The Urban River

In April, 2007 Henk Hofstra created an "urban river" in Drachten, The Netherlands. A 1km stretch of road was painted bright blue to envisage an actual river using 4,000 litres of paint! The river actually symbolises two things, one is in memorial of an actual river that flowed through the city and second. The second is to remind us of the importance of water which is done by the 8m high letters on the road spelling "WATER IS LIFE". Well at least you know you won’t get your breaks wet.

Cloud Gate

This public sculpture created Anish Kapoor named "Cloud Gate" is inspired by the material liquid Mercury most commonly found in thermometers. The sculpture sits as the centre piece of AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park, Chicago Illinois. The mirror finish allows it to reflect the city skyline and the distorted affect makes it all seem a bit more fun and alive.

Urban Waterfall New York stylee

Imagine walking down over a bridge and suddenly you see a waterfall not coming from the water but from the bridge, odd? or amazing? Or is your mind playing tricks on you? Well actually no its not, well not in New York's Brooklyn Bridge. It would seem that the creator Olafur Ellasson wanted to bring something new and exciting to urban city of New York. The way it works seems quite simple, scaffolding along with water pumps are used by taking the water from the East river and placed in "intake filter pools". It is then released to create the gorgeous waterfall affect.

Co2LED

Yesterday I wrote about an Installation in the 2004 Beijing Olympics NAMED White noise/white Light. Looking around the web I came across something of a similar design except one main factor, the site was completely self sustained. Named “Co2LED” use to reside in Alrington, Texas boasted 522 LED lights that were completely solar powered. When the project was complete the entire thing was taken apart and recycled, now that’s what I call eco-friendly. It was designed by artists Jack Sanders, Robert Gay and Butch Anthony, was designed with Arlington’s environmental initiative FreshAIRE (Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions) in mind.

“A Device to Root Out Evil,”

Most people like their buildings with the ground floor first, it dosen't seem the case for this Church in Glenbrow, Canada. The artist seems to have created a controversial piece of art work here as he has created a church that has been well tipped on its roof. It does seem quite surreal but to have it tipped on its top like that is quite a structural achievement.

Denver's Big Blue Bear

This enormous blue bear stands 40 feet tall at Colorado Convention Centre, US. Can you imagine the view from the workers, not exactly your average view out the window. Definitely makes office work a bit more interesting and beats having scaffolding.

Abstract Art 2

Abstract Art

I am a huuuuuuuuge fan of Abstract art, the way the shapes and colours are created and merged with one another is brilliant. I often look for ideas with these art pieces, I can take from it how the colours would look aesthetically pleasing together as well as various shape forms i can use in my designs. I will be posting various art works that catch my eye.

Tate Modern: Weather Project

During my GCSE's in 2003 (wow that was a loong time ago) I went on a trip to the Tate Modern; it was my first ever visit to the Museum. The Tate modern at the time had an installation called "The Weather Project" and I have to say it is to date one of the nicest things I’ve seen. The way they had replicated the sun setting atmosphere was cool, it created an overwhelming sense or relaxation. The light gave the enormous hall a soft feel and ENOURMOUSSS mirror above kept those who weren’t laying down(yes people were laying down) look upwards as they walked. This created an almost surreal feel.

Burning Man

Burning Man is an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. There are numerous installations laid out for the public to see during this period. Everything about this even is so unique; the fact that it’s the middle of the desert and so many people still want to come and witness it is astounding. The City layout is meant to resemble a clock with the centre of it is a big structure called “The Man”. It seems to be an almost magical place where a city is created and then disappears without a trace; I guess the sand helps in that department. The lonely and baran land is definitely a great blank canvas for the world go go crazy in.





This is a satellite image of the "disappearing city".

Here are a few examples of the Installations created:



The "Cats cradle" is an interactive installation allows the public to play with it as if a instrument with the provided instruments.



The star of the show..."The Burning Man".




This is definitely scary but there seems to be something elegant about the way the outstretched arm seems to rest on the ground.



Don't you think its really cool the way the lighting can completely change the way something can look.

V & A: 1:1 Architects build small spaces. Studio Mumbai Architects

I've been trying to upload this video for a while now didn't want to work before. It's a recording I did of one of the spaces created in the V&A. It shows how I had to navigate my way through the space and how the space changes as you walk; from narrow corridors to steep stairs and a tree in the middle of it all! The space is entitled "Mumbai, India in-between Architecture". I apoligise i didn't realise the video would come out slanted.

Constructing Landscapes, Astrid Zimmermann (ED)

Constructing landscapes is a mammoth version of Landscape Architects Pocket book. This is one of my favourite books as it has so much detail in how to construct a site from the most basic materials. It has rich colourful images that compliment the size of the book adding more detail. This book has helped me better understand what goes on underneath a landscape project and shows things that are normally hidden.

Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture by Virginia McLeod

Detail in Contemporary Landscape Architecture is a great tool when needing to look at precedent; it has a wide variety of projects across the globe. It comes with very rich and colourful images of the projects as well as the detailed structural designs that go with it. At times I was stuck on how to create my construction detail so I would look at similar designs and adapt them to my design. A CD also accompanies the book with images of all the construction detailing of the projects. You could open the images up on AutoCAD but the layers have all been flattened.

Landscape Architect's pocket book by Siobhan Vernon (Author), Nicola Garmory (Author), Rachel Tennant (Author)

The Landscape Architect's pocket book is a great way of looking up essential information from various materials to the correct measurement needed to plant a tree; it even goes into how the legal side works. The book itself is quite small and the print inside is in black and white with few images. This book has been a great source of information during my second year and is well worth purchasing and reading over daily to sink in the cast amount of information this small book holds.

WALESSS Wild camping

A few years ago I went on a trekking expedition to various Parts of Wales for my Duke of Edinborough Gold Award. This Summer I decided to go again with a few friends of mine, i missed the open road and the fresh air but most of all I missed the freshest water you will ever taste!! Plus it’s a good way to boost your fitness in a short period of time. So we set off on Wednesday the 4th August to the 6th, reason being not all my friends were as experienced as I was so we kept it short. Our aim was to hit the Black mountains and Brecon Beacons situated in South Wales. We were extremely fortunate to be blessed with great weather, the views were amazing. The wild camping was definitely a new experience for my friends as they were use to campsites but this allowed us to have our own space and be as loud as we wanted. Of course the days walking did take its toll on us but the food always gave us our energy back. By far the worst creature out there were the midges, they are like mosquitoes on drugs they just eat you alive. Luckily learning from experience i got the essential bug spray and cream which saved our lives I’m telling you!!!

White Noise/ White Light

When I get stuck thinking of which idea to start designing with I usually do what everyone does and look through books and on more than one occasion I have come across one Installation in particular. The White Noise/ White Light project was once one of nine temporary urban interactive installations at the Athens Summer 2004 Olympics. Part of “Catch the light” competition. It was created at the base of the Acropolis. By day it seemed to be a dull square wooden deck with long Fibre Optic Stalks placed within the deck. By night the whole installation transformed into a fascinating landscape full of light and sound. The way in which this Luminous Sound-Scapeis created is from the interaction with people. The images above showed a series of long Fibre Optic Stalks attached to a wooden deck. These fibre optic Stalks are semi flexible in order to create the affect of walking with little interruption. As the Fibre Optic Stalks move a light is emitted from a hidden light source, lighting the top tip of the Stalk. So as people interact with it less the lights don’t appear. Throughout all this White Noise is produced from a hidden source as a masking agent for sound.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2009/1800045504_47183a6a3a_o.jpg(15thJanuary 2010)

Green Piece Project

This project was based on a competition designed by Green Peace in order to tackle the problem of a possible new runway at Heathrow. The idea was to create a landscape that would enable activists to stay on site for numerous days and weeks and be self sustained. It would also need to have a security aspect so that people like the police and riot officers cannot penetrate the base. My idea was quite simple; create a maze on a landscape that has varied gradients and an underground base for the activists.

Kings Cross Project

This projects looks at how a temporally installation would benefit the new site being build near Kings cross station as part of the redevelopment plan in London. I looked at how creating colourful and amusing signs would attract and direct people to the new site. The reason I chose this is because although the new site is almost hidden amongst the hustle and bustle of the city.

V & A: 1:1 Architects build small spaces

I went to visit the new exhibition held throughout the V&A. The idea that architects had build 1:1 scale small spaces was definitely worth seeing. It was great how they had separated the spaces throughout the museum almost creating a treasure hunt for where the next space may be. Each space was very unique, but seemed to all hold one theme to me in common; moving through spaces. Half the Small spaces had been on ground level where you may experience walking into a dark room with a small lit corridor. The other half mainly comprised or various scenarios of walking up stairs and experiencing changing spaces from a narrow corridor to a bigger open space.

London's Serppentine's summer Pavilion

Last year I visited the Serpentine Gallery and noticed quite a large construction site and was quite keen to know what would replace the Frank Gehry structure. So it was quite a pleasant surprise when i was on the bus reading the Metro newspaper when and came across a very interesting article. What caught my attention was the colour RED. It would appear that the construction site had been the making of a new summer pavilion for the following year designed by Jean Nouvel . The Pavilion is almost entirely decked out in red, red walls, curtains, chairs and tables even the floor. It mainly features as a cafe selling food and drinks quite pricey but expected for the area. It does feel quite surreal walking through the space as you are thrust into a world of red. I was pleasantly surprised to see a small area dedicated to urban agriculture. They had peppers, green chillies and tomatoes; this type of endeavour in the urban space seems to be growing quite nicely. I also noticed that on the far side of the Pavilion they had created a row chess boards. As i was with a friend we sat down to play a few games, however as the sun was very hot that day and the shade in that was not so good so we could’nt play many games. Whilst we were playing an Italian news reporter asked us if she could take pictures so hopefully i can find these pictures online and post them too.