Rural Landscape Project

Before the project began we undertook a visit to the Lake District, staying on Torver Common near Coniston. The trip enabled us to conduct a two day site survey focusing on ecological and cultural factors as well as undertaking a Landscape Character Assessment and thinking about visual impacts that could effect the site. The later in particular as the rural landscape project challenged us to site a visitors centre within Torver Common. 

MASTERPLAN AND VISION

This part of the project was done in a group with; Anna Bluke,  Yanna Georgie, Ryan Kearney and James Wilstshire. I myself rendered the master plan. The feedback for our group was extremely positive but the master plan was said to be still too diagrammatic. 

The group hit on the idea of the Poetic Landscape as a driver for design. John Ruskin's house is across Coniston water and visible from Torver Common. William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter are other notable figures associated with the Lake District and the area surrounding the site.  As a result we came up with two trails - the Ruskin Trail and the Wordsworth trail that corresponded to the landform, contours and immersion into trees, or glimpses of open grass land. 

We decided to site the building where it is shown on the master plan after finding the spot during the site visit. The landform is fairly flat, it could be made fairly accessible by providing roads and paths to the centre and it isn't far from Coniston Water. 

SCALE MODEL (individual) 

In order to understand the site better, especially the contours, I decided to build a model….

I experimented with black foam board, silver pins and white cotton. 

Scale Model of detail site at 1:500

DETAIL 1:500 (individual work)

Overall Detail Design Sheet

For the site design I used the idea of "way finding" and really pursued the concept of a poetic landscape. 

I used the following poem as inspiration for my design:

Lines Written in Early Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:-
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

                                                     - William Wordsworth

Visual showing Periwinkle covered glade/bower

Primrose alongside the cafe area at the Visitors Centre

MASTERPLAN

In the master plan I experimented with using words as texture. The above poem forms the contours and the background. Words describing the woods are used as the woods. Although I'm extremely happy with the outcome (especially when printed large and professionally - very clear) it is slightly illegible in some places and as a result needs some fine tuning. 

The immediate area outside of the visitor centre also needs further work, the idea was to use it as a mini-sculpture park (like that at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen) and there would be timber pressed concrete walkways honouring the woodland setting. 

There would be a written bench alongside a rill over looking the landscape.

I enjoyed this module probably the most out of everything we've done. The sensitivity to the landscape and especially with regard to trees and establishing a woodland was far more interesting than I would have thought! The trip was an excellent introduction to my love affair with trees….especially now its summer. Everywhere I go at the moment I look at how beautiful and green the trees are, or white and fully of boyancy and blossom. On that note I'd like to leave you with my favourite poem from the commanding Felix Dennis…. (or if you'd like to hear it in his raspy tones click here)

Whosoever Plants A Tree

Whosoever plants a tree
Winks at immortality.

Woodland cherries, flowers ablaze,
Hold no hint of human praise;

Hazels in a hidden glade
Give no thought to stake or spade;

London planes in Georgian squares
Count no patrons in their prayers;

Seed and sapling seek no cause,
Bark and beetle shun applause;

Leaf and shoot know nought of debt,
Twig and root are dumb— and yet

Choirs of songbirds greet each day
With eulogies, as if to say:

‘Whosoever plants a tree
Winks at immortality!’

Photos of the trip can be found here