Green living

All things green and wonderful.....I'm loving French botanist Patrick Blanc. He gives life to walls and facades worldwide and has created some incredibly impressive work since around 1994. Have a look at his site - you'll understand the public interest and with so many projects on the go (Tenerife, NY, Germany, Kuwait to name a few...) he is definitely man of the moment....for me at least.

practice profile...

Landscape architects are busying themselves with work in and around the city, with very exciting projects happening elsewhere in the UK.

To build upon our growing awareness of the industry, we are investigating practices who's work we find inspirational and influential. With so many practices specialising in some awesome projects, the decision to chose one hasn't been an easy one.

I've been looking at the likes of Patel Taylor, and architect/landscape practice in east London, Mark Laurence, a garden designer/landscaper focussing a lot of his work in sustainability,and Martha Schwartz, a US landscape architect with offices in Massachusetts and London.

Of these three, Martha Schwartz Partners got my vote. The practice realises the ecological levels at which projects must be solved and so goes beyond each site's technical requirements to search for aesthetic solutions that in turn create value, a sense of identity, and determine the sustainability of a landscape.

MSP brings this balance between environmental practice and aesthetics to national and international projects ranging in scale and scope from public plazas, parks, master plans, urban redevelopment, reclamation, and mixed-use developments to art commissions and private residences.

Their website can be found at http://www.marthaschwartz.com/

Probably the most impressive UK project is the Grand Canal Square in Dublin Docklands. The design for “a major new public space, has been unveiled by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. At 10,000 sq metres, the Square, located at the west end of Grand Canal Dock facing on to the water, will be one of the largest paved public spaces in the city.”

An interesting project I've recently come across, a West Yorkshire community redevelopment scheme can be found at this link:

http://www.ety2004.co.uk/Wakefield%202005/034-35.html

first sights...

so part of all things first sight, we visited Kew Gardens on Tuesday 30th October, and a walking tour around east London on Thursday 1st November.

I couldn't make Kew on the Tuesday so visited on the following weekend.....Thursday's east London experience was a good eye-opener for a west London girl who rarely makes it that side of town in daylight hours! We started off at The Barbican,The Centre had a long development period, only opening long after the surrounding Barbican Estate housing complex had been built. It is sited on an area which was badly bombed during WW11. I'd only been there once for the Future Cities Architecture exhibition so didn't take in much of the exterior which is beautifully ugly...




A good brisk walk through the city boys in their pinstripes...


...led us to 30 St Mary's axe,



Leaderhall, Lord Rogers' Lloyds building, industrial and sci-fi,



through to Liverpool st, Spitalfields,



the City Farm @ Spitalfields..



and finally conforming to my traditions of east London adventures, ending off with a Brick Lane salt beef beigel....mmm

testing testing....

blog post number one.....all for me, not you.