Focus: Free lecture series

On Friday evening I attented a lecture at Birkbeck University, part of a free lecture series for Spring 09 encompassing all freshwater habitat issues in the UK. This particular lecture was presented by Paul Raven, Head of conservation and Ecology at the Environment Agency in Bristol and entitled 'Getting on with the job: taking practical action for freshwater ecology and conservation'.

The lecture itself could have been extremely dull, but the speaker flew through the Agency info at the start to get to the 'interesting bits' as he calls it. Some of the facts were in fact quite interesting, what the Agency's budget is spent on, top environmental pressures (nitrates, invasive alien species, water asbtraction etc) drivers (EU Biodiversity Strategy 2010, Improving conditions of SSSI's, Climate change adaptation etc) and blueprints & plans for investors and the general public to see how their money is spent.

Client of Environment Agency

There were some interesting examples of work carried out by the Environment Agency, the science behind what they do is a mammoth task: a fair amount of it was bordering on gobbeldegook to me.......Some examples were:

Iron-oxides removed from minewaters in Gwenffrwd, Wales. Dissolved and recovered in early 1990's.

Sheep dipping in Wales: Agency workers had to walk the length of rivers to understand why levels of macro-invertibrates were so low.

Barton Broads-manipulation: Dredging sediment and the science behind it. http://www.ukcpi.org/educ/broadsauthority.html

Barton Broads Picture courtesy of http://www.ukcpi.org/

Flood defences - Calvert of the River Ravensbourne in Lewisham

River Ravensbourne courtesy of http://www.beckenhamplaceparkfriends.org.uk/

The Jubilee River in Maidenhead - flood relief channel creating a new recreational resource with approximately 1000 visitors per week. http://www.maidenhead.net/information/flood.html

The Great Fen - re-instating wetlands, Won £10m Lottery Fund, National Trust. http://www.greatfen.org.uk/index.php

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) http://www.ciria.org.uk/suds/

And non-native invasive species of plants.........

Japanese Knotweed Courtesy of http://www.lincolntown.org/

A lovely little story that did come up was about improving economic resilience, or maybe it was ecologic, but an example somewhere was putting up barn owl boxes, which found new owners very quickly - see below. The management regime of the area in question changed and so was managed better.

Barn owls courtesy of www.bioweb.uncc.edu

The Phoenix Garden

Today I thought I would spend a little bit of time in the most peaceful urban community park I know and love - The Phoenix Garden.

Situated just off the madness of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road, and overlooked by St. Giles-in-the-Fields parish church, it is a wonderful little haven of seasonal blooms, butterflies and bees and friendly gardeners.

The garden is managed privately by volunteers as a community garden so it's not in itself a 'public' park but is open to everyone, with 4 simple rules: No Drugs, No alcohol, No dogs and No bikes. One of the gardners said it's been there since the early 80's, 1984 to be exact, and was built on the site of a car park. It it the last surviving of Covent Garden's original 7 community gardens and is leased from the London Borough of Camden for a 'peppercorn' rent. [In legal terminology, a peppercorn is a very small payment, used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercorn_(legal)]

There are many species of birds passing through the garden, as well as central London's largest population of common frogs (probably) and various other little insects and invertebrates. The head gardner Chris is very proud of their habitat creation in the garden and so they should be. Londoners should be far more focussed in habitat-creation when designing terraces, balconies and roof gardens. In February 2008 the GLA issued a technical report on living roofs in the capital so there is hopeful support. Urban honey is supposedly much more tasty than country honey because of the concentration of various flowers....but thats a whole other honey pot....

The Phoenix Garden has a great little website, with some really interesting historical information [and photos and maps] about the site and vicinity dating right back to the 12th Century! http://www.thephoenixgarden.ik.com

They organise various events throughout the year including 'grow your own' - seasonal planting workshops and various other little quirky tea parties etc....and more importantly volunteer days to help out. [See their website for more info.]

It really is an inspiration to see a place that has literally grown out of the rubble, bring so much hope and happiness to the neighbourhood residents, workers and passers through...reading the comments page on the site is enough.

Kastrup Sea Bath

This beautiful structure is found on Kastrup Strandpark, Kastrup, and is free and open to the public to use.

It has a long wooden pier leading up to the circular building elevated above the sea surface, and ends in a 5m diving platform. There is also an annex with a dressingroom and showers, all accessible for everyone, disabled included.

The Bath is a sculptural dynamic form seen from the beach, the sea and the air. Its silhouette changes as the beholder moves around it. The circular shape creates an interior sheltering the users from any winds, and also concentrates the sun. It opens up towards the beach connecting and inviting visitors inside. There is additional rest and leisure space with a continuous bench running along the pier. Just gorgeous....

The main materials used are Azobé wood, known for its durability in sea water. It stands about a meter out of the water, and consists of 870 m² wooden deck, 70 m² changing facilities and 90 m² service building on land. There are also galvanised iron railings, better than alternatives but not sure how long these hold up against the oxidising sea air. Perhaps wood would have been a better choice.

Lighting for this structure brings a new dynamic at night, emphasizing the sculptural architectural design.

Two lines of LED spotlights run along the pier, leading into the most important lighting element - a series of large uplights lighting the interior side of the semicircular wall. Light reflection from these walls then indirectly lights the whole basin space and its dynamic shape can be seen from the surroundings.

As the light reflecting wall reaches its crescendo, there is a dramatic contrast of blue light coming from behind the open staircase and diving platforms.

Everything about this sea bath is great....its material quality, the obvious sculpural shape and protection it provides, and of course that it's free to the public, but another fantastic point is its availability and use for everyone, young and old, able and disabled, and it's design allowing for playful peaceful day or evening swims or maybe a morning intense exercise.

All photos and plans courtesy of http://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl and http://www.archdaily.com/2899/kastrup-sea-bath-white-arkitekter-ab/

The trolley hotline

An article I came across this week in the papers...its quite relevant in some way to our re:visit to the Wey and Arun Canal - pollution. Granted this type of pollution is more of an urban canal problem, and since I am focussing my self directed study next week along the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal, I know it to be something of a problem here. In fact just the other day I cycled past a scooter in the canal. Damn!

Ladbroke Grove Sainsbury's has recently put up bollards at the canal entrance/exit which if you have a bicycle is frustrating to get in and out but if it saves another dump in the canal then great.

So the trolley issue has now led British Waterways to set up a trolley hotline, members of the public can log into: www.britishwaterways.co.uk/trolley and let them know where they've seen a canal trolley or otherwise call them.

It's an estimated £150, 000 cost, fishing out approximately 3000 trolleys a year from canals. British Waterways conducted a survey and asked 1991 people what they thought, with 86% of them saying that the 320 supermarkets near the UK's canals should be more responsible for removing the trolleys and also be implementing more measures to keep this from happening.

The article can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/7907013.stm

Asphalt Spot by R&Sie Architects

This is another inspirational project from R&Sie Architects featured in the 'Urban Witch' article below. Their architecture often appears to have emerged from the landscape, consisting of forms that appear to drift or which mutate and clone elements found nearby.

It is an outdoor exhibition space inside a sloped, twisted carpark, that rises and dips and leaves cars under the tarmac exposed.....it's an art piece in itself.

Completed in 2003, Asphalt Spot was part of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2003 – a cultural festival that saw 157 artists and architects from 23 countries produce 224 artworks in the Shinano Basin of Niigata Prefecture.

It was commissioned by the Art Front Gallery in the nearby town of Tokamashi as an exhibition venue with integrated visitor facilities and 20 parking places. Along with the parking, it has 300m2 of exhibition space and also public facilities.

The underside is punctuated by a forest of leaning concrete columns that hold up the car park above, and along with the ceiling have been covered in canvas sleeves. The building straddles a steep incline between a road and the lower-lying fields, creating a new topography linking the two levels. The undulating surface is even criss-crossed by fences similar to those used to divide fields.

The area is one of Japan's main rice-producing areas and has suffered increasing de-population in the last few years, and this triennal was intended to attract visitors to the region.

http://www.new-territories.com/asphalt%20spot%20realized.htm

Photos courtesy of http://www.dezeen.com

White witch in Paris

This is a brilliant article I have recently come across about a Parisian ‘urban witch’ who feeds her living house with a drop-by-drop hydroponics system through 300 glass-blown pods, which collect rainwater for irrigation.

A potion of rainwater and plant nutrients nourishes the 1200 ferns drop-by-drop throughout the year. The houseplants are entirely hydroponic, and completely engulfing the 1400 square foot concrete home. The blanket of ferns protect the house from outside elements and regulate its inside temperature, with added insulation coming from high density PU foam layers sprayed and covered by geo-textile, all the while adding life and freshness to the neighbourhood.

I did wonder why the architects built the house out of concrete and not something more suited to the sustainable style of this amazing house. Some of the photos in the slideshow below are great - showing the tubes feeding from the house to the glass-pods, like some weird science experiement.

The architects R&Sie have an interesting website, with a few more details of the house and also gigantic spider’s nest they've built and conceptualized as well as an alchemist’s greenhouse for experiementing with toxic plants. Have a look: http://www.new-territories.com/Defaut2.htm

I would love her as my neighbour....interesting cups of tea no doubt.

West London's own Living Wall

Our Focus weeks are designed for us to visit sites, take part in voluntary work, research design practice or attend seminars or lectures, all in aid of furthering our personal direction within the course, and also in our futures of landscape architecture.

I started off visiting the new living wall at Westfiled Shopping Centre in Shepherd's Bush. This got me really excited! I really am a sucker for a green wall or roof.....

The wall is formed like a wave, gently flowing its way down along the path. At it's base is a water feature of layered granite, with flush lighting creating a lovely atmosphere at night.

I have been reading Jan Gehl's Life Between Buildings and actually just got to the seating part in the book. Jan talks about how people do not like to sit in public with their backs exposed, and how built-in seating or areas that were non-designed sometimes are the best design. Applying this to the wall and fountains, I do think the Landscape Architects EDAW had this in mind as the base of the water feature makes for perfect seating, and while it weaves it's way down, the curves are enough to allow for a semi-private chat.

With regards to the planting, EDAW originally specified two-litre plants, then upgraded to 10 and 20 litre specimens to make it look better, with stock sourced from Tendercare and planted up all within a week of it's official opening by London mayor Boris Johnson.

I love it, I am jealous of it, I am so pleased it's close to my home. I will be there in summer!