Camley Street Nature Reserve

Camley Street Nature Reserve was the site of our first major project of the year. Camley Street Nature Reserve is situated in Kings Cross and is owned by the London Wildlife Trust. The reserve is surrounded by the Regents canal and St Pancras and used to be a railway coal yard. Now the reserve is split into different zones - grassland, woodland and wetland. It's used as a retreat and learning centre for schools in the area.

Crane Park Island

Crane Park Island Nature Reserve was the first group project of the year. It is owned by the London Wildlife Trust and surrounded by the River Crane. The site was once the old Hounslow Gunpowder Mills. Now it's been turned into a nature reserve with scrubland, woodland and reedbeds and provides a home for the endangered water vole.

Playground

We were set a project to research playgrounds. We partnered up and chose generational play, looking at one playground that encompasses each age group i.e babies, children, teenagers, adults and the elderly.
One park that I visited was the Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens for children aged 12 and under. It was opened in 2000 in memory of Princess Diana. It's a children's wonderland with a pirate ship and crocodiles, teepees, tree top walks, sensory and hidden paths. It's a great park that children could play in all day long. On the other hand, Mile End Park's teenage playground consisted of a few pieces of equipment and even fewer that worked.
Some images of Diana Memorial Playground...







and Mile End Park....

Swiss Cottage Open Space

Swiss Cottage Open Space, London, was created by Landscape Architects Gustafson Porter. The Open Space is surrounded by buildings including a theatre, leisure centre and library. The Open Space is at the heart of the buildings and consists of a water feature at the centre, enclosed by stepped grass banks. The space is used to connect the surrounding building together to draw people to the area.
To find out more visit.... http://www.gustafson-porter.com/intro.htm

Wey and Arun Canal Trip

On the 13th October the whole Landscape Department of Kingston University went on a trip along the Wey and Arun canal in 13 canal boats.
We went on the trip to understand how to use a canal boat and what it's like to travel on a the canal. This understanding would give us the knowledge for our brief; to redesign a section of the Wey and Arun Canal.
It was a really good trip which allowed us all to all get to know each other and have the experience of traveling along a canal at a max. speed of 5mph.

Brentford Biopsy

The Brentford Biopsy was a really good excuse to explore areas of Brentford I didn't know.
Some of us were asked to wear emotion detectors (these measured sweat. The more sweat produced, the greater the emotion. This could be something exciting, new or interesting or, in my case, panic or shock when a dog suddenly barked) and GPS.
We were then told to walk around Brentford for the next one and a half hours and not to enter any building because we would lose signal.
We then returned and our information was mapped on to the computer and it was possible to see our subconscious emotions from the peaks and troughs of our journeys.
It was really interesting to find out the results of the sensory research and how if you connect the emotional biopsy with the sensory research you create a perfect site analysis.

http://publicbiopsy.net/

Animation- Lego Park

The task was to create an animation for SLIC competition 'Landscape and Me- it's always on my mind'
My animation was based on my Rotterdam project where I created sculptures along my site reminiscent of giant Lego blocks that you could climb on and interact with.
So I created a model of a section of my Rotterdam site and used Lego figures to show how my site would hopefully be used in real life.

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Rotterdam

Our trip to Rotterdam was jam packed. We visited a West 8 site - Schouwburgplein and park, explored buildings like the National Architecture Institute, visited the Euromast and Europort (world's largest container port), went on tours via boat up the River Maas, two hour walks around the city of Rotterdam and then some of us hired bicycles. Our main aim of the trip however was to visit our next project site which was between Den Park and the River Maas.

Kingston Gateway Photoshop

Kingston Gateway

Two hundred students from Kingston University and from Kingston College entered a competition to redesign the College Roundabout, so that the roundabout created a gateway into Kingston. The competition was part of K+20 scheme, a redevelopment project for Kingston-Upon-Thames throughout the next 20 years.
My idea was to create a transparent sculpture in the centre of the roundabout that displayed continually changing images of the community and Kingston. My sculpture was meant to be a landmark that drew people to the area and told them that they had arrived in Kingston.
I was one of twenty students from Kingston University to have their design put through to the 2nd stage, a public exhibition in Market Hall, Kingston, where I displayed my model to the public and a panel of judges.

Ham House Dec 07

I visited Ham House for research into our History and Cultural Studies essay. When I got there it was freezing cold, so cold that it was hard to hold the camera! Anyway it was a really interesting garden split into many different sections... The North Court is the entrance to Ham House which was built in 1610 and is flanked by two walls inset with busts. To the east of the house is the Cherry Garden which is made up of diamond shaped gardens separated by gravel paths. The South Court is split into a terrace, the Plats and a wilderness. To the west is the Fountain garden and Orangery. The main feature of Ham House is the link between the house and garden. They both unite because of the use of symmetry, geometry and the central axis.

Andy Sturgeon