Focus Week Five: Public Spaces

For the fifth and final Focus Week i thought what better way to make the most of the gorgeous weather and venture into London and Look at Public Spaces and the performances and art that occupies them.

To Start with i went to the Tate Modern where a lot of work is under way to create a series of giant graffiti style murals on the walls of London's Tate Modern gallery for its summer season.

The works, which will adorn the river-facing wall of the building, will be created by six artists including Blu, who is interested in death.

The artworks will be displayed for three months from 23 May.

A Tate spokesman said a protective coating would be placed on the wall to avoid damage when they are removed.

Other street artists involved in the project include JR from France, renowned for putting photographs of people from deprived areas of Paris onto walls in the city's affluent districts.

Sixart from Barcelona and Brazilian twin brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo will also submit ideas for the wall art.

The murals are expected to measure 15 meters by 12 meters, and will decorate the Turbine High Wall of the building, a former power station on the south bank of the Thames.

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.

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.

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.

Focus Week: Museum of London

The museum of London shows how the changing city has evolved and grown over history from early settlers, to Roman Londinium. With Londinium being where the heart of the city is and then in the Saxon times another settlement was set up further down stream where Charing Cross is now. The City of London is built on a huge area of marsh land that over centuries has seen the River Thames Cut down in width dramatically One other exhibition currently on display is about the Great Fire of London in 1666 showing some of the original artifacts that survived the fire and how Londoner’s fled to the banks of the Thames to escape the flames taking only their most valuable, but not always their most useful or important of belongings.

Focus Week Barbican and Museum Of London

Trained as a photographer, Shahbazi shoots images–including portraits, still life's and landscapes–and often uses them as source material not only for photographs but also for paintings, billboards and handmade carpets. By altering the scale and transposing the imagery into a new medium or a style associated with another culture, she subverts viewers’ expectations and explores the complexity of identity.

For her project in The Curve, Shahbazi collaborates with a team of Iranian billboard painters, employing techniques and styles typically used for commercial advertising in her native country.

Focus Week: The Barbican and Museaum of London

Along Charing Cross Road I came across an art gallery called The Window Gallery. It is Sited opposite a bus stop and all the display windows are screened off with performing artists behind it that only show the shadows and silhouettes of their movements with no sound, almost like a puppet show that they do in Asia were you just see the shadows. Passers by are to watch the event to see how the couple being projected bond and touch each other in the mood of seduction. It is one of many events being held at The Window display Gallery titled Seduced created by PG Students at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. It is running in conjunction with The Barbican’s exhibition Seduced Art and sex.

Focus Week: Triton Square and Regents Place

Triton Square won a, well deserved, hard landscape award. (EDCO were the landscape architects and Sheppard Robson the architects). The square is visually dramatic. It opens to the sun and the south but it is engulfed by noise from the Euston Road and battered by gusting winds generated by the high buildings. CABE commented that ' The nature of Triton Square and the surrounding development needs to be considered further in relation to wind disturbance.

Focus Week: Spitalfields Market

Old Spitalfields Market, or simply 'Spitalfields' as it is fondly known, is the world-famous East London destination. Home to a flourishing creative community, Spitalfields has over the last 14 years secured a place at the forefront of interiors, fashion, the arts and food.

It has been the site of a busy market since 1638, when King Charles gave a license for flesh, fowl and roots to be sold in what was then known as Spittle Fields. Three hundred and sixty odd years later and now located within the historical Horner Buildings, the market continues to be the setting for a thriving narrative.

Focus Week 2: Medicine Now exhibition Welcome collection

The Upper part of the Exhibition space is a Medicine Man and Medicine Now. Medicine Now looks at current day medical issues including Malaria, obesity and genomes and the links this can have to major illness in future life with the humans body such as diabetes, and over health problems. One of the main interests was that of a cut through of a donor’s body which showed how the muscles, veins and bones are laid out with in the body and the variations of color of each, which really had a fascination about it in how the body is structured together so precisely. There was also an area showing obesity and Malaria, which compares an illness associated with developed nations and a disease associated with developing nations.

Focus Week 2: Welcome Collection

Walking on from the British Library I visited the Welcome collection which is an exhibition of different forms of work in the Building opposite Euston Station. It is free to enter the Gallery which has a large modern bookshop with a wide range of artist’s books and media design, a cafe, Reference library and three exhibition main spaces showing, mixing medicine, life and art all in one building The Main exhibition being shown on the ground floor was “Sleeping and Dreaming", which investigates the science and need for sleep and dreams and the effects of what this can have on the humans body due to insomnia.

There were videos and films displaying people and their sleeping patterns. This was then shown and recorded by having drawings of the different pattern readings that were carried out as well as artwork. The exhibition also was displaying scientific experiments which look at caffeine products in food and how this can change the appearance of the humans body and knowledge of how well they are aware of there surroundings.