Design Detail

This is the area I have chosen to do my detailed design. It incorporates part of the central zone, garden festival, sensory gardens and design studio. Also the canal. I have realised a few things that are not quite right. This wasn't apparent until I zoomed in. Still I suppose that is the point of the exercise. Anyway, I have done the overlay and sections, and hope to have a glimpse of a weekend, in between catching up on my Tom Turner work and seeing my long lost loved ones and friends.

'Liberate Me' A thing of the past?

Remember the good old days. Sketch designs entitled "liberate me?" What fun we were having, and we didn't even know. The masterplan and ensuing work would be more appropriately entitled "Incarcerate Me" or "Section Me" In fact I can think of many other titles, which I will not publish at this point. Here is a picture of what I would look like behind bars. Chin up everyone.......we can do it......I think.....
Oh also,if anyone is feeling down about their crits on Monday they should go and read David Watsons last post http://www.edesignstudio.blogspot.com/













R

Progress has been made!

Just got back from work, and as I am not in any frame of mind to continue working on my Masterplan stuff, I thought I would post a blog instead, as I don't think I will have another opportunity to do so this week. Last week I worked really hard on my plan and sections, and I even started the document. I didn't sleep much, and when I did all I dreamt about was the M/P. I was also not very efficient at work, but hey, somethings got to give and I don't want it to be my sanity. Anyway, the good news is, I made alot of progress and can actually see myself finishing for next Monday...so it was worth it.
Andrew gave me the go ahead and said that I had resolved the problems he had pointed out the previous week. My problem was that I had treated the campus as many parts of a patchwork, when really my approach should have been to approach it as a whole. Jamie has so far not given his opinion on what I have done, so I guess I hope that he and Andrew think along the same lines. Put it this way....nothing can be changed now.
So here are images of my (unannotated) plan and three sections. Not having the drawing abilities that some of the other students have, I have relied heavily on Photoshop for my sections. In fact I have decided this is the one program I could not live without!

Masterplan Monday

Well it's back to Uni tomorrow, where I will probably receive a huge wakeup call about all the work I need to do. Not that I have done nothing mind you. All I have done is think about this masterplan...try a few different things and finally arrived at a solution that I am happy with. Even though Jamie says we should be 'doers' and not 'thinkers', for me I need to come up with a design or idea that I believe in....otherwise how will I spend the next 5 months working on it? Sometimes ideas and inspiration come in a flash, for me this did not happen with the masterplan, so I have done quite alot of 'thinking'. So all I have to show tomorrow is a pencil drawn masterplan and my thought process in the form of my sketch book. I am thinking I will try and do a rough section today, especially after seeing Richards blog (Richard I admire your ability to produce good work so quickly) Not an A3 document in sight, so I am going to have a busy 2 weeks.
Anyway, I suppose I should discuss my ideas as this is the purpose of this blogging thing. In short this is my thought process:


Hadlow the patchwork....this was my first inspiration, but all I concluded that not only is the surrounding landscape a patchwork but the entire campus. It is already a very fragmented place and adding a garden festival will only make it more so. So I accepted this and divided the campus up into its separate parts, and explored other themes with which I could 'stitch' these parts together.


Hop Fields and Apple Orchards/ historic layers











Researching these two topics was very interesting and they are certainly an integral part of Kentish history and identity. The qualities I have taken from these two themes, are the form and order of how they are planted.
Hops in rows, often with trenches in between, supported by a grid of poles and wires...and apple orchards also planted in grids.




I decided that a series of grids in each section of my campus patchwork would be what unifies and connects each part of the uni grounds. Connected through circulation mainly, but also by a common thread of design in each zone. All will be different but based on the same principles, that being a series of lines or grids. There are many precedents to be found exploring these themes:-







A major decision I made was that I decided the road into the campus, needed to be straight for this concept to have strength. So I have created two axies, one physical in the form of the road and the other visual. I also felt the campus lacked a centre so created one, where a new main building will go. All areas connect to this one.

I will post a picture of my plan when it is completed (next week hopefully) even though I don't have much to show tomorrow, I do feel glad that I have finally figured out something that I feel happy with.



















R.K