BA LArch BLD Project 3- Initial Research

Part of Project 3 is assimilating Greenhithe into the subconscious- well, my subconscious... I decided to visit the site, armed with Laura's digital camera (and my haunted analogue) and went exploring...






A new brief was given out on Friday 24th October and once again the Landscape students all trundled gleefully down to Greenhithe.

It was an incredibly bright day. I took the opportunity to photograph, catalogue and explore...

BA LArch BLD Project 2

PERFORMANCE PIECE WITH OBJECTS...

"All the things that dragged me here are tangled up around the pier"

-Tom Waits

(for no man...)

However, it waits for me...

9 YEARS PAST, SOMEWHERE NEAR GREENHITHE

TOYING WITH THE REMNANTS OF MY TRICYCLE

IN THE MOMENTS OF BRIEF RESPITE FROM CONTAINER FREIGHT

(for then, I was Human Cargo)

I glimpsed England for the first time:

seeing the bridge, spanning the estuary

I steered the ship home, wheel clutched between eager hands.

Beneath the water pulls strange threads.

Flotsam on the tide are we.

Invisible currents:

MONEY

DRUGS
VICE
POWER
CONTROL

Elemental forces, dragging us across the world, washing us up

unwanted,

on some unlovely shore.

Me?

I was running away.

My family were running away.

2 things brought with me... the first (the wheel) you've seen...

The second?

My water pistol!

Between six hour lockdowns I'd sate my thirst

with squirts... it was close.

We scratched at the containers rusting sides.

They had to let us out.

But we were too near to the shore

our protests were ignored

the air grew stale

stifled and choked, a frog in my throat..

and then

A RUSH OF COLD ESTUARY STINK!

Chill night stench swept in as the flung open the container door.

Greedily, we inhaled.

The vast night sky

-suffused with an orange glow, bi-sected by the bridge-

smiled its hello.

I ran to greet her, to stretch my aching limbs.

I ran to the prow to steer the ship home.

"SO THIS IS ENGLAND! WONDERFUL, MAGICKAL ENGLAND!"

A solitary Eddie Stobart crawled across the bridge.

~~~~~~%&*(

My shoe fell in the water. It slipped off.

I, fearing mother's anger,

and engulfed with shame

at arriving in my new country

with one shoe off and one shoe on

Jumped into the dark water..

And so the ship that brought me here

left me tangled up, beneath the pier.

BA LArch BLD Project One

BA LArch DCI- Photoshop Assignment "Mind the Gap"

DCI- Coursework- MIND THE GAP

The School of Architecture and Construction at Greenwich university offers a course in "Design and Communication" in the first year of study for most programmes. As Landscape Architects, we have to learn the basic principles of design, and to master the techniques of expressing our ideas visually. Our first Coursework assignment concluded a short course in Adobe Photoshop.

We were provided with three different images from the built environment. Our task was to prepare two designs to fill the gap between two buildings. Whilst we were free to pursue whichever avenues of research we desired- and were expected to record such journeys, alongside initial idesas, in our sketchbooks- the final image had to be produced in photoshop and graphic elements had to be introduced from provided images.

These images were of our fellow students' hands.

Above is an example of how hands were turned into building materials, but initially I took the brief too literally...

However, these experiments did help to practice some of the techniques picked up in the class.

As has been stated: we were expected to keep a full record of the design processin our sketchbooks- which was assessed alongside our final prints.

For the next design I looked at a more corporate environment and thought about intoducing a vertical garden and landscaped forecourt- unfortunately, I never got round to the landscaping (like so many developments...) so never fully realised my glorious vision (please be aware of irony)...

So, there you have it: my first (unfinished) assignment. Actually, there is a more complete picture but I haven't yet converted it from PSD to JPEG yet, so it shall remain hidden.

It would have been far kinder to the environment (and my wallet) if I had been able to publish the whole thing instead of running off reams of full-colour prints....

Landscape Architecture Assignments

For posterity's sake (and critical evaluation at later date!) I am posting all my University assignments on this blog.

The programme of study for Year 1, Term 1 BA Landscape Architecture is composed of the following courses:

Basic Landscape Design
Cultural Context
Design and Communication I
Hard and Soft Materials I

Postings relating to assignments will be coded in accordance with the nature of the assignment eg. my work for the Design and Communication photoshop Lab will be posted as

BA LArch DCI- Photoshop Assignment

I will try to post them as I hand them- but please be warned, I will backdate late postings so I have an accurate record of my work!

Joe