Geometries & Topologies

Last week we had a separate brief from the current design projects: to create as a group, two 60sec films demonstrating our given key words.

We met at the BFI on the Southbank, and our group was given an interesting topic for the location.

Geometry: the pure mathematics of points and lines and curves and surfaces

Topology: topographic study of a given place
Both definitions from the freedictionary.com

Film one was to be uncut, and played at the speed it was filmed.....First site was the skate park found under the Purcell Rooms. Unfortunately the film size is too large to upload but I will get onto resizing this for upload soon.

Film two was to demonstrate more, the key words given. It could be cut with sound and other media. We decided to take a walk along the Southbank from the BFI to the Tate Modern, recording images of all the geometries and related typologies along the route.

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.

2009 Design Projects Submission

Project pdf's have been uploaded to scribd.com. These are both submissions for May 2008/9.

The Wey & Arun Re:Visit is as the name suggests; we revisted the site a season and a semester later with a brief to either continue and compliment our first proposal, or create something new since seeing it with fresh eyes. My proposal compliments the first, looking at transition towns as precident and proposing a site that is self-sustaining for the local community, with productive woodlands, coppiced woodlands and wildflower meadows to provide fuel. The second proposal addresses more the continuity and the issues relating to regenerating this section of canal, as well as focussing on creating a biodiverse 'hotspot'.

Wey & Arun Re:Visit - http://www.scribd.com/doc/15685947/13Wey-Arun-ReVisit-Final-Presentation

The PLAY Module was a live project in Richmond - Hampton Hill Junior School. The caretaker's house attached to the school was redesigned to incorporate an Adult Learning Centre, and the small garden area between the junior school and ALC was to be redesigned for 2-5 year olds. The project uploaded below is a new submission since I was unhappy with the first proposal and wanted to better the mark from the first submission.

Play: Hampton Hill Junior School Garden Project - http://www.scribd.com/doc/15686671/30PlayResubmissionMay09

Streetlife: Technical & Theoretical Reports

Part of our landscape module is to write a technical & theoretical report about a landscape project in London. The aim is to help us to engage in research, investigation and critical appraisal to support the technical and theoretical elements of the project.

In the first semester I selected the landscape project at More London by Townshend Landscape Architects. In the second sememster, various east London regeneration projects were selected for us, mine being Gillett Square just off Kingsland High Road in Dalston.

I have uploaded my recent submissions to scribd.com and both can be found here:

More London (semester 1): http://www.scribd.com/doc/16214574/Parklife-Module-More-London-TechnicalTheoretical-Report

Gillett Square (semester 2): http://www.scribd.com/doc/15683450/StreetLife-ModuleGillett-SquareTechnicalTheoretical-Report

Urban agriculture for NY

Still in keeping with the Extended essay topic choice for 2009/10, I may consider Urban agriculture as an option. There is a lot of precedent of current day urban farms found in cities such as central London and Cuba as well as historical models of urban farms such as Machu Picchu. As well as these, there are future models for urban farming that might be a little out of this world for now, but could be changing our skylines in the not too distant future.

One of these is the latest concept design from Vincent Callebaut Architects - The Dragonfly. It has been designed with the intention of easing the ever-increasing need for ecological and environmental self-sufficiency in the urban cityscape. The proposed development, designed around the Southern bank of Roosevelt Island in New York, follows a vertical farm design which, it is hoped, would cultivate food, agriculture, farming and renewable energy in an urban setting.

While urban farming has been quite a trendy move for some urban dwellers, there is without a doubt that in boroughs belonging to cities like NYC, what little space is left is disappearing fast. So new growth must come vertically.

The Dragonfly spans 132 floors and 600 vertical meters, and accommodates 28 different agricultural fields for the production of fruit, vegetables, grains, meat and dairy. The concept scheme outlines that it's inhabitants are responsible for cultivation and along with a combination of solar and wind power, it becomes %100 self sufficient.

Offices, research labs, housing, and communal areas are interspersed between orchards, farms, and production rooms. Plant and animal farming is arranged throughout the Dragonfly’s steel and glass set of wings so as to maintain proper soil nutrient levels and reuse of biowaste.

More beautiful CGI imagery is on the architect's website: vincent callebaut architects

+images courtesy of inhabitat

Elements of a green Roof

They may be popular interventions of the 21st Century, but green roofs are in fact thousands of years old. The first recorded appearance of a green roof occurred in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon around 500 BC. The site is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

It was the Icelandics who came up with the original design, with constructed houses and sod ceilings and walls. With a lack of natural construction purposes, they made do with what resources were available. The ceilings were usually constructed of turf, but the walls were built up with stone and alternating strips of sod and turf. They realised the green roofs and walls provided extra insulation during weather extremes.

The 18th C Germans constructed green roofs as a sign of wealth and status. They were constructed on the manor houses and castles. The trend then spread across Europe in the 19th century and the first signs of green roofs in the United States occurred in the 20th century in New York City.

With that short introduction I attach an image courtesy of the American Wick Drain Corp showing the elements of Green roofing.

Extended Essay: Year 3 Dissertation

The summer probably wont be seeing too much of the word 'holiday'. At least not for me.

These coming months will see the preparations for the notorious Dissertation, or Extended Essay as Kingston is calling it, in an attempt to make it sound a little less scary.

I have a few topics in mind, all of which I believe will incite some enthusiasm, interest and most importantly motivation. ITs just chosing which one. I have my heart set on my 1st topic: Greening the Future: Living Walls & Green Roofs. The two others I proposed were: The importance of small/green spaces for urban inhabitants and Damage Control: The role of the landscape architect of the 21st Century.

As they all fit the required criteria of sustaining oneself whilst writing a dissertation, I think my interests lie chiefly in modern urban greening practices of living walls and green roofs.

My following articles over the next few months will find their focus here. I will be doing extensive research on the subject to get things going early.

The joys of being a nerd.

Future movements

The 4 week Easter break passed in a haze of 2 weeks mad work and 2 weeks lazing in the Mexican sun.

This break away from all things work and uni and more work, allowed me to cast my thoughts to which paths I might see myself following post graduation.

Year two has allowed me the opportunity to widen my vision of what a landscape architect could do. Particularly, the lectures I attended at eco build in March introduced to me some interesting professions. I am quite convinced at this stage that I would like to follow a horticultural and/or ecological path.....

The travels I have made to Madagascar over the last 3 years have enabled me to understand a little bit more about this incredible country and the ecological diversity it has managed to keep separate from the rest of the world for so many years. While there may be a lot of scientists and ecologists working and learning here, landscape architecture expertise is very much required here. There are various large scale mining projects taking place in the south east which are huge masterplanning projects as they are constructing new 'towns' almost, with 1000's of new homes for mine workers. As well as this, there is a huge agricultural farming issue all over the island: traditional practices of razing land to create farms which are killing fauna and flora, most importantly, the world's slowest growing tree - the baobab tree. (6 species of the world's 8 are found in Madagascar)

I found some writing online regarding the fires in Madagascar which was quite interesting -

http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/madagascar.htm

Once I have finished my Landscape architecture undergraduate degree, at this stage I feel I will be working outside the UK. There are some Landscape architects with good philosophies and practice that I would be interested working for, some in the UK and some based elsewhere, but at this stage, who knows.

Some of these practices are:

Grant Associates - Bath

Kinnear Landscape Architects - London

L.D.A - London, Oxford, Peterborough, Exeter

Field Operations - NYC

Gross Max - Edinburgh

Nicholas Pearson Associates - Bath, Tiverton

Hargreaves Associates - London, Cambridge, NYC, San Francisco

Other professional bodies:

Groundwork - UK based offices

Design for London - London

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew - London

Limestone caves - Tulum, Yucatan Province, Mexico

Wey & Arun Re:Visit

On Friday 6 March we re-visited the Wey & Arun site in Guildford. It was great to return at a different time of the year - the first visit was in October 2008 - and experience it at spring season.

The long grasses that obscured most of the views had been cut back, as were the stinging nettles, surprising most and leaving us with new ideas for revisiting the project and our initial design.

My major issues now, are focussing more on the realities in proposing a canal, the changes in water levels between Cranleigh waters on either side (approx 2-4ft rise and fall), including a lock to deal with the level change, and new proposals for biodiversity and habitat creation.

I 'd like to retain at least part of the productive woodland and coppiced woodland proposed before, but now that the understanding is that the canal is a wet corridor through a wet landscape, a wet productive woodland would be more suited. Doesn't really change the initial selection of foliage - they are all suitable for damp/wet conditions. The foraging aspect will also remain, with the potential to drive towards a sustainable community.

I suppose to sum the project up in a few words/sentences would be 'to create a recreational space with new opportunities for wildlife and habitat creation, whilst allowing the neighbouring community to define open spaces for their own interventions.'

My focus now and over the Easter break is defining what type of edges for the canal, with major consideration to vegetation and bio-engineering, flood prevention using basins and ponds with specific intentions for habitat creation and possible integration of water filtration systems (since the canal will link up with a navigable river). I will carry over elements from the first semester project to compliment the new proposals. Wheeewww.

Some pics of the return to the Wey and Arun below...

Year 1 Portfolio

My year one portfolio is too large to embed in the blog so can be found at this link:

http://www.scribd.com/full/13240846?access_key=key-td711ckcz42p5sxo6at

Hampton Hill Junior School

Since I am on the pdf upload....below is a proposal for Hampton Hill Junior School's old caretaker's garden. No the caretaker's not old. It's the garden belonging to the house of the ex-caretaker.

Hampton Hill Junior School Client Presentation

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Presentations Academic Work

The whole document with analysis and precident can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/full/13246185?access_key=key-vxlqs1aw3wt8bmo130y

Year 2: Semester 1 Project: Wey+Arun Canal Regeneration

So its taken me ages to get onto uploading pdf's onto blogger. I've found a site called scribd.com where one can upload and then embed the pdf.

The document is too large to embed into the blog so can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/full/13241096?access_key=key-r9m8i6wnrzpwzjp5vz2

Tavistock Road Garden Project

July 2006

My partner in crime (!) bought a gorgeous basement apartment in Westbourne Park who's garden had sadly suffered the concrete finger.....With a nasty oversized fountain right in the middle which did absolutely nothing for the space. So £300 post E-bay sale and some new soil and grass......I got stuck in. On the rainiest bank holiday weekend possible.

Over a year on and the garden is amazing. We learn as we go by. Sadly the grass doesn't have enough drainage so we will probably dig it up in the next few weeks and re-lay it. And since removing the 2 fir trees and a very large overhanging Eucalyptus, the surrounding plants are growing beautifully.

And the friendly red-breasted robin seems to agree.

Watermans park

For my final project for year 1, I have proposed a Compact wetland for Brentford's Waterman's Park. Some images below show my final work:

Land Use & Transport Analysis

Traffic Movement

Area Emotion Map

Site Parts Plan

Biome Cross Section

Proposed Greywater Catchment Area

Long Section

Site Masterplan

Site Montage

landscape and me

it's always on my mind.....a short film as part of our study skills module.



...2 of the final images are psycadelically enhanced....unexpectedly. reposting after this.

Kingston Gateway - 1st project semester 1

Our first project in the course - to design a gateway for one of three sites within Kingston, the station, Kingston bridge or College roundabout.

My proposal was to enlarge the existing roundabout and create an area for people to stroll around the small central pond or lay under the trees planted on the banks. Around the edge is a photovoltaic ring, there to generate enough power to light the central installation. This installation is poropsed to be constructed from ageing recycled watermain pipes which, strategically postioned and viewed from a certain point encircling the roundabout, make out the letter 'K'. Lit from inside and powered with the green voltaic energy, they diffuse a twinkling light through the degraded and holey surface.

Here is a short quicktime animation of my proposal for the roundabout, constructed in 3ds max. Malibu comes to Kingston.

Dancing kitty

Animation in Photoshop??......Yep, interesting.....

Stop frame animation. I've attempted a really basic little quicktime, of our gorgeous kitten as the subject matter. Very short, very silly, and I am afraid not very good.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Leia....dancing princess.

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