The week of Ecobuild had started and I was quite excited about the talks that were happening, i had got my badge through the door and signed up to the talks I wanted to go to. However i got really ill and missed every day except the last. I was deeply disappointed but I was lucky to be given at least one day to visit especially that it’s free for students saving a lot of money. The Excel is enormous which was perfect for showcasing the stalls that were there. The one talk I did go to was no use to me at all and although it was interesting to see what professionals thought it was more a talk for civil engineers. So once I left that I explored the hundreds of endless stalls there were.
At first I didn’t really know where to go or where to start so I just began walking. I did see a fascinating water feature. I was rooted to the spot when I came across is trying to work out how it works. I came up with the theory that the way the water comes out of the “floating pink tap” is also the way the water goes in and that very pipe is what holds the structure together creating a floating affect. Water features are always an appealing site that seems to attract people. Just like Christopher Alexandra said in his book “A patterned language” that people are just attracted to water and how it has something to do with the fact that we humans are made up of it so much.
So as I began to walk past the many stalls I began to see a pattern that was the sheer number of stalls selling solar panels. Although solar panels are great, they are also not as effective as say a wind turbine yet there were not nearly as many of those. The answer is obvious, solar panels look better and can even create a lovely little pattern, and the sleek design is appealing.
Kingston University had a stall, the stall was there for three days and demonstrated the Rematerialise catalogue of over 1,200 sustainable materials. Which is a brilliant way of learning the useful materials that help the environment. To be honest I was quite bored of the never ending and monotonous stalls.
However every now and then I saw things that really caught my eye, one was the Chelsea Collage of Art and Design “space of waste”. This was a very interesting piece of work that allowed you to really interact with the space, something that was greatly lacking at the Ecobuild. When people see something that they can interact with they almost instantly will want to do so. For some reason when looking at this i though of Plays capes and how today’s perception of interaction has changed. Before the very “you must be careful and safe” theme was reinforced in playgrounds, now the idea of adding risk and thought provoking equipment to stimulate young minds. This structure just seemed to me it could possibly be a very cool climbing frame where plants can grow and children interact with it.
Another stand that caught my eye was a magazine called detail; they had wonderful illustration on construction detailing. However the books I wanted where quite expensive but flicking through them was quite good.
My overall feeling at Ecobuild was quite disappointing, I had missed so much and the stand on offer where not as exciting as they first appear, they just want to sell you stuff that's about it really.
