Urbis Public Space, Manchester

Urbis lit at night

Urbis is an exhibition centre focussing on city life located just a couple of minutes walk from Exchange Square. The entrance to the iconic building is a public space designed by Martha Schwartz. The undulating topography of the grassed area with the water channels and seating incorporated into the design made me think about how I might solve problems within my own design work. This was a really well used and lively space, particularly popular with skateboarders who were using the hard edges as ramps to do tricks. It was interesting to see people using the space in a way that was not planned, as often seems the case.

Exchange Square, Manchester

Exchange Square, desgned by Martha Schwartz, is located in the heart of Manchester in a busy retail and entertainment district on a site of recent bombings. The square extends over two levels connected by curving ramps and stairs, which double up as street funtiture. Set within the curving walls of the ramps are internally lit glass boxes in which are embedded artifacts of the industrial revolutuion. The largest area, the top level, has seating which can be rearranged as needed. Benches slide along rail tracks inset with coloured glass panels marking the historical importance of railroads in the industrial development of Manchester.
Along the lower level the historic line of Hanging Ditch river is bought to life through an abstracted river filled with water and stepping stones. Unfortunately the river was dry when we visited and full of liter and construction work was taking place on much of the site so a lot of the space was barriered off from the public. I've been interested in Martha Schwartz's work since the first year and this was the first time I've visited one of her designs. After seeing her work in magazines/websites I was not dissappointed by the final project which was a really successful and much used space.

Manchester Art Gallery

Piccadilly Gardens - LS Lowry

This was a brilliant gallery, unfortunately we had to rush around it but you could easily spend alday here. I really liked the Manchester Gallery, on the ground floor, which celebrates the creativity of Manchester from the old textile industry to its contemporary arts and design scene. It shows how the city has changed over the years through a range of work from ceramics and furniture to video and photography. It included pieces by famous artisits such as LS Lowry and Adolphe Valette to contemporary artists and designers and even work produced by local communities. There was a painting of Piccadilly Gardens, which we had visited earlier, by LS Lowry. It was really interesting to see how this area looked fifty years ago and the changes it had undergone.

The Clore Interactive Gallery was a really nice idea with hands on activities to explore artwork and even create your own. Children were really catered for in the gallery, more than I'd seen before. With each exhibition there was a seperate space with interactive activities making the gallery a really fun place for children to be.

Dysfunctional Family - Yinka Shonibare

Alien Nation was a unique exhibition of film, sculpture and cinema posters talking about fears and fantasies for the future. 'Twelve contemporary international artists use science fiction and extra-terrestrial forms to explore racial difference as a metaphor for the threat of the outsider,' www.manchestergalleries.org

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester

Piccadilly Gardens is situated in Manchester city centre at the end of Market Street and close to Piccadilly Rail Station. It is the cities largest open inner city green space. The park, once Victorian Gardens, became neglected and a key site of anti social behaviour. The square was redesigneed in 2001 by EDAW after the IRA bombings and as part of the build up to the city hosting the Commonwealth Games. The park includes a large lawn area, and fountain plaza with the original statues and a reacreational pavillion designed by Japanese architect Tado Ando whose work I really love.

Go to www.360spin.co.uk/virtual-manchester/pic-garden.htm for 360 degree panoramics of Piccadilly Gardens, Exchange Square and the Urbis.

Albert Dock, Liverpool

The Albert Dock was once the base for the East India and China Trades, consisting of five blocks of warehouses grade 1 listed buildings surrounding a body of water larger than Trafalgar Square. The docks closed in 1792 after decades of disuse and in 1983 it became the site of a £100 million regeneration project. The new development was fully completed in 2003, transformed into a vibrant waterfront with reastaurants, bars, shops and apartments. It has become the site of Merseyside Maritime Museum and Tate Liverpool, attracting millions of visitors every year.

Church Ruins, Liverpool

The church was built in 1831, situated in Liverpool town centre. It suffered serious bomb damage during the Blitz of May 1941. The church was purchased by the city from the Church of England in 1868 and together with the gardens which surround it, it has become a public space. The eerie church ruins are covered with vines and the whole area is very tranquil and restful.

LSEA Visit To Beavers Community Primary School

Children's sustainable transport to school posters

Today I volunteered at Beaver's Community Primary School in Hounslow. It was a really exhausting day but very rewarding! I worked with small groups of children talking to them about environmentally friendly ways of travelling to school, promoting the benefits of walking/cycling and ways to keep safe. The school is already very active in promoting sustainability and discourages parents to take their children to school by car by organising cycling groups in the morning and WOW - walk on Wednesdays. I helped the children to create posters to put up around their school to encourage more children to use these facilities and explain the benefits. In the afternoon I helped the children calculate the carbon footprint of the school, which was quite horrifying! The school is well above the average when compared to other schools and I explained simple ways to reduce this. I hope to visit the school again in July to create a whole school travel tree, where each child puts a different coloured leave onto the tree in the morning relating to the way they travelled that day. I look foreard to seeing th schools progress.

Whitelaw + Turkington, London

Peninsula Square, Greenwich

After seeng a lecture on public realm by Lindsay Whitelaw at Cityscape I arranged a visit to Whitelaw + Turkington. Everybody was really welcoming and showed me a huge variety of projects which they are currently working on including masterplanning, parks and open space and urban design mainly for commercial and residential areas. One of the largest projects they are working on is Peninsula Square in Greenwich which will be the gateway to te O2. The square will be surroundedby shops, restaurants and cafes with an outdoor performance area and bold paving in concentric patterns. This will create a new public space for London, equivalent in size to Leicester Square. I really liked the diversity of types and scale of work they undertake. I was a bit daunted by how much technical drawing is done for each project!

For more information visit www.wtlandscape.com