"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. 

Leo Villareal

Tuesday 5th January 2010

Leo Villareal (1967, Albuquerque, New Mexico) is an American artist living and working in New York City. His work combines LED lights and encoded computer programming to create illuminated displays. They are very cool and very beautiful, but worryingly transfixing. Especially 'multiverse' displayed at the  National Gallery of Art, washington, DC. :

"Multiverse, the largest and most complex light sculpture created by American artist Leo Villareal, may be seen and experienced by visitors as they pass through the Concourse walkway between the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art.Commissioned by the Gallery and on view until November 2009, the work features approximately 41,000 computer-programmed LED (light-emitting diode) nodes that run through channels along the entire 200-foot-long space. The development of this LED project began in 2005, and the installation created by Villareal specifically for this location began in September 2008."

(http://www.artknowledgenews.com/2009-10-10-01-04-24-national-gallery-of-art-acquires-leo-villareals-major-installation-multiverse.html)

Link to Leo Villareal's website with a video of 'Multiverse'

Barcelona

18th November 2009

Today we were completely free to do what we wanted, so we decided to dedicate the day to Gaudi. We started off at La Pedrera (Casa Milla) which translates as 'the stone quarry' and is a nick name given to the building by locals after it was built in 1910. the building was originally an apartment block, but now houses a museum of Gaudi's work in the vaulted attic, has a preserved apartment as part of the museum, and you can access the rooftop. This was stunning. Panoramic views across Barcelona's grid like town plan and towards Sagrada Familia would make it a stunning place to visit, however you are standing on a roof designed by Gaudi. I found it beautiful and peculiar, you almost feel like you are one some sort of ship, surrounded by chimneys ordered in height and undulating walls all finished with a smooth sandy colour, it is quite an experience. The museum below had succinct explanations about his design ethic, and reasoning, as well as what was going on in culture and politics around Gaudi's time. One of the things in the museum which I loved was a model explaining how Gaudi designed several of his pointed roof tops. It was a board with several chains hung in a circle and then linked at the bottom, it was then turned upside down over a mirror. so when you looked into the mirror the hanging chain were reflected to look like they were standing upright, and what you saw was a skeletal form of a Gaudi building. It also had examples of organic objects from nature which influenced his work. The apartment was so stylish and glamourous, even the kitchen had special little novelty features. My favorite pieces were the so over-the-top chandeliers and the fabrics used for curtains and linen. Everything about the building was unique and interesting, it seemed to have no hard straight lines or edges.

Above and Below: Casa Milla, Gaudi's apartment block

Below: The spectacular roof of Casa Milla and views over the city

We then walked towards La Sagrada Familia, stopping on the way for lunch. The Sagrada Familia is a fascinating building, hugely impressive on first sight, it towers and looms over the city, only the yellow cranes used in the ongoing construction of the building rival it in height. We approached La Sagrada Familia from the South West, the side of the Fachada de la Pasion. A Facade designed to represent the death, resurrection and passion of the Christ. The detail of the work is incredible. The building of the church was started in 1882 from a project by the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar at the end of 1883 Gaudi was commissioned to take over, he carried on working on La Sagrada Familia until he died in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea. The church is a expiatory church, which means that since it was first built it has been funded purely from donations. The building of La Sagrada Familia is still going on today, which is one of the things which made the visit so interesting. There are stone masons, sculptors, builders and architects at work inside the cathedral, so you can watch the construction as it is happening. The absolute precision and detail required is painstaking, there must be a lot of talent required for any of those jobs! After staring at the Passion Facade, we headed inside. I was absolutely blown away by the interior of La Sagrada Familia, the sheer scale is astounding, and the design is staggeringly beautiful. The pillar system is a forest of abstract trees, whose canopies interlock creating star shaped holes, which currently are open to the sky above. The pillars, or trunks of the trees are completely square at the base and evolve by the time they reach the ceiling into a perfect cylindrical form. Gaudi was Heavily influenced by nature and natural forms, using skeletal structures as a base to build from, the tree like pillars in La Sagrada Familiar are a perfect example, nature did not only influence his design, but also his engineering. Other things which he was influenced by include, his families history of working with their hands (as boilermakers) which gave him an understanding of craftmanship, and also the area in which he grew up the region of Tarragona. Gaudi used a lot of symbology within much of his work, wether it was naturalistic, medieval or religious. Some interesting quotes from gaudi regarding his own work: “I am a geometrician, that is to say, I synthesise”; “I calculate everything”; “in the execution of surfaces, geometry does not complicate but simplifies the construction”; and “for an architectural work to be beautiful, all its elements must be appropriate in situation, dimension, form and colour”.

He also said of Sagrada Familiar's status as an expiatory church: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people."

We then went up the towers of the opposite end to which we entered, which offered a brilliant view of the city and over the building work of the church. The Facade on this side of the church is the Nativity facade, and is dripping with detail, to the extent it is almost grotesque. You don't know what to look at first. I prefer the Nativity facade to the Passion; it seems more naive somehow, I think the Passion Facade feels more deliberate and straight forward.

Above: the exterior of the towers of La Sagrada Familia with the cranes. Below: The interior of La Sagrada Familia.

After our visit to la Sagrada Familia we headed over to the Arc de Triumf and Parc de la Ciutadella, where there were fantastic fountains pretty ponds and a huge fake mammoth that we climbed on. 

Barcelona 

Tuesday 17th November 2009

The aim for the morning was to meet in Parc Diagonal Mar at 11am, however me and a few others had a couple of navigational problems and ended up at the building site of  Zahar Hadid's Edifici Campus, it looks like a very interesting project, typically Hadid, with a spiraling tower to give off the best view at every window in the building.

 (Link to information on the Edifici Campus) 

We eventually made it to Parc Diagonal Mar, which was designed by EMBT a design team of Benedetta Tagliabue and Enrique Miralles. The park is very surreal at first glance; there are high undulating metal strips reminiscent of a roller-coaster with huge mosaic planters floating at impossible heights and a huge lake with including several different levels and fountains spraying onto and around the metal in the air. The park is divided into six main areas: the fountains, a “magic mountain” for children, a sports area, an amphitheater, a playground and a dog run. All the areas are grouped around the large lake. The park is a central feature of the new Diagonal mar district (the diagonal seafront district, as it lies between the end of Avinguda Diagonal and the sea) which features residential areas, hotels, a modern shopping complex, and the new Centre Internacional de Convencions (International Convention Centre). Unfortunately the park has faced heavy criticism for the lack of use of the park by local people. However I feel that whatever your personal opinion of the design of the park, it is without doubt a spectacle. My personal a opinion of the park is that, as I have said, it is a fantastically surreal and unusual design, however i am not a fan of the mosaic planters, and I think that the overhead metalwork seems a bit manic, it could have worked better over a resticted area maybe, or maybe there should be less of it. I can't quite decide what or why I don't like the metal, and am well aware that the manic feel to the structure is probably exactly what other people might find attractive about it, but it just didn't seem to work. The play areas within the park however were incredible; far more fun than most. They were so imaginative and played on the senses too, eg. you jump on  something and it makes a noise. The equipment was just higher bigger better than we seem to have in England, which made me question wether it was health and safety which is preventing anything like that being built here. We all had an awesome time playing like proper kids and then moved on to a more mellow area of the park. Here there were beautifully ergonomically designed benches, for us all to wind down on. The area seemed to be more popular and better used, there were a few people relaxing on benches with books/ computers etc. the form of the benches was a undulating concrete cast, so you could sit or lie. These were placed around a wide path with planting one side and lawn the other. A very relaxing area within the park.

Above: The 'roller-coaster' metal work over the park

Above: Unusual benches, the undulating concrete form as described above.

Above: some of the play equipment in the park

We then headed away from the park through the Diagonal Mar to the Parc del Auditoris, part of the forum used for the Second World Urban Forum 2004. The forum also included the Forum Building and Photovoltaic sculpture. The Forum Building  or Edifici Forum, was built from 2000-04, designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architects, and is a huge blue wedge in the landscape with mirror sections all along and underneath it, it is a fascinating building, but seems to be marooned in an empty disused space. the feeling of the whole area is slightly rundown and very underused, our group were the lone users of the space on the day we visited and it just felt completely deserted. Clearly designed with large events in mind you can't help but wonder wether the designers considered that there will be times when there is no event held in the space. The area was staggering in its scale and had beautiful directional paving towards a fantastic looking sail like structure which over looked the bay and port. However the over all feeling was that I wanted to move on, I didn't want to linger in what felt like an eerily big disused space in a severe state of disrepair. At a distance it was beautiful and it seems such a waste to let it go.

Above: At the venue for the International Forums of cultures 2004

After some lunch we met up again at Placa d' Espanya and walked up the hill towards the Museu nacional Art de Catalunya which is an extremely grand looking building. In front of the building is Font magica, a huge water fountain which wasn't working the day we visited, however on this same level is the Pavello Mies Van Der Rohe. A stunning pavilion made from marble and glass with clean simple lines and open space the fluidity and movement from exterior to interior is barely distinguishable. The pavilion was originally built in 1929 as the German pavilion for the World's fair, after which it was dismantled and moved only to be rescued and reconstructed in 1985. The structure is built around two shallow pools one of which features a statue by Georg Kolbe, the German sculptor known for his female nudes, an elegant contrast to the simplicity of the lines of the pavilion. I was taken by the quality of materials and the way they are displayed to perfection by the simple large and undisturbed areas of the walls. In particular the purple and orange slab of marble inside the pavilion is lovely. Inside is the original Barcelona Chair designed by van der Rohe and seen (mainly in reproduction form) throughout the city in reception areas.

Above: View from Placa d'Espanya of the Museu nacional Art deCatalunya.

Above and Below: Pavello Mies Van Der Rohe, the Kolbe sculpture and purple and orange marble wall

We then walked up the hill for miles and miles looking for a garden, but got entirely lost and eventually made our way to Castell de Montjuic, which had fantastic veiws over the city (if it hadn't been so hazy) From the other side of the castle looking over the docks the views were awesome- There was a layer of low cloud over the sea which cleared over the docks which were all lit up, the view from above all this was fairly spectacular.

Above: the view from Castello de Montjiuc over the docks to the sea.

Barcelona

16th November 2009

Arriving in Barcelona after a horrendously early start had me in a slightly confused daze. Arriving from freezing England, to get to Barcelona and change straight into a dress I last wore in Japan, also surprised me a bit; I was expecting mild sunny days, but this was hot. On the first day we had a wonder around our local area (from centric point hostel, located on Passeig de Gracia, very close to Plaza Catalunya and Las Ramblas) and down towards the water front, on the way we decided to sample our first Tapas of the holiday in a small restaurant behind a very colourful and interesting market - Marcat de la Boqueria. I had been aware of the planning of Barcelona in the past, however I hadn't realised how unique it feels even just walking around. The Eixample, by Ildefons Cerda, which translates from Catalan to extension, is part of the city designed in the 19th and 20th century, on which the rest of the city is based on. The design consists of a strict grid pattern with straight wide streets and square blocks of buildings with chamferred corners, called illes in Catalan. The octagonal shape of the buildings was intended to create wide spaces at intersections for better ventilation and open views of the city. The Eixample plan is world famous and is still being used as a guideline to ongoing extension workto the city. I felt instantly comfortable with Barcelona, It is very easy to navigate and the pace of life and friendliness of the people there, make it somewhere I felt very relaxed to be.

Above: a meat stall at Marcat de la Boqueria. Below: view of Barcelona demonstrating the famous Exiemple Plan

After heading back to the Hostel to regroup we headed back down Las Ramblas to Port Vell and round the Marina to the waterfront where we walked along the front of Barcelonetta, taking in the landscape and getting a feel for how the orientation of the city. We walked along the waterfront until we reached the famous Frank Gehry Fish, Where we split into small groups and headed our separate ways for some food.  One of the highlights of the walk was the lighting sculpture by Rebbecca Horn, a German born artist who uses sculpture, performance, spatial installations, film drawings and photographs in her work. The sculpture is called L’Estel Ferit - The wounded star, and was intended to represent a lighthouse in reference to the old fishing quarter of Barcelonetta. I was impressed by the sturdy presence of the sculpture, such a firm and solid looking object on a beach, a landscape that I see as a very transient ever changing place. This juxtaposition gives it an awkward charm. The lighting aspect of the sculpture was not working when I saw it, which is a shame, I can imagine it takes on a whole new aura all lit up at night.

Another interesting feature to our evening walk was the way in which the waterfront functions as a major social space, the openness of the beach and waterfront is used for bars, restaurants, playgrounds, fluidly connecting the city and the sea. Wide paved walkways and beautiful and simple street furniture compliment a very Mediterranean planting theme. The feeling along the waterfront is very laid back leisurely feel, everything in the landscape flows and compliments the stylish but laid back way of life people seem to lead in this city.

The spectacular fish sculpture towards the North Eastern end of the waterfront is something I loved about the walk; you can see it from along way away and the anticipation of seeing it sparkle in the sun from close is one of the things that kept me moving (after the draining 4am start!). The form of the sculpture is beautifully fluid and organic, and the material of shining copper brings a feeling of majesty. To my absolute horror my camera ran out of battery halfway along the beach, so i have no photos of the fish.

Frank Gehry: "It was by accident that I got into the fish image. My colleagues were starting to replay Greek temples. Y'know in the post-modern thing, I don't know, when was that... the 80s. That was hot, everybody was re-doing the past. I said, y'know, Greek temples are anthropomorphic. And three hundred million years before man was fish. If you wanna, if you gotta go back, if you're insecure about going forward, dammit, go back three hundred million years. Why are you stopping at the Greeks? So I started drawing fish in my sketchbook. and then I started to realize that there was something in it." 

Above: L’Estel Ferit by Rebecca Horn. Below: a view of the walkway along the seafront.

Marunouchi

Tokyo International Forum

30.06.2009

Visited the Tokyo international forum, the building itself is very impressive, by Rafael Vinoly Architects, who won the 1989 International Design Competition, which was the first international architectural competition in Japan. I really liked the Design, the main hall was huge and spacious, the steel beams supporting the roof give the building a skeletal feel. The exterior to the building was also interestingly designed. The plaza leads into the main building which houses two theatres, one of which is one of the largest in the world, over 6000 square metres of exhibition space, several conference rooms, restaurants and shops. The plaza is paved in granite with a large swathe as you walk towards the International Forum building which is paved in glass blocks and lit from underneath which change colour at intervals. The effect of the glass paving give the plaza an identity the minute you step into it, its a very cool effect. There are also trees dotted around the plaza in a way which you do not often see in the UK, seemingly random, but beautiful. And seating in unusual forms of blob- like sculptures imitating stones or actual stones/ rocks, placed sometimes in pattern with each other (eg. a circle surrounding a tree (bottom))  and sometimes alone. The effect of the placement of trees and objects in the plaza, is that the space seems to demand your attention, you can't simply walk straight through- you notice.

Tokyo International forum. By Architect Rafael Vinoly.

Tokyo International forum plaza.

The Micheal Jackson lit paving.

examples of the stones/ rocks and seating around the plaza.

Ivan Hicks

"A UK garden designer and landscape artist, Ivan is best known for his highly acclaimed imaginative, innovative designs, the most well known being the ''Enchanted Forest'' at Groombridge in Kent, and ''Garden in Mind'' in Hampshire."

During one of my projects I looked into surrealist garden design in order to create an 'enchanted forest' for a design. One of the people i came across was Ivan Hicks. He is a Landscape Architect/ Garden Artist who uses surrealism and mythical influences to inform his work. The reason he caught my attention is for his enchanted forest at Goombridge Place, in Kent. He has described his garden designs for the enchanted forest to have been influenced by the Harry Potter books  and JRR Tolkiens ring trilogy. He places objects in the garden and lets nature grow over and around them implying change and magic.

Link to Ivan Hicks website.

Michael Littlewood- Natural swimming pools

I was sent recently information about a new publication by landscape designer Michael Littlewood. His new publication is called 'Natural Swimming Pools, Converting the Conventional Pool' and is a supplement to 'A Guide for Building'. The information i was sent really inspired me to look into 'natural' swimming pools. They are really quite interesting; much more eco-friendly, relying upon plants to keep the pool clean where chemicals would in a conventional pool. After having looked into the pools it seems they are pools consisting of two levels; a deep level for swimming and a shallow shelf which has plants which are chosen specifically to purify the water. There is a small pump as there are in conventional pools to allow the removal of surface debri and to allow circulation of water through the pool.

'Natural swimming pools are a prime example of how we can harness nature’s intelligence efficiently. They completely eliminate the need for chemicals and constant cleaning as their biological self-cleansing processes are completely effective. Surplus nutrients and impurities, as well as harmful bacteria, are transformed by plants and natural water organisms.'

Images and quote above from Gartenart 'water design for the 21st century'.

It seems like the perfect answer to an eco-friendly swimming pool and it is beautiful and natural looking. Although often they are built to look very contemporary and sleek rather than pond like!

Link to Michael Littlewood's website.

13th April 2009

Aldeburgh Beach, Suffolk

I went to Aldeburgh over the Easter weekend and saw the 'Scallop' sculpture on the beach conceived by Maggie Hambling and built by local craftsmen Sam and Dennis Pegg. The sculpture was unveiled there on the 8th November 2003 and has caused controversy since. The sculpture was rejected by the people of Aldburgh where 800 people signed a petition for the sculpture to be moved from the beach, when it was first unveiled. It is still there now though which suggests the supporters are equally as passionate about it. Opposers say the sculpture is an eyesore that will attract vandalism and anti social behaviour. However it was hoped that the scallop would be East Anglias answer to the Angel of the North.

The sculpture was commissioned to celebrate the life of composer Benjamin Britton who lived in Aldburgh. He drew inspiration from the area, which is most apparent in his opera Peter Grimes- the "four seas interlude". The Quotation along the top of the scallop cut from the steel reads- 

"I hear those vioces that will not be drowned"

(From the Peter Grimes opera) It seems an appropriate and beautiful tribute to the composer in my opinion. I love the colour of the steel and the way it reflects the colour of the sea. The quote along the top is beautiful and thought provoking and the way the shell is disassembled and broken and yet such a strong shape standing out on the beach, is interesting.

Link to Maggie Hamblings website.