Tudela (Club Med) Restoration - Spain

Project: Tudela (Club Med) Restoration
Landscape Architect: EMF Landscape Architects
Location: Cap de Creus, Catalunya, Spain
Area: 200 ha
Completion: 2010
Project Type: Restoration, nature







Image courtesy of Landezine

What is Landscape by Heather Ring

Today we were lucky enough to have an afternoon of lectures from some very interesting & inspiring people, representing their companies & giving us a look into their work. The question raised was 'What is Landscape?' All the guest speakers gave their own interpretation of what they believe Landscape Is.

Heather Ring - Wayward Plants

• Plant Exchange: unwanted plants to create gardens.
• Plant adoption: ability for the public to "adopt" unwanted plants
• Guerilla Gardening: Planting/creating gardens without permission. Wayward Plants created a Guerilla garden on the corner of Upper Street next to the infamous Foundry.
• The Union Street Urban Orchard: created using all recycled materials (ie. palettes), contained a number of interactive elements, including; cider making shed, greenhouses, outdoor cinema, plant exchange & much more. There were a number of people who actually lived on the site in "eco-pods", these people helped manage & look after the site.
• Garden for medicine: another interactive garden to promote the history & information behind plants used for mecidinal use.
• Algae Garden (proposed): algae is a potential bio-fuel, this garden will celebrate the beauty of algae which main people do not realise.
  
• Little known history of Kensington Gardens - Camoflague: the use of plants & natural processes as a camoflague.

A brief rough quote from Heather on her views of What is Landscape? - "Landscape is an exploration at small scale...a way to see how people interact. Due to the economy small scale & temporary is often all you can do, are allowed to do."

I found Heather's presentation very interesting, it really opened my eyes to the way that small scale, temporary projects can really make a huge difference & attract such attention. I had seen the Union Street Urban Orchard on a website last summer & had fully planned to go....I'm now upset I let it slip my mind. I think she will offer a lot of inspiration to a lot of us, who maybe have worried about the prospect of working in an office with several layers of superiors, never feeling you are working towards what you really feel drives your enthusiam & inspirations.

Click here to find out more about Heather & Wayward Plants' work

What is Landscape - Christian Spencer Davies

Christian Spencer Davies - AMODELS

• Architectural model makers: majority of their work is for contemporary architectural companies

• Unconventional model making: no realistic models, no white models, no "model railway style" models. They do not like to work as conventional model makers who create life-like representations, their work is individual, creative, imaginative & abstract

• Models by AMODELS can be made from a variety of materials, including: timber, metal, embroidery, perspex, paper & many more. All of which are quite conventional model making materials, however AMODELS use the materials in ways that others do not.

• They often work with big names, such as; Gustafson Porter, Zaha Hadid, Will Alsop, working with these designers to create individual & striking pieces.

• Projects they have created models for include; 'Diana Princess of Wales Memorial' in Hyde Park, 'Gardens by the Bay' in Singapore, models for films, including a huge model used in the 'Landscape Architecture studio' of Jude Laws in the film "Breaking & Entering"

Below are a couple of my favourite models by AMODELS:

Christian had very interesting & inspiring views on his client relationships, which really stood out to me. He has little interest in being told what to do throughout a project, & prefers to be allowed artistic licence of his own to create a beautiful model of what he has interpretted from the architects/designers ideas.

Click here to see more of AMODELS portfolio

Researchers Developing A Living Skin For Buildings

Research is being carried out at the University of Greenwich into a new carbon negative living material that will be used to protect structures & fight against climate change. The material has been made from protocells - very simple cells that only have the basic elements of life, however are still able to grow & multiply. The cells will capture carbon from the air in their membranes, causing them to grow & eventually form a hard, coral-like armour around buildings. The cells could even be used to support buildings by hardening & securing their foundations, places like Venice this come to great use & importance in the future. The researchers invisage a future where buildings are no longer static structures, but ever growing & strengthening elements, that also remove carbon from the air, helping the fight against climate change.

Read more: Researchers Developing Coral-Like Living Skin for Buildings

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)

Pollution Reducing Cement....

I have just read on a website that an Italian cement-making company have just created a new form of cement that will actually reduce the levels of pollution in big cities...... It is said to "kill" smog & pollution.
The cement has been named TX Active & is enhanced with titanium dioxide. The company claims that through a natural process called photocatalysis (occurs in sunlight), the titanium dioxide takes harmful chemicals from the air & turns them into harmless substances like water & nitrates. The cement is also self cleaning, and so any bi-products simply wash away with the rain. Italcementi (the cement company) believe that even if only 15% of buildings in a city were coated in TX Active, it would reduce pollution rates by upto 60%.

I am not convinced by these claims, however if it were to be true then it would be an incredible breakthrough in controlling pollution levels in large cities.

Materiality - Under Your Feet

Whilst walking around the streets I noticed the extensive variety of materials are used beneath our feet. If you are not paying much attention then you wouldn't notice the changing materials, but if you do then you will realise how many different materials can be & are used. From simple concrete to stone, grass, wooden decking, glass, metal, rubber. Almost any material can be used to pave an area.