Mile End Park

Mile End Park was designed by Tibbalds TM2. The Green Bridge was designed by Piers Gough of CZWG Architects. This park is an ideal example of demonstrating the importance of maintenance. The design of this park is great and has tons of potential but due to poor maintenance by the council the park looks dissapointing. The description of the park sounds really nice

"Mile End Park was gorgeously landscaped during the millennium year by Tibbalds TM2, and now incorporates a go-kart track, a children's centre for under-10s, areas for public art and an ecology area."

Text from here.

The reality of the park is far from attractive and welcoming for anyone let alone under 10s and families. Its hard to judge whether the public art includes the graffitti and un-kept look the park has. I tried to open minded about the park but that was hard after having read and heard negatives reviews about the park, and then being there every word that i'd heard or read was accurate.

Below shows some photos to give an insight to the park.

Mudchute Farm

This was a bit of fun in the day!! There's something about seeing a pig just makes you laugh. The llama's were amusing as well, they didn't look very happy and when I was told they spit quite far I stepped back!
This is a nice example of a community run project, it would be interesting to find out more about the farm. Where they get their funds from? Do the chicken eggs get sold or are they given to the community? Who pays for the food and upkeep of the fences/gates etc?
Ignoring all these questions this is a great opportunity for inner-city children to get an insight to farm animals and what they need to survive.

Jubilee Gardens, Canary Wharf

Jubliee Gardens, i'm not to sure about these gardens, they have the potential to be nice but just aren't. The detailing isn't very nice but the knowing that there's a shopping centre underneath gives you a little more appreciation for it. The fountains work well at drowning out the nearby traffic, other then that I wasn't a big fan of these gardens.

Greenwich Peninsula

Having never visited the dome or the surrounding area, it was decided that was something to do! Below is a public open space near a school, the paving was really nice but the layout was a bit strange. The paving didn't cover the whole area. The games here entertained us for about five minutes and then it was decided that they were too difficult so we moved on. This is a short video of the turning disks, you might have to tilt your head a bit i can't rotate it, sorry!

Usman Haque of Haque :: design + research: PROJECTS, ETC.

This talk at the London Met was very inspiring! The underlying theme to the work of Haque Design is based around the following 3 factors;

1. Architecture
2. Inter-action
3. Design + Research

To see the website click here. The projects that have been completed are based around reactions. Some of the technology that is used has shown a type of intelligence by adapting to the actions taking place.

Some of the projects that Usman Haque talked about;

• Evolving Sonic Environment III This is the technology that according to the research seemed to learn and react quicker the longer it was running for.
  
• Burble This was done in London's Holland Park. The concept behind this is the motion causing the colour change. But each balloon reacts to the colour of its neighbour, the balloons were "communicating" with each other and changing accordingly.
  
• Sky Ear This is similar to the Burble, except instead of reacting to motion, its reacts to mobile phone signals caused by people calling phones that are floating in the Sky Ear and causing the colour changes.

These are some of the projects that Usman Haque has carried out, the website it worth looking at for more projects and information.

The only aspect that didn't come up with the talk is sustainability, the big topic at the moment. The projects and exhbits are great, but the question relating to sustainbility seems un-answered and would be interesting to know what plans Haque :: design + research have got in place to cater for sustainability.

Design Museum

Jean Prouve this is an exhibtion about all the work that Jean Prouve has done. Like most of the exhbitions about people are all a bit samey and not massively inspiring, but worth a look while your there.

The Design Museum are working alongside the Tate Modern to show Maison Tropicale. This is a prototype house designed by Jean Prouve for the 1950s colonial West Africa.

Design Museum

Brit Insurance Designs of the Year This is definately worth a look in! The range of designs goes from a car (the new Fiat 500) to different graphic styles, to a set of 6 foot solid aluminum speakers to different fashion styles, furniture, architecture and many more. Some of the more interesting exhibits were the interactive ones. Some of these include Volume at the V&A click here or here. Below shows some pictures of the mentioned items above. This video shows one of the better interactive exhibits. Designed by Ross Phillips The Replenshing Body Kiosk is a 25 section touch screen video grid and visitors are encouraged to make 1 second recordings of themselves, and makes up a big picture of 25 different moving images. Its quite fun to play with as you can see by the video, some school girls were having a great laugh with it!

Open City @ Somerset House

Below is one of three videos which is related to some very nicely bound documents explaining the development of certain areas in and around London.

Open City @ Somerset House

This exhibition is well worth a look in. Public spaces seems to have been done over and over, but this exhibition presents the space in a different and interactive way.


The exhibition is made up of the little house's each with a different theme inside. In the next room there are a lot of videos related to some documents nearby.



The map above is part of the re-link to the river in one of the small houses. The map shows a the river as it flows through london and the key points nearest to the river.

Open City @ Somerset House

To compliment the exhibition at Somerset House, there are a series of talks set alongside. For more information about these click here. For more information about the exhibition click here.

More Windy Weather

To help save money and be more environmentally friendly I choose to ride into central london for the breakfast talks at the NLA. This was made more difficult this morning due to the strong winds howling through the country.
However I made it to the Building Centre in one piece, but a couple of plant pots didn't survive the strong winds as you can see below.



For more about the beating England has had from the weather click here.

Underground London @ The NLA Building Centre

Underground London is an exhibition looking at the changes the climate is bringing and prompting a vision of a complete underground infrastructure for the city. This will include upgrading the existing facilities and installing new technologies. This exhibition looks at planned changes for London and the steps the city is going to take to make it a more sustainable city.

To compliment the exhibition there are a series of breakfast talks. The first of these was David Anderson, the Engineering Director from Crossrail. This talk was looking at the new line that Crossrail have planned to put in across London. The main focus was on the stations and how they are going to be efficient and better then the existing underground stations. This talk was interesting but the delivery of the presentation was hard to keep up with. This wasn't helped during the question time from an annoying audience member insisting on making herself heard!

The second breakfast was given by Alex Michaelis, from Michaelis Boyd Architects. This talk was very interesting focusing more on the new technologies that could be harnessed to make the city a more sustainable place.

The first of these was a private house that was built with height restrictions, so the design focused on the idea of having half the house underground. This has lead to a lot more people looking into extending their homes down instead of up. The main reason for this is getting the planning permission for the height extension on the existing building. To see more about this private house, check the website here and search for the Oxford Gardens house. Note the built in slide on the stairs down to the swimming pool!

Some of the sustainable ideas that Alex Michaelis and Arup were working on were very interesting. They were working towards making London a sustainable city;

1. Eco-sewer. This works on the basis that everyday between 6-9 in the morning and evening, hot water passes through the sewers of London. This energy could be harnessed and used to power turbines to create energy.

2. Eco-travelator. This is much more conceptual then the eco-sewer. The idea works towards the removal of cars and buses. The travelator would connect key points around London with each other, by travelators. They would be powered via solar power to reduce the energy consumption.

Energy Island, this works with the Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation (OTEC). This works on the knowledge of temperature changes between deep and shallow waters in the sea, can create electricity. The energy island would also be a docking port for large tankers to help protect the docks built around the country. The tankers are getting bigger and the docks are suffering, with the use of the energy island the tankers would be able to dock comfortably.

Mark Elton @ Kingston MLT, friday 29/02/08, 11:30

Mark Elton is from ECD Architects. ECD stands for Energy Conscious Design, to see their website click here.
The talk was themed around Wolseley UK Sustainable Building Centre in Lemington Spa, to see the website specific for the Wolseley Building Centre click here.

The building was designed by the following team;

• Techniker//engineers,
• Fulcrum Consultants,
• DWB//Dobson White Boulcott//Quantity Surveyors,
• RGA Landscape//landscape architects.

The part of the talk that I was most interested in was the roofing system, that had been chosen for this building. The roofing is a Sedum roofing system. These differ from the typical green roof systems because its not structually dependent. Green roof's come in 2 styles;

1. Intensive is mostly made up of turf and plants needing soil
2. Extensive is mostly made up of Alpine plants also needs soil

A sedum roofing is a low maintenance matting, which is rolled out onto roofs. The main benefits from a sedum system are;

• Aesthetic benefits, green roofs are visually attractive.
• Protecting the waterproof membrane, the membrane lasts longer as a result of green roofing protecting the membrane.
• Reduced cooling, the plants on the roof absorb a lot of the heat on hot days and stops the building heating up.
• Biodiversity, wildlife live and breed on the roofs and help with to sustain the plants.
• Noise abosrbing, Mark Elton claims the noise from the airplanes is less with the sedum roofing in place.
• Storm water run off, this acts like a sponge and stores water which can be used in other ways.

The main disadvantages from the sedum roofing are;

• Cost, the client has to want to do it and it would cost about 30% extra.
• Maintenance, this is low compared to the intensive and extensive roofing, but needs checking once or twice a year, mainly to remove any unwanted plants from the roof.

The other material that interested me in this build is the GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast furnaced Slag). Click here for more information about GGBS. The main benefit of GGBS is the CO2 emissions are lower then standard concrete, and this helps the Wolseley building take big steps towards being a zero carbon building.

Picture source here.

Innovations for the Built Environment

One of the exhibiting stands was SLIC (Student Landscape Institute Council). This was made up of students work from all around the country. My Kingston Gateway project was one of the selected pieces put on show at the exhibition.

To see more about SLIC click here.

Innovations for the Built Environment 2008

Cityscape '08 is an exhibtion held in Earls Court. With 500+ exhibitors there's a lot to see. Below is a small section of some of the exhibits I saw while I was there.

Green roofs seem to be the next big thing! There was a lot of stands each trying to sell their own version of the green roof system. Below shows a model from one of the first stands I saw. The company on this stand was called Alumasc. To see their website click here. They have designed the roofing system at the New Providence Wharf in Docklands, London to see more about this project click here.

Next to the Alumasc stand was a Biotecture Ltd green walling system. This stand was un-manned and information was limited to a small leaflet next to the display (seen below). The green wall works in similar ways to the green roofs, and is very sustainable and looks great on the side of tall buildings!

Below you can see a picture of a massive model from the Thames Gateway project. This model was vast and gave a good over-view of the Thames estuary and the area involved with the project. This is one of the biggest waterside projects in Western Europe. The regeneration is ranging from Tower Bridge to Thurrock and Bexley. For more information about this project click here.

The image below is a streetscene, designed by landscape architects Whitelaw Turkington. The streetscene offered a range of materials and design's and looked nice in the exhibition hall, but in the context of a real street it would offer a very different experience.