Skogskyrkogården

Images will be uploaded soon. I took them using a analogue camera (Canon AE1) and I just need to get them developed and scan them in. The images I have uploaded are from my digital camera which don't really do Skogskyrkogården much justice.

Another beautiful and fascinating site I visited whilst looking around Stockholm was Skogskyrkogården in the south of the city. The cemetery has been designed by many Landscape Architects and Architects. The Landscape was predominately designed by Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. The cemetery is absolutely beautiful and for a cemetery is wasn't a sad place but on the contrary the cemetery felt like a very joyous place. Skogskyrkogården was designed in the style of Swedish romanticism with the use of “natural features carefully designed to offer healing to mourners” (http://www.skogskyrkogarden.se/en/ 2011). The cemetery looked as if it had became part of the pine woodland with small beautifully designed chapels and crematoriums hidden away all with their own unique styles. Something I only found out after visiting the site is that it is actually a world heritage site becoming number 558 in 1994 and it is only the second cultural heritage site to be awarded in the 20th century. The site was absolutely beautiful especially in the snow and if your visiting Stockholm its a must see location.

Anon., (2011). Varldsarvet Skogskyrkogården [online] Sweden: Avaible from: http://www.skogskyrkogarden.se/en/. [Accessed 19th April 2011].

Hammarby Sjostad

Images will be uploaded soon. I took them using a analogue camera (Canon AE1) and I just need to get them developed and scan them in. The images I have uploaded are from my digital camera which don't really do Hammarby Sjostad much justice.

I recently visited Stockholm with the university to experience the feel of the city, atmosphere architecture and of course the landscape architecture. One of the locates we visited was Hammarby Sjostad (Hammarby Waterfront City) in the south of the city. This is one of the cities newest developments and occupies an existing industrial site. Hammarby Sjostad is situated on the banks of Lake Malaren a fresh water body. The new development was built with the aim that it should reflect the landscape qualities and the accessibility to the water which was considered as important as the green spaces. Not only has Hammarby Sjostad been designed with the importance of the landscape and water in mind but the buildings have been designed as eco friendly buildings. Heat produced from combustable waste, treated water, solar energy and biofuel produced from the site are all used to help heat and fuel the apartments. In 2005 Hammarby Sjostad was awarded best project of the year in Sweden. Another fact I find really exciting is that the new part of the city was designed with the aim that by 2010 80 percent would walk, cycle, or se public transport. This goal seemed to be achieved as when I was walking around there was barely a car even though there was a far few foot of snow around.

One quote I picked up in reading the Topos journal on Hammarby Sjostad is how there “have been critical voices claiming that Stockholm should add Skyscrapers to its silhouette to help it become a major tourist destination.” But this seems made as this is one of the reasons why I liked Stockholm so much. Unlike London where every tall building is a fiancee and banking office in Stockholm the tallest buildings are the churches and cathedrals. This is now a rare sight in many cities.

Anon., 2009. Hammarby Sjostad. Topos, Reuse, 69, 67-70.

APPARATI EFFIMERI creates this art piece to celebrate the Gran finale of the Pessione 2010

This is just a quick video I found and thought I would add as I love the way the use of the lighting and projectors can totally change the facade of this building which almost becomes a canvas for the lighting show. Watching this video I think it would be a amazing project if someone designed a contemporary pavilion or building with an almost blank facade which looks beautifully crisp and clean cut during the day but during the evening it comes alive changing the contemporary faced into a lighting display. One day maybe.

Video sourced fromAPPARATI EFFIMERI // Bacardi Pessione // an architectural 3D projection from Apparati Effimeri on Vimeo.

What is Landscape

The two day lecturer series entitled What is Landscape was set up to help people understand landscape architecture and what it is exactly about.

Senior Lecturer Pat Brown introduces a series of lecturers at kingston university on What is Landscape.

Watch What is Landscape? Introduction from Pat Brown | Day One in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

http://www.landscapeis.org

Filmed by Room60

To view the whole lecture and debate click on this link http://www.veoh.com/list/u/room60

Christian Spencer-Davies - A Models

http://www.amodels.co.uk/

The first speaker in the two day lecture series was Christian Spencer-Davies from AModels a London based company who specialise in making contemporary architectural models. Although I am not a model maker and struggle creating evocative models I found this lecture very inspirational. Christian described how AModels created models that were projects and works of art in themselves and may not reflect the project such as other architectural models which use realistic trees, standard scale people and grass to create a realistic 3D representation of the proposal. Christian described such models as model rail models. An example of the beautiful sculptures AModels creates is a solid gold scale model of bdp offices in manchester. This lecturer really helped me understand a model should really be used to excite the client and public into wanting what is being proposed. It doesn't matter a bought every little detail but its about the presence and style in which the client wants to evoke.

Image: Anon., (2011). Portfolio [online] UK: Available from: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=249015245195984594&postID=1227541109551686470. [Accessed 19th April 2011]

Je Ahn and Maria Smith - Studio Weave

http://www.studioweave.com

I found Studio Weave were the most inspirational talkers at the event and related to me the most. The studio co founded by Je Ahn and Maria Smith is involved in all aspects of landscape design and small architectural design and installations. The main focus of this talk that I found the most interesting was how the studio developed their designs and final outcomes. They talked about when researching into a site, its background and history they would develop a storyboard about either a myth involved with the sites historic characters or a imagined character which they could imagine using the site. They would then design the project around this character adding elements into the design from the story or myth. I found this structure and way of working very helpful so much so that I am now structuring my projects in a similar way.

Image: Anon., (2011). Freya and Robin [online] UK: Available from: http://www.studioweave.com/projects/freya-and-robin-kielder-art-and-architecture/. [Accessed 19th April 2011]

Sam Johnston - Gustafson Porter

http://www.gustafson-porter.com/site.html

The third lecture by Sam Johnston from Gustafson Porter was probably the most landscape based and is also probably the largest of the companies presenting. Gustafson Porter work in developing contemporary urban squares and public parks and is most noticeable famous for creating the Diana Princess of Wale Memorial Fountain in London’s Hyde Park. Gustafson Porter are known for creating very contemporary and beautifully detailed projects all with a strong style of crisp black and white lines and shapes of high quality materials such as granite. with every millimeter of the site accounted for which is certainly something I aspirer to and want to achieve when creating projects. For me designing the every detail and millimeter is the most enjoyable part of the design and this is were I found I related to Gustafson Porter.

Image: Anon., (2011). Old Market Square Nottingham [online] UK: Available from http://www.gustafson-porter.com/site.html. [Accessed 19th April 2011]

Will Sandy - Three Green Dots

http://threegreendots.wordpress.com/

The fourth speaker is a former Kingston University student who was studying his masters I believe when I had just started at the uni in my first year. Will’s talk was less about Landscape Architecture and more about how small installations and events can change a persons day in a positive or negative way. Will talked about his successful project of turning the hated parking ticket into a happy moment of relief. His project involved creating parking ticket mock ups which when opened had written inside compliments on the drivers parking. This may be a relatively small project aimed at certain individuals but I believe the aim of Wills talk was to inspirer future Landscape Architects and remind them to create projects which will have a positive effect on people and their day as a landscape and the environment has such a large but relatively overlooked effect on the members of public.

Image: Anon., (2011). The Fine Parking Company [online] UK: http://fineparkingcompany.wordpress.com/photos/ [Accessed 19th April 2011]

Trenton Oldfield This Is Not A Gateway

http://thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com/people/

The final speaker was Trenton Oldfield from This Is Not A Gateway. I believe the company is an organisation that aims at linking communities and people together through the better understanding of good urban planning. Trenton Oldfield’s main theme in the lecturer was about how many fences and barriers have been put into place throughout Britain and especially London. Trenton talked about how little need there is for these fences in public parks and how much of a large budget in landscape projects go towards just fences.

What is Landscape Lecturer Reflection

Well I still don't quite understand the full role of a Landscape Architect as the subject seems to have such a broad diversity of roles and jobs. The one thing I do know from threes years of studying this subject is that the environment and Landscape Architecture has such a large role and affect on people at an almost unconscious level with the smallest of details to the biggest of changes to the environment changing the whole experience of the site or even city. This is also what I got from the lecturer series as each individual had different roles from Will Sandy and his small installations and projects to Sam Johnston at Gustafson Porter who was involved in the much larger side of urban planning.

Merrist Wood

Something I had not released was that Kingston University is linked somehow with Merrist Wood College in Guildford which specialises in horticultural and farming courses. Merrist Wood college kindly set up through Kingston University a day of teaching Kingston Uni Landscape Architecture students some basic methods in horticultural, plantsmanship and basic landscape maintenance. The tutors at Merrist wood also helped us understand about picking the perfect healthy tree and what to look out for when specifying trees for our future projects. This is something unfortunately Kingston Uni does not teach as it is a very designed based course and even though the Merrist wood day was very basic it was very rewarding to get of the computer away from Auto CAD and Photoshop, and learn about something much more practical.

EcoBuild

I have to admit that eco build was a little disappointing this year. The three day event that started on the 1st this month seemed to be filled primarily with solar panel companies. I went with not much of an agenda and was just aiming to look around and with the hope of finding any interesting companies especially for exterior lighting. Unfortunately I could barely find any exterior lighting companies. One of the most interesting was Pavegen Systems http://www.pavegensystems.com/ which relies on kinetic energy generated when pedestrians would walk across the Pavegen Paving lighting up the luminaries. The company boasts that within a high traffic area such as shopping centre it could only take 5 hours to charge enough energy to light up a whole shop front. This company was very inspiring and I felt it was actually one of the only eco companies at Ecobuild as there were many that really weren’t.

One such company which I won’t name specialised in modular granite outdoor furniture. The idea of being able to mix and match certain bench sections when the need change was great. But when I asked where the granite was sourced from the representative mentioned the granite was shipped all the way from china-not particularly eco friendly shipping tons of granite around the world. (No matter the benches weren’t that attractive any way).

The only other company that really interested me was Bamboo Home a company that specialised in laminated bamboo woods for exterior use. Bamboo is apparently the best and most eco friendly hard wood substitute. It grows incredibly fast only four years until it is ready for harvesting. It has similar tensile strength to steel bamboo and is also harder than teak, ipe, oak and maple woods which take hundreds of years to grow and many grow in endangered tropical rainforests. It also has high dimensional stability, meaning less swelling, cupping and shrinkage, and is a lot lighter so is more eco friendly when shipping around the world. The one thing that I found out about this company that doesn’t sound eco friendly is that they don’t recycle the bamboo woods. I am unsure why this is. As long as natural woods and forest aren’t replaced for the production of bamboo crops this looks like a great product.

Here are videos of the two interesting companies mentioned.

Edward Burtynsky Manufactured Landscapes

Images sourced from http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/index.html

“We come from nature so we must not harm it as we will only end up harming our selves.” Edward Burtynsky

Manufactured Landscapes is a documentary observing the photographer Edward Burtynsky as he explores China’s industrialization. Manufactured Landscapes depicts the industrialization of China in a surreal and scary way but Edward Burtynsky manages to paint a beautiful picture of the horrors of industrialization with his photography. The film goes through many stages and processes of manufacturing from large scale factories, recycling of computer components in China and ships in India, large scale metropolises to the worlds largest dam the Three Gorges Dam located in the Yangtze River. The dam is 5 times wider than the Hoover Dam in the U.S.

The film really shows the ugly side of China’s growth. 13 cities were demolished by the owners them selves who were paid by the government to allow for the completion of the Three Gorges Dam. This is to allow clear access for the bottom of ships clearing any obstructions. The fourth image shows the demolition of a city. China’s ethic in this film seems to be the destruction of tradition to allow the construction of the high rise contemporary metropolis. The fifth image shows alone house belonging to an elderly lady who didn't want to move for the developers so they merely demolished everything around her except her home which is left standing in amongst the rumble.

The main theme from this video is that industrialization is clearly not a good thing for the environment. Not just in China but for the rest of the world. China was used for the subject of the film as its growth is unprecedented. After Mao’s rule had ended in 1959 China contained 90% rural areas and 10% urban whilst in the modern day or at least when this film was made china was 70% urban and 30% rural. We live in an uncomfortable bubble at the moment where we can see the worlds changing but we don't want to change. Its not as simple as right or wrong it needs a whole new way of thinking.

“I look at the industrial landscape as a way of defining who we are. Its part of our politics and economy; it is a landscape but its a different landscape.” Edward Burtynsky