London is an amazing place

Had a great day today, even though the Jubilee line was partly closed - just a little detour required. It was buzzing with visitors, both local and international.

 I finally managed to go and see Jubilee Park as recommended by Julia (NB the one on top of Canary Wharf tube station, NOT the one near Waterloo). It was well worth the visit - really gave me an appreciation of an urban space. It also reinforced Jamie's words of wisdom about people and water. It reminded me that children always walk along walls, even if they contain water so make sure the walls are wide enough. It also reminded me that you need to specify under storey planting very carefully, and also plan the path of cabling otherwise it looks terrible. I'd like to know the methodology for the change in levels - it seemed somewhat random but worked much better than at Mint Street.

I then went back to Southwark. Thankfully Cross Bones car park was open on a Sunday, even though the market was closed.




I love looking at things from the
other side: the memorial ribbons at Cross Bones:













I had another look around and took more photos then walked down to Mint Street. It has to be one of the emptiest parks I've been it. People don't even use it as a cut through, it was literally one man and his dog (no, the owner did not clear up after the dog), until a father came along with his son and made the poor 12 year old play on the climbing frame, even though he clearly didn't want to. I'm sure the space is better than it was but every time I've been there, it's deserted. The change in levels seems to be just for the sake of it. The most excitement was the cat watching something moving in the compost heap.

The recycling bins should be moved and I'm really not sure about the graffiti - I know it's South London but is it really a suitable subject for a children's play area?











One thing that really struck me again today is that it only takes a few metres to go from vibrant, lively streets to deserted, empty and soul-less. At one of the cross roads, I could see Southwark Bridge and the buildings on the north side of the river, and the the corner of Mint Street Park, and it seemed to be a ghost town in between. I suppose it's up to us to come up with some clever ideas to encourage people into these spaces.

Looking North to the Thames and the City

Looking South to Mint Street Park

Is it just me or does the Shard seriously look like a Dalek in this photo?

Something to reflect upon: this is on the side of the catholic school in Red Cross Street:

I'll scan some of the ideas I've been working on and post them tomorrow. The visit to Canary Wharf definitely helped today. Thanks Julia. Not sure I can get to Dalston though, as we're not off to the panto at Hackney this year.

Master Plan ideas

Finally I seem to have my head in the right place to move things forward.

I had to re do Playful - it was too similar to Restorative, and I hadn't really got a strong theme behind it.

For Playful I'm going with things you do as children that are still fun as a grown up - jumping in puddles, kicking piles of leaves. We should take time to be childlike, even as adults.

The idea stems from the ripples caused by jumping in puddles and has moved outwards (just like ripples).

The idea for Cross Bones is to create a space that can be used by non residents, for lunch times, weekends, evenings, pop events and to create a space that adds to the London/Southwark Plan to encourage visitors to Southwark to explore areas south of the river side area.

Ideas for pop up events:

Ripples - the original image

Abstracted pattern

First outline design

Need to go and do some more work, layout of Blogspot is frustrating me again, hence the untidy layout.

Negative Space

Have a look at this:

The-Art-of-Negative-Space


Also found this - might be useful for Advanced Rep in January:

Inspirational branding identity design projects

Time to get some sleep - procrastination is taking over and I need to turn the wi-fi off so that my teenagers go to sleep.

Southwark is an amazing place, even if you can get stabbed to death, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought Borough High Street was ok, but clearly not.

So much to learn, so little time.

I was really hoping to have more done by this time in the week but unfortunately family life has got in the way.

Bex, Julia and I went up to site on Tuesday, and I am so pleased that I have chosen the sites I have. So much history and there are some fantastic old terraces that have so far escaped recent redevelopment - a glimpse into the past, all be it a cleaned up and sanitised version. Cemetaries and workhouses are a pretty bleak past, although pwc is not a particularly bright future. I did put some thoughts down on Tuesday night while they were fresh in my mind and have managed to do a bit more research since.

I really get the idea of overlays - an effective way of looking at the different aspects of a site, I just need to claw back some time from family and business issues to get it set down on paper. Planting hedges is nearly as boring as laying turf, the difference is that I don't have to lay the turf.

I saw this on a wall near All Hallows Church, it appealed to me, I think it was the combination of antiquated phraseology and shabby chic. I hope it wasn't bought online last week!

Something that struck me was the variation in sound - both volume and type of sound, in close proximity. Surrroundings have a profound impact - either as a buffer or an amplifier. Something for us to take into account and plan around/for. Also the dominance that things can have - the huge brick wall and the Shard in Xbones. 

Time to get some sleep - more hedge planting tomorrow morning so I can crack on with Southwark in the afternoon - a weekend of the H word again for both my girls, both days. AAAHHHH!

Metis Pages

My Metis submission. It took longer to sort the file formats to get it on the blog than to send it to Metis!

Reminder for file formats for the blog:
pdfs don't work, exporting jpeg from layout works but you have to save each page as a separate file (unless anyone has found a better way) and pdfs have to be taken into Photoshop to convert them to jpegs. You can export a pages file to pdf but you still have to take it into Photoshop to jpeg it.

 

    

Metis - submitted

Hooray, I submitted my Metis in time. I'm sure that there is lots to critique but when I compare it to what I've done before, it's a big improvement. If I can keep getting better. I actually stand a chance of getting somewhere.

I'm learning so much this term, long may it continue.

The SGD conference was good this weekend, made me realise the importance of reading the brief, writing a good brief and that it takes time and practise to be good at something. It was also another good opportunity to get hold of materials information.

Here's my metis design, I'll put the files somewhere for Jamie tomorrow.

This one's for you Jamie - not being grumpy

I found this and it made me smile.!!!!! Have a look at the gallery too:

The Pig of Happiness

Enjoy xxx