An Attempt at a Knot Garden
Well just an idea for a semi circular spot in a drive for a Georgian House, with a twist of some water and marginals continuing the line.
A start lot more to do
All in a Knot
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Category Archives: Theory
Can’t see the wood for the Tree’s
Focussed on the point.
A bizarre saying, never really understood it for years, but at the moment its crystal clear and i am sure for most of us it has a chime of truth.
Looking at your own work for hours/days/months, doubt creeps in until you have no idea whether its good, inspirational and ground breaking or tired, predictable and safe.
Then the trap of adding more ‘stuff’ and losing the less is more simplicity ,which we all know is so hard to achieve. It comes back to the would i like to spend a day in the Park? As an 8 year old or 70?
This so has to become a ‘place’ again. It must become a point of reference to what a park could and should be the local and wider community. Otherwise leave it as it is and spend the money else were, were it would be beneficial.
Enough rambling,
Drawings
Sunday Morning, this is were i am at
1:200 plan. Updated and tightened the annotation. Added trees to correspond to planting plan. Lightened the South bank. Cross section markers. Reduced the size of the scale bar. I am sure i have missed stuff
Boy, did i spend some time on this little puppy. There can never be enough information for a contractor. So site visits would still have to happen though the idea of leaving a drawing that the informed contractor could refer to and not be phoning up every five minutes is the challenge.
Flattened the textures for the different materials to reduce any confusion. Though i am sure a specification book could go with each drawing, as i seem to have a lot of questions for the designer, oh shit thats me!
I can easily see how a year of designing as a team with hundreds of drawings and specification documents could easily happen , and then have a major F/Up
because somebody has missed the ‘bleedin obvious’!
Sunday have loads to still do, given up on getting the model done, but you never know!!!
Dark Satanic Mills
Ozzy the Victorian Man
While i was designing some Victorian/Gothic style fencing, had some music on for a change (tend to work in silence as the old grey matter tends to ‘get in the groove’ alas the wrong groove).
Itunes Genius playlist, What could better than a bit of Black Sabbath playing a delightful tune from their ever popular long player ‘Master of Reality’ called ‘Into the Void’ a real throat slitter, perfect for a Gothic Fence design.
A quick sketch of the front entrance
Gothic Arch theme. The slits and holes for a bit of decoration
A bit more ‘Adams Family’ with diamond shapes.
All out of Oak,it will cost a fortune but last 40+years without any treatment, the beauty of hard wood.
All made at Hever Saw Mills , hopefully.
A tree for all seasons
Plants
Well first attempt at the tree planting schedule. I have not put sizes as i need some guidance from others on the pot/girth dimensions.
Really tried to visualise the effect the tree’s would have in the surroundings, ie some restricted space other area’s much more open. Also the effect on noise from dampening to echo down the ravine. Thought about enclosure for the visitors as well as seasonal colour and scent . Put some specimens in to cause special visitations when in bloom (in particular the Handkerchief and Foxglove trees)
Materials
Really just a quick template ,a lot more research as i have yet to get excited about anything. I know what i want but can’t seem to find the materials to match the vision….Compromise?
Made Me Smile
Its about People………..Stupid
I have been going on (ie boring the pants off every one) about this study along with a book titled ‘A Visual Approach To Park Design’ by Albert J Rutledge. For the web, Chicago city started an organisation called ‘Project for Public spaces’ which was inspired by Fred Kent one of Whyte’s assistants on the project below. A massive resource of idea’s that i wished i looked into further before doing the document ( i skimmed the edges as lack of TIME like all of us). If i have a passion its making places that effect peoples lifes for the better on a daily basis. Which i realise Parks are one of them. Can you imagine Calverley becoming ‘A Place’ again? Sod the fancy stuff, get the basics right…..See below.
About PPS « Project for Public Spaces – Placemaking for Communities
So here is the video in question. Made in 1979 (when most of you less than a twinkling in somebody’s eye) but still relevant, like good music if the quality is there then its timeless. Thus this research video. An hour long, but totally fascinating. Applies to both parks, the low traffic flow of TW thus need to attract, and the high traffic of Jubilee, need to retain.
I would be interested on your thoughts.
For me, it was the answer to the big question, Why should anybody visit my park, or to put it another way, how do I make my park ‘A Place’ rather than a field?
https://archive.org/embed/SmallUrbanSpaceshttps://archive.org/details/SmallUrbanSpaces
On the third viewing (…sad I know) the point of ratio of human space. Too wide and the distance will not be to scale, and narrowness in not necessarily a deterrent. To finish, a quote from the great man himself,
“I end then in praise of small spaces. The multiplier effect is tremendous. It is not just the number of people using them, but the larger number who pass by and enjoy them vicariously, or even the larger number who feel better about the city center for knowledge of them. For a city, such places are priceless, whatever the cost. They are built of a set of basics and they are right in front of our noses. If we will look.” ‘William H.(Holly) Whyte (1917-1999)’
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, Washington, D.C.: The Conservation Foundation, 1980.
Back to the Coalface
Well had to get back to work and actually earn some filthy money.
Bit of a shock physically, slept like a dead man.
Sketch blow up
Good exercise in thinking about what you have to resolve. My main points to resolve before thinking about anything were spot levels, gradients and differentials as in water height to island height for example.
A lot going on in the chosen area. I can visualise in my head what is going on, which is no help to the viewer so more perspective sketches needed, even the two minute cross section type.
Then i can start to nail down materials and planting styles along with irrigation, lighting, etc.
Reading an interesting book called, ‘The Dynamic Landscape’. the outline of the book is about bio diverse planting in parks as the education of the public to understand and appreciate the beauty of naturalistic planting rather than the municipal planting of the 19th century that is still the core of most local authorities , ‘we have always done it this way’ philosophy.
If the park can demonstrate the example of the naturalistic style with the slightly more formal prairie style then this can help the local authority to use this style as the public will have seen this in the park. Complaints can be referred to the park as an example. A case of re education. Use this style for roadside verges and cut down on the present high maintenance amenity grass that is the norm
A picture from http://www.pictorialmeadows.co.uk/local_authorities
A company providing flowering grasses specifically for local authorities…Nice
No Oscar nominations for this one
Its is easier with a vid to explain anything on computers, but then ‘Peter and Jane 5’ is more my level of reading.
Just a point of getting it accurate.
A final point that i missed is the printer even if you have the exact A1 size) always seem to scale down to app 97% there is a box on ‘Properties’ to put change to ‘Actual Size’
I would say enjoy, but when has an instructional video been fun, (unless its about making CAKES! obviously)
Very tired when doing this so a bit of brain freeze, croaky voice and general malaise.
photoshop blowing up an area to scale from Grant Beerling on Vimeo.
What makes a great space?
Or what makes a space were people want to meet. Found this worth a look, as at the end of the day if one forgets about people during the bustle of trying to create a cool design then it will be an empty space and the first place were local councils will reduce budgets when times are tough.
Though to be fair, we seem to have covered most of the words with our brain storming.
Spent a lot of time thinking (and commenting on other peoples sites) instead of working (paid work). Now have three days to put something down on paper.
So need to do some sketching. So do it!!!
Psychology of the Crowd
Talking to Joey yesterday about, yep you guessed it, politics. Reminded me of a series that was shown on the BBC a few years ago called ‘The Century of the Self’.
It goes into the black art of Public Relations or its proper title Propaganda. And how successive governments and corporations have used this line of mass control to get us to purchase product not out of need, but desire. (Episodes on Google video really worth viewing alas low quality stream, but its about the content).
So how does this relate to our Projects? Well if you can understand the aspirations (desires conscious or subconscious) of the end users then there is more of a chance of the park being ‘adopted’ by said people. In the marketing of the park(s) at the beginning and end, always keeping our eyes on the end user. If you feel that they won’t get ‘it’, then its about communication/education/marketing and ultimately changing their viewpoint/desire. You could link it to the change and acceptance of abstract art in our everyday life. There was a point when it was laughed out of town as fraud, but now as a group we accept it. Education/manipulation/fashion who knows, but we want to be associated with it, and therefore our association with it we assume it will make us seem more cultured/intelligent to others, which could be seen as an advantage amongst our piers. This proves the point that ‘new’ need not necessarily be bad, its about ‘viewpoint’ and what benefit is it to the force that is ‘self interest’
Self interest, what or how can it benefit ‘me’ as an end user, because if they (as groups of individuals) don’t see a benefit to themselves we will have an abandoned space, again. With little maintenance and thus the snow balling effect of decline will run its course, again. It all rests on adoption/love of the people for the parks. Think, Angel of the North, adopted and loved, by the local community. Who want to be associated with it as its considered to represent them as a sophisticated community, Manipulation? who knows, but they feel good about themselves, when we visit and say how wonderful it is.
Big Picture, not the ego of the designer (or as Tom would put it Nester rather than Hunter).
Its not really about Fraud, but about Edward Bernays the father of the Public Relations movement, really frightening how easy it is,if you know how.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6111922724894802811#docid=6718420906413643126
Edward Bernays
Off my soap box for another few days, Back to work!
It's about people, stupid... 