1. The Project
The Northern Exposure exhibition represents one of four dissemination channels – exhibition, book, seminar and website – that will take place over the next 12 months. Taken as a whole the chief aim of the Northern Exposure project – in association with the NWDA - is to disseminate information on these ten practices as exemplars of best practice, and thereby demonstrate the fundamental importance of quality architectural design within the urban regeneration process.
2. Context
The Northwest is the UK’s largest and most vibrant commercial, financial, educational and cultural economic region outside London. It is synonymous with leading developments in atomic physics, medical research, technology and the creative industries. The role of architecture and urban design in its flourishing renaissance cannot be underestimated. Over the duration of the last 20 years it has witnessed a considerable transformation, embracing new modes of living, transportation and work. A key component in this new urban dynamism is the intrinsic role of the architect/designer driving change and fostering a renewed sense of confidence and optimism in the way it perceives itself. CUBE's Northern Exposure project is a timely contribution to the debate of how architecture and design can define and effect both physical and social change. ‘Northern Exposure’ will run alongside the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, therefore attracting and appealing to both a diverse national and international audience.
3. Overview
The ten practices in 'Northern Exposure' can be said to be ‘emerging’ either in the sense of becoming established and noticed as a new design presence within the Northwest region, or in the sense of locally established practices of a few years’ standing being recognised on a broader national or international arena. The chosen participants all have strong connections and relationships with the region and share a strong commitment to design quality. They range from town planners to architects to landscape architects to interior designers; in size from 2-man practices to firms of 16 staff; covering a wide range of activities from master-planning to architecture to commercial and domestic interiors.
4. The Ten Practices: ARCA
ARKHEION
JUDGE GILL
LANDSCAPE PROJECTS
OMI ARCHITECTS
SHED KM
SAGAR STEVENSON
TOTAL ARCHITECTURE
URBED
WILKINSON, EVANS, JEFFERIES
CUBE
http://www.cube.org.uk/exhibitions/detail.asp?id=39
22 February 2011
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Landscape Institute research
Media information for immediate release April 2009
First winners announced for Pennine Lancashire ‘square’ designs
The first two winners have been announced in the Pennine Lancashire Squared architecture competition which aims to create six public ‘squares’.
Inspirational concept designs from Manchester-based Landscape Projects and from Civic Architects and Colour: Urban Design Ltd, for high profile public spaces in Accrington and Burnley respectively, have triumphed in the prestigious multi-site contest, commissioned by regeneration agency Elevate.
Landscape Projects’ winning entry reflects Accrington’s identity as a floral market town and proposes creating a flexible open space in front of the neighbouring market hall and town hall, with lighting of key buildings. The design team’s emerging ideas also include tree planting, seating and a dramatic cast iron curve telling the story of the town.
The winning entry for Burnley from Civic Architects and Colour: Urban Design Ltd proposes creating terraces of different sizes that can be used at different scales: an incidental rest on the way home; day to day use of the rejuvenated Neptune Inn; or large, programmed events like Burnley's annual Jazz Festival. The refurbishment of Neptune Inn is central to supporting public activity on the site.
Chair of the judging panel, Stirling Prize-winning architect Stephen Hodder MBE, said: “We were seeking something of truly international quality and the winning proposal for Accrington by Landscape Projects is exactly that. It is a scheme which respects the quality and setting of the town hall and the market but at the same time addresses the quite different qualities of Peel Street. The completed square will be something that the people of Accrington can be truly proud of.
“Civic Architects’ design for Burnley is equally inspirational. It is an intelligent scheme whose integrity will remain as the Weavers’ Triangle is regenerated. It is a scheme which responds to the particular character of the site and as such it will be unique and belong to Burnley.”
Neil Swanson from Landscape Projects said: “We're made up - we can’t wait to get going. For us Accrington is a fine town, one of the jewels of Pennine Lancashire, which needs a proper public place at its heart... a place for meeting, for markets, celebrations and events. It was great to meet with local people to discuss their ideas for the new square. We hope we've done them justice. It's a real privilege to be selected, and we're really excited at the prospect of taking our ideas further...and preparing Accy to make the best of the up-turn, when it comes."
Dan Jones, Director of Civic Architects, said: “This is a great opportunity to create a project that is the product of, and reflects, proper resident involvement. The ideas put forward in our design will be put to the test when we start working with local people".
Steve Rumbelow, Chief Executive Officer of Burnley Council, said: "Burnley's town centre is undergoing a great deal of change, from a new university campus to a new multi-million retail development, but alongside all this positive activity, it is important to have a space for performance, areas for entertainment, conversation and relaxation for people from all walks of life: Civic's design could do just that - and foster a real sense of pride within our region."
Elevate Chief Executive Max Steinberg said: “Pennine Lancashire has a series of towns at its heart, and each of them deserves a world class space at its centre to help invigorate the entire town. These two winning proposals for new additions and improvements to the public realm in Accrington and Burnley will create an inspirational environment for people to use and enjoy every day – and provide an outstanding example of world class landscape design. This is what the Pennine Lancashire Squared initiative is all about.”
Winners for the four other Pennine Lancashire towns - Blackburn, Bacup, Clitheroe and Nelson - are being selected by four judging panels, all headed by Stephen Hodder.
The judges are considering concept designs from landscape architecture and architecture teams, shortlisted from 78 Expressions of Interest from across the world. The other four practices which made the shortlist for Accrington were Austin-Smith: Lord, McChesney Architects, Balmori + S333, and Taylor Young Limited. The other three practices which made the Burnley shortlist were Camlin Lonsdale in association with Arca and Martin Stockley Associates, Kinnear Landscape Architects and Martin Stockley Associates, and LAND.
The Pennine Lancashire Squared competition is the brainchild of Yvette Livesey and her late partner, music mogul Anthony H Wilson, and was commissioned by Elevate on behalf of the Pennine Lancashire Leaders and Chief Executives (PLLACE).
The Landscape Institute, the chartered body for landscape architects, is running the competition, with the support of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The competition has received funding from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Arts Council England and Lancashire County Council (LCC), and is being implemented by the Boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley and Rossendale, with support from LCC. CABE Space is providing ongoing support for the development of Pennine Lancashire Squared.
For more details, visit www.penninelancashire.com/landscape.
Research on Landscape Projects
New Street, Brighton
CABE
http://www.cabe.org.uk/news/top-award-for-brighton-street
22 February 2011
A street in Brighton has been transformed from a rigid, motor car dominated environment into one where pedestrians are actively welcomed.
Brighton & Hove City Council has received a Civic Trust special award for its New Road ‘shared surface’ scheme that puts pedestrians before cars. The award, sponsored by CABE, is for imaginatively designed streets that work for people.
Pedestrians can move freely across the whole area of New Road and the design includes attractive seating and new lighting which creates a lively atmosphere for pedestrians at night. The street now provides an appropriately inviting access to city centre shops, restaurants, businesses and homes as well as world famous tourist attractions such as the Pavilion.
The Civic Trust Awards recognise the best in the built environment and the public realm. They reward buildings and places which have made a difference to local people and their communities.
The New Road scheme was designed by Gehl Architects (where the Danish urban design expert Jan Gehl has done a great deal to improve the quality of pedestrian urban life), landscape architects Landscape Projects and engineers Martin Stockley Associates. Local people were involved in the design process through a series of workshops.
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment
This final version of our website was archived on 1 January 2011
CABE
http://www.cabe.org.uk/news/top-award-for-brighton-street
22 February 2011
Top award for transformed Brighton street
17 April 2009
Brighton has won a special award for its transformation of New Road in the city centre.
A street in Brighton has been transformed from a rigid, motor car dominated environment into one where pedestrians are actively welcomed.
Brighton & Hove City Council has received a Civic Trust special award for its New Road ‘shared surface’ scheme that puts pedestrians before cars. The award, sponsored by CABE, is for imaginatively designed streets that work for people.
Pedestrians can move freely across the whole area of New Road and the design includes attractive seating and new lighting which creates a lively atmosphere for pedestrians at night. The street now provides an appropriately inviting access to city centre shops, restaurants, businesses and homes as well as world famous tourist attractions such as the Pavilion.
The Civic Trust Awards recognise the best in the built environment and the public realm. They reward buildings and places which have made a difference to local people and their communities.
The New Road scheme was designed by Gehl Architects (where the Danish urban design expert Jan Gehl has done a great deal to improve the quality of pedestrian urban life), landscape architects Landscape Projects and engineers Martin Stockley Associates. Local people were involved in the design process through a series of workshops.
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment
This final version of our website was archived on 1 January 2011
Research on Landscape Projects
Hulme park
CABE
http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/hulme-park/design
22 Februray 2011
Hulme Regeneration Ltd (HRL) was established in 1992 by Manchester City Council, in partnership with AMEC and others, to develop and manage Hulme's City Challenge renewal programme. Generous amounts of poorly maintained green space with no particular function were identified early on, and a centrally located park accessible to all was proposed as the first phase of a coherent network of open space, on a site with proximity to key buildings and community organisations, and on open space created by the necessary demolition of derelict housing blocks.
Hunt Thompson Associates were retained to run a community planning weekend in November 1992, which addressed the issues of open space and links to Castlefield and the city centre. Its conclusions led to a feasibility study (1993) by landscape architects Camlin Lonsdale, which in turn formed the basis of a competition brief issued early in 1996 by HRL. The winning team included Ian Simpson Architects, Landscape Projects (Landscape Architects) later appointed as lead designers, and Simon Fenton Partnership (Quantity Surveyors) with HRL selecting the main contractor from an approved list.
In response to the detailed requirements of the brief, the relatively low budget and the long narrow site, Landscape Projects' planning concept concentrated expenditure and activities around the perimeter of the park, leaving open spaces at the centre. They soon ran a series of workshop and focus groups, and fundamental changes were made as a result. A full size Premier League specification football pitch was incorporated along with a skate park and a full size basketball court, the shape and location of the performance podium structure was redesigned, the children's play elements were grouped together, and a revised boundary treatment produced well defined edges without acting as a physical barrier or as a mechanism for locking up the park.
Artworks in the northern half of the park were integrated with sculptural elements such as the loggia gateway feature on Bentley Square, but those proposed for the southern half of the Park were not commissioned when HRL decided not to apply for the required separate funding.
Evaluation
The outstanding feature of this park is the relationship between new and established buildings and new public open space and its uses. The edges of the park are integral to the design and great care has been taken to ensure high levels of integration and maximum surveillance by adjacent buildings and uses. Doors, balconies and windows overlook the park, schools are located adjacent to new play areas and sports groups have new pitches near their buildings, many of which have been refurbished.
The wide expanse of open space is defined by surrounding buildings, and in particular by carefully detailed corner buildings, often a storey higher than the rest of the block, which mark the entrances to the park, and detail is added by contemporary lighting and seating.
Clear fronts and backs create clear public and private domains detailed by low walls with railings and steel bollards.
CABE
http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/hulme-park/design
22 Februray 2011
Hulme Regeneration Ltd (HRL) was established in 1992 by Manchester City Council, in partnership with AMEC and others, to develop and manage Hulme's City Challenge renewal programme. Generous amounts of poorly maintained green space with no particular function were identified early on, and a centrally located park accessible to all was proposed as the first phase of a coherent network of open space, on a site with proximity to key buildings and community organisations, and on open space created by the necessary demolition of derelict housing blocks.
Hunt Thompson Associates were retained to run a community planning weekend in November 1992, which addressed the issues of open space and links to Castlefield and the city centre. Its conclusions led to a feasibility study (1993) by landscape architects Camlin Lonsdale, which in turn formed the basis of a competition brief issued early in 1996 by HRL. The winning team included Ian Simpson Architects, Landscape Projects (Landscape Architects) later appointed as lead designers, and Simon Fenton Partnership (Quantity Surveyors) with HRL selecting the main contractor from an approved list.
In response to the detailed requirements of the brief, the relatively low budget and the long narrow site, Landscape Projects' planning concept concentrated expenditure and activities around the perimeter of the park, leaving open spaces at the centre. They soon ran a series of workshop and focus groups, and fundamental changes were made as a result. A full size Premier League specification football pitch was incorporated along with a skate park and a full size basketball court, the shape and location of the performance podium structure was redesigned, the children's play elements were grouped together, and a revised boundary treatment produced well defined edges without acting as a physical barrier or as a mechanism for locking up the park.
Artworks in the northern half of the park were integrated with sculptural elements such as the loggia gateway feature on Bentley Square, but those proposed for the southern half of the Park were not commissioned when HRL decided not to apply for the required separate funding.
Evaluation
The outstanding feature of this park is the relationship between new and established buildings and new public open space and its uses. The edges of the park are integral to the design and great care has been taken to ensure high levels of integration and maximum surveillance by adjacent buildings and uses. Doors, balconies and windows overlook the park, schools are located adjacent to new play areas and sports groups have new pitches near their buildings, many of which have been refurbished.
The wide expanse of open space is defined by surrounding buildings, and in particular by carefully detailed corner buildings, often a storey higher than the rest of the block, which mark the entrances to the park, and detail is added by contemporary lighting and seating.
Clear fronts and backs create clear public and private domains detailed by low walls with railings and steel bollards.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Case Study Introduction
Case Study
Landscape projects has been awarded several Civic Trust Awards, is recognised by CABE and the Design Council for its work. It has also been voted the Leading Landscape Practice in the North West, by the Prospect Magazine in January 2005.
Their aim is to make the contemporary city a better place to live, work and relax. They aim to connect people and landscape through design. They really think about people as a whole and how we use space and work within it. They say that “our cities reflect this deep seated aspect of ourselves”, “while at the same time appreciate tranquillity and the deep satisfaction we derive from the time spent in contact with nature is just as impotent to us as contact with other people”.
Their main quotes are “People as the generator” and “place making as an art” they go on to say the best places are connected, they fit in well with the way people use space, they are comfortable, have shelter, feel safe and overlooked. They have a “special quality” that makes a place distinctive.
Research
-Awards
-Exhibitions
-Publications
-The people who work there
-Projects and how people interact and feel in the spaces
-Artwork
Personal design statement help!
Getting Started….
The personal statement comes from inside you, passionate and gutsy. Its composition is organic, a natural growth dictated by an obscure, internal logic. You don’t “make it up”; instead you listen. You “get it down.”
First, you must trick your brain into letting you play. It wants everything nice and tidy, arranged in neat, labeled cubbyholes. Your artist brain is messy; like playing with finger paints. Lull your logic brain to sleep:
Engage in mindless, repetitive activity. Turn off the TV and stereo; go for a run, do dishes, dig holes. Do anything that keeps you busy but allows your mind to wander. Be sure to keep a micro cassette recorder handy! Ideas may come thick and fast.
Begin writing as soon as you wake up in the morning. Don’t shower, don’t eat (OK, you can have coffee), just turn on the computer. So you’re not fully awake; that’s good. Neither is your logic brain.
Now do this everyday. Well, maybe not every single day; make appointments with yourself. You won’t have brilliant ideas each time. Some days you sit and stare at the computer screen. Nothing happens. You develop imaginary rashes that need immediate medical attention. You suddenly remember a test you should be studying for. But you sit there; you focus; eventually, an idea bubbles to the surface. You start writing.
From Getting Creative with the Truman Personal Statements, written by Jane Curlin, Ph.D.; Director of Student Academic Grants & Awards, Willamette University; writer and consultant.
Reflect on some specific questions that may lead you to a more general expression of yourself.
• What errors or regrets have taught you something important about yourself?
• When have you been so immersed in what you were doing, that time seemed to evaporate while you were actively absorbed?
• What ideas, books, theories or movements have made a profound impact on you – be honest.
• To what extent do your current commitments reflect your most strongly-held values?
• Where or how do you seem to waste the most time?
• Under what conditions do you do your best, most creative work?
• To what extent are you a typical product of your generation and/or culture? How might you deviate from the norm?
The personal statement comes from inside you, passionate and gutsy. Its composition is organic, a natural growth dictated by an obscure, internal logic. You don’t “make it up”; instead you listen. You “get it down.”
First, you must trick your brain into letting you play. It wants everything nice and tidy, arranged in neat, labeled cubbyholes. Your artist brain is messy; like playing with finger paints. Lull your logic brain to sleep:
Engage in mindless, repetitive activity. Turn off the TV and stereo; go for a run, do dishes, dig holes. Do anything that keeps you busy but allows your mind to wander. Be sure to keep a micro cassette recorder handy! Ideas may come thick and fast.
Begin writing as soon as you wake up in the morning. Don’t shower, don’t eat (OK, you can have coffee), just turn on the computer. So you’re not fully awake; that’s good. Neither is your logic brain.
Now do this everyday. Well, maybe not every single day; make appointments with yourself. You won’t have brilliant ideas each time. Some days you sit and stare at the computer screen. Nothing happens. You develop imaginary rashes that need immediate medical attention. You suddenly remember a test you should be studying for. But you sit there; you focus; eventually, an idea bubbles to the surface. You start writing.
From Getting Creative with the Truman Personal Statements, written by Jane Curlin, Ph.D.; Director of Student Academic Grants & Awards, Willamette University; writer and consultant.
Reflect on some specific questions that may lead you to a more general expression of yourself.
• What errors or regrets have taught you something important about yourself?
• When have you been so immersed in what you were doing, that time seemed to evaporate while you were actively absorbed?
• What ideas, books, theories or movements have made a profound impact on you – be honest.
• To what extent do your current commitments reflect your most strongly-held values?
• Where or how do you seem to waste the most time?
• Under what conditions do you do your best, most creative work?
• To what extent are you a typical product of your generation and/or culture? How might you deviate from the norm?
Friday, 4 February 2011
My Personal Design Statement
I balance imagination and creativity with a pragmatic and positive design attitude to reveal the beauty and lure of urban spaces. I welcome challenges and readily adapt to new situations and ways of thinking.
I think that cities and urban areas should be spaces in which to socialise, relax and enjoy, making them stress-relieving and calming within the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I plan to do this by designing spaces in which people want to move through and open up the area so they are more inviting and not fenced off.
I believe that architecture and the streetscape should work together, creating flow so that people can easily navigate their way through the landscape and enjoy the space.
Participation, learning and freedom of creativity are central to the way I think and the design attitude I take. I have strong design leadership and believe that that we should design without boundaries so that creativity isn’t crushed within the design process.
Urban spaces that inspire me are places such as the highline in New York, New Road in Brighton and the steps outside Liverpool Street Station, London. The culture of these places shines through and this is crucial not to forget when designing any space.
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