Bordeaux

Below are some images from a recent study trip to Bordeaux.

Place de Palais

The trip helped to enhance my understanding of the way we as designers can shape the landscape and the way areas are used. It taught me to always travel with a sketchbook and pens…you never know what may capture your imagination.

We saw a range of examples of landscape design, varying from the botanical gardens mentioned below, to smaller community based gardens and even had a tour of two parks by the landscape architect who designed them (an extremely rare and wonderful opportunity! Check back for another blog post on those soon) We also had an informative talk on sustainability in Bordeaux at the Maison Ecocitoyenne. 

  

Bordeaux itself has undergone a transformation in recent years. It is a wonderful ornate and truly beautiful city. The main ‘hip area’ of the Rue Sainte Catherine has that old-city with winding streets feel.

Rue Sainte Catherine

The newly revamped waterfront with it’s black slate water feature at the Place de la Bourse is the centre piece of the image of Bordeaux as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Place de la Bourse

Quais de Bordeaux

Over the other side of la Garonne, the previously dubious Bastide quarter has undergone revitalisation and now hosts the new botanical gardens – which are of a more ecological persuasion than traditional models.

Water Gardens at Jardin botanique la Bastide

The trams work efficiently and feed in to the landscape rather well. Bordeaux has its eccentricities too…the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture is a rather Brasiliaesque statement leftover from the ideals of Modernism. 

Bordeaux school of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Or further afield, abandoned submarine hangars are transformed into arts venues and exhibition spaces...

#Public Enemy no.1 Nick Boles

TWO things uttered by this absolute philistine of a man - who unfortunately happens to be the UK’s new planning minister - have caused me to get up on my first day off in months to write this blog post. I am angry that I couldn’t lie in bed and enjoy my cup of tea at a leisurely pace but I am even angrier that the person who is our planning minister has actually, truly, without the tiniest hint of irony, said:

1)  “The built environment can be more beautiful than nature … - sometimes buildings are better”

and

2) “There’s a right [a basic moral right, like education and healthcare says Boles] to a home with a little bit of ground around it to bring your family up in”

This latter “right”, is why Boles wants to build on greenbelt land.

WHERE DO I START?

Lets start with No1. Well, Mr Boles, this is a matter of taste. I admit that some of the built environment can be breathtaking beautiful – and depending on what landscape it is compared to, then yes, it could be ‘more’ beautiful. Ultimately however, the built environment is a construct by man and it is hubristic and vain to believe that such things are inherently more beautiful, with more soul, than what the earth and mother nature has given us. The attitude expressed by Mr Boles is exactly why there are more social problems in areas with less green spaces, why patients who don’t look out on to green spaces take longer to recover than those that do, why our forests are in such disrepair (NB the governments slow uptake on Ash imports – oh hello chalara fraxinea! Welcome!), why many built impermeable sites are prone to flashfloods –ruining many a life, and so on…

Mr Boles, and anyone who agrees with him, please see the 1973 film Soylent Green about 1 hr 15 minutes in and just watch for a few minutes.

Sol: “Didn’t I tell you Thorn?”

Thorn: “How could I know? How could I ever imagine?”

No.2:  This pre-war notion of the backyard as a moral right is so utterly preposterous in this present day and time it is practically backward. Once upon a time, yes this was seen as a right – but this right is what has caused so much development on precious land. What happens when all the green belt land is gone Nick? Where will you build then? What you seem to be forgetting is that NATURE IS OUR BACKYARD. Stop these individualistic capitalists pursuits because they will only result in an overdeveloped UK where the rich have the green gardens and the poor have nothing. If we think about a right to land we should think about the right to ramble through fields, to play in parks, for a child to know what a woodland is in reality and not in a history book. This is far more moral and equitable than providing back gardens for a limited amount of the population – because lets face it, without scrapping the precious things listed above, there is just no possible way that every family in the UK can have a garden. It is not a moral right to have a garden. It is a moral right however to expect good quality green infrastructure and public spaces. That is something than can be, and should be, more readily achievable than providing a small amount of individual land around ones home.

Rant not nearly over but that’s all I can manage for my Saturday morning off.

Hand in 2: Art, Plants and Environment

TAH-DAH!

A1 Sheet illustrating my concept for a natural intervention in the city

This was my first, individual submission – and I do not care things are missing, I do not care that it frustrated me beyond all belief, and I do not care if some wizkid on photoshop is looking at it and laughing. I am so so so proud of this. Blood, sweat and tears. LOTS of tears.

The brief was to bring nature into the city – and to only use organic and natural materials (quite, hard).

Three views of the site as it exists today

My concept is The Nature Chamber.

In my concept this underused and wasted site in the middle of Leeds City Centre, next to the Merrion Centre, would be turned into a reflective, tranquil spot. The intervention works on two levels

1)   I wanted to continue my development from my Nature Obscura intervention in the woods…so I wanted to create a place where people could literally see different perspectives and reflections AND I wanted it to be a space of perspective and reflection. Double entendre!

2)   When visiting the site I was struck by how confined a lot of the nature is in our cities, and how there was really not a great deal of green about. With current issues as the Ash Dieback and bloody Nick Boles as the new planning minister, this is something that will only stagnate – or potentially worsen – inside AND outside our cities. Thus I struck upon the idea of an Eternity Chamber (here I was influenced by the artist Charles Avery)

If I had had more time, I would have liked to have developed the idea – as I don’t believe nature should be confined, I believe that we need to develop a more holistic way of combining the urban and the natural…but alas, time was of the essence and my main idea was that an ‘Eternity Mirror or Chamber” could act as some sort of ironical comment on the attitude we have towards nature. Basically if we are not careful, soon all we could be left with are Eternity Chambers attempting to show future generations what a forest or woodland was.

Now. How to represent this organically….

- The layout  + pools of black slate would be placed so that whichever tree you sat by, the reflection would actually be of another tree

Concept sketch representing the above idea

- Layout giving a sense of perspective 

- Black slate would be set by each tree and the water on it would produce a reflection

- Birch trees – aesthetically ephemeral, elegant and tranquil. Cloud Grass - aesthetically dreamlike and calm

- Train the trees so that they act as benches for those wishing to sit (here I was influenced by West 8)

So for lack of time and lack of boring you – that’s it in a nutshell! Hard work. Exhausting. Exhilarating. Exciting. Until next time.

Hand in 1: Urban Landscape Studies

CATCH UP

Well…as you can probably gage from the lapse in time from the last post to this post – the work has stepped up a notch. So, because its stepped up I am going to run through this all very quickly – because although I have now handed in two modules + a study trip sketch book and there should perhaps be some sort of relief, there isn’t and – I have no time! LUCKILY, I am a workaholic and don’t really mind not having that much time, doing 8.30am to 8pm days and the like.

Ok ok, so not EVERY day is like that, but it was last Wednesday after not being able to do anything due for the hand in for the Art, Plants and Environment module on Friday, because I had a module hand in on that Wednesday morning for my Urban Landscapes module and the week before that we had been in Bordeaux on a study trip.  Well I had done something, but after a tutorial on the Wednesday afternoon I had to have a rethink. You get the idea.

The week before Bordeaux – it wasn’t pretty. I was in tears pretty much everyday. It’s hard learning new things but when you only have 2 days to do something and need a whole day to actually learn whatever computer programme your supposed to be working on…it’s pretty frustrating. Bordeaux however provided a well needed break, some clarity and a chance to talk to my peers, who for the most part, where feeling pretty much the same. Just to clarify - I feel a lot better now.

BORDEAUX

Beautiful. Grand. Outrageous. Elegant. Fun. Just wonderful. A separate blog post on that later.

URBAN LANDSCAPE STUDIES

The second stage of this module (see here for the first stage) was about developing a vision for the study area with my group, 'Amite'.

We produced a vision entitled ‘Reconnecting Armley’ on an A0 sheet with multiple layered maps. Each layer of the map represented a thematic design solution for the issues we had mentioned in our previous presentation…(Green Space, Connections and Access etc). The main part of the sheet however was the multiple layers combined so make a one singular vision map. We also provided examples of small detailing and interventions that would form the basis of our vision i.e a new bridge across one part of the valley to the mills area thus better connecting Armley with the neighboring area of Kirkstall.

Reconnecting Armley by Alex Clarke, Jamie Common, James Davison, Sonia Jackett, Agata Kryjak and Simon Vive

We developed a vision matrix (top right), which shows the key design themes we picked up on in stage one. It also indicated what results could be gained through physical interventions and working with the community to produce social interactions.  Our vision “Reconnecting Armley” is a vision that’s not just about material and physical changes…. it’s one that suggests positive outcomes for the local community too…. so through good design there will be a reduction in crime, people will feel safer and also a stronger local identity and community ethos will be achieved.