CV & Selected Projects (2012/13)

The following shows a selection of projects from the last 3 years of University & work.

 

DIY Urban Furniture Testing

The National Graduate School of Science & Technology in Strasbourg, France is a school for enginneers & architects. The whole university campus is undergoing rethinking of its organisation & layout, with the help of the Collectif ETC (an association of architects who aim to transform public spaces) urban street furniture designed by students was tested to experiment with different layouts in the campus car park.

The students started by entering proposals for street furniture, they were able to submit 7 basic modules. After this 33 modules were designed & built by the students, all had to be able to be carried by a fork-lift truck, so the bases are constructed with palettes. The modules offer a variety of uses, from ping-pong, football goals, chess tables, & a variety of seating types for sitting & lying on. The modules were often moved around to experiment with different layouts. With each module is a miniature model in order for for people to inagine & visualise other options quickly. The series of photographs below shows the different modules in their altering states being used:

The furniture was only supposed to be a quick experiment of space, remaining in the car park for only the week, however the furniture had been enjoyed & used so much that the university has decided to keep them there for a few months while real development plans take place.

Images courtesy of Landezine

FLOWLIGHT

While researching sustainable methods of lighting for use in my studio project, a site which is on the river & has a dock in the centre of it (see Millenium Mills post for details), I came across this new tidal powered lighting system - FLOWLIGHT

Tidal power is not widely used currently, mainly because it is less powerful/takes longer to produce the same quantities of electricity as other more conventional sources. However, it is believed that in the future it will be used far more when other resources run out or provide too much damage to our planet. Water produces a lot of energy within itself, through waves & tides, Irish designer Shane Molloy has looked into this further & come up with a sustainable lighting system. Energy is generated from the flow of a tidal river, which is converted into electricity, which in turn illuminates the lights, using only renewable energy. The first Flowlights have been used to illuminate the dockside of the River Suir in Ireland.

The lights have an outer shell made from carbon fibre, within this is the bespokely designed water turbine blades. The blades of the turbine are designed so that they can operate both clockwise & counterclockwise, enabling them to generate power with the flow of the river at high & low tides. The lighting systems have been developed to react to the levels of water in the river with a 'Tidal Drop Extension Arm', which is constantly altering itself, extending & contracting to keep the turbine at an ideal depth in the water.

The mechanical energy created by the turbines is converted into electrical power, which is then stored in a battery unit within the system. They have built in light sensors which will turn the LED lighting strips on when the natural night fades.

This lighting scheme seems to be a suitable method of lighting many riverside/dockside/waterfronted public areas which are wishing to illuminate the walkways. Sustainable alternatives are obviously well researched in most designs today, due to the high awareness of the state of the planet & its resources. This lighting would definately be a system I would consider when designing the waterfront jetty in my studio design. As these images show they look reasonably attractive & are quite low key & minimal, it would be unlikely that alterations to the style & aethestics of the structure would alter the effectiveness of the energy generator, & so this could be changed to suit specific sites or design styles.

All images courtesy of The Design Blog

Sackler Crossing - Kew Gardens

The Sackler Crossing is a bridge across the Lake at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The bridge is a beautiful piece of architecture & engineering. As part of the third year module LD3002 Fielding we have to write a Management Plan for a chosen site at either Kew Gardens or Richmond Park. The lake & Sackler Crossing is my chosen site, due to its variety of habitats & interesting features. The following text has been taken from my management plan: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | The Lake & Sackler Crossing | Management Plan, by Alice Hankin

"The Sackler Crossing was installed in 2006 & was the first ever bridge to cross the lake. The name is in honour of Theresa Sackler & Dr Mortimer, two philanthropists, whose donations made it possible for the bridge to be constructed. The designer was John Pawson, a British Architect. The bridge was designed in such a way that it reflects the precedent set by William Kent, an early visionary of Kew's, who wanted features in the landscape to be "stumbled upon" without prior planning.

The exact location of the bridge is purposeful; it forms part of the arc that Wilkinson Eyre planned in his master plan for the Gardens. The arc's central point is the Palm House, & then it sweeps around, cornered by through-views, & bisected by the Syon vista. The curve creates a new circulation route through this section of the Gardens, & the Sackler Crossing allows users to cross the water at this point.

The use of black granite & bronze to construct the bridge "reinforces the elemental character of the esign" (John Pawson -Lake Crossing). The granite lies in bands forming the deck walkway, & cast bronze has been used in vertical cantilevers to create simple balusters. If you view the bridge from either end the balusters seem to be a solid barrier, however from a side angle it is realised that there are hundreds of individual bronze bars, allowing views through to the surrounding water

The bridge has created a new route & enabled far easier access to certain areas either side of the lake, which before were neglected."

Graphic communication & techniques in Landscape Architecture 'masterclass'

Today we had a 'masterclass' by an employee of Bernard Seymour Landscape Architects. We all created our own renders of an AutoCAD courtyard plan, using photoshop. The 3 hours we had was hugely helpful, taking us through all the stages from exporting the CAD plan to PDF, to creating a finished (almost) render. A lot of the techniques I was already familiar with, but Colum either showed us better ways of creating the same effect, or faster ways to produce the same things.

The image above is my render as done in the 3 hour session, more could be added & altered, but this shows the stage I got to today.

This shows a closer section of the courtyard render I completed today. It uses a combination of images to create a complete image. The trees I created from scratch in photoshop, as a start to a new Image Library I am making to help speed up the process of drawings in the future.

THE FINER THINGS

Swiss Cottage Open Space, London; this project by Gustafson Porter in 2006, comprises of a lawned public space with a large central water feature made of granite. The water feature has a sloping gradient so that water can flow from the top end to the bottom, where the water pools. At the head of the fountain there are seven water jets, set to a 30 degree angle, which emit water across the basin of the fountain. At night these jets are lit from beneath by small blue LED lights. The lights create a beautiful sight at night & give the site a new ambience.

Finsbury Avenue Square, London; the £750,000 project in the Broadgate Business area is a 20x20 mtere lighting grid, containing over 100,000 individual LED lights, set in RGB clusters to enable a wide range of colour & hue changes. The square boasts one of the most sopisticated & highly techinical lighting displays in the world. It is hugely popular & people are always interacting with the lights. (image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/grosun/2414245267/)

New Australian Gardens at The National Australian Gallery; very simple design using grass & paving, but very effective, adding more interest to what could have been a plain straight edged lawn. (image from WLA)