Tate Modern

Test Site is an installation by Carsten Holler of five impressive slides in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern. There was a constant flow of people using the slides. No one could resist, from teenagers to professionals still in their business suits, everyone was queing up for a go! Holler sees this as a prototype for an even larger installation, in which slides could be introduced throughout London. She has undertaken many projects that invite visitor interaction, such as Flying Machine (1996) that hoists the user through the air, Upside-Down Goggles (1994/2001) that modify vision, and Frisbee House (2000) - a room full of Frisbees. Holler is interested in exploring communal human experience, ‘questioning human behaviour, perception and logic and offering the possibility for self-exploration in the process’.

Aswell as the permanent exhibitions I also visited David Smith: Sculptures. David Smith (1906-65) is one of the greatest American sculptors of the twentieth century and this exhibition celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of his death, showing the largest selection of his work ever shown in Europe.
His pieces are characterised by the use of industrial materials, especially welded iron and steel and the exploration of an open, linear structure.
Talking of steels as a medium Smith says, ‘What it can do in arriving at form economically, no other material can do. The metal itself possesses little art history. What associations it possesses are those of this century: power, structure, movement, progress, suspension, destruction and brutality.’

For more information and live webcam views of the slides visit www.tate.org.uk/modern

Ucas Fair Volunteer

Today I represented the Landscape Institute at the UCAS Fair at the Business Design Centre. Explaining to prospective students exactly what Landscape Architecture is was much harder than I expected! During the afternoon Pat Brown and I gave a presentation about the subject, showing a slideshow of projects whilst getting the students involved in activities to learn more about Landscape Architecture.

SLIC Meeting - Cranfield University

* The importance of involvement in the local branches was disscussed. This is a good way for students to become involved with events and activites and meet proffessionals within their field. We will promote the benefits on the SLIC website and by talking to students. I became a member of Landscape Architects South East (LASE).

* The possibility of having a student section in Vista was proposed.

* We spoke about volunteering for the London School Environment Awards, which would involve going into schools and talking about landscape architecture and the environment.

Battersea Power Station

China Power Station was an exhibition of Chinese contemporary art, architecture and sound at the iconic Battersea Power Station. Chinese artists and architects involved included Cao Fei, Yang Fudong and Kan Xuon. Work mainly consisted of sound and moving image as well some sculptural pieces. One installation which I really liked was by Gu Dexin who had covered a wall with apples, which were slowly decaying. As I was visiting on one of the final days of the five week exhibition the smell was really sweet and overpowering.
The exhibition provided a unique opportunity to visit Battersea Power Station before it begins redevelopment. It has never been open to the public before and was far more derelict than I had imagined, with its bare steel frame reinforced with brickwork from the outside. The power station once generated twenty percent of London’s electricity, and after closing in 1983 it has become the largest city centre brownfield site in Europe. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, also the architect for the power station at Bankside which is now the Tate Modern and the designer of the British phone box.

The future of the power station will be transformation by Parkview International into a new cultural, entertainment and events centre, which I really hope to track the progress of.

www.thepowerstation.co.uk

Harbour Bath

The Harbour Bath is part of the cities 'Blue Plan' for the entire harbour space and use of the water. There are 42 kilometres of wharf in the Copenhagen harbour and the Blue Plan aims to make room for houseboats, promenades, watersports, recreation areas and playgrounds. Plot designed this bathing area in 2002 when it became possible to swim in copenhagen harbour again, after years polluted water due to industry. The bath is located in the island brygge area by Langebro Bridge and since opening a second bathing has been opened in the Amager Strand. When we visited it was closed bu tit looks like a really fun place to be during the Summer.

Anchor Park

Anchor Park is situated further into the Bo01 housing development, built alongside a canal and edged by a rather ugly curving concrete deck. Anchor Park has been designed as a hydroglyphic park which means it has lots of different interacting biotopes. Each biotope constitutes a miniature eco-system of its own, including an alder marsh, oak grove and beech grove. The canal too has different biotopes adapted to suit different species, including crabs, mussels, seaweed, ferns and fish. The saltwater in the canal comes from the Sound and is constantly circulated to keep it fresh. The park not only provides a green space for the surrounding residential area but can also be used as an environmental education park.

I had been really looking forward to visiting this park after reading about it in Topos but, like everyone else, I was very disappointed. The park is neglected and underused. I like the ideas behind the park but the choice of materials don't work well together and the rubber and concrete in particular look hideous. A real let down for such a successful development.

Dania Park

The popular bathing area and viewing platform

Dania Park is located on the dramatic and exposed waterfront of the Bo01 development. The designers Thorbiorn Andersson and PeGe Hillinge aimed to emphasise its unique location, dramatising the border to the sea and view onto the horizon.

The park covers a massive 20,000sqm and has a simple layout, with two parallel footpaths surrounding a large open field of grass, used for large scale events. Smaller spaces have been created throughout its expanse. Cosy balcony boxes inspired by the design of a fortress shelter visitors from the harsh elements. A bastion-like lookout stands to the north of the site with a viewing platform leaning over the water, which in the summer becomes a popular diving spot. With its scouts leading down into the water, the area becomes a favourite bathing spot in the Summer. At a contrast when I visited this Winter the park was totally deserted, probably due to how cold and exposed it was at this time of year. On these dark afternoons subtle lighting throughout the site leads visitors across pathways and illuminating interesting features and textures.

Sheltered seating areas

This was a very beautiful park of the highest quality. No expense had been spared. Beautiful natural materials such as granite and wood had been used throughout on a large scale reminding me of its industrial past.

The only flaw was the mass produced litter bins, seating, bollards and planters which I'm guessing were later added. These spoil the quality and attention to detail seen everywhere else throughout the park.

".......here the urban planners hit a home run," Sweden's larget daily newspaper.

Bo01 City of Tomorrow

Bo01 Masterplan

Malmo is Sweden's third largest city, situated in the Oresund Region on the North Sea. It is undergoing a huge transformation from an industrial city to a city of knowledge.

Over the last 200 years the shoreline in the north of the city has gradually moved outwards to create space for growing harbour and industrial activities. As industry declined the land fell derelict creating the perfect opportunity for Bo01 City of Tomorrow, a new urban district for living, education and work. The project aimed to make Vastra Hamnen an international leading example of a densley populated, environmentally sound neighbourhood. It hoped to be a driving force in Malmo's development towards environmental sustainability. The area will use 100% locally renewable energy and is a car-free area.

Japanese Evening

This evening Rhys and I spoke to an audience in the studio about our trip to Japan, both about the Sozosha design course and the numerous places we visited and people we met. I was quite nervous but really enjoyed sharing our experiences with everyone.

SLIC Meeting - Kingston University

This was my first meeting as a member of SLIC - Student Landscape Insitute Council. SLIC is the student voice for the landscape profession, promoting student interests and articulating student views within the Landscape Institute. I was really keen to get involved and act as the voice for Kingston University students and become involved in the forthcoming events planned by SLIC.

* We discussed ways of making SLIC better known among both students and professionals, and ensuring there is a representative from each university.

* We decided upon a new SLIC logo which will be printed onto promotional postcards and be shown on the SLIC stand at events.

* The cityscape exhibiton have offered SLIC a central floor space of 333sqm to design a streetscene using materials, street furniture etc provided by the other exibitors, and create a place for people to relax during the event. Laura Bradley and Kate Newton designed the layout and asked the SLIC representatives for their thoughts and ideas.

The SLIC website is www.slic.info

Open House London

Open House is a charity committed to raising the standard of good design, particularly in the capital. Their annual festival of architecture involves opening up six hundred buildings across London, new and old, for the public to view completely for free!

I started the day at The Monument, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built to commemorate the Great Fire of London 1666. After climbing the 311 steps I was rewarded with panoramic views of the city.

The Lloyds Building, is somewhere I've always been fascinated in. The building was designed by Richard Rogers and is described as 'a mechanical cathedral'. The essential services are sited on the exterior of the building in six vertical towers leaving large uniterrupted spaces within. Inside the glass and steel hide real surprises. The Adam Room, out of character from the ultra high-tech interior, is a classical Italianate wood-pannelled room. It was originally the dining room of Bowood House and was bought to Lloyd's piece by piece.

London City Hall, along South Bank, was designed by Norman Foster in 2002. It's one of the capitals most symbolically important new projects and is a sustainable, virtually non polluting building. This beautiful modern spiralling staircase runs through the centre overlooking views of the Thames.

Wimbledon College of Art Degree Show

This was a really good opportunity to see the work of students from another art university. On show was postgraduate Fine Art work which included a mixture of drawing, painting, print and digital media and sculpture, aswell as performance. They had come up with some really innovative ways of exhibiting their work which made me start to think about our final degree show next Summer.....

New Art Centre, Roche Court

The New Art Centre is a gallery and sculpture park situated at Roche Court, a 19th century house and park in Winterslow, Wiltshire. The centre was founded by Madeleine Bessborough and was originally located in Sloane Square, London untill 1994 when it moved to more picturesque surroundings. The vast sloping park surrounded by woods provides the perfect backdrop for the sculpture. The park is free and allows the public to see a wide range of 20th – 21st century sculpture from leading artists including Antony Gormley, Richard Long, Richard Deacon and Bill Woodrow. The sculptures incorporate a wide range of media, including bronze, marble, Corten steel, fibreglass resin and stainless steel.

The gallery was designed by architects Munkenbeck + Marshall in 1998 and has won six architectural awards, including the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Award for best small building. It's a really lovely light space and when we visited an exhibition by Craig Martin was showing.

For more information visit www.sculpture.uk.com

Ryoan-Ji Temple, Kyoto Japan

This was my first exprience of a traditional Japanese temple. The rock garden is one of the most famous in Kyoto, laid out bySoami who died in 1525. It has a simple beauty, consisting of just fifteen rocks and meticulously raked gravel.

Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Japan

Jusetsu Miwa - Rice Dish

The National Museum of modern Art is located in a building designed by Taniguchi Yoshiro in the Kyobashi area of Tokyo. It was great to see the history of modern Japanese Art from the early 20th Century to the present. I had never even heard of most of the artists before, and particlarly liked the work of Kitaoka Fumio who created huge black and white prints depicting water, aswell as Miyakawa Yoshiki and Sawada Testuro. The crafts gallery was showing a ceramics exibition, Jusetsu Miwa: A Retrospective. The sculptor has been named a 'national living treasure' and is a sculptor of Hagi-ware. This exhibition displayed over 180 works including rice bowls, vases and water jars, presenting the culmination of 80 years of work. The pieces were beautiful but to be honest once you've seen once piece you've seen them all!

Mount Fuji, Japan

Climbing Mount Fuji was one of the real highlights of my trip to Japan. The three other English students from the design course and I made it to the top in a day and stayed overnight in a mud hut. Pathways and restpoints were built precariously into the mountain edge. The soils were a rich reddish, unlike anywhere I'de seen before. We climbed down at sunrise to breath-taking views. An experience I wont forget.

Sozosha International Design Course

I was very excited about winning a place on the 2006 Sozosha International Students' Workshop held in Osaka, Japan. The course ran between 16th July to 2nd August and was attended by fifty students from India, Singapore, Malaysia, Phillipines, France, Netherlands, England and Japan. It was a really interesting experience working with students not only from throughout the world but also from various design disciplines. Explaining any ideas and visions for the project was a real challenge due to the language barriers but we communicated through drawings and with the aid of a translater.

Our client Hasegawa Kogyo, are a famous stepladder company in Japan. Our brief was to develop an existing product to create a dual purpose.

A survey of people in Osaka revealed that as few as 20% own a garden, whereas over 80% of those with no garden have a balcony or veranda. Japanese gardens are an original art form and an important part of Japanese culture. We created the vertical garden so people with limited space can still experience the pleasure of a garden.

Detail of securing base structure

The vertical garden incorporates all aspects of regular horizontal gardens, such as soil, water, flowers, vegetables, seating, lighting etc. but on a vertical axis. The base for the garden is provided by simple alluminium jigsaw shapes which act as a trellis for the plants to climb over.

Calender of garden growth and use

The shapes puzzle together piece by piece to form unlimited possiblities. Where there are less perforations, there are less plants creating places to step, sit etc. The design can grow with the plant and creates a living artwork changing with the seasons.

Studying at Sozosha was a brilliant opportunity and a lot of fun. I'd really urge any of the second years to apply for the 2007 workshop.

The Golden Pavillion, Kyoto Japan

The Golden Pavillion within its magnificent grounds was completely breathtaking. The vast lake it appears to be floating on is known as Kyoko-cho - Mirror Pond and contains many small islands. Winding pathways lead worshipers (and plenty of tourists) through the enourmous grounds past waterfalls, tea houses and shrines which are all stunning. The Japanese seem to get it right every time!

Pagoda on the Island of Hakuja-no-tsuka

Moerenuma Park, Japan

This was a very impressive park, unlike anywhere I'd been before. The landscape was so dramatic, with huge structures filling its vast expanse. The masterplan was completed by Isamu Noguchi who aimed to design a "park that is considered to be one complete sculpture". Moerenuma Park was his final and most ambitious project, completed in 2005, 17 years after his death. It was once the site of a waste treatment plant and covers a huge 189 ha. The space was built under the 'Circular Greenbelt Concept' which aimed at surrounding the urban areas of Sapporo with parks and greenbelts.

It was a really hot day and we hired bikes at the entrance which was a perfect way to explore. As you travel through the park different spaces and structures are suddenly revealed, such as playground areas hidden within cherry forests, and a 62m tall artificial mountain previously hidden by the topography. The views across the park at every angle are stunning.

Moere Mountain rises 62m tall, creating a landmark for Sapporro

Tetra Mound is a triangular pyramid of stainless steel columns with a chess board square used for events.

Forest of cherry trees is a play equipment area hidden within a green zone.

Japanese Homestay

During the three week design course I stayed with a Japanese family on the outskirts of Osaka in Shijounawateshi. It was my first time in Japan and my first time outside Europe and this was a brilliant way to be totally imersed within the culture. It was a great opportunity to learn some of the language and try the local cuisine. The parents had three young children and while staying with them I really became part of the family and part of the local community.

M28E, Nagoya

Kenji Furukawa

Whilst in Kyoto I visited the Modern Zen Garden, which was a beautiful space with water features and an area for Geisha performance (see below). I got in touch with Kenji Furukawa through Takeshi and spent a very busy day with him visiting his studio and several of his landscapes. His gardens are very traditional Japanese Zen Gardens which are very beautiful and peaceful. He uses traditional materials and techniques such as woven bamboo and raked pebbles. I had a go at the traditional method of bamboo splitting, Kenji made it look much simpler than it actually was!

Modern Zen Garden, Kyoto

Splitting Bamboo at Kenji's Home

For more information visit m28e@orihime.ne.jp

Landscape Architecture and Garden Design Meeting, Tokyo

Whilst in Tokyo I attended a design meeting in Showa Kinen Park. Landscape architects, garden designers, graphic designers and landscape architecture students from the University of Tokyo attended. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet some really interesting people although slightly difficult with the language barrier. We spent the day BBQing, looking through everybodies portfolios and in the evening went for a traditional Japanese meal. I particularly liked the work of Japan Lanscape Consultants, Life Landscape Planning, Yamagiwa Musouen and Katsunori Ogura.

N-Tree, Tokyo

Illusive Space

Takeshi Nagasaki is a Fine Artist and Landscape Architect who lives and works in Japan. His work has been shown in magazines such as Brutus and photographed by Michael Freeman. His home is his studio and it also became a gallery as he talked me through his current projects. His work is mainly small scale private gardens in a traditional Japanese style with a contemporary twist. Due to the lack of space in much of Japan's urban areas, the majority of people only own a small balcony or terrace. Much of his work deals with this small scale and he works with an intricate amount of detail and high level of quality. This was a real highlight of my trip to Japan. In May Takeshi hopes to hold an exhibition in London which will be well worth taking a look at!

Tomb Garden

Sculptures in Takeshi's House

Garden Inside the Cave of Iron Composition

To view more of his work visit www.n-tree.jp

Michelangelo Drawings

'Closer to the Master' at the British Museum covers the long career of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) through his drawings. Michelangelo was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and draftsman and the exhibition contains his private preliminary sketches for final designs. He did not plan for the drawings to be viewed by the public, or even kept and many others were destroyed but they are really fascinating in giving an insight into Michelangelo’s thought process as he worked. There are very initial thumbnail sketches through to really detailed polished studies of individual features, all very beautiful. Interactive computers show how each of the preliminary drawings fit perfectly onto the final artworks, putting the drawings into context. This was a brilliant exhibition, well worth a visit, although being a Saturday is was very crowded so I'd recommend visiting during the week.