Focus 1 - Teach-In: 2012 Imperative - Day 2 Workshops

Day 2 of the Teach-in was an organised day of workshops at the participating universities and colleges. All of the students were to work together on various schemes and initiatives suggested by their tutors or themselves which will create awareness or change for their local community/ies in adapting to climate change.

The group I worked in looked at creating a community supported vertical urban farm. We had a lot of good input from various Kingston tutors who joined the workshop, as well as sustainability rep's and also local residents who are involved in various schemes in and around Kingston.

Below is a flow chart I created with the help of a group member, which using the context of the a south facing building of our campus - Knight's Park - describes the processes involved in creatinf this vertical farm, supported by students and supplying produce to the canteen.

The Brixton Pound

Transition Town Brixton is one of the most successful community-led initiatives seeking to raise local awareness of Climate Change and Peak Oil. They propose that it's better to design that change, reduce impacts & make it beneficial than wait to be surprised by it. As is the template for all Transition Towns, they vision a better low energy/carbon future for Brixton. A Brixton Energy Descent Action Plan is being designed - the route-map to the future and the intentions are to make it happen.

A Transition Town considers the challenges of the future as opportunities to rethink the way we do everything, to reconnect with our planet and our community and to relocalise. Themed working groups are formed to vision and plan a transition to a better low energy future in food, health, work, culture etc. Localisation is key and will require that we rediscover many lost skills. TTBrixton aims to be inclusive, imaginative, practical and fun. And to build a local community that is more interconnected, resilient and self-reliant. http://www.site.transitiontownbrixton.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=53

Much to the Brixton community's excitement, on Thursday 17 September Transition Town Brixton launched the Brixton Pound. 800 people pledged to convert more than £12,000 into 'money that sticks to Brixton.' More than 70 businesses had signed up to accept B£s.

What I find interesting, is that quite a few people I know who live and work in Brixton, have been quite unaware of this new and exciting achievement. These are not people living with their heads in the ground, but involved, open-minded and aware 30-somethings, and while some have overheard younger neighbours speaking of this 'Brixton money' others have very little knowledge of what is happening on their doorsteps. Since I don't live in Brixton, I cannot speak of how the message has been spread. What I do know, is that thanks to my current educational position, I am exposed more to these sorts of movements, and as mentioned in a previous post, I am becoming actively involved in my own neighbourhood's Transition Town movement (http://ttkensaltokilburn.ning.com/) and will sure as hell make sure everyone knows about it!

See a video here about the Brixton Pound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brq1NY2tiWA&feature=player_embedded


+ Transition Town Brixton
+ The Brixton Pound

Focus 1 - Teach-In: 2012 Imperative

The first Focus Week of this year and we were invited to take part in a one day set of presentations by pretty influential folk, aimed at invoking changes in the way University and College curriculums adapt teachings to climate change, through ecological literacy.

It took place at the Lecture room at the V&A on Monday 12 October. Organised by Jody Boehnert (established EcoLabs in 2006 and also co-founded Transition town Brixton) the various presenters each had some really interesting things to say, and an enthusiatic outlook in changing they way we and future students are taught.

I think the most important lesson to be learned from the day, was about changes happening from the bottom up. Curriculums and the issues surrounding changing these are swamped in beauracracy and red-tape......we cannot rely on governments to adapt at the speeds we need them to.

Below are some of the websites of associated peoples who spoke at the Teach-in:

+ Teach-in

+ Eco-labs

+ Climate Safety

+ New Economics Foundation

+ Doors of Perception

+ Tactical Technology Collective

Focus 1 - Serpentine Pavillion 2009

I visited the latest Serpentine Gallery Pavillion of 2009 before it closed on a gorgeous Autumn sunny day. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA Architects.

They describe their structure as: ‘The Pavilion is floating aluminium, drifting freely between the trees like smoke. The reflective canopy undulates across the site, expanding the park and sky. Its appearance changes according to the weather, allowing it to melt into the surroundings. It works as a field of activity with no walls, allowing uninterrupted view across the park and encouraging access from all sides. It is a sheltered extension of the park where people can read, relax and enjoy lovely summer days.’

I really liked its delicateness, the organic curves, and the reflective peacefulness of such a simple structure. I think I may have read some bad reviews when it first was constructed but as with everything, it's all a matter of personal choice.

+ Serpentine Pavillion

+ SANAA

Radical Nature

Went to Radical Nature at the Barbican on Sunday....I'd been seeing the posters up when I take the tube every now and then and thought it time I go and have a look before it finishes. I have to say it was such a let down, a real shame.

I remembers going to this exhibition space at the Barbican a few years ago to see the Future Cities exhibition and that was unbelievable. Some really exciting projects and models and a sense of real organisation. That was not the case with Radical Nature. First of all taking photographs was not allowed which I thought to be unquestionably stupid, especially considering there was nothing really original or amazing being exhibited.

While to some it may be considered art, and with all due respect to the artist, I thought Henrik Håkansson's Fallen Forest was a waste of space and good plants. They have been on display since June and seemingly struggling to stay alive. I don't think this could be a realistic template for vertical planting, it may make more sense to keep to planting that will gravitationally survive.

The hydroponic system in the centre of the room of Tomas Saraceno, entitled Flying Garden, I found interesting, nonetheless that the plants here too were pretty much on their last legs. It did remind me of a project I posted months back of the Parisian hydroponic Living Green house of R&Sie Architects for the white which (found here). I understand that this is an exhibition but I think in order to keep it a successful piece, it needs to be properly maintained since it is situated indoors. Just my opinion.

Aside from that, the others were really forgettable, some vegetable patches, a mirrored room for the inhabitat with a tiny garden. Upstairs there were some interesting projects from designers of yesteryear.

I loved the handdrawn images of Newton Fallis' Autopia (1978) and also Wolf Hilbertz's Autopia: Internalised Oceanic (1985). (A beautiful image can be found here)

Agnes Denes' Wheatfield and Tree Mountain were the most inspirational for me. In 1982, she carried out what has become one of the best-known environmental art projects when she planted a two-acre field of wheat in a vacant lot in downtown Manhattan. Titled, Wheatfield - A Confrontation, the artwork yielded 1,000 lbs. of wheat in the middle of New York City to comment on "human values and misplaced priorities". The harvested grain then traveled to 28 cities worldwide in "The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger" and was symbolically planted around the globe.

As part of Agnes Denes' Wheatfield exhibition, Paris-based experimental architects EXYZT re-created the Wheatfield on a smaller site with a very different backdrop, in part of an abandoned railway line at The Dalston Junction Eastern Curve. The Dalston Mill was also designed by the Parisian architects, as a temporary structure created in 2008 with Sara Muzio for the Architecture Foundation which was based around the idea of "a community of users actively creating and inhabiting their urban environment [as] key to generating a vibrant city". Both pieces in fact form a temporary functional ensemble and eventually the mill will be processing grains from the field when the wheat is ready to be harvested. More inforamtion about the Dalston Wheatfield and Mill can be found at http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2009/07/the-dalston-mill-wheatfield.php

+ The Barbican

+ EXYZT

Focus 1 - Community Involvement

Harnessing the skills and knowledge of residents of any area is vitally important to the overall success and community spirit of any area. This was a large part of learning for me in a technical and theoretical project for Dalston's Gillett Square in 2nd year's second semester.

I've recently come across an article which highlights ideas exchange and what they are calling Crowd Sourced Initiatives to create a more 'livable' New York City. It's basically a call by Obama's government for open-source programming and city governance to come together and start accepting the importance of working together rather than against or independantly of one another, in order the create better neighbourhoods.

This US initiative is about exchanging ideas and visualising space digitally, it shows that urban planning using crowd-sourced development, public data libraries, and web forums results in an idea exchange needed to make smart and case-specific decisions about the needs of a community. There are a few sites mentioned in the article worth looking at: http://connectingnyc.org/, http://openplans.org/ and http://www.oasisnyc.net/.

Here in the UK, our community-led regeneration initiatives and schemes are very similar, with the general consensus being that they are intelligent, efficient and sustainable. They incorporate knowledge, creativity and social capital. While bureaucracy has in the recent past, viewed these sort of initiatives as oppositional movements, and resulted in their decline, it is becoming more apparent that these schemes are incredibly important to the growth of every community. We are now seeing, especially in the wake of ecominic crises, community-led programmes such as Transition Town movements, with really positive results.

This year I plan to focus my attention and whatever spare time I may find, to get involved in my own neighbourhood's trnasition town movement - http://ttkensaltokilburn.ning.com/. The idea behind transition towns is about neighbourhoods and local communities becoming less oil dependent, localised and ultimately self-sustaining. This can include anything from community markets, skills sharing and lending green space for food growth. Watch this space!

+ inhabitat
+ oasisNYC
+ connectingNYC.org
+ the open planning project (TOPP)
+ transition towns
+ Kensal to Kilburn Transition Town

Back to Reality

Work Experience #2

The second spell of work experience was spent with Townshend Landscape Architects, in Old Street. A very different scenario from Vogt, although none the less a good learning experience.

The office is involved in various large and medium scale projects, UK based and abroad. My duties over the two weeks were to help each team in whatever was required, whether it be researching, putting together indesign presentations, or various CAD related jobs.

What I did appreciate about Townshend, is their design process, with much site and contextual analyses. I feel I was able to walk away and be much clearer of what is expected of me as a graduating landscape architect.

The only shame was that I didn't get to spend much time with various people in the office, nor ask as much as I'd wanted to - the workload for everyone was massive. Either way, a much appreciated experience.

+Townshend Landscape Architects