So Emma, this was your crit, that was your presentation, these are your next steps, though we shouldn't use next steps really, sounds like a commercial masterplanners brochure...and we shouldn't really use masterplanner. Urbanist if you please.
Well you started at the start. You went first. Yes good. Step one. Go first. Presentation was clear, I liked the crosses that pinned each image to the page, led to a nice transition from slide to slide. I think the area of interest is quite a tricky one to convey, photos often tend to romanticise the area, I wonder how you would have depicted the area had you not walked around the reservoirs, but instead gone first and only to the industrial area around Northumberland Park?
The stark and charming images of its industrial buildings led the conversations that followed to celebrating these buildings. When not all of them are that beautiful. It might be an interesting study to compare the function, layout and facade of the IKEA bulding against the big powerhouse, or one of your favourites, perhaps as a more material study of how it's made and what qualities make one better than the other, and how the spaces around them differ. What do the other surrounding warehouses do?
This website is good for checking out Brownfield sites (including a good interactive map):
You looked at the changing scales in the area, from person to house to mid scale building, to industrial to reservoir. It's the middle scale that seems to intrigue you. I wonder what the people living near by think of the industrial buildings? Do they even notice that they're there? Big elephants in the landscape that go unnoticed?
And in that section from house to river, you didn't include the small buildings/pump plants that sit on the banks of the reservoir. Small Victorian figures that echo the building era of the powerhouses. How do they relate to each other if at all?
Maybe we should have a cup of tea and chat. I know you like those. You put one your wall for your crit...
Thank you very much for this, very helpful. I think it might be an idea to ignore the reservoirs for a little and reintroduce them as hypothetical access improves (should it improve).
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you ask whether the local people noticed the large industrial buildings. When I was at the local archive centre yesterday I was trying to ascertain when the substation was built. The very helpful man there who had given me all sorts of miscellaneous and detailed information about the area looked at me blankly and asked 'what substation?' He drives down Watermead Way which runs down its side daily and couldn't picture it. Not sure what that means yet along with the rest but thank you for prompting me to record it and sorry it had to be on your blog!
Thanks again for the feedback, I look forward to that cup of tea!