Gwanggyo City Centre

When searching the internet i came across this design on 'Conceptualist' designed by MVRDV based in Rotterdam, Holland. the company won a competion to redign Gwanggyo City Centre in South Korea with this amazing design consisting of a series of overgrown, hill like structures.

Via Contemporist: "To facilitate this all elements are designed as rings. By pushing these rings outwards, every part of the program receives a terrace for outdoor life. Plantations around the terraces with a floor to floor circulation system store water and irrigate the plants. The roofs of these hills and the terraces are planted with box hedges creating a strong, recognizable, cohesive park. This vertical park will improve the climate and ventilation, reduce energy and water usage. As a result a series of overgrown green ‘hills’ appear in the landscape."

I would be interested to find out if this would/could ever work.

Rain shelter feedback

I have just recieved feedback about my rain shelter project and the feeling that came through was that this is a work in progress and would need more work. the theory is in place to create a really interesting and dynamic structure that could really engage people with the falling rain. looking at it now i do agree with what my lecturers have said and i feel that a combination of this design and a number of the other designs that i created to get to this point could make something quite special. i may continue to devolop this design and see if i can intergrate it into my design for promenade park.

Rain shelter project complete!

After a lot of thinking and experimenting, i have designed a rain shelter that fits the brief that we were given and i am very happy with the results.  i set out to create a rain shelter that keeps you dry and protected from the elements, but also gives you the magical experience a waterfall offers. below is a model of what the shelter would look like.

Model of rain shelter

the shelter is really quite large, but this is intentional. i needed to create a structure that had a large surface area on roof to catch as much water as possible to then channel into the waterfall which falls from the lowest point of the roof. i have tried to make the materials in the model as close to what they would be if the structure were to be made. the roof would be created from thin and lightweight sheets of steel. in the model i have used foil to show this which is a bit shiney for my liking and the steel would have a more tarnished look about it. the rest of the structure would be made from wood.

Rain shelter in context

i have situated the rain shelter very close to the bridge and directly next to the path. this is so that it is easy to access and also so it doesn't feel like you are going out of your way to get to it. this should make it feel more inviting. i have also situated it here as it is in a great spot to channel the water from the waterfall back into the river. 

View from within the shelter

 the experience from within should be special and will hopefully make people look forward to the rain. you never know.....

Further thoughts on promenade park....

Something that happened when i was at promenade park looking at the physical features of the site was to slide uncontrollably down a muddy bank. not only did this make me and everyone else watching laugh quite a lot, this also covered my hands in mud and also caked the notes in my sketchbook too (the picture shows a page from my sketchbook with my notes scratched back onto the page). it has however given me a thought. instead of imposing something new upon the site, why not work with the land that is already there, working from the soil up. this could lead me to work with the topography of the site (which is currently in a horrible undulating state) and maybe create some land art, which i have never done before. this could be a strong line of enquiry.

Site visit!

Today we visited the site of our first design assignment of my third year at university. the site is in maldon (essex) in promenade park right on the edge of the river blackwater. we have been given the task of redesigning the use of a field towards the east of the park that currently serves little use. during the summer the field is used as a carpark when large events happen in other areas of the park and there is also a belt of trees that ring around 90% of the edge of the field. these were planted in memory of those who died during world war two. apart from this, the field has little else to offer as it is not even flat and fit for sports purposes. i will update when i have learned more about the site and its limitaions.


P.s. i tasted oysters for the first time today when we visited mersea. a tasty treat!

Rain shelter

currently i am working on a small project that sees me designing a rain shelter to protect people who get caught in the sudden rain storms that we seem to get in todays modern climate. the rain shelter is going to be situated beside a bridge at the front of writtle college on the threshhold between land and the stream that runs below. the river tends to flood every year due to heavy rains and a large catment area (larger than it should be) so i have decided to place the shelter up the bank in an area that the water never reaches. i also feel that some sort of interaction between the shelter and the bridge is necessary rather than these two structures being seperate bodies.

        the shelter should also have some sort of use for the water that falls upon it. i've decided that the best use for the water that falls on the roof is to make it into a waterfall that the people using the shelter can watch whilst being protected from the elements. this all stems back to my visit to norway in june 2010. at this time it was spring in norway and the snow melt was in full flow, creating hundereds of waterfalls throughout the country. we lack waterfalls in essex due to our geology and topography and i think it would be nice for people to experience what it is like to be behind a waterfall. the picture shows one of my rough models that follows this train of though.

Norway - the inspiring land of water

Norway is an amazing place with great design solutions that either blend in with or completely contrast with the surrounding landscape. This has greatly swayed the way I design towards the futuristic and moderist. please have a look:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=62823&id=1136846246

Pudding: Welcome

Welcome to my fantastic new blog called Pudding. For all you sweet toothed fans of desserty indulgence, unfortunately this blog is not for you. I am a student studying garden design at Writtle College and this blog has been created to talk about my day to day findings. I appologise to all the pavlova fans out there....