FOCUS WEEK MAY 2010: WORK EXPERIENCE & MAP EXHIBITION

I worked at Churchman's Landscape Architects. They are based near Twickenham High Street. Here are some examples of their work. They seem like a practice who are heavily into planting...






I helped them with preparing a presentation for a proposal in the Lea Valley. I worked on creating a current diagram of the various elements around the site; industry, residential etc.. I also began work on a future diagram, this involved looking at the site as it would become. Due to the Olympics the area is under going huge transformation. I had to examine architectural plans for the new Tesco, park and school proposal and add these elements to the diagram.

I am returning to work there next week.

This focus week also took me to the British Library at Kings Cross. I went to see the Magnificent Maps exhibition. Below are some images from this...





The exbibition was very interesting and housed in a rather nice gallery space at the library which I'd never been to. The pieces on show dated as far back as 1400's and showed the craftmanship involved in map making.

There were also some modern maps showing London from a different perspective. The map called Island was interesting. By artist Stephen Walter it showed London as an island. He had marked out in a kind of cartoon style the London that was relevant to him. The detail was amazing and it showed areas where he scored drugs, girlfriends, areas of ethnic groupings etc...

What stood out was the way maps were not just a drawing showing where things are but a social commentary of the time. Many of the maps showing far off lands like Africa and South America, often depicted strange fantastical animals and the natives as wild creatures.

What is also notable about maps is the way the maker will embellish a place. London for example has often been shown in its best light whereas there streets and areas filthy with poverty and corruption.

Visiting this exhibition was a nice completion of my year. I have been to the map room before, carrying out my own researh on the various projects I worked on. The collection on show is just a drop in the ocean compared to the millions of maps stored in the vaults below the British Library.

Project Highlights 2nd Year Kingston

A drawing I did on the field trip to Kings Cross.



Logo I created for the Semester Two Project



A model I made to show the raised walkway at Kings Cross...





Section...





Kings Cross, here is a visualisation of my proposal to create a raised walkway above the exisitng tow path at Kings Cross Regents Canal...




Kings Cross, a college of the Kings Cross area...




A collage to show the mood of Swiss Cottage North West London...




This is a detail section of the Swiss Cottage Open Space by Gustafson Porter...

Competitions...

As a class our Semester 2 project has given us the challange of entering an Architectural Competition. This has been challanging in terms of coming up with an architectural solution from a landscape point of view. Below are some images I found which show some impressive Architectural Presentation boards. I took inspiration from these in terms of layout. In the end I opted for a highly edited A1 board with one main selling image. My intention was to catch the audiences attention with this image. I wanted to convey a feeling of lush planting as well as show the strength of the architecture.

This project was a real journey for me in design terms. As the brief is architectural I started with a strong architectural statemenet. As I analysed the site, I soon reaslied a new philosophy and thought about the landscape as a way to express this. It was then the project turned around for me. I knew that I was now able to proceed joining both architecture and landscape together in what I think is a strong design as well as answering the brief.

This journey was a great experience. It meant thinking about a very clear and precise brief, tackling it from the clients point of view. This was interesting as well. The client had a very particular point of view here and whether or not I agreed with them, I found myself working towards their etos. Which by the way is not a bad one.

I will upload my A1 presentation board in a few weeks. I have just submitted it to competition and I will wait until shortlisting has been announced.

Below are some of the presentation boards I found inspiring.

FOCUS WEEK MARCH 2010: TRIP TO CORK & PHOTOGRAPHY TRAINING

View of Patrick St Cork from North Aspect
picture taken by David Layton



This week I travelled to Cork, a gorgeous little city in the South of Ireland. Cork a port city has changed alot through the years. It not only has changed in Town Planning terms but also in a multi cultural sense.

Ireland now welcomes people of all nationalities to live and work in the country. This has given rise to an explosion of apartment building very much in the language of London housing.

I notice some lovely architecture as well as plenty of questionable buildings dotted around the city centre. However Cork has impoved alot both in style and quality especially after winning City of Culture in 2005.

The following photographs show Cork's regeneration of their main high street, Patricks Street. Cork County Council hired the services of Barcelona Architect/Landscape Architect Beth Gali. She designed a brave and pleasent road scape. Using interesting coloured paving she signifies pedestrian areas as well as road ways.





As you move down Patrick Street the urban scape opens into almost what becomes a plaza. This is known in Cork as The Grand Parade. Beth Gali has created some lovely lighting as well as interesting seating with trees growing from their centres.






Of course Cork is an interesting city with an equally interesting outlook. In many ways conservative but never dull. Apparently there was an indifferent response to Gali's design. Many a comment included 'Arah, it was fine the way it was'...

The next few pics are of a whole new development on Patrick St. They have knocked down an entire old block of the city and created this modern shopping complex. The architecture is nice, clear, crisp but the winner here is the new street created. It connects Patrick St to the cultural area of the Crawford Art Gallery and Cork Opera House. This is also effective in its link to the cafe culture of Paul St. The actual road layout is fairly straightforward but it has a nice link with the architecture in its patterns. There are random circular cuts into the pavement which add a little detail. I liked the lamps which are almost like wall lights. They have a pleasant contempory look.







This week was also an chance to develop my photography skills. I had an appointment with Niall in the Photography Lab. He helped me light and photography my model.




This pic was taken with a wide angle lens. Notice the cool quirky play with persepctive. Also you can see the studio backdrop in the background.


A detail of the pilotis.


The shot taken with regular SLR lens.

FOCUS WEEK JAN 2010: NATIONAL THEATRE LANDSCAPE EXHIBITION AND DIGITAL TRAINING

The first part of focus week we attended a small exhibition at the National Theatre. It was a exhibition of photographs which were entered into a competition. The photography was nice and featured some amazing landscapes throughout Britain. There were some interesting pictures which took an usual look at a landscape, focusing on the details. I did notice that about 95% of the images used photoshop effects namely Curves.


photography by Alice Hankin

photo by Alice Hankin

Photo by Alice Hankin

The second part of focus week involved developing my digital skills. I launched myself into CAD and managed to create a basic plan with measurements. I also attempted to use CADs 3D modelling. This was tricky but I think with practice both will be useful.

Using some online tutorials on Utube I also worked on photoshop skills. In particular I had some fun playing with effects to alter faces. Here is an example of before and after of Helen Mirren...

The Cruel hand of time...


The magic of photoshop...

FOCUS WEEK NOV 2009: MORE LONDON