My first project..

Just got my computer back, fixed with all the things left on it, thank good. Been going through my pictures and found some images that was part of my first project i did in sweden..Don't know why I should put the images up here really, for a good laugh maybe? or maybe to see that some progress have been done under these 2 and a half years or just as a bad example..anyways i built green mounds as an entrance, and i guess i must have learnt about the human scale in the next project, but i remember i was very exicited about the project..

Skogskyrkogården

Images from the cemetery

The entrance

My favourite cemetery

Last week when we had a group discussion about our subjects for the dissertations poi said he was writing about three different cemeteries, one in sweden which i never heard of but it made me think about my favourite one, Skogskyrkogården (The forest cemetery)in stockholm. It was created between 1917 and 1920 by 2 architects called Asplund and Lewerentz and the cemetery is now on UNESCO's list of World Heritage. And below are some images from it.

Tuesday reflection..

last sketch design handed in yesterday, and it feels good. i had a lot of fun doing this sketch design. Matrix, which was my chosen word, was a fun word to play with and to let my imagination go on. I also noticed that when working on this one I spent the least time on it comparasing to the others, 2 days, one thinking and one doing, but i guess I was thinking about it while working in the beginning of the week. Anyways, the most reaxled one without stress and the one I like the most out of the ones i did so i guess that must mean that I've learnt something..Before this autumn i always found it hard to start a design assignment, i never knew how to start and the little knowledge i had always felt like the biggest mess just spining around in my head..But it feels like the process of getting started and bringing it further is a lot smoother now.

My problem is the printer though or maybe the screen that with it's beautiful colours that seduce me when I'm working..Or maybe it's the settings of the printer at school that I'm not used to because i don't feel that i had this problem before which is that everything comes out so grey, I realized that it look like it's raining on all my posters. So after getting very dissapointed when i saw the colours of my poster coming out of the printer I know that I'll have to give myself some more time and several tries to get it right..and hopefully it will not cost too much and waste to much paper..
Well here underneath are some images from the poster, realised I forgot to scan in some process sketches guess they'll come later..And oh forgot to take pics of my model too..Maybe can do that on fri at school..

poster

Here is a small and low resolution image of my poster from sketch design 4 with the theme to release the courtyrad with the word matrix

Jakeborg

this is a small village/town called jakeborg which is situated between malmo and Lund in south of sweden. It's a whole new town built as a medieval village architecture vise and the layout of the village. It's been very discussed in the architectural press in sweden since it's hated by all architects but loved by public and it's been a massive cue for the houses..It's located very close to my school in sweden and I think it's a very weird place it doesn't have any site context and it's like stepping in to a medieval Disneyland, I wonder why it's so popular by the public though and what are we doing wrong in the housing architecture in sweden if we have to recreate a medieval city to make very popular housing..

Not my blogger week..

I guess anyways, been trying to upload images three times this week and it's just not working..Error is all it's saying..Oh well haven't had this problem before so I guess it will work some time again, I hope anyways..And all I wanted to do was to show some images from Sweden that I just got sent to me from my old classmates back home. My own laptop crashed just a week before school started while I was backing it up...It's been on a trip for repair to Sweden and I just found out the harddrive was saved, lucky me. Had all my projects from Sweden on it and all photos from architecture trips and inspiration, so will definitely back everything up as soon as I get it back and I recommend everyone to not do my mistake by not backing things up, its devastating when you think you lost everything..

Have had a calm weekend with a bad cold working on my dissertation. Found a very nice book about the barbican with some lovely photos and images called Barbican penthouse over the City by David Heathcote, very interesting. Found myself getting trapped in the history behind tower blocks and the architecture of le corbusier, really out of what I really should write about but it's so interesting and all I want to do is to go and travel to see and explore..Definitely have to go to Marseille this spring..
been thinking about the masterplanning project as well which I'm looking forwards too, think it will be a lot of hard work but fun. Will be interesting to see Hadlow as well and if I see the site different from the others who already spent a fare amount of time out there. Will try to post those images just one more time..

Turning Torso

This is another very discussed building in Malmo. It's called turning torso and is this autumn just getting finished in a new residential area by the coast in a house exhibition area called Bo01 in malmo. It's made by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (think that's the right spelling) as residential tower, the highest building in Sweden. malmo is an old industrial town but now in the 21st century, when the industries are disappearing, the town is looking for a new identity and the solution was this tower..It's showing the new identity of Malmo as a university and business town as a financial center in Scandinavia., I don't know if it's successful though..The public really disliked it from the beginning but I think by reading the papers that they are starting to like it more and more. It is a very cool twisted building but as first planned, to only be 8 stories high now 54 floors, maybe it would have fitted in to the surroundings a bit more, malmo is after all not new York (where calatrava are building the same type of towers). Financially it was a disaster, no one wanted to buy the apartments so they had to be rented out instead and there's been a big financial lost but it's got a lot of press and definitely worked as commercial for malmo which was the whole point anyways..Personally I don't think that towers add anything to the experience of the ground and how it is to be in the area itself. You can't experience the tower on the ground next to it without looking straight upwards which we normally don't do when walking around so to be able to make it a good space it's all depending on the landscape around the tower..
I also found a blog in English about the tower which is
www.bizzbook.com/blog/index.php
Don't know how interesting it would be for anyone to have a look at but only realized that we're surrounded of blogs..

sunday..

Finally group projekt in the printer..Looking forwards to get it presented tomorrow, know its good w group work, learning from eachother and learn to work in group, but 12 people is a big group and it takes a lot of energy..been trying to write dissertation too but find it hard to concentrate. Really like to search for information and read and learn more about something I'm interested in, but when it comes to the writing it's just not as fun, feel v tired every time i try..Been playing a bit w photoshop colours instead on model pics which I'll post here underneath. Oh, also went to Tate Modern this weekend mainly to go to the shop to buy a books (which wasn't there) and saw the entrance hall w the white boxes, saw that someone else posted pictures on their blog about thoose white plastic boxes so I'll skip that, but must say though that it felt like walking around in an architect student model made out of foam board..And that i absolutley love the birch planting outside the museum, v nice lit up when it's dark..

Dissertation

Been spending most of my day on reading and writing on my dissertation and thought it could be nice to post some of the images have taken for it so far. I'm writing about Jan Gehl's theories which I'm applaying on to estate housing and tower blocks to explain why some of them are seen as desirable living and some as notorious bad. I've been looking at three examples as 2 good ones which are the Barbican and Golden lane Estate done by the same architetcs and the bad example is Robin Hood gardens in Poplar. Guess everyone been to the Barbican but the two others are well worth to visit for looking at communal space and how important the landscape is to create a good living environment. Golden Lane is located just nest to the Barbican in central London and Robin Hood Gardens is in Poplar in east London.

The Barbican, Architects Chamerlin, Powell & Bon

Golden Lane Estate, Architects Chamberlin, Powell & Bon

Robin Hood Gardens, architects Alison and Peter Smithson

time for some update..

Lots of things going on last week, so much that I never even had time to up date my blog..Well promise to dedicate some more time this week instead..
Last week was mainly about the groupwork for Tonbridge that will be presented next week, and the weekend was spent doing the 3rd sketch design. It was a very fun sketch design and for the first time starting off doing some designwork i didn't panic. always find it very easy to completley forget everything i know about landscape design for the first hour or so and panic a bit when starting an assignment but i think something from the previous monday classes must have given me something. Keywords and anaylze it in to parts and find the structure must be the words. Started off sketching the first model and playing around with keywords, minimize them to only three, making new model and finding my koncept for duality. Wanted something abstract and after thought about heaven anad hell, love and war i settled aon Christianity and Islam which I found very interesting to explore. Mostly looked up art and history for the two parts to be the main structure for my garden..
The crits on monday was v useful as always, but v long..I'm happe I got to present in the beginning can't have been easy for tha last presentations..I was happy with my critic and agree with what Jamie and Andrew said. I know I have a problem with getting life into my perspectives, especially this time when the colours went totalt wrong..Need to spend more time on them and practice, just don't know when feels like there are a lot of other thigs to do and improve too, well will try something different for next time, Well anyways, here are some pictures of models, conceptual approach, and sketch work.

sketches of the first model

sketchdesign 3

Theese photos are from the first model where i found the keywords encolsed, connecting and contrast

photos of second model which is to combine the three keywords with the duality of christianity and islam and be placed on to a derelict site in Tonbridge and make it into a public space.

A first concept sketch, which developed into fewer spaces, a quick site analyse and a colour and material concept sketch