Focus Week: Paving Materials

More London.

Having Looked at East London, i decided that i would take a closer look at Paving materials around more London as i find it fascinating how each piece of Irish blue limestone has been carefully laid and crafted into its surroundings down to where the corners meet to the Scoop are used for performances. Slot Drainage sits flush with the carefully crafted paving.

The architects that will design the 2012 Olympic Park landscape have been announced.

LDA Design • Hargreaves Associates will develop detailed proposals for the open spaces in the Olympic Park both during and after the Games. They will create a new kind of park that promotes sustainable and active living.

In 2009 work will start on the parkland's and public spaces that will help form part of the largest new urban park in London since the great Victorian era of park building.

After the Games the Park will be made up of different areas suiting a variety of needs including allotments and other food-growing areas, meadows, wetlands, wooded valleys, orchards, new wildlife habitats and facilities for sports such as canoing, mountain biking and climbing.

New cycle and footpaths will connect the Lower Lea Valley with the River Thames for the first time.

Focus Week: East London

Surrounding the Laban Center.


The new developments in East London are booming with affordable housing and modern offices. In the meantime though there is a lot of derelict buildings which are in disrepair and really give east London its true character. How the new developments will look in 2 years time will only show and prove how East London is advancing and looking to the future.

Focus Week: Silvertown East London

Peabody trust Housing.

Silvertown Eat London is a vast area which once was the main area of London where all merchandise, materials were bought in through the major docks which once existed there. Sadly in todays modern age the docklands have long gone and only few signs of what the are a once was remain. Since then a lot of re-development is currently taking place with addition to affordable

In West Silvertown is the Peabody trust's building. Work started in 2003 and was completed by early 2005 at a cost of 1.5 million pounds. The framework of the design uses timber framework and cladding which imitates the effect of water mixed with oil, or the mixed colors of the sun reflecting of a blue bottle (weird way of describing it), but it is made of light reflecting of the different colored materials using dichoric film which was inspired by the artist Martin Richman.

When the light quality changes so does the appearance on the building. The more light the more intense the color given of from the dichoric film. At night the whole building becomes illuminated giving a rich vibrant building to the area and its re-development.

Focus Week: London's hidden infrastructure

The Building Center.

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As London's skyline becomes ever more clustered with new developments and tall buildings adding to the historic landscape, it is easy to forget the complex underground infrastructure necessary to service this increasingly crowded over ground. The exhibition is on until the 19th April (so only a few days left)!!.

The display offers models, designs and installations and visualization's of current and future projects. The display looks at infrastructure such as water, sewage, typography, geology and how the underground buildings and tunnels in London are being forgotten as a hidden past.

The Great Trafalgar Square Freeze

This is an amazing Video of how different events can take place in a well known public space.

Body > Data> Space

This is a brilliant website which looks at how art involving people and how there actions and movements can be used in the composition between technology and the architectural space. A lot of their work involves projection's. There website shows all of there installations and up-coming events. http://www.bodydataspace.net/




"Leading into new and visionary territories, bodydataspace (b>d>s) work with the expanding integration between the human body, technology and architectural space".

Focus Week: Thames Barrier Park

Focusing on Installations with lighting and being on the South side of the River Thames, i decided to also look at The Thames Barrier Park.


Thames Barrier Park lies in historic Silvertown on the South side of the Royal Victoria Dock. It is supported by the London Development agency in partnership with Newham Council.

An international competition in 1995 selected designers for the Landscaping, structures and facilities. The result is a haven of tranquil, waterside open space featuring water fountains, garden copses and wildflower meadows. There is abundant wildlife, picnic and children's play areas, visitor pavilion and coffee shop with views of the Thames Barrier.


Thames Barrier Parks future is closely linked to the development of the Royal docks and Thames Gateway. Near neighbors already include the ExCel exhibition center, London City airport, the regatta center and University east London. They will be joined by the 120,000 square feet Biota. This is the centerpiece of the Silvertown Quay project and is expected to attract over 1 million visitors a year.

A new road and rail bridge will span the Thames between beckton and Thamesmead. The effect of so much new development and progress surrounding the Thames Barrier Park can only increase its popularity as the ideal spot in which to relax and enjoy leisure time.

Focus week: Laban

For this Focus week i wanted to look at modern installations that use lighting in there design as well as projections. I begun by looking at the Laban center which is one of London's leading institutions for dance artist training and one of the world's largest venues for contemporary dance.

In 1997 Swiss Architects Herzog & de Meuron won the international design competition to build the new Laban Building. The architects are Pritzker Prize winners (2001) for their redevelopment of Tate Modern. Situated on a 2-acre site beside Deptford Creek in South East London, the building creates a powerful, highly visible focus for the ongoing physical and social regeneration of Deptford and the surrounding area.



The visual artist, Michael Craig- Martin, collaborated with the architects Herzog & de Meuron on the bold decorative scheme for Laban's exterior and on some elements of the interior design. the 7800m squared structure is clad in a revolutionary semi-translucent, colored polycarbonate punctuated by large clear windows. The polycarbonate cloaks the building in semitransparent shades of lime, turquoise and magenta. Michael Craig-Martin previously worked with Herzog & de Meuron on the polycarbonate box which illuminates the top of the chimney at Tate Modern In London.

I found the way simple materials have been used to create an illuminated wall helps in corresponding to my design principles for that of the New Photographers Gallery in Ramillies Street.

Cityscape 2008

Streetscene, the largest indoor representation of the public realm in the UK, will be the center piece of this years Cityscape, which is being co-sponsored by the Landscape Institute.

Designed by Landscape Architects Whitelaw Turkington and constructed by Skanska McNicholas, Streetscene will bring sustainability in Urban design to life. Streetscene will underline the importance of quality public space in supporting successful and sustainable places and housing, as well as the biggest annual exhibition of products and services for urban design and the management of the public realm.

My view on Cityscape this year was that it didn't reflect on how the landscape can be filled but how the hard landscape can be the key features in design. Can this be a good thing?, that question remains but with hard landscape mixed with soft a design can become an achievement and one designed to a high quality. More information

www.innovationsforthebuiltenvironment.co.uk

Putting the Spotlight on Leicester Square.

Leicester Square is set to have a dramatic make- over costing 18.5 million with a redesign by Burns & Nice. The design principal will create an exquisite host for 50 film premiers a year, an eye-catching 200m white granite 'ribbon' seat will be installed to provide passers by with the opportunity to absorb the historic surroundings. The nine side streets that act as gateways into the square will also be revamped.

The physical improvements to Leicester square will fulfill a number of the councils One City targets. The new design will transform the appearance of the whole 'City Block'. The solution will be functional and accommodate the range of demands; it will be robust and hard waring, to ensure longevity; it will also be innovative and cutting edge.

Navigating London's West End

Navigating London's West End just got a whole lot easier, thanks to legible London- a new system of pedestrian information being tested in the Bond Street area. The state-of-the-art sign system consists of a 19 on-Street signs, improved mapping in bus shelters and new information displays in Bond Street tube station- all with the initiative of making London become more pedestrian friendly.


If successful then legible London will be installed across the Capital, with the hope of having it in place in central and East London before the 2012 Olympics. With Ramillies Street becoming the new home of the Photographers' Gallery, having access to vast amounts of information being displayed will help in showing the position of the new Gallery.