algae generators.