But we don’t. A reference to previous work from a MA in Landscape Architecture 2012, relevant to a morning lecture on Psychogeography (describes the effect of a geographical location on the emotions and behaviour of individuals).
The Background
The Forest
This was an option module from the MA called ‘Art and Context’. The the outcome for the module was to teach, challenge and explore our preconceived ideas as to ‘What is Landscape?’ Via a field trip in the deep South West of England of 5 days in a mixed forest (deciduous native and evergreen softwood grown and sold as a product of the forest) owned by the renamed Forestry England (formerly the Forestry Commision). The site was partially funded by on site log cabins for holiday retreats within the forest, perfect for a group of aspiring Landscape Architects wanting to get out of the classroom and experience the human Biophilic response to nature.
The idea was to make an intervention in the forest. It could be anything from a physical structure to music, poetry, art or a later piece to be shown as part of the final symposium. We were all asked to present, with the question; ‘what is landscape?’ Again open to whatever style or form, but the proviso was to really look in depth to the experience, the intervention and what you learnt that could be shared, but also challenging some of the norms we associate with the Landscape as humans onlookers and/or being part of the said landscape.
“I love this stuff, once the ideas start to flow, but hate it when that blank sheet of paper just laughs and mocks you for your lack of imagination”.
The artists running the course were from the more abstract land interventionist style, and I mean ‘Abstract’ with the capital ‘A’. We were all challenged very quickly as to our assumptions and thus the struggles ensued to even start to form any ideas.
But they were also very encouraging once some ideas of value started to germinate.
So the seemingly innocent intersection of roads and footpaths has become so imbedded in our subconscious that we hardly recognize its importance, and yet the phrase ‘meet you at the corner’ is part of our everyday life. So why?
It’s a node
More options of escape, fight or flight
A prairie view
That’s the text-book view, but it’s so much more than that.
So to understand the culture of the street corner in a housing district that is designed around the grid street system ( think squares ), a social document should be viewed, understood and lessons learnt from said study.
An easily understood document is a TV series from the early 2000’s called the ‘The Wire’, considered by the local community, police, politicians, educators and press to be an accurate portrayal of the Baltimore area 1995-Present.
Written by a former crime reporter of the Baltimore Sun, David Simon and Ed Burns, a Senior Detective. They collaborated on a book ” The Corner: A Year In The Life Of An Inner City Neighborhood” This was written from a street perspective and eventually was used as a base for The Wire.
So you have the corner shop and corners occupied by the drug dealers. The series goes through the turf wars between the dealers, the police trying to rid the corners of the gangs ( think; futile), the politicians trying bury/solve the problems to thier advantage within 5 year terms, the education system trying to give the children a way out, all in the confines of a post industriual town with middle class flight. The series is about all the consequences of little or no investment into new industry, of fire fighting rather than getting to the root cause, and ultimatly letting it fend for its self.
“The recent History of Baltimore is the same all over the post industrial world where the old heavy, labour intensive industries move out or are mechanized, leaving a local population with a lost identity of work and place.”
Think of the Royal Docks in the east end of London, once the container shipping moved in at Tilbury, the boom of the London docks died over night, leaving disenfranchisement, no identity of place that had a sense of pride, no industry leading to high unemployment and eventually no hope.
A void remained to be filled, and with the local politicians with a small government agenda this will not stop the natural hard-working resourcefulness of people, it’s just that the easiest way with highest profit is at present drugs for the resourceful and for some, who lose hope, it can become a form of escape from the harsh relativity of day-to-day living. So the ‘Supply and Demand’, pure Smithsonian Market forces that the neoliberals propagate as the capitalist utopia with the invisible hand of self-regulation, will, left to its own devices bring us to a place where every man helps his brother for the good of the market. Experience tells us this is not so, short-term markets post big bang* will not allow this, the god of self-interest*, our irrational inner chimp*, fear* and greed all add up to the distopia that is Balitmore.
“And the corner is where it would be played out in this Drama”
So the how does the humble brown paper bag relate to all this?
Below is an interpretation of a scene from the episode where this all comes to a head, leading to the parable.
Obviously this is not the answer, but the point of the exercise is to look around you, take stock and think. The rational rather than the reactive*is needed to understand the cause and effect of a small change mixed with compromise can offer a solution, and get the thinking to a more Lateral position, asking different questions and exploring the consequences of long and short-term interventions.
“So the street corner where people, stop, meet and feel comfortable, it’s a place of high value.”
If a place has high unemployment, no hope then it can become a place of conflict, but it’s still a place, good or bad.
Ultimately people need money and at present that comes through gainful employment, so no matter how many beautiful parks, housing developments we build, if people don’t feel valued in themselves, then that will show on the outside. No work, then other high profit means will appear. Gentrification may push the problem elsewhere under the carpet, but you will eventually trip over it and fall flat on your face, i.e. Baltimore, Trump, Brexit etc.
This is what a Rowndtree commission conclusion was on Regeneration, but more of that for a later post.*
What are the social and economic benefits of place?
Hopefully from previous research and future investigation I will be able to start to answer these questions and more. Not always following the obvious routes, I will be looking at cognitive bias, memory, self interest, fear as well as spacial effects of mass and void, the senses, time, evolution of a space.
“How do we make a place where people want to be?”
New towns, regeneration of old cities and retro fitting in new cites, all are pointing to the realisation that green space, malls and public transport are only part of the answer, albeit in the right direction. How do we make a place where people want to be?
Post race meeting in a car park
A corner of a car park for a brief time becomes a place. Scale, shade, food, people watching people, seating (150mm high kerb), a common reason. The comments when asked were;
its feels right
comfortable
cosy
All the elements were there no sense of flight (fear), enough routes to escape, but enough enclosure to feel secure. A corner, so we can look out and our backs are protected, like being on the back seat of a coach.
The film quality of the movie at the start is rather poor, but stick with it, as it’s about the content.
Made in 1980 so some amusement can be gained from the conservative fashion, but the main point is the simplicity of how humans react in public space and what makes a space successful or not. Note; at the end of the film recommendations are made to the New York City planning control. The effects can been seen today, think of how many areas have movable chairs and how the atmosphere of the city has changed from many complete no go areas, to a city that now feels much safer, at ease and sittable!
“The present issue (as with all popular cities) is ‘gentrification’ when regeneration arrives”
The present issue (as with all popular cities) is gentrification, the meat-packing district has been changed by the High Line Park which is great, but the lower paid workers who service the area are being pushed out by unregulated high rents, all cause and effect. So what ever we do as designers/planners we have to always look to the bigger picture, build a frame-work for flexibility so area can evolve without expensive re-builds and social cleansing.
“I so love this little film, Holly Whyte’s voice reminds me of my wise grandparents, thoughtful, never rushing a sentence, understanding the power of a pause and the simple profound observations of the world around them.”
A good review blog of the book. An essential for anyone who wants to understand Why some one would possibly want to visit and stay in your local park….Ignore this book at your peril. Based most of my final degree design on his proven observations
I went along to see the Show Garden that my good friend Whitney designed for Hadlow College.
Outstanding design and followed the brief to perfection. A ‘Top Gold’ (read best in show) was awarded, and rightly so….
So why was it so good?
Well these are just my humble observations
1) Balance, the ratio between soft/hard/water and the building was perfect
2) No Full stops, meaning that the viewer tended to look at the whole picture rather than just hot spots of design. Thus leading them in to explore further and notice the detail.
3) Journeys, plenty of them each leading to a destination, very hard to do in a small space.
4) Space, or the use of in the sense that the seating tended to be in the furthest corner thus back to the wall and more impression of space.
5) Tones, of the planting flowed interspersed with neutral whites to lift the strong orange/burnt yellows out.
6) Humour and idea’s, well we are British and we love a quirky idea.
As usual got a bit involved trying to do the art picture and forgot to take any overall pictures, hopefully Whit will put some up on her blog about the process of the site
Two shows, lots of friends and family came along to support. I have had so many meals off the back of this (still a few to go) what a great crowd of generous people i know.
An old cycling/running/swimming buddie and general good all round egg, bought me a graduation present which may be of interest to mac users with old lap tops.
Macupgrades.co.uk (google it)
500mb hard drive nothing spectacular in that, but within it a 4gb solid state drive. The idea being the S/S drive is fast and does all the regular work and leaving the Hard Drive (7200rpm) to take up the rest. really works like a dream, rocket ship. No need to upgrade the lap top for a couple more years. (purchased 2006).
So apart from all the good will and presents any other conclusions?
Confidence has improved, but most of all just the fact that social mobility is possible if given the chance.
Hard work is rewarded, left-field thinking in the right environment is a bonus, photoshop is the modern paint pallet and finally the spectrum of design is broad, so even not every one gets it, not a problem as thats the beauty of the diversity of humanity.
So what hasn’t changed?
My modernist view that form and function will always be closly related. The idea to benefit people (or the end user if you like), still its not about designer more what you can give to enrich peoples lives within the opens spaces that we are resposible for, if its not adopted by the public then its a failiure. Most of the designs that fail, fail to communicate what thier purpose is and thus get ignored or even despised. If there is any kind of pretentiousness behind the design, (ie don’t preach, lead by example) it will be picked up especially by the British public.
Some images that were blown up for the MA show
They seem to go down well, doing my ‘painterly’ thing that Jekyll was famous for, though maybe not up to her standard.
Been a while due to doing stupid hours to get it all done, got to the point were sleeping seemed like a guilty pleasure!
Everyone really pulled something special out of the bag in the last two weeks well done to all my class mates.
As usual looking around at everybody else’s work see big gaps in mine, but came to the conclusion that we will always be better off following our own cue.
Regrets, still think my sequential’s are a bit heavy, whereas my 1;50 seemed to hit the spot, with movement and a light touch.
Would’ve liked to have done a seasonal page as i played around with colours earlier on, no time. Would’ve liked the model to be better, seeing the rest of the class picked up some good idea’s, and well done some really nice models.
I think i managed to get the point across with this one, room for improvement on the trees though.
Obama visits Park life for inspiration and too meet an old Mexican friend
Distance and our friendly monks take a stroll.
A particular fave, really thought about the issues as i designed this in particular hidden fixings, but with accessibility for maintenance.
This one seemed popular in the sense ‘ooh i would like to go there’ so managed to sell the festival idea with the ravine.
Just need £20million to build it….. offers welcome
Just an update on the mood board. Line drawn 1;50 resolved a few issues and found a few.
Tried some other alternatives, but couldn’t better the images for the mo. P/S more vibrance some tricks with spray and enlarged the lads. Feel something should be done with prairie pic but don’t know what.
Still find president pics, do a bit then walk away, as time just disappears otherwise.
Like many in the group i have been revisiting my 1;200 stuff and working my way through,
so far materials, tree planting, shrub and climber planting, lighting, festival lighting (had to do it, very kitsch,but when you are a kid and its Christmas being high brow is not as important a visual overload for a memory, that includes 47 year old children).
Well worked hard on this, the trees are large on purchase to get an effect while everything else is taking hold, a risk, but it also shows the intention of getting an effect to get the park up and running quickly.
Shrubs and Climbers
Felt like this took forever (about a week). Trying to get reasonable flowering through the year with out to many holes. It may be better to go for a spectacular short flowering season or not (ie Augusta Masters Golf, hate the game but love the tournament, and the blowsy Rhododendrons remind me of Mrs Bucket for some reason)?
Lighting
Enjoyed playing with PS trying to get the lighting in the dark effect, as usual stumbled on a couple of things.
1) In the layers pallet click on the drop down and use luminosity once your blue fill layer has been placed over the colour image. It will turn the blue black ,don’t worry, just mask the main picture and create another colour fill when you have finished. It seems to lift out of the screen a bit more.
2)Brush and brush presets are were its at, once you have mastered layers and masks this is the next most important (in my humble opinion), brushes effect erasers, so the brush pre sets can act as a eraser brush. Worth playing with.
Lighting Festival
The chance of using extra lights for festivals with the ravine seemed a no brainer. The effect is a bit chinsey with these colours but everyone has a bit of chinse hidden away in the back of their head. After all this is a park for everyone not just your average judgmental ‘Garden Designer’ No Baa humbug here!
Drainage
Hopefully finish this one tomorrow and update the 1;200 MP. Thought a lot about catchment and water harvesting, so i will be putting in tanks and irrigation ect. Along with sediment tanks for the collection of silt. Used different arrows to show the speed of water, ie slower on soil that rock/hardstanding along with gradient.
One all the drawings then cross section update, sequential’s, precedents and finally model pics.
Then 1;50. Hopefully have a few drawings for the 4th May.
And Oh, my achilles has gone again, fan bloody tastic.
It's about people, stupid... 