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.