OPEN HOUSE PHOTO COMPETITION

I attended the Open House weekend during the Summer. I entered the above picture as part of a competition they help as part of the weekend. The theme of the competition was juxtAposition so I choose to go for an abstract approach.

Visitors to the Swain House in Highgate were asked to take off their shoes. I thought it was interesting to show the different styles of shoes alongside the details of the architecture. I felt it added an air of mystery, little is given away about how these people look or even what the architecture looks like.

My entry can be viewed on line, if you go to the link in WEBSITES OF INTEREST here on my blog.

SECOND LIFE, ARCHITECTURALLY SPEAKING

A typical building in Second Life


An Avatar been 'created' or perhaps born?

I read a report recently about this virtual world called Second Life. The article talked about a woman in the States called Anshe Chung who became the first Virtual Millionaire. Infact she is a millionaire in real life because of her clever business sense in virtual reality.

What could this mean? Out of curiousity and a student yearning to make a few bucks myself I downloaded Second Life and within half an hour I was creating my own Avatar.

An Avatar is your own character which you use to move about this world. It allows you to change every facet of your Avatar's physicality. This was fun. Needless to say my Avatar was a muscular male model.

You then teleport to whatever land takes your fancy. It takes a bit of time to get used to the system, but can be interesting. Some of the other Avatar's take all shapes and forms. Those that are human in form are all gorgeous. There are no fat people in second life. Then you have fantastical Avatars which range from flying dragons to unicorn-women. As I moved about a Victorian virtual scape I was greeted by a talking cat. Clearly the human behind this Avatar decided to represent him/herself in this form. Ok.

The money making in Second Life is very real. The game, if you can call it that, has its own currency called Linden Dollors. As a rough translation, every 100 Linden dollors equates to 1 US dollor. You can browse everything from clothing to new body 'skins' and everything has a price, a Linden price. The interesting thing is that items for sale are relevant to the virtual world. Users of Second Life or residents as they are called buy products to dress their Avatars and even buy homes for them to live in.

This is what interested me. I wondered could this be my angle? Become a virtual architect/landscape architect? I went to a training land to learn how to build. I was surprised at how accurate the building tools are. You start with a geometric shape (a prim) and go from there. The system allows you to add various textures or even import your own from photoshop. The measurements are pretty accurate to the metre. I guess as a 3D form of modelling its not bad.

I spend a little time playing with the building programme but found that it required alot of time to get used to. This of course is spend within the virtual world. So as your Avatar stands there building, other Avatars walk past. Some stopping to say hello or running into you. I was soon seeing the addictive nature of Second Life.

Imagine a world where everyone is beautiful? Imagine a world where your every desire is fufilled and your every fantasy realised...Second life seemingly offers all this. But who are the people behind Avatars? Are they sad lonely freaks who have given up on succeeding in the real world? Second Life was very quickly becoming weird to me. I wondered in reality how much time would it take me to make enough Linden Dollors to see a profit? I wondered what the price might be...

I also have read about people who spend too much time in Second Life, it ends up screwing with their perception. Apparently there have been a few cases at UCL of students not knowing which life they were actually in. I was only a 'resident' for less then two weeks and despite it been a game, it has a strange draw. At one point I was changing my Avatar's clothes. I thought I'd give him some style. By accident he ended up naked and I felt a sudden burst of embarrasment. It gave a new dimension to dreaming about been naked. It was at that point I decided I'd stick to my first life...

Perhaps I will get stabbed on the No. 29 bus, perhaps I'll be short changed somewhere and perhaps I'll meet the love of my life in Waitrose (which won't happen as I'm a student and can't afford to shop there. Perhaps Asda.) but I think I'll take a risk in the real world.

Second Life offers something unique and I do think it is a picture of what the future will be. I can imagine the internet will become a virtual world. So instead of buying products for your Avatars, you will instead buy for your real life. Until that moment comes, I choose control panel, uninstall Second Life. Delete.

PS. Worth noting James Cameron's AVATAR movie coming out on the 18th Dec 2009

FOCUS WEEK SEPT 2009: PAPER CITIES

Here are some images I have taken from the net to show some interesting concepts...









http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/architecture-on-the-ramp/paper-city-urban-utopias,290,RAL.html

This small exhibition is running at The Royal Academy of Arts on Picadilly. It was interesting to see and was more conceptual they I expected. There were some interesting ideas on display.

Part of the exhibition included a competition which asks you to submit a design for a potential city of the future. I decided to enter and have submitted my idea. I opted for an idea for a small city off the cost of a country. The city stands on pilotis and is a kind of metropolis. The transport infrastructure is under water with train and electric cars serving the island. You reach the city via high speed glass pod lifts wich connect to the various levels. The lower level are the corporate, banking etc, above that the administraive and flats for young professionals and then the housing again on smaller pilotis with lots of space between for gardens, communal meeting places. The very top level of the metropolis is a huge park garden. The island is split down the middle with a atrium over streets and walkways in the sky. This area is flanked on either side by two vertical areas for leisure and entertainment.


'ISLAND METROPOLIS' my competition entry


UPDATE 4th Dec 09

My entry was shortlisted in this competition. It was judged by a panel including Peter Cook RA.

"An amazing idea and proposition for a super-city structure located in the sea."

You can view this online, Image 9 by going to WEBSITES OF INTEREST on my blog page.

UPDATE 4TH MARCH 2010
This article appeared on the Kingston faculty website. It was written by my lecturer Ed Wall. Thank you to him for his kind words.



UPDATE 10TH MARCH 2010

I received a call from a journalism student from Kingston Uni who interviewed me re this competition for River Online, University students online magazine.

The above article appeared online on River Online on the 17th March.

FOCUS WEEK 0CT 2009: MUNICH TRIP

I took a five day trip to Munich in the south of Germany. I had never been to Germany before and had a great sense of anticipation as I arrived at Munich airport. It was also exciting to be to a country with such a strong sense of identity.

Munich is in the heart of Bavaria which is the traditional part of Germany. In many ways a conservative region but not in a negative way. I found the people there to be kind and they seemed like they could be the most loyal friends. Germany tends to be fairly rigid in some ways, ie everyone sticks to the rules while on the other hand people will drink huge amounts of beer late into the night and smoke cigerettes in bars despite a smoking ban!

Munich is a relatively small city in comparison to London and has a great, if not dated underground system called the U-Bahn. The interesting thing is that you can buy your tickets and have to stamp them in an automated machine. There are no barriers to pass through, you just walk straight onto your train. It seems there are rarely inspectors about but because Germans stick to the rules everyone tends to buy a ticket so there is no issue. I wonder if such a sytem could ever work in London?

Munich is an old city and was once surrounded by walls and castle like gates. The city has since expanded. The city centre is called Marienplatz with most the architecture twee and strangely fantastical. I have never seen such a mix of old styles from the Roman clasical to the Gothic right through to the Byzantine.

If you cross Sonnenstraat you encounter a whole different Munich. The area around the Hauptbanhof Train Station is very much 60's style architecture which houses flats, small cafes, a Turkish area and red light district. I noticed that many people live right in the centre of Munich. In comparison to London prices in Zone 1 here are reasonable. In general the standard of living is better in Muich.

Overall I enjoyed the trip and totally changed my opinion on Germany. I managed a few basic phrases and made some new friends there. I take this as a compliment as I was told that Germans are straightforward, if they like you they talk to you if they don't they walk away. I look forward to my next trip there, more likely to be in the Summer when the weather is better. I am also curious to see other parts of Germany, in particular Berlin.

BURNS + NICE

Leicester Square Project

18th Feb 2009
I visited Burns + Nice's practice in Farrington and met up with Chris, one of the Landscape Architects. He talked me through a few of the practices projects including the prestigious Leicester Square project. He explained how they took inspiration from cinema usherettes in the old days. In particular they looked at the white flowing scarves and hence came up with a white granite ribbon which will be a 200m long seat which frames the garden.

Chris showed me around the office and introduced me to all 15 members of the design team who comprised of; urban designers, town planners, landscape architects and architects. Everyone seemed friendly and professional.


Chris Veres, Landscape Architect, B+N

map

Vis større kart

MY FAVOURITE BUILDINGS...

'Architecture is the art of how to waste space'

Philip Johnson

Louis Khan's Sulk Institute, USA

Zaha Hadid's Abu Dhabi Performing Arts Centre

Barbican, London


The Barbican Centre, London



Museum of Modern Art, Rio

The construction of the Monumental Axis of Brasilia


The 3 Powers, Brasilia, Brazil

PADDINGTON & BEYOND 6TH NOV 08

The group got together at Paddington Station on a chilly November morning. Simon took us on an exciting cultural trip through Regents Park where we were lucky enough to see the deconstruction of Frank Ghery's Pavillion. We then moved on and enjoyed the spiritual Lady D Memorial. The highlight of the day had to be the Saatchi Gallery on the Kings Road...

BARNES WETLANDS VISIT 4TH NOV 08

Led by Pat our group visited this wildlife environment. Wooden bridges, gangways and lookout towers created an atmosphere ideal for any keen bird watcher.

'A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?'

Jack O'Brien