Masterplanning 4

Really enjoyed the studio day yesterday, working into the detail of the 1:500 and resolving the issues. Got some detailed comments from Paula (thank you) which enabled me to see what the problem was with the steps and then move on with a solution.

Appreciate the extra week for the A3 and Jamie's feedback, I can get that finished now to what I hope will be a reasonable standard.

The 1:200 area has been selected and now more levels of detail are added which somehow makes me feel more comfortable. The 1:2000 was a scale I'd not worked in before so had to keep reminding myself how big everything really was - a planted border the size of a tennis court! Now I have a sense of the scale so am hoping it will help in the refining at 1:200. Will work through refining some of the issues this week.

Woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow - very pretty!

This one's for Lissy

It was a good party!

Masterplanning 3 Final Hanging

Up early and into Uni to get the final page printed, I was expecting a very long print queue so was pleased to arrive and find that not to be the case.

We had five A1 sheets to pin up. This is the first time we get an indication of where we're at from a grading point of view so a really important day. I had worked on a lot of points from the previous week on the 1:500 and the sketches, but did leave the sections too last minute, sadly slightly out of my control but that's real life.

1:500 need to add more depth, change leader line weight, resolve market area, show more levels.  A big improvement on the week before but still more work to do.

Sketches are coming along, more work on shadows and shading, reduce in size to fit page better, widen the viewport and check scale of people.

Elevations need a lot more work!

Still too diagramatic, expand the key, overall a better visual representation needed

So, a lot to work on, and if I have understood correctly the mark may change when the external examiners review all the work at the final hour! A useful day.

Eastbourne Interim Crit

I was pleased with how yesterday went, a few comments that have prompted a re-look at certain areas of the design. I had spent a while on my plan and rushed the elevations which I knew weren't right, so will redo them, sketches continue as a work in progress. My design title is The Ocean Floor because I think it looks like an underwater adventure and with the ancient coastal habitat I thought it worked quite well. Jamie wrote a note on my crit to check out octanauts, I thought this was the name for one of the shapes I had used, so I looked in the dictionary and no luck, googled it and discovered it is a whole undersea adventure - not having children I had no idea and would have missed it completely - so thank you Jamie, it has given me the inspiration for improving how the circles can be presented.

I'm putting the pictures here that I pinned up yesterday so when I put next weeks up I'm hoping there'll be a noticeable difference.

Main design, a little flat on the rendering, too large an area in the central section for the sculpture park but I have resolved this in the reworking of the plan.

I lost the plot (overtired) on the elevations but will work on them for next week.

A work in progress and Julia made a nice comment on the crit sheet that has built my confidence a bit so I'll carry on in my style rather than try to imitate.

Professional Studies

It would be unprofessional of me to comment...

Running

I like going out running, it keeps me sane! It's good thinking time. I've been doing some photoshop rendering and have a sore neck and shoulder from all the fiddly painting in and to be honest not getting anywhere very fast, so while I was out running this morning I was thinking there must be a better way - I can't believe all you good Photoshoppers spend as long as I do filling colour in. Then -  a bit of a light bulb moment - when we made our own bucketfill patterns all we did was select and define pattern so why wouldn't this work on patterns created in Photoshop? Well, of course it does. So back into Vectorworks - make sure all the lines are connected and no fill in the shapes and voila! Sometimes the penny takes a while to drop - but at least I get there in the end.

All things Eastbourne

I took a trip down to Eastbourne today to do further exploration and also to walk out my design. I'm planning a sculpture walk through area as part of the design so visited the Towner Contemporary Art Gallery in Devonshire Park. It was very worthwhile. There is an exhibition called New Eyes and it has been curated by a group of six local artists, part of Bluemonkeynet.

Inspired by the Marcel Proust quote "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes", they chose pieces of work from a range of artists that had meaning to them. Very relevant to Sovereign Park as I feel new eyes are needed to visualise how the landscape could be in the future. There was a sketch concept by David Nash of 10 groynes from Eastbourne seafront:

David Nash Concept Sketch on display in Towner Art Gallery

The final installation is in Manor Gardens, Eastbourne, so I thought I'd go and take a look.

David Nash Art Installation in Manor Gardens

They reminded me, not of groynes but of totem poles with faces and images carved into them. Of course any resemblance to images is just erosion from the elements. Set in the park I thought they looked quite good BUT they were set in a slightly raised circle with a wooden edging - the message was very clear, look but don't touch. A real shame as the wood invited you to feel it, so I'm going to make sure that the installations in my design are accessible to walk through and touch.


Further inspiration has come from Hargreaves Alchemy of Landscape Architecture, a really lovely book. Page 139 shows dynamic sculptures by David Nash that are fun, out of proportion and quite playful. I hope to get quite a good job when I finish this course and to work for a company like Hargreaves would be amazing, I'd learn so much and be involved in really exciting projects. Anyway that's a little way off at the moment. Back to Eastbourne.


Armed with tape measure I walked the seafront from the pier to Sovereign Park, measuring all sorts of stuff along the way. I played a game with myself of guessing how wide or long something was and then measuring it to see if I was right. All I can say is by the time I got to Sovereign Park my accuracy was improving!


Along the way I noticed what a complete blot on the landscape the waterworks are, very visible from quite a distance.

Looking East, the waterworks building is quite visible.

En route I passed the beach huts, they are just fabulous and how lovely that on the 6th January people are sat outside their hut on the lounger enjoying the sea and the sunshine.

Beach huts along the Eastbourne promenade, with their owners enjoying the January sunshine.

Sovereign Park, plan in hand, I walked it out. Really worthwhile as my hunch about too wide paths and other spacing niggles were right. I can adjust them now and hopefully the overall balance of hard and soft will work. It was such a beautiful day, bright sunshine and very little wind (which after the last few days is hard to believe) and quite a few people walking along enjoying the day. Other than when I cycled along there last April, each time I've visited the weather has not been so good and it does influence how you feel about a place, I stayed a lot longer than I planned because I was enjoying it and now I'm excited to get on and make the changes.


I looked in a little more detail at the supposedly protected area, it needs a lot of work, quite a few invasive species and clearly not much respect from the locals!

Dog walking in the SNCI! Hey ho

Splash Point

Took a visit down to Worthing to have a look at Splash Point, good ideas and some good inspiration which is exactly what I need. Everything is developing too slowly and I'm starting to worry which is inhibiting my creative side. So, have spring cleaned my office, tidied everything up and now have a clear space and a clear mind to knuckle down and get on with the design.

Splash Point was smaller than I had anticipated and I really liked it. The rocks and the trees looked good. It is a pass through area along the promenade, but the rocks create a stopping/playing point. The children loved it, a cold wet day but they couldn't resist running through the spray. It's triggered by jumping on a certain circle and runs for about a minute. I'm going to use something similar in my design, it's simple and its appearance will fit well with the sea defence rocks at Eastbourne - it also adds a lot to the playful element. The wave wall was also popular with children wanting to walk along the top of it.

I also like the landforms at Llanelli Coastal Park and am going to use this idea to make the transition from one height to another, gently sloping down to meet the lower path and as an alternative to the steps.

I'm probably going to knock the beach path on the head, it wasn't well received at the crit as it would ruin the line of the beach and I agree now I've developed it.

These trees look good and have a distinctive appearance.  Seats are dotted through and the wavy concrete structures are fun for the kids (and adults) to walk over/play on.

The water park with lots of differently shaped rocks surrounded by the wave wall.

The kids loved the spray - they ended up pretty wet and cold!

Above and below - The rocks have games on some of them and engravings on others - adds to the interest.

The ground surface has been broken up with shapes set into it.

The artists shop - I really liked this, part of what I'm doing is week-end markets and to make it a destination for people to sell arts/crafts/paintings etc.

Need to crack on now, lots to do.