Allegorical Garden - Presentation Images

More posts for you on this wonderful Monday afternoon! In preparation for my assessment hand-in tomorrow I have uploaded images of my presentation sheets. I apologise for the poor picture quality but the scanner at college has broken so photos from a 10 mega pixel camera will have to do. Sorry Guys.

Again sorry about the image quality but what can the Lowestoft Lass do? Other than spend all of my student loan on scanning?

Allegorical Garden Model Photos

So I finished my presentation model a couple of days ago and have only just gotten round to photographing it, so here you go, pictures!

Main Entrance way to the Garden. 

 Direct Pathway to the Studio from the Entertainment Patio.

View of the Concealed Patio.

View of one of the Discreet Patios in the Woodland Garden.

View of the Studio from the East of the Upper Moat.

View of the Entertainment Patio from the Eastern Boundary.

View of one of the Discreet Patios in the Woodland Garden.



View of theActivity Lawn from the Studio

So there you go, images of the discreet areas within my Allegorical Garden!

Allegorical Garden - Chinese Theme

I haven't written about my Allegorical Garden for some time and thought that now was the best time to write a little about the similarities between my design and that of traditional Chinese gardens.

In having chosen my theme and driving force of The Art of War I had already chosen a piece of Chinese literature to base my spatial designs around. As Sun Tzu says 'A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation...' and I used the exisiting plantings and topography to inform my design, which is very similar to the way that traditional Chinese gardens are constructed.

Chinese gardens are also said to have 'Essential Elements' which I have tried to include within my design.

1. Proximity to the Home - The entrance to my garden is close to the residential building, and the main social area is the closest discreet space to the house.

2. Small - Unfortunatly due to the size of the plot, I was unable to meet this element of traditional design.

3. Walled - The garden may not be walled by ordinary standards, but the trees that surround the moat and the moat itself are used as a barrier. Only one point along this barrier is permeable, but this is to meet with Sun Tzu's quote 'Attack the enemy where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.' which I have translated into the design quote 'Approach the garden mysteriously, appear where you are not expected'. The area to the East of the garden which looks out towards the roadway hs also been cut off, by using tall, dense planting and a 2m high wall, alluring to another Sun quote '...block the frontier passes.' 

4. Small Individual Sections - I have tried to use this principal in some areas of my garden, but again due to the size did not want to make all of my discreet areas small, as this would have een out of proportion with the site. I have included small individual sections within the Woodland Garden area, which are used as seating areas for small groups of people. The secluded contemplation area could also be seen as a small section.

5. Asymmetrical - The informal nature of the garden makes sure that there are no lines of symmetry, although the two larger discreet spaces (Entertainment Area and Activity Lawn) are balanced in size their form is very different. I feel that I have managed to balance the size of these areas well together without the having the same spatial and emotional qualities.

6. Various Types of Spatial Connections - This was one of the main driving forces behind my spatial arrangements, I used both direct and indirect routes around the site to help me plan where my discreet areas would be placed. Sun Tzu says that 'The direct and the indirect; these two in combination give rise to an endless series of manoeuvers... they lead to each other in turn. It's like moving in a circle, you never come to the end.' which is the feeling that I wanted to give the users of the garden as they moved round the site.

7. Architecture - My design also contains a piece of architecture, in the form of the studio, which cantilevers over the moat, to bring my disabled client closer to this landscape feature.

8. Rocks - The main entrance to my site is loosley based on Japanese rock gardens, where the large rocks are angled towards the entertainment area, encouraging people to move forward. This is also backed up by another quote from Sun Tzu 'The onset of troops is like the rush of a torrent which will even roll stones along in its course. 

9. Water

10. Trees 

11. Plants

12. Jie Jing (Borrowed Scenery) - I have tried to borrow on vista or view in my garden, across the West of the garden out into the surrounding countryside. This view can be seen from the studio, entertinment area and activity lawn. This is the only part of the garden which does not feel fenced in or particularly bounded.

So as you can see I have tried to meet the Essential Elements as well as keeping as closely to Sun Tzu's quotes as I can while still considering, scale, form and function of the garden. I have also tried to use the garden to make the clients feel closer to nature and to use the garden as a retreat, from both the industrialisation of our age and the surrounding area, which was exactly what the Chinese tried to achieve in their traditional gardens.

New Alpha Number - Are the Laws of Physics Constant?

I decided this week that I needed an intellectual break from landscape issues so decided to buy myself a copy of The New Scientist, which by the way if you are interested at all in science is a jolly good read. The reason I bought this magazine and not National Geographic was the line on the froont of the mag.. 'Dawn of a New Physics: The cosmic number that changes everything.' Now this got the Lowestoft Lass a little excited in the magazine isle in Tesco's, but for good reason.

Basically, a nice chap named John Webb from the University of New South Wales has been looking out into space analysing the light emitted from Quasars from the Heck teleoscope in Hawaii and the Very Large Teleoscope in Chile, both pointing in very different directions out of the Earth.

Now light that was emitted from Quasars passes through certian elemental clouds in space, which absorbs some wavelenghts of light. These wavelengths are calculated using the Alpha number, which was thought to be constant across the entire universe, in line with Einstien's theory of Special Relativity. Only Mr Webb's data shows that the uptake of light by particals differs depending on where you are in the universe, with larger alpha values to the South and smaller ones to the North.

Now what has this got to do with us on Earth? The alpha value on Earth is not likely to change rapidly, the difference between the value from here to Alpha Centuri does not differ by our current techniques, and the observed Quasar from Keck was formed 12 billion years ago, but it poses the question, that if the alpha constant is NOT constant then what other laws are there that change? In the distant future will gravity on our planet still be the same?

So it looks like scientist's search for a unifying theory has either been put back decades or launched forward a giant leap. As this data seems to, in a round about way, support the idea of string theory, as the alpha number may be constant when viewed from all dimensions, rather than just our three or four.

More data needs to be collected before the scientific community runs about waving arms and shouting Eureka! but if correct our current models of the universe we inhabit will be grossly wrong. The artical headline was correct that a new 'breed' of physics would be born, one where the rules of constants are gone and unification could be one tiny step closer?

Please note I am not  qualified scientist, this is just a laymans interpretation of the newly found data and the literature published around the findings, please don't go around quoting me I could be very wrong, find a quote from an expert, or even drop Mr Webb a line, he might be busy, he might not.

Allegorical Garden - Research Images

So I've been ticking along with my designs for the Allegorical Garden, and I feel like I have firmed up all of my spatial planning and circulation routes around the site, so I have started having a look at some more specific ideas for my planting plans.


Area One - Indirect Pathways and Concealed Seating Areas

For this area I would like to use dense woodland planting to create my concealed social areas, I want each discreet area to feel like you could be in a small camp site in the middle of a forest or jungle.  The indirect, curving pathways should entice the user to follow them, adding a sense of mystery to the garden.

As you can see from the above images I would like to use a relatively simple palette of greens, but with varying foliage textures. I would like to use a large number of ferns, as these are found in woodlands and jungles all over the world, which again harks back to my clients elborate and international backstories.

The above picture shows the kind of atmosphere that I wish to achieve with this section of the garden, but with slightly more dense planting to increase the air of secrecy.

Area 2 - Parkland Planting with views to Activity Lawn

I wish to keep this area of the garden as open as possible, to balance the higher density and taller planting within Area 1. I also wanted this area to feel more typically British, using native or naturalised plants, mostly bulbs, as they do not grow too tall to block the views onto the lawn.

Area 3 - Entertainment and Outdoor Kitchen Area

As my clients are rather social people, they need a rather large entertaining area, with areas of seating to accomodate different sized groups. I also wanted to give them a large outdoor kitchen area as the dwelling is not situated on the site, a little difficult when barbequeing for rock star guests.  

Please note that I am not the copyright holder for any of the above images, if one of the images belongs to you and you wish for me to remove it please leave a comment and I will remove it as quickly as possible.

Allegorical Garden - Site, Initial Thoughts and the Art of War.

One of my projects this semester is to design an allergorical garden for made up clients, which I have based on me and 'The Male' in our old age as a wealthy rock star and critically acclaimed paeleoanthrobiologist, guess who is which? So I had my clients and was then given a rather intesting site. 

It is a reasonably large garden site on Writtle College campus, the site is currently used for a street tree viability survey and is quite heavily wooded. It also has historical and archeological significance as it is the site of King John's Hunting Lodge (both of which tie in nicely with my client rather lengthy and elaborate back stories). It is bounded on three sides by an approximatly 2.5 meter deep moat, which contains a small amount of water.

  Photo taken from the North boundary facing to the South West.

Photo taken from the East boundary facing to the West.

Photo taken from the North West corner facing South.

Photo taken from the North East corner facing West.

 

A view of the moat from the Northern boundary. 

Since I was a child I've always had an affinity with woodland and water (as I lived on an estate with a half mile lake surrounded by marshy woodland), so I feel quite natural and safe working with this kind of environment. I know the trees planted  here are not native species and have not be naturalistically planted but they are of a great ecological and aesthetic value, so I wanted to try and keep as many of them as possible in my final design. Also the different densities of planting on the site have already given distinct areas of spaciality, which can give me a base to work with. 

As soon as we were on the site and were asked to think of a song, poem or story I knew exactly which book I would use. My client's elaborate backstories and the nature of the site fired me like a bolt from a crossbow to the Art of War by Sun Tzu. I had purchased this book during the summer and after reading became a permanent resident of the *ahem* bathroom cabinet. I don't think that many people have read the Art of War, certainly not in my circles of friends and associates anyway, and I got some pretty odd looks from my contemporaries as we walked around the site. 

 Now my justification for picking the Art of War is pretty simple as part of the elaborate backstories for my clients was a large portion of time spent in China, where both studied martial arts, and the anthropologist studied the history of martiality in this region of Asia, therefore definatly coming across Sun Tzu's book. The spiritual nature of the text also matches well with the personailities of both the clients. 

As the Art of War has been used as a management training tool, as well as the definitive book on war, I found it relatively easy to translate alot of passages about battle formation and scouting patterns into a cohesive guide for spatial design. Also many of the passages about the nature of the commander and the honor and obligations of each officer and warrior could inform basic rules concerning the site and its layered properties. 

Hopefully the cohesion between my client brief, site history and context and my chosen text will allow me to create a useful spatial design solution.    

Design Process and the Scientific Method

One of the blog questions I have been issued over the past couple of weeks caught my attention more than others. 'If drawing/modelling in design process is about testing and hypothesizing, is it like or unlike scientific method?' 

Now this question for me is a pretty straight forward yes. I see the surveying and analysis of a site as the same thing as researching previous scientific theory and method before framing your experiment or thesis' hypothesis. Hypothoses are not plucked from thin air, and neither should concept be, they must be informed by previous analysis, be that cultural or ecological (landscape) or quantifiable or theoretical in the case of science.
 
A scientific hypothesis can be supported or refuted by experimentation or observation, and is the place where all scientists start before planning the execution of an experiment. This is much the same as the design brief, which is carried out before the pen hits the paper. The design brief is also met (or not) after rigorous experimentation (drawings, computer and material modelling and testing) and observation (of similar spatial arrangements or case studies). Also hypotheses can be disproven, but not proven to be true, which gives us our first difference between scientific and design method. We must always try and meet our design brief or 'prove' it, as it is the framework for a sucessful design, but no design could ever be thought of as perfect by everyone, whereas if a scientific hypothesis is disproven then most intelligent people will accept the data, if it is sufficient in quantity.

With design method there is a circularity between drawing and modelling and revisiting the design brief. The design brief informs the design or experimentation which in turn can subtly alter the brief. Scientific theorum can be looked at in the same manner, each supported or disproven hypothesis will inform the next experimental hypothesis in the same field and so on, until rather than a finalised design, there is enough data to form a theorum.      

The main difference between the scientific and design method is that good scientists don't mind too much if a theory is disproved as this gives the opportunity to retest and hypothesise to work towards the ultimate scientific law. I don't know of many designers who would wish for their landscape or building to be disproved or told that it did not meet the design brief.

As mentioned in an above paragraph if the design brief is as a hypothesis, whether the resulting building is exeptional or a failure, much like the support of disproff of scientific hypothesis, it can then inform future 'experiments' or designs helping the design profession move forward from outdated design trend into a new, maybe more scientific future?   

Writtle College - New Beginnings

In the summer of 2009 with the economic climate of the time and my need for intellectual stimulation I decided that I would leave the guys at Locam and move back into education. Not that I didn't find my job with them stimulating, but was in the position where I could not progress within the industry without degree level education. Rather than studying architecture, which don't get me wrong, I enjoy, I decided that I would perform better as a Landscape Architect. Since a young age I have always been interested in biological process and geography, and had always felt that I wanted to work in or with the outdoor environment.

So I trotted off to a couple of universities to look at their courses, none of which I really had the feeling that I would fit in with, and the fact the they were Bachelor of Art courses. Now theres nothing wrong with art or artists, I can appreciate a large chunk of their works, but I've always thought of my self as having a scientific approach to things. Writtle College offered a Bachelor of Science, which I thought would suit me better.

Well it did suit me better, as a design and agricultural college, I felt that it would give me a greater opportunity to communicate with conservationists and the good people of agricultural production. As well as the scope for interdisciplinary dialogue, I also love the countryside and Writtle offers plenty of that.

During my first year at Writtle I was given the chance to develop my own design concepts, scary, where are the rules and regulations that I was then so used to working with? Well this gave me the chance to really go  bit mental with the concepts behind my work, bringing in my love of science.

The above image is part of my second semester project, where I designed a Pavillion of Cosmic Contemplation, based upon the four fundamental forces of physics. This was the design project where I gained the highest marks, so I will deduce that weaving physics into design and ecology is a good idea. I hope over the next few years that I will be able to develop this kind of landscape theory and conception to bring a unique flavour to my work.

Where I came from.......

I started my journey into Landscape Architecture in May 2008 when I started working for Locam, a small architectural practice based in Norwich and Edinburgh. I worked as a general assistant, doing CAD drawings, researching and sourcing new materials, taking part in public consultations and liasing with contractors, local authorities and landscape architects.

I found that I was pretty good a physical modelling, and became the practices model maker, starting with the Barn Road Housing Association Scheme.

This was the final presentation model used to depict the new development at planning meetings, the area for the scheme was detachable, as the design needed updating after testing and changes to the client brief. During this project I used modelling as a testing process, which helped the rest of the studio to visualise different construction problems and constraints. So I was now not only Architects Assistant but also Master Model Maker!

While I was at Locam I had the good fortune to work on some great master planning jobs, including the one above for Colney, which introduced me to Sustainable Urban Drainage and working with a large team of land owners, contractors and other designers. It was also this project that introduced me to the work of Landscape Architects and the guys at Sheils Flynn, as their Landscape Character Assessments and ecological documents had to translated into the overall masterplan. 

I was also introduced to the concept of Homezones, which are a relatively new thing in the UK, and their implementation. Above is a model of a typical homezone. This model was used when discussing estate planning with local councils and land owners.

My favourite project at Locam was the Millenium Village South Lynn, which was a scheme offering an Enterprise Center with P.C.T facilities, nursery, gym suite, restuarant, office suites and breakout space and flexible Live/Work Units for start-up businesses which had to conform to Life Time Homes standards. This project really helped me to understand the complexities of the design process, design team management and of course the dreaded client brief!

During my employment at Locam I also had the opportunity to work in Edinburgh last summer, which was pretty amazing for the Lowestoft Lass. Not only did I experience working in another studio but was also there for Festival which was utterly brilliant, without Locam I would have never stood outside Edinburgh castle with a Jamaican blues guitarist singing a rather loud version of Jonny B Good!

Above is me, very drunk on my last night out in Edinburgh, in the Isobar in Leith. I think I got on a plane home about an hour and a half after this was taken, woops, at least I slept well on the plane!