inner city snail
June 5, 2008
Venice Biennale
May 30, 2008“Gustafson Porter has been commissioned to create a landscape installation at this year’s Venice Biennale.
The appointment of the London-based firm, which designed the Diana Memorial in Kensington Gardens, marks the first time in the biennale’s 11-year history that a major landscape installation will be featured.
Neil Porter, director of Gustafson Porter – which has been appointed in Venice alongside its Seattle-based sister company Gustafson Guthrie Nichol – said: ‘Landscape architecture is a greatly neglected subject from a curatorial point of view, so we are hugely excited by the opportunity of engaging with visitors at the biennale.’
The installation, called Towards Paradise, will be sited at the end of the Arsenale, within the overgrown grounds of the former Church of the Virgins, a Benedictine nunnery that was destroyed in the late 1800s.
The garden will have five main spaces, with zones dedicated to ‘reflection, commemoration, conversation, contemplation and enlightenment’.
According to Porter, Towards Paradise will ‘take the visitor on a journey through earthly dilemmas, passing from life to death and towards paradise’.”
SOURCE- Architects’ Journal
Lean on Me
May 15, 2008
via pan-dan
plates for planners!
May 9, 2008
city plates by notNeutral, (above is the New York design). Personally i’m not a fan of the design but would make for a great geeky gift!
via Moco Loco
Guerilla Gardening
April 15, 2008In the arty realm of Old Street the guerilla gardeners attacked. The neglected patch of earth never stood a chance, in a flurry of activity the space was cleared and the planting began.
First some box, then the ivy finished off with scattered seeds left like time bombs just waiting for the right trigger.
Friday Late Subterranea
March 31, 2008
Another triumph for the V and A late series. The main event although far from the best was he unveiling of the new V&A tunnel installation (above) by architect CJ Lim. Visitors to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London can now enter the building through a subterranean garden. ‘Seasons through the Looking Glass’, an installation inspired by Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’, is located at the tunnel entrance to the V&A. . . . it was somewhat disappointing
‘Nighthaunts’
National Art Library
A reading by Sukhdev Sandhu, from his recent book ‘Nighthaunts’, an exploration of nocturnal London and a reflection on the nature of the urban night. Accompanied by music by sonic artist Scanner. . . FANTASTIC the dark library allowed the mind to focus on the voice of the reader so you became completely absorbed by it . . . spine-tingling
The website that preceded the book is beautiful definitely worth a look – http://nighthaunts.org.uk/
Stephen Walter’s ‘Island’ and ‘Kensington & Chelsea’
Stephen Walter’s intricate mappings of the London landscape where objects and places are slowly taken over by their symbolic representations, creating forests of symbols and places where every inch is mapped and quantified for human purpose. . . AWESOME!
Ben Wilson – Architecture Now ‘up on the roof’
short talk on the future of roof design, accompanied by small display of existing projects
London Open City @ Somerset House
March 31, 2008Wow! This exhibition was truly fantastic, both content and media/exhibition design were brilliant. The focus was on how do we use our city and how could our use of it be more efficient and fun? Blurring the boundaries between landscape architecture, planning and architecture . . . just as it should be.
A combination of existing and future, looking at sites within their context not just focusing on flagship buildings. However it was the media used to present the work that made the exhibition stand out from many others.
The seductive graphics of individual projects were sat in a consistent cohesive whole. Using everything from animation, reflection, entire walls, in fact entire rooms, films projected onto circular tables and also creating spaces within spaces by constructing wooden huts even the floor was carefully considered. Creating a series of perfectly controlled and designed spaces.
Ton Matton @ RIBA
March 31, 2008Surviving the Suburb: The Climate Machine
‘description taken from RIBA website Tom Matton describes his practice as situated ’somewhere between object-design, society-shape, ecological city planning and artist-activism’ exploring ‘the small Utopias and interruptions of daily life’ and ‘connections between traditional countryside living and contemporary mega-city lifestyle.’ ‘
This installation left me somewhat underwhelmed; possibly due to a combination of insufficient information and location (the exhibit made me feel out of place almost an intruder and with half the info and explaination at floor level it was . . . ackward). However, there was a very likeable playful element to the designs.
Höweler + Yoon: Davol Loft
March 28, 2008
‘Located in Boston, the Davol Loft by Höweler + Yoon was created by combining two 1,100 sf loft spaces on the top floor of a building in Chinatown. The two lofts were mirror images of one another, organized around a central core and separated by a partition wall.’
via architecture.mnp (click for the entire article)I really love the introspective nature of this design
London Lights
March 27, 2008
Recognize this intriguing globular cluster of stars? It’s actually the constellation of city lights surrounding London (recorded by the International Space Station, February 2003). The fuzziness around the peripheries is caused by either thin, low clouds or perhaps fog.
The lights seen in this image especially the energy supplied to them is causing untold environmental damage to our planet . . . but its so pretty!
After posting this I went to Open City at Somerset House, and what should be the image used on one of the leaflets . . .
Practice Visits
March 20, 2008
Martha Schwartz Inc, The office, located near Old Street, is spread over four floors the basement housing a video conferencing room, spare bedroom, ‘modeling area’ and materials libary which I found particularly impressive (it would be an interesting idea to set one up at Kingston?) I saw a couple of projects at various stages of completion unfortunately it was only a brief visit as Becs had to go but well worth it. An interesting insight into the working space of an international practice, visiting such a prestigious practice was I admit fairly intimidating!
McFarlane Wilder some really interesting projects (wembly regeneration above) I especially enjoyed being talked through a series of on site photos for one of the projects right from concept to completion.
Extreme Green Guerrillas
March 17, 2008Another fantastic find by pruned
Definitely worth a look; fantastic concepts (if slightly bizarre) and graphically very appealing
. . . made me smile anyway
CLICK HERE!
The Stone Show @ excel
March 16, 2008The natural stone show was a great opportunity to get detailed information and advise on some of the materials we use as landscape architects. Events like fantastic because unlike resources such as the internet and books trade shows allow you to communicate face to face with the people who theoretically should know the most about their products.
Wacom Graphire4 Tablet
March 13, 2008New Toy!! This week I finally got round to buying a tablet. This should be a very useful tool for drawing in photoshop and illustrator . . so far so good!
Paul Halliday – Urban Detours
March 13, 2008Paul Halliday, street photographer (although there is some debate as to what he is categorised as) gave a talk on Wednesday (12th March). I was a little unsure of what to expect but for the most part it was a very interesting lecture giving me a glimpse of a subject which I know little of. The main focus was his long-term project based around urban street photography in London.
stylish street furniture
March 7, 2008
The union bench by i do design via core77
The design on the bench allows flexible seating patterns; whether the user wishes to sit alone or interact with others, contempory and functional.
Mark Elton – Wolseley UK Sustainable Building Center 29.02.08
March 3, 2008
This was an interesting lecture. The main focus was on the materials used within the design, something which due to my latest project I have been researching however the content regarding landscape was minimal.
This project of funded by Wolesley’s marketing department which shows that sustainability sells!
- Sustain – consultant
- Techniker
- Folcrum consulting
- Dobson White Doulcott
- RGA Landscape
- The Green Guide to Specification
- Green Spec.
- Ecobuild
natural materials, low embodied energy, operational benefits, low toxicity alternatives, recycled/by products content, lifespan, ease of recycling/re-use, renewable energy sources
Recycled plastic balls for concrete floors (Cobiax)
Mark Elton, ECD Architects. (Energy Conscious Design), click here for more info.
City Scape
March 2, 2008I attended Cityscape again this year, which took place at Earls Court along side Ecobuild and Futurebuild. This year I was representing SLIC so did not see as much of the exhibition as I would have liked but our stand was popular, attracting conference goers with the array of student work that we were exhibiting. Visitors came from many different disciplines and were generally very interesting and enthusiastic, although most were perplexed by the fact that we weren’t really selling anything!
Landscape within Architecture
February 20, 2008
Soil – ceramic tile inspired by the topography of Toolo Bay (Helsinki)
via moco locoI know this is bit of a tangent from the source of this post but it did fuel my imagination!
Landscape within architecture: What are the possibilities? Interior design has become interior architecture so why shouldn’t there be interior landscape? A new discipline for the design world, conjuring images of living spaces that grow or erode, evolution from structures that decay
Architecture has begun to explore these concepts ; why shouldn’t interior do the same?
Architect Mitchell Joachim with his living tree houses presents one possible realisation of living, breathing, growing design. (interested? more info and video over at inhabitat)
what is the solution?
February 11, 2008
Where we source our energy is a current and high priority issue; it is a topic I am fascinated by. All sources have pros and cons, how do we achieve a balance?
Im not saying this video is correct, I dont know enough to have an opinion but I do like the way it presents the information. Its apparant simplicity and inoffence graphics could easily sway your thoughts . . .
FAT @ Bartlett
January 31, 2008Fat a London based practice is run by Sean Griffiths, Charles Holland and Sam Jacob. Established in 1995,
Islington Square – Social Housing, New Islington, Manchester 2006
Subversive work and an amusing lecture. Projects discussed were many and varied all very distinctive catching the imagination, pushing at and breaking boundaries.
Sint Luas, Art Academy, Boxtel, The Netherlands, 2006
January 25, 2008
There was a young man at Nunhead
Who awoke in his coffin of lead;‘It is cosy enough’;
He remarked, in a huff
‘But I wasn’t aware I was dead’
A limerick I came across while researching Victorian cemeteries!
BLDG BLOG @ Bartlett
January 24, 2008
The lecture covered an enormous spectrum of topics. Ranging from trapdoors and subterrain tunnels to of world landscape and terrestrial weaponary. Although each subject was not covered in great depth leaving with a general feeling of inspiration, chatting about abstract concepts that came to mind.
The abstract nature of the subject matter certainly balanced my day, contrasting with the practical issues of management ( city of london cemetery).
Very interesting to see the man behind the blog! Gaining – insight into the perspective from which he writes.
Battles – Tonto
January 10, 2008
‘A Battles collaboration with celebrated light artists UVA (United Visual Artists), produced by Warp Films (This Is England, Rubber Johnny, Dead Mans Shoes etc).’
UVA previously featured here (volume, installation at the Vand A)
Landscape Podcasts
January 9, 2008The LI website has a number of recording from the LI Colloquium 2007 in the form of podcasts.
Speakers include: John Hopkins, Martha Schwartz, Jason Prior, Terry Farrell and our very own Pat Brown!
