Focus 4 - Dalston Print Club

Went to a crazy exhibition put on by The Dalston Print Club in a damp, dark subterranean bunker-type space just off Dalston High street. There were a couple of eerie projections of shadow-like kids playing with leaves if I can remember......another room with a spiders web covered in lights....a harpist lit by candlelight....and lots of bodies moving about in the dark. The last room was lit by UV with a table tennis table lit with neon tape and matching neon bats....dim fondling of balls with a bunch of strangers.

The second part of the exhibit was at another spot around the corner...above ground....also lit by UV but this time a series of screen prints by local artists all influenced by the patterns and shapes of the various ethnicities found in the Dalston area.

+ Dalston Print Club

Focus 4 - ROA

ROA is an artist from Belgium who's recently been painting in his distinctive sketchy black and white style, huge urban wildlife all over the east ends........

Pure Evil Gallery in Old Street has just held his first exhibition of works....painted on random pieces of metal and wood, ROA's collection is quite beautiful and gritty. Old locker doors are closed and painted with giant rabbits or foxes, and when the doors are opened, the animals internal organs are on display.........brilliant.

New street pieces are popping up on 'abandoned' walls every week. Keep an eye out for that giant bunny...

+ Pure Evil

Focus 3 - The Day the Olympics came to Town

I watched this program on BBC's Inside Out programme, about London's preparations for the 2012 Olympics.

They approached creative directors from a few of the capital's top advertising agencies to discuss promotion of the games using London's iconic buildings and landmarks. Some ideas of the brainstorming sessions looked at including four more London Eye's to make five rings......

Or projections onto some of our cities best known structures......

Londoner's are also per household, apparently spending £200 over the next couple of years to help pay for the Games, and thanks to the Olympic family, (advertisers, etc) there will only be 16,000 tickets available for everyone else. And Londoner's receive no preference over someone from Estonia or Italy. Since we are hosting the games, we invite the world. This is understandable, but why should so many millions of seats be available to the 'Olympic Family'??

The other issue raised in the programme, is that this is supposed to be the 'Green Games', BUT, VIP's and senior officials are residing in Park Lane for the Games, and an Olympic Route Network is planned for them to reach the games in Stratford. The estimated time for travelling in the Olympic lane from Park Lane is 22 and a half minutes, but this means that everyone else loses a lane......I am all for having less cars on the roads but why could they not have stayed in a hotel nearer to the Games site? Why does the whole of central London have to suffer so that the officials can stay in Central London? Absolutely CRAZY.

Aside from the problems, there are so many opportunities the Games can bring to London. They touched on sites that could be used for world music venues etc, and one was the site surrounding Battersea Power Station. The latest design proposal I am working on is about greening this particular area, with a river regeneration project incorporating green spaces on the Grosvenor Road/Chelsea Embankment and Nine Elms edge of the Thames. I think the Thames could be used much more for the Games, perhaps with extra transport routes to Stratford from Central and West London. This traffic route could incorporate new green spaces where events are televised and so allowing for more people to enjoy the Games.

+ all pictures screenshots from The Day the Olympics came to Town

Thames Clean up

A gorgeous sunny day with temps in the two figures, and the lowest day time tides in five years....what else to do but head down to the river and do some cleaning.

This was a call by Thames21 for volunteers to help clean up various sites along the river that are not normally exposed. Tuesday morning was at the Isle of Dogs. A good turnout, dirty job but so worth it.

Focus 3 - Seoul's Cheonggyecheon Stream regeneration

Seoul has made a commitment to its people and flushed away any divisions the past had between North and South, by demolishing a highway that covered the Cheonggyecheon stream, which was formed during the Joseon Dynasty. For three decades, the stream was hidden beneath the highway, and it has now been turned into a gorgeous 5.8km urban river park.

The stream was designed to provide drainage for the city, and lasted hundreds of years until a shanty town developed next to it due to the city's overpopulation, with obvious pollution issues. This was in the 1940's, and over the next few decades the stream was gradually covered with concrete, and finally by 1976 a 5.6km highway was built over it.

Of course authorities were satisfied with the modernisation of the new highway and connections it created, but in 2003 city planners developed the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project. The purpose was to revitalise the stream, and place Seoul in a position of being a more environmentally friendly city. The project cost around £186 million, and took two years, but is a beautiful example of how an inner city river or stream can bring new life, and create community pride.

After researching many city river regeneration projects, this project has influenced me the most. Perhaps it is the graphics, but I think more so, it is seeing city planners creating spaces that are sympathetic to the environment, and peeling away the layers of man-made infrastructure to expose the earth's beauty beneath.

+ pictures courtesy of inhabitat

Focus 2 - 2012 Park - Green Oasis

Today's Evening Standard article showed some interesting cgi's of the Olympic Park and surrounding parklands.

4000 semi-mature trees will be planted in time for the opening in 2012...A company I worked for in the summer are the landscape architects for the Olympic Village, and were incredibly frustrated because as usual, the landscape budget is continually reduced as the realities of the other costs surface. This meant that hundreds of trees had to be removed from the initial proposal. 250 acres of parklands will hopefully not look too sparse.

The wetlands is probably one of the most exciting elements to this project....little is mentioned in the article so I shall say no more. . . .

As much as I hate the travel to that side of the world, I am really looking forward to seeing the end results, and considering various budget cuts, hope it will be as lush and rich in habitats and wildlife as the landscape architects and other environmentalists intend it to.

+ Evening Standard

Focus 2 - Growing Communities

Today some of us landscape arch's volunteered our brains and brawn in the freezing cold to help Growing Communities in their new urban growing site located on the grounds at the Castle Climbing Centre in Stoke Newington.

Growing Communities is a social enterprise run by local Hackney residents, with volunteers from the area and surrounds. They work to create sustainable food systems in the form of urban growing projects and sourcing perishable fruit and veg from local farmers and selling it via local box schemes.

The people at Growing Communities are a real inspiration, with 4 growing sites in the area and a packing site from which the boxes are then distributed. Whilst digging up the new grow sites, we got to engage in chatter with everyone, finding out how they help out and the various social opportunities Growing Communities nurtures. Everything they grow is completely organic and approved by the soil assciation.

This particular site is quite interesting, and since the Castle Climbing Centre has its own environmental policies, its quite appropriate for the disused land surrounding the castle to be used for a productive landscape. the Castle Climbing centre also has an environmental blog found here.

After working on this site we were taken to Allens Gardens, one of their other growing sites that has been established for a few years now. Mainly growing salad veg and herbs, it also has a little classroom with a sedum roof and composting loo for the beds. And a rainwater harvesting system. I did ask the lady who showed the site to us how they compromise with Hackney council the uses of these plots of land. Urban growing schemes are renowned for encountering barriers with land owners and councils...I imagine since Growing Communities is quite well established, they have been able to over the last few years prove their sustainability and economic viability.

Since I have been working on the thesis, I've discovered many urban community farming initiatives, but very few are researched and documented, and some are just too small to probably warrant websites. Growing Communities is probably one of the most effective entrepreneurial growing schemes I have come across in any of my research, and they have a very informative website, with good links too.

Brilliant for the focus week, the volunteering opportunity, meeting new people who are driven to make these much needed changes, and also to inform my extended essay. Thanks to Ida for providing the opportunity to help out. Will definitely squeeze in more time over the coming months to keep in touch and see how this garden grows!

+ growing communities

+ the castle climbing centre

+ the castle environmental blog

Focus 2 - Container City in Mexico

A new container city has opened in Cholula, about 2 hours outside of Mexico City. It is beautiful, brightly painted, hip and looks like a brilliant spot to hang out and drink afternoon coffees. Created by a small community of businesses, it covers an area of about 4500 sq m and consists of restaurants, juicebars and normal bars, bookstores, art galleries, and even living spaces.

The clever layout of the 50 containers has also created alleys courtyards, streets and even an open public space with ping pong tables and bands playing for various events. I think this is such a brilliant project, and I have posted other container projects around the world in the past but this is by far the most attractive and sensible use of containers. One of the 1st floor containers even has a slide access to the ground!! So so cool. It puts container city in Greenwich to absolute shame.

The Container City website is also quite cool...........

+ Container City Mexico

Durban Botanic Gardens

Today I took my mum to the Durban Botanic Gardens in my hometown. I actually don't remember if I'd ever been in the 18 years living here before I left. Shameful.

It traces its origins to colonial times, when it was founded in December 1849 for the introduction and trial of potentially useful commercial 'economic' crops by Dr Charles Johnston.

The Gardens later developed collections of sub-tropical trees, palms and orchids. The Durban Botanic Gardens remains a classic botanic gardens, reflecting the universality of the plant kingdom. It has, for over 100 years, had a fine mixed arboretum of African, Asian and American trees. For my recent project I had been researching the banyan tree, or 'strangling fig' (Ficus citrifolia) in India, and how the natives in the jungles form living walkways and bridges out of its vinelike aerial roots. The first tree on entering the Gardens was none other than this amazing tree.

Orchids, Palms and Cycads are the main collections of the Gardens which is currently ranked among the top ten botanical garden cycad collections in the world.

Pancakes with syrup and cream topped topped the morning. Yum.

+ Durban Botanic Gardens

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 - November 2009

Last week our London branch of the field study took us back down to the Embankment to look at and record waterfront landscapes.

We headed off first to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens or Spring Gardens, which hold quite an interesting history. The gardens opened in 1661, and were most popular during the early 1800's, with various entertainment activities including faires, hot air balloon ascents, fountains and fireworks. I found it to be quite a bland space, surrounded by housing and with the Vauxhall City Farm on one end. It didn't feel unsafe since there wasn't very much inthe way of shrub planting or hiding space but there was something about the absence of people during the day that made me think I would rather take a detour than walk through there at night. Either way it seemed well maintained and clean.

The City Farm is a great example of a community taking ownership of their environments to create a facility for their pleasure and purpose. The squatters on thsi site in the 70's grew their own vegetables and looked after livestock.

Our next stop was Harleyford Road Community Garden which links to Bonnington Square Gardens, both for me such inspirational community spaces. The central square of Bonnington Gardens was going to be turned into a car scrap yard after the war, and the local residents, a mix of squatters, home owners and tenants, joined forces to oppose the council's scrap yard decision and proposed a community garden. From its conception it was so successful, people living around the square started planting window boxes and greening the streets, creating bespoke street planters. Today it is a garden of Eden.....I was completely blown away at how beautiful it is.....the atmosphere is amazing, even in the last few days of autumn, the street is awash with leafyness. Brilliant precedent for greening streets, for the local community by the local community. A guy called Drake, local resident and landscape architect gave us an overview of the area, and what they had to deal with over the years with the council etc......the website is worth looking at too with some interesting stuff in the byelaws.

Finally we took the Tate to Tate boat which gave me time to take in the tight birch planting around the Tate Modern, a project of Vogt Landscape Architects who I worked for in the summer.

+ Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (Spring Gardens)
+Vauxhall City Farm
+ Gross Max
+ Bonnington Square Gardens
+ Harleyford Road Community Garden
+ Vogt Landscape Architects

Dig for Victory

This year's module of Management Plan and Extended essay have had me doing much research for each, and a few topics here and there form parallels and inform both of these documents. One of which is the Dig for Victory Campaign from the 40's. Second World War and it's effects on food securities saw the Ministry of Agriculture's 'survival' campaign to get people growing. Private and public spaces were transformed in an urban growing initiative consisting of mini allotments.

A photo that has surfaced on a few occasions in a couple of books is this below of farming in Kensington Gardens: http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/upload/img_100/D_008334_Dig_for_victory_in_Kensington_Gardens.jpg


The postal propaganda is brilliant...of all easily searchable images, the graphic design is so subtle but so in-yer-face with a massive message. People were very encouraged and in the article on 'Home Sweet Home', by 1943 over a million tons of vegetables were grown in gardens and allotments. Modern day propaganda and graphics still use similar formats.

In 2004 I went to the Stay Gold Gallery in Brooklyn, right in the eve of the Republican Convention and New York's streets were transformed with anti-Republican poster campagin by various well respected and outspoken artists.

Both the types of graphics and the messages behind them, from today's 40's inspired and the original campaigns, have parallels with these particular years' themes of troubled times. While the messages from the Second World War era, minus internet and fountains of information sources as we have today, reached so many people, our population numbers now (as well as so many other factors) have meant that these messages don't neccessarily get it accross to the responsive audience they require to make changes happen. The naked cowboy is in there because he too, has a message.

A couple personal favourites with witty and inspirational stuff are Shepard Faiery and futura 2000. Good websites which keep you for at least a half hour.

+ home sweet home

+ Stay Gold Gallery

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

High Line is open!

Ten years in the making, New York city's High Line is finally open and providing New Yorkers with yet another green space, ready for summer!

The City of New York is full of parks - in fact, there are 1700! There are the enormous parks (Central, Prospect, Flushing) with medium-sized offerings (Bryant, Madison Square), and not forgetting little pocket parks everywhere like Stuyvesant and Washington Market. People such as Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl would be the first to advocate green spaces for great cities.

On a newly renovated stretch of an elevated promenade that was once a railway line for delivering cattle — surrounded by the community activists, elected officials and architects who made the transformation happen — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg cut a red ribbon on Monday morning to signify that the first phase of the High Line is finished and ready for strolling.

As you can imagine with such an eagerly anticipated event such as this, there are plenty of online reports dedicated to its opening:

The New York Times has posted a great panoramic here.

Treehugger and the Daily Green have put up slideshows here and here.

The Huffington Post added some great aerial shots here.


+ main image courtesy of inhabitat.

Green Paris in 2030

Last year French President Nicholas Sarkozy called upon ten of Paris' top planning companies to imagine the city in 2030. His plans are to make Paris the most green and environmentally sustainable city in the world.

Urban planning & Architecture firm Castro Denisof Casi has selected a southeastern suburb of Paris with concept images of high-rises lush with greenhouses and rooftop gardens. The buildings would be powered in part by wind and solar energy and connected to the city center by elevated rapid transit.

There is currently an exhibition of the groups ideas and sketches entitled "Le Grand Paris" at the City of Architecture and Heritage (Citi de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine) museum.

+Images courtesy Atelier Castro Denisof Casi

Brazil - Sao Paulo Eco Park

This is a fantastic and really inspirational project in Brazil I've just come across, very relevant to the seminars I attended at last week's ecobuild regarding building on brownfield sites.

Its based in a dense urban environment in Sao Paulo, Brazil, upon a once contaminated brownfield site which was previously a garbage incinerator. The architects ingeniously designed a deck floating on a stilted steel structure 3 feet above the ground, with the intention of minimizing soil excavation.

The deck is constructed from a Brazilian hardwood, sourced from distributors that follow strict rules on extraction and deforestation, and instead of using other materials for the rest of the park, the designers decided to retain a visual uniformity by using the same hardwood throughout. Rooms appear to grow out of the deck creating a fluid three-dimensionality.

It also features solar panels to produce energy and a water filtering system which I am guessing relates to the picture of the wetland below.

In this urban area, recreational and community facilities make the space an invaluable amenity for the neighbouring communities. They can enjoy music and events under a covered ampitheatre as well as a comminuty centre for eco-centric workshops. Without a doubt the site improves the social and environmental health of the surrounding neighbourhoods and it's inhabitants.

ecobuild @ earls court

**** INFORMATION OVERLOAD!!! ****

5 amazing seminars over the last two days at ecobuild. I didn't expect to come back as inspired as I am.....I didn't know where to start so thought a hot bath would be best.

Wednesdays attended lectures were:

Lecture 1 - The Future of Urban Trees with Martin Kelly of CapitaLovejoy as the chair, and introducing an interesting history of London's trees. The second speaker was Martin Ennos, Faculty of Life Sciences at Manchester Uni, presenting The Physical Importance of Trees. Thereafter, Rachel Hine of Essex Uni speaking about Health, Wellbeing and the social importance of Nature, and closing, Jim Smith of The Trees and Design Action Group, talking about What are we doing to protect our trees. Many many interesting facts....flood preventions, iTrees project, ASCCUE project in Manchester, cooling potential and potential air pollution reductions.

The Trees and Design Action Group have a website: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-7KDEHU and are trying to get as many completed surveys in by 30 April 09 with regards to the loss and protection of London's trees.

Lecture 2 - Outdoors Insight: sustainable public spaces, chaired by Liz Lake, of LiZLake Chartered Landscape Architects + Urban Design. First speaker was Dr Bill Addis, Sustainability Strategic Consultant of Buro Happold, Materials Division. (what a mouthful) who presented information about Sustainability and Landscape Design. A good presentation to remind us landscape students to specify environmentally friendly materials over those that arent. Mentioned the Waste Resources Action Plan - a government initiative: http://wrap.org.uk/construction and gave a lot of very interesting examples of recycled materials used in landscape design. Liz Lake was up next speaking about her hottest personal topic - Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, and thanks to her I now know exactly what it's all about, and from her presentation have walked away thinking of creative SUDS in current projects. Very informative, definitely not dull and some fantastic examples. Next up, Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City, How food Shapes our lives.

Sadly she ran out of time as she was getting to the juicy bit but she presented some great images of historical agricultural paintings and maps of london representing the major food transport and market areas, still around today. Mentions of Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Thomas More's Utopia, Cuba's Organic Urban Farming and Arup's Dontang project of Vertical Farming. Final speaker was Roseanne Law, Director of Urban Design at Arup, presenting their SUDS project at Upton, Northampton. Again, enlightening the urban drainage issue, with very interesting examples which are so so easily incorporated into urban landscape practice and are long-term money saving, habitat creating and environmentally excellent!

Lecture 3 - Floods 'n SUDS. Admittedly this was the first seminar on my list to attend and was the most dull. I had heard far more interesting speakers and seen great examples so inbetween speakers slipped out quietly. The first speaker was from Hydro International, with some good examples of his company's SUDS products. Second up was Jill Thatcher of DEFRA, speaking about Water Quality and the need for SUDS.

Thursday's seminar:

Lecture 4 - Practical Biodiversity: Making it Happen, chaired by Dr Carol Williams of the Bat Conservation Trust, Project Officer. Matt Shardlow of Buglife - Invertebrate Conservation Trust gave a great presentation about the importance of Brownfield sites, what they are, their ecological importance, what's living in them and some positive examples of brownfields and SSSi's. Next up was Tom Webster of the Campaign for Dark Skies. Not really a topic a young landscape architect would consider but I now realise what an important issue this is. There is too much badly used, intrusive lighting in our cities, creating skyglow, glare and a general nuisance ans those are just the effects on humans. Fauna such as bats and seagulls were mentioned to be affected, they dont know the health effects but their behaviour at least is enough to notice. An example of affected flora was a picture of a London Plane tree with a lamppost set amongst it's branches. During winter, the leaves nearest the light were still attached which meant there was still moisture within the leaves and branches which would freeze and kill it during the coldest months. Slovenia is the first country in the world to pass legislation against light pollution.

Next speaker, Graeme Duckworth of the London Wildlife Trust speaking about the Barking Riverside Project. Very interesting what they are planning to do with this brownfield site along the Thames. Dutch Company Max Wang are the masterplanners. Plenty plenty of SUDS in this site with proposed 40% of all roofs to be living roofs. Positive. http://www.barkingriverside.co.uk/ Last speaker was Kate Vincent, Senior Ecologist of Baker Shepherd Gillespie, talking about Provisions for Birds in [urban] Buildings. This again, not a topic I would have considered but so so glad I am now informed. Because of modern urban buildings and redevelopments, the species of urban birds has been on a massive decline. House sparrows, starlings, house martins, swallows, swifts & black redstarts. Each of these birds use houses for either breeding or nesting and her presentation put forward how we can retrofit existing buildings to include bird friendly designs. This in turn creates biodiversity, internal nesting opportunities for the birds we sadly don't see anymore. Some inspirational examples were the Nottinghill Housing Trust, Islington Borough Council offices, London Zoo and a custom made example at Oxford University Tower. Also see http://swift-conservation.org/.

If there are 5 things I have taken away from these lectures to keep in mind for any future designs:

Professionals need to work together to make good things happen - those of the natural environment disciplines & of the built environment.

The use of lighting in any site: is it neccessary and is it correct.

The use trees, current or proposed: right tree, right place, in NATURAL ground with enough space to grow.

Provision for birds and invertebrate habitat creation [falls into the next category]

Creative SUDS systems.......ensuring people and all other species we share our spaces with have a pleasant, safe and sustainable environment to exist in.

That's me....over and out.

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/

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!