Colin Marx: Informal landmarkets in South Africa

This had the potential to be a really interesting lecture but failed miserably (sorry Colin). The legacy of apathied, townships and the failure of government has resulted in the invasion of land by the poorest segments of society on the peripheries of towns and cities.












Disputes as to the ownership of the land i.e developers vs shack dwellers formed the basis of the lecture. The informal land markets created by the shack dwellers is better suited for their needs but can not be encompassed by the capitalist concept of land ownership the as value of settlement is based on social requirement rather than monetry value.



The conclusions drawn from the lecture were thus:

• Informal landmarkets need to be recognised


• This type of settlement needs to be better located within the city


• More government intervention

The ill definied conclusions of the lecture were somehow supposed to result in the establishment of sustainable cities. Evidence of positive interventions in such circumstances were required to back up the presentation but sadly they were amiss. As is probably quite obvious I left the lecture dissatisfied with its contents.

Animation

This is my first attempt at putting a sketchup animation into a project. Bare in mind the quality has been reduced for the Internet

Oxford Castle

A lecture by Oxford Castle Ltd Director, Andrew Ryan

Oxford Castle was a prison in the heart of Oxford it has since been reintergrated into the city fabric. Andrew Ryan's lecture took us through the complicated nature of such a process

Inspiration

Ever since visiting the Moore exhibition at Kew and helping a friend with a fine art dissertation on the arte poverre I've felt inspired. Artists work that I enjoyed and forgotten about have come back to me, all of a sudden I feel creative again. Yey for focus week!

Anselm Kiefer - Book with Wings

Alberto Burri - Sacking and Red

Moore at Kew

Whilst studying sculpture at Sixth Form Henry Moore became a real inspiration to me from his drawing style right through to his sculpture and philosophies. So to see his works in the open at Kew Gardens was quite a treat.

The forms, scale, texture and colour of the work can not be truly experienced until you are stood next to it. Sculpture is about the three dimensional environment the ability not only to see a piece but to place your hand upon is what separates this subject from other branches of arts.

The space in which an object is placed also radically alters our perception of it. I feel that Moore's work sits much better in the landscape because of its earthly qualities so I would heartily recommend seeing this exhibition whilst its still on, if not Yorkshire Sculpture Park also houses an impressive Moore collection.

The Future Laboratory: In House Trend Briefing

A good interesting lecture, the company really seemed to have their finger on the pulse of current and future trends relying on instinct rather than statistical information to form their predictions.

At three and a half hours there was lots of information packed in so I've highlighted points of personal interest.

• As a society we are becoming more conservative with regards to our opinions on anti social behaviour and our understanding of the community.

If you were to apply Hooke's law to society that is to say that each action has an equal and opposite reaction then you could concieve that the current trends in responsiable living (e.g our intrest in organic food, carbon footprints etc) is a direct reaction to the hedonistic attitudes of the post 60's generations.

• Slowtopia

The fast paced on demand culture os being replaced by a slower more experiential culture, people are seeking less stressful more luxurious services more interested in the experience rather than the product. Current trends in travelling were highlighted as an example.

• Mennaissance

A paticularly interesting study of the new male as a demographic group. Men are reinventing themselves adapting to gender equality. As a man I must say that it was quite scary how well I found myself and others defined within the study.

• Synthethics

An interesting concept though I'm not sure what timescale was implied for the prediction of this paticular trend. There does seem an inevitable leap toward such a movement but I believe that the current 'responsible trends' are very strong and will last for some time.

Castle Howard

Over summer I visited Castle Howard, a fully functioning estate in the Vale of York.
The house has been in with the current family for over 300 years. (paticularly useful when you look at my current management project)

The estate gains income from

• Agricultural produce


• Tourism, gift shop, entrance fee etc


• Plants grown in the rose garden and woodland

The stables have been converted into workshops and the main house provides gallery space, my old foundation tutor had an exhibition there last year.

Kane Cunningham, Scarborough Regatta 2005

Moutholution

No Oil, Prepare!

Tenerife

Bit of an inconvenient holiday in the fourth week before handin but I'd like to see as much of the world as possible.. Tenerife's a strange place, its what England would be like with hot weather, in fact it was pretty hard to find a Spanish person yet alone a restaurant or some culture..















For me everything on the island was pointing the wrong way, the island had the most amazing topography that nobody seemed to care about. Instead they all festered around the beaches which were like all the other beach resorts everywhere else in the world..

Nic's tips: Soul City for a good English breakfast

The Deep

Hull's gone under massive changes in recent years, The Deep is an aquarium and a landmark building. Themed upon a ship bursting out of the ground it's designed to raise the international profile of the city.

Going through the building was a bit like been on the starship enterprise sometimes (even Patrick Stewert's voice was there!) But lots of information was readily accessible to people of all ages, lots of fish of course.. And a rather large tank! Which you can see us come out of on the video, all 6 meters of it..

RSA Lecture - Jason Prior

Head of EDAW European department Prior's lecture concentrated on three large projects

1. The regeneration of Manchester
2. The Blackpool masterplan
3. The Olympic Games

EDAW have found an image that works well in the market, city councils and others subscribe to the corporate feeling that their company produces. Hardly surprising as it is the commercial sector that towns now look to for economic success..

Blackpool Masterplan

Though I don't doubt that Prior was sincere in believing that EDAW was making the world a better place it was interesting to hear Wayne Hemmingway speak before of the Blackpool master plan at the Shifting Sands conference.

Hemmingway went to Blackpool as a child with many fond memories of the town and was a little hacked off at the proposed development by EDAW. He put forth the argument that such developments kill the spirit of the place, that the qualities of a place must be retained.

This is a debate that will affect the future of many towns. Which way forward do we take?

New Towns - Helena

As part of Helena's PhD she's been tasked with an investigation into new towns and writing a brief for competition toward creating them.

Although the work was in its early stages the discussions which followed it were interesting

Because I have a distinct interest in sociology topics like new towns and regeneration are particularly appealing to me.

Revelation of the day: the current fashion in housing development is a knee jerk reaction to the modernist Utopian visions of the high density machine like cities. The new ideal has become a detached house with a garden, two cars located in the country with 2.4 children.

P.s If your interested or would like to contribute to her research www.asmallstudio.co.uk is the place to go

Shifting Sands

Other than the fact we got a trip to the seaside the journey to Littlehampton was well worth it. Shifting Sands was an apt conference looking at regeneration of coastal towns fitting in perfectly with the North Sea Faring project.

Speakers included:

• Jim Brathwaite - SEEDA
• John Sorrell - CABE
• David Marks - Marks Barfield
• Thomas Heatherwick
• Wayne Hemmingway - South Coast Design Forum

Because it is impractical to document the entire experience I shall elaborate upon two items that were of real value.

Firstly the work of Heatherwick and Studio Weave was really exciting because we could see how the work we are undertaking in studio can be directly translated into practice.

Secondly there was a movement away from iconographic design within coastal redevelopment. This I found particularly interesting and was able to forward this question to the panel:

" Taking into account the movement away from iconographic design, what will the main driver of successful coastal regeneration be?"

The panel consisted of

• Barry Shaw - Kent Architecture Centre
• Jane Priestman - Design Champion
• Richard McMann - Bognor Regeneration
• John Kilford - West Sussex Design Commission
• Caroline Lwin - Kent County Council

The question they all answered with a general consensus. Iconographic design is a big gamble often more of a faliure than a success. Coastal towns wanted an enhanced sense of place this is to say that the distinct qualities of the town would be celebrated. Icons of a serrandipitous nature had much greater success because they are born of the town rather than imposed upon it.

Colchester Charette

A good project but too little time. I would have enjoyed an extra few days to complete this. But one does get an idea of the intensity of design required for competitions and quick projects.

Sketch up

Crude but quick and effective. I would like access to better 3D modelling software.

Focus week activities

Cityscape: A chance to view work and talk to other professionals in the realm of urban design.
I took the opportunity to talk to a chap from Urbis a specialist lighting company about using lighting in landscape design. I also was able to talk to the Land Restoration Trust who's work has a lot in common with my own designs. They suggested community involvement was essential to successful projects.

National Gallery: Always worth a visit

National Portrait Gallery: It is amazing to walk around a room and know that each face has an amazing story to tell. Does it matter which room it is?

British Museum: To witness objects and art works that are thousands of years old is outstanding in itself each piece or cumulative pieces seeking to tell a story.

If you consider that landscape is a branch of the arts and that art is about the narrative of the senses and the expression in which it is achieved then surely this means that landscape must be born of something. It must express a narrative or be routed in the culture of which it is part. Great landscapes are not superficial they are firmly embedded within context.

Flash

BTCV

BTCV is a voluntary organisation dedicated to improving the environment.

It's vision: A better environment where people are valued included and involved
It's mission: To create a more sustainable future by improving places and inspiring people

To prevent undercutting to one of the only natural stretches of the Thames between Richmond and Kew we set about styling the river bank which is a cheap traditional way to prevent erosion



Willow steaks set in the ground are woven around using smaller branches creating a small wall around the riverbank which retains the silt the river deposits when high. The willow stakes can take root due to the voracious nature of the plant which when coupled with the retaining wall all adds to protect against erosion

LSEA

The LSEA (London schools environment award) is a scheme aimed at London primary schools to foster children's sense of responsibility toward the environment..
Volunteers activate the scheme through working with the schools and pupils. A team from Kingston University including myself will be volunteering to do this.
The themes that the project follows are:

• Litter and local environment quality (compulsory)
• Waste and recycling
• Water
• Energy and climate change
• Transport to school
• Biodiversity

Schools must pick two themes including litter and environmental quality which is a big problem in London and are graded on the following criteria:

• Pupil and community involvement
• Effectiveness
• Sustainability
• Communication
• Innovation
• Presentation

Each borough has a winner and runner up school which are awarded £2000 and £1000 to be presented in the mayor's office.

This is a wonderful hands on approach to the 'think global act local' issue in sustainability.

Vlissingen Site Visit

Image

Trying to create resolved images can be tough. I personally think that a quick sketch worked over is more effective than anything else. This image came from a quick sketch in a cafe and seems to tell as much or even more than a photograph or painstaking photoshop ever could..

It is just as important to convey emotion as it is scene..

What is landscape?

How do we define public space?
Leave your definition as a comment.
And you'll be engaging with our Vlissingen manifesto
Contributions appreciated
Cheers!

Sketching with the elements

Sketching is an important part of my work, it can produce unique and powerful images. This image came from a site sketch in Vlissingen.

Swiss Cottage

As part of the park life module I have written a report on Swiss Cottage (completed 2006) designed by Gustafson Porter . If you would like to see the report you can email me through this site.

Cardiff Bay

I think this project in particular has been a catalyst for my own self development within the subject and although it might not be realised here the lessons learnt set me in good sted for the North Sea Faring projects we are about to begin. See you in Vlissingham....