Lambeth and the River Thames
My final assignment for the first semester was to investigate the environment and hydrology within North Lambeth – an attempt to be known as site inventory or analysis. The major of London has just poposed to redevelop and revitalise the district of North Lambeth and areas along the Southbank – from Waterloo Bridge. Developers are proposing to demolish decaying zones and replacing them with residential and commercial use. The district is an untidy and marshy landscape because many built structures are in need of restoration. The River Thames has changed in form over centuries and was left vulnerable to flooding and erosion; due to high water levels. The river consists of historical landmarks and several site attractions have lasted since the early 16th century.
Water Nest Garden
Initial Concept Sculptured Nest
A lover’s Story of the Secret Garden:
“The two lovers escaped from the depression of work and shortly arrived at their secret place of freedom. They entered from opposite sides of the water garden where they soon met; to become the center of attention. They mutter like African Peacocks as they are enclosed in by nature’s blossoming trees and autumn plants. The lovers come from different offices with different occupations – the female was a leading designer (an imaginative thinker); and the male specialises in journalism (a heavy thinker also like a philosopher). The lovers gossipped as the sound of water flowed downhill to the edge of the canal. The landscape remains man made and as surreal; to express the infinate life of nature and beauty through colour, art and form. Surrounding tall green branches grew from the ground, to transform into a single nest sculpture – each measuring at a height of five meters. Tall branches indicated the explosive brightness of sunshine in the far distance. As the lovers walked down the twisted pathway they even heard the battering sound of water coming from the surrounding waterfalls; and noticed water trembling passed beneath their feet. They finally reached the far side of the garden where they soon later kissed amidst the sunset scenery.”
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Cross sectional views of sketch models
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The Water Nest Project was about providing the public with an ‘intimate canal-side and water nest garden by the Grand Union Canal, near Paddington. My task for this assignment was to regenerate and develop the existing landscape of Paddington Walkway; in an attempt to create more spacing and to express excitement to the site. My initial concept was to make the area more user friendly, by transforming it into something theatrical, dramatic, private and particularly environmental (like incorporating natural vegetation and autumn trees to the existing site itself). I also had to explore how space was defined on site. The surrounding areas of the canal side are currently under construction to provide people with tourism, leisure and social events.
Atkins for the future
Atkins houses over 14,000 designers with other staff employers globally. It has currently 125 working offices in the U.K. and markets across 3 continents: including Central Europe, South-East Asia and North America. The organisation first existed and developed in 1938 and has grown quite rapidly and economically. It offers technical support to clients; by providing environmental management; architectural landscape designs; conceptual proposals and engineering consultancy services. It partly deals with constructing vehicle access routes; for improving community transportation. Atkins was also named among the ’20 Best Big Companies to work for 2006′ by the Sunday Times.
Conceptual designs and theories are tested and measured by architects; then they’re to be approved of by professional expertise or working engineers. Designers always hope to meet the needs of clients; in creating astonishing cultures and better landscapes for the public. Teams of arhcitects – currently working for Atkins – aim to reach beyond client expectations and other needs. They intend to capture the true spirit of designs; as they also try to express ’culture, nature and modernity’ within their work. Their creativity offers solutions ‘that range from the unusual to the visionary’. One architect said that ”we develop cutting edge solutions and combine them with tried and tested technologies to achieve an optimal result”.
”Our projects show new ways of building a working environment. They are no longer cages to confine workers but they create the living environment to encourage productivity. The groundbreaking concept of any project is the provision of different scenarios where business takes place” – Nicholas Bailey, Atkin’s Head of Architecture in Bahrain
Songjiang Hotel, Shanghai
Design teams focus on sustaining the urban environment and redeveloping altered landforms; as an attempt to support conditions of the natural environment or eco-system. One of their projects established a relationship between urban areas and the environment; for example, a team of architects applied energy-efficiency to their conventional, design scheme; like adding solar glass panels to commercial exterior structures (in order to provide electrical energy and cool insulation).
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Project: Baoan Central Business District; Location: China, Shenzhen, Central Park
The scale plan - for the proposal of this project – covers over 640 hectares of Shenzhen city. The ‘Shenzhen Masterplan’ project focused on transforming an urban zone into a water environment. The project incorporates “local, national, cultural and historical” elements (of national significance) to the site. The landscape design - proposed in this project – symbolises the “The Great Blue Dragon” of China (formed by the shape of a river lake). This project had a contemporary and futuristic idea; that was to exite society with arts and architectural crafts, for example, “the dragon’s head is related to a government building…..tail relates to a non-existent landmark called The Ribbon Girl”. The urban city of Shenzhen was to be redeveloped and adapt to culture’s new age of future arts and newer cityscapes. Designer’s’ intentions were to experiment with the principles of construction and distort styles of positioned structures.
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Project: Millennium Stadium; Location: Arms Park, Cardiff, England
Atkins engineered and designed the construction of the ‘Millenium Stadium’. It is the largest stadium the U.K. that is provided with a mechanised, closing roof structure. It houses 72,500 seats for fans and also provides “a venue for major sporting, cultural and music events”. The project costed billions of pounds to set up and took almost seven years to complete. An architect commented that “this was a highly prestigious project, that required integration of team members to ensure that the exacting design and construction programme was achieved”.
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‘Millenium’ websites: http://www.millenniumstadium.com/3473_3558.php &
http://www.atkinsglobal.com/skills/design/sectors/hotelsleisure/cardiffmillenniumstadium/
All working offices focus on satisfying needs of society and the community. Designers, engineers and other working architects qualify, in testing out their schemed designs; in an attempt to calcualate costs and the quantity of a design project. Designers are highly motivated and fully experienced, because Atkins is a self-driven and multi-national co-operation (that spans across both first and third world countries). Atkin’s organisation is categorised into many activity sectors including: monitering and altering environmental landscapes; re-designing commercial and residential zones; and the system of sharing cultural and conceptual designs with foreign architects and other liasons. Atkins has always attempted to brake through the rules of engineering through production and manufacturing; in an attempt to make the impossible happen. I hope that Atkins will live long to exist in the next century. I admire how Atkins works as a working practice because it undertakes it’s own experimental methods and other approaches very seriously. It also continues to establish and support relations between people, the eco-system and the environment.
Webpage references:
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Reflex Actions & Bodies in Space
As a first year undergraduate Degree student (studying landscape architecture BA) I undertook an assignment - that was to study the relationships between human presence and the interior spacing around people. The task specifically was to ‘identify ways in which the spaces of Knight’s Park are occupied and also the relationships between spatial characteristics and the activities they accomodate’. I closely monitored and gathered critical information about a chosen location (main corridor at Knight’s Park Campus, Kingston University) - to begin investigation - such as accessability, distances of how far one person moves from one pace to another, measurements of walls, doors, corridors; levels of sound and the overcrowding congestion of ’bodies in space’ (just for precautionary measures). In the large main corridor there are four main access routes linking to other areas of the school: there are two doors that leads people out to the exits; one door leads up to the first floor and one takes you to the cafeteria.
I have described all students in the following types of substances:
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SOLID: people standing (not walking) = student maybe either awaiting to be served; waiting for someone or held in a group discussion.
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LIQUID: people walking (not running) individually or in larger groups
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GASES: people are either running or spatially spread out from each other evenly and are standing.
Results are finalised and conclusive; in response to my own examinations of the area (Main corridor) and the task stated above. My analysis indicates that the likeliest chance is students will walk in large groups of threes or fours during breaktimes; as they will attend to their lessons and to the cafeteria to be served. Most teenagers (as students) preferred to enter the cafeteria to have free social discussions and to be offered with food & drinks; therefore the population density of students – occupying space – will always be expected to be high. Other students are individuals or visitors walking in different directions.
The purpose for this investigation was to determine wether or not some spatial areas were usable, infiltrated or not; and understanding how people decide to direct themselves physically and psychologically. The point to this exercise was to describe the word ‘accessibility’ as an important basis to landscape architecture.
If all people used rechargable battery cars or even solar as fuel for running vehicles, we would be saving most of our oil supplies for the next couple of centuries to come; I mean besides that, what’s pollution even caused by?
”This country is addicted to oil” - George W. Bush
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There’s an old say to everything….
”We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us” – Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
AEDAS Organisation
Aedas is one of the leading architectural practices in the world today; as it is also a leading design force in Asia and the middle East. There is round about 1,300 staff currently working in 24 offices, across 6 regions and three continents – including Central Europe and the UK. Aedas offices offer a range of complimentary services to architecture; such as monitering the state of the environment and landscape consultancy. Aedas is committed in improving qualities of design and developing a culture of ‘excellence’. Aedas now deals with establishing commercial, retail and business parks; also student residences, private residential estates and particularly leisure also.
Website address: http://www.aedas.com/
British Art & Science Gallery
During one weekday, I visited two most popular historical galleries in London on a day trip. In the morning me and my colleagues visited the London Science Museum; and in the late afternoon we toured around the V&A Gallery building. Many events, arts and crafts I witnessed expresses issues about environmental impacts; the lifestyle of society and the natural world we live in today. I also saw some of the worlds most iconic and powerful, dramatic arts; that all gave me an impression of how humanity has revolutionised through the ages psychologically, politically, domestically, militarily, artistically and globally.
The London ‘Science’ Museum exhibits and explores the geographical and scientific elements of planet earth; and is one of the fascinating tourist attractions to visit. When I walked through into the entrance of the museum, I found myself caved inside an ancient-modernised tomb filled with tourists. In the hallway I then had to go up the main escalator to get to the first floor. It was the most longest escalator I had ever riden on; that stretched 100 yards from the ground to the first floor. When you are on it don’t look down. When I was approaching the top end of the escalator, me and other colleagues found ourselves caved inside a 3 dimensional model of the Earth; that measured 5 by 5 metres. This circular object was welded structurally and is made out of copper iron. When I entered one of rooms on the first floor the ground was shaking beneath my feet as if so an earthquake occured. Secondly, all lights blacked out; then the entire scenery began to light up again – This whole dramatic event took place in the geography gallery on the first floor. Both ground and second floors are science galleries.
V&A Dorothy and Michael Hintze Sculpture
‘DAN-AYIDO-HOUEDO/ARC-ENIEL’
Location: The John Madejski Garden, V&A.
This sculpture represents regeneration and continuity
This sculptured snake is made out of interlocking plastic jerry cans; and the above title refers to ‘a rainbow and to the serpent Ouroboros, which swallows it’s own tail as a symbol of infinity’. The artist’s intension was to express the ongoing, contemporary impact of exploitation and slavery. The design itself was founded and completed in 2007 by the London V&A Commission.
Interior sceneries of the Gallery (images photographed)
V&A Gallery opening times: 10.00am-17.45 daily, 10am-22.00 Fridays; however closes from 24th-26th of December.
Post Link: http://www.vam.ac.uk/
The Diana Memorial Fountain
Hyde Park websites:
http://aboutbritain.com/PrincessDianaMemorialFountain.htm
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/hyde_park/diana_memorial.cfm
I went visit to Princess Diana’s Memorial Fountain at Hyde Park with my colleagues. The Diana Memorial Fountain was constructed in 2004 and was designed by a popular sculptress; who’s name is Kathryn Gustafson. The sculptural form of the fountain is shaped in a circular loop and is located on a steep hill (which is near the green park river). The design of the fountain is also a modern-stylish abstract and is made out of marble, granite and stone materials. It reflects the spiritual life of Princess Diana and her honour as a princess. As I walked along the laked fountain, I sensed clean air and heared the water trippling. Hyde Park is an ideal place for tourists to relax and chillout during summer times.
