2009 - What a Year..

My 2009 - Relating to the Landscape and Design




8th Jan - Hand for Brick Lane Project (Sector Studies) ‘A Sense of Place’

10th Jan - Frosty Morning... Very picturesque.

13th Jan - Visit to Cambridge Botanic’s.

16th Jan - Visit to Mark Hall Estate.

20th Jan - Lecture with Michael Marriott.

10th Feb - Floods in Writtle.

11th Feb - Accepted into the Essex & Suffolk Water project.

24th Feb - Visit to Colchester Castle Park, with Gardens & Plants through time module.

25th Feb - Site visit for Essex & Suffolk Water visit.

6th March - ‘Street life’ assignment set (Context, Meaning & Form) Site visit.

17th March - Lecture with Robin Templar-Williams.

21st March - Came 3rd for one of my paintings for the Horticultural Society.

28th March - SGD Conference ‘Nurture not Nature’

30th March - 19th April - Spring Break - Worked at Perrywoods Nurseries for the 3 weeks.

10th April - Visit to Beth Chatto’s.

27th April - Visit to Marks Hall Estate.

29th April - 1st meeting for ESW.

1st May - Visit to the Gibberd Garden (Context, Meaning & Form).

5th May - Visit to RHS Wisley.

20th May - Visit to Chelsea Flower Show 2009.

22nd May - Finished Year 1, First summative presentation for a garden design! 80 Swiss Avenue.

25th May - Work began, Worked most of the summer at Perrywoods.

29th May - Meeting with ESW.

4th June - Chalkwell Park visit for ESW.

11th June - ESW meeting.

19th June - 26th June - Holiday to Madeira (to see the flowers…)

3rd July - Quit ESW project, it just wasn’t for me.

9th July - Got a little Gardening Job.

10th July - Visit to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

17th July - Visit to Glen Chantry Gardens - Beautiful.

10th Aug - 13th August - Holiday to Cornwall (Visiting the Gardens).

27th Aug - 31st August - Reading Festival (Slightly different Landscape)

21st Sept - Back College - 2nd Years!

26th Sept - Chalkwell Park - ESW project finale. To support the people that carried it through.

3rd Oct - SGD Conference.

8th Oct - Visit to Beth Chatto’s.

21st Oct - Visit to RHS Hyde Hall.

28th Oct - Visit to Hannah Peschar Sculpture Park.

10th Nov - Moonlight Garden Critique (Site Planning).

12th Nov - Site visit to Admirals Park (DMC).

17th Nov - Lecture with Beth Chatto & Jerry Harper.

21st Nov - Kew Gardens Lecture, Feering.

24th Nov - 27th Nov - ROTTERDAM, Study Tour. Amazing City.

8th Dec - Lecture with John Massey.

16th Dec - Trip to Aldeburgh for the day.

17th Dec - Presentation for Kew Palace (DMC)

30th Dec - 2010 - Scotland Holiday - New Years Celebrations, another wonderful city.

Sonneveld House.

Sonnveld House

Our visit to Rotterdam brought us with other exciting opportunity - our first international project in our site planning module, The Garden of Sonneveld House, to design an entertainment garden for events related to the NAI to be held. With the house to stay as a museum. The garden will have to link in with the house and relate in an appropriate manner. The context of the site is also very important.


The context being my main concept; I love the views from the site and I also felt when I was in Rotterdam everywhere I looked I was wowed by the extremes of architecture and building work.
Anyway I just thought id fill you in with some of my initial thoughts and ideas.

Surrounding Architecture & Concrete Structures

Curves in the Architecture & Entertaining with Lighting

 
 
My Initial Brief
 
I have been asked to re design the garden for Sonneveld House, Rotterdam. My client the NAI (Netherlands Architecture Institute) want to use the garden to host receptions, parties and other fundraising events held in the summer months from May through to September. The garden will also hired out for private events. With a maximum of 150 people on the site at a time. The House will still stay as a museum and will become a backdrop for the entertaining within the garden. However the garden will need to still fit in with the design of the modern 1930s house and will need to link also with its surrounding context. The design will cater for adults only with the exception of when it is hired out privately for wedding receptions and so on. On site within the design I will also have to consider spaces for shelter and a catering areas and with that the site will need access for vehicles. Toilet facilities and parking for the site will also be thought about.The garden will vary in its uses when designed so will need to be multi functional and have complete access for the disabled. Using the space at night should also be considered therefore appropriate lighting should be in place.
Over all the garden needs to be a fun, practical and entertaining space.

Can Parks Cure Social Ills?

What an enjoyable lecture...


So let’s get things straight.

The word 'Cure' taken from the online dictionary means:

1. Restoration of health; recovery from disease.
2. A method or course of medical treatment used to restore health.
3. An agent, such as a drug, that restores health; a remedy.
4. Something that corrects or relieves a harmful or disturbing situation: The cats proved to be a good cure for our mouse problem.
5. Ecclesiastical Spiritual charge or care, as of a priest for a congregation.
6. The office or duties of a curate.
7. The act or process of preserving a product.

So let’s get things straight cure means recovery, or to restore so in other words as said in the lecture the word stands for complete recovery and that’s something that although we wish it could isn't completely true. So then let’s take the next part of the question... Social ills? Bullying, Racism, Delinquency, Addiction etc.
So lets think about this and yes I believe to extent parks/open spaces/green spaces can 'help' with social ills.
So I’ve started looking into this more and health is a big factor that can be cured by green spaces and there have been numerous occasions in the news where this topic has been brought up. For example the one below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8307024.stm

I also found a PDF file from the http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ website that also talks about green spaces and social ills. It first talks by explaining exactly what a social ill is... ‘Any behaviour which causes, or is capable of causing nuisance, harassment, alarm or distress to persons from a different household!’ This report explained the issues of delinquents having a green space to run riot in. So this proves that it’s not always possible. I do think though these problems do go round in circles having somewhere in which social ills can occur i.e. A park gives the opportunity to let problems arise.
However in personal experiences I think being out in an open space whether it be a parkland or heath even sports fields you do feel a lot happier, however it comes down to the individual in the end and as we discussed in the lecture boredom is a main factor to this problem... so therefore I think this is the main issue that needs to be addressed, not whether there is enough green spaces.

Green Space!