09/12/2020- Sutton Coldfield Park, Birmingham WONDERLAND

Landscapes are for all ages, most often we look at it from a mature point of view but when visiting this park I found it to be more child-like. Watching kids jump around in puddles, slip in the mud and giggling about it inspired me to view the landscape in a different perspective. Their perspective:

This lake acting as a boundary between two territories, the nomads VS the natives. The tree line filled with archers at the ready, always on alert for any threats crossing the lake. 

The stream full of lost souls settled at the bottom, all waiting in line, flowing in the same direction, with the same destination: purgatory. A depressingly slow march to a known fate.

Up close you can see the blood drained from their souls. 

There are wild ponies at the park, for children they're centaurs in disguise as ponies. 

(There's nothing magical about this, unless you count the sunlight beams reflecting off the water like diamonds, but I just wanted to point out the inconvenient placing of the bench. No one was able to sit at any of the benches surrounding the lake because the ground was water logged and thick with mud.) 

(I just find water logged areas fascinating, I am always tempted to step into them and prod around with a stick because of the different depths of water in each area.) But for a child, this could be the remains of a battle between the aforementioned natives and nomads which occurred decades ago but no one walks across due to the haunting memories of it. 

(I love birch trees, they remind me of a winter wonderland and look pretty in my opinion.) These are soldiers in disguise, wearing cloaks to blend in with the trees, ready to defend their land till death. 

There were actually children using sticks as swords running between these trees. I think it's intriguing how children interact with places like Sutton Coldfield Park, I think the park is just there for leisurely walks and fresh air. A hidden advantage is that the natural forms of the area prod children to be curious and thus explore more and to us, as adults, it gives the park more character too. 
 

03/12/2020- H2O

 

Above is a site analysis for the noise made by Wyman's brook. I was inspired to do this from Ying's module where we had to conduct site analysis' in creative ways. 

These are images of the Western Lake in Pittville park. I focused my project 3 on the hydrology of Pittville park but found the Western Lake the most interesting. There is a certain serenity about it.

The sky reflects on the surface like mirrored glass

A whole new world just mere meters below

Clear enough to dip your foot in and for your foot to come out made of  pure flowing silver

A hairs breath away from saying goodbye to all your worries

Just one dip

One slip

And it's all gone

Your literal breath stolen from your lungs

The water embracing you like a mother reunited with her lost child

The slow embrace becomes cold.

Much cold.

Chains are wrapped around your neck like an escape trick 

Except this is no trick

But it is an escape

27/11/2020- Benches...

Walking in Cheltenham town center I never noticed the street furnishing such as benches until we had to think of what sort of furniture we would want to put in for Allan's library entrance. It was now I took notice of the benches. The first picture I have displayed is one I really do not like, the seating area looks unfinished, as if someone was unbothered to put any effort in. They lay down some fake grass, stuck a fountain in the middle with some seating and personally I think they could have made it a more aesthetic space considering it is dead in the center of town. The second seating, the one I have sketched out twice (the first sketch looked rubbish), I really like this seating. I think it looks like a place people would sit, it is effective because you have a planting bed and a support for the bench, it serves more than one purpose. I think this is something I would call sustainable street furnishing and is something I would use as a designer in the future. 
 

20/11/2020- PROGRESS!! :)

After a few weeks of moping about the fact that I can't do perspective drawings, I finally sat down, grabbed a piece of blue tac, stuck it on my window and started to draw. 4 days in a row for 2 minutes each I sat and drew in different mediums. I am not too sure if they got better because I found drawing in board marker easier, I became familiar with the view or because I am just better at perspective drawings- maybe all of the above. But what I do know is I need to practice more... However this is a start! 

P.S. the blue tac is still on my window as a reminder to practice more! 
 

12/11/2020 DESIGN EGO

In lesson today we looked at appraising Pittville Park and we began by digging into our subconscious feelings about the place. Now you can read the sheets I produced but that is not what this blog is about. Rather it is about one of the first new concepts I had to grasp as a first year undergraduate Landscape architecture student- design ego, not everyone will love your designs as you do and that's life. In our first lecture with Jamie he mentioned it and he explained that a design is rubbish if someone has no opinion on it. This exercise reminded me of that because even though I had some negative opinions on it, it was still an opinion. And one day when I am a successful landscape architect, a client will very well possibly say that my design looks like a 'dog's breakfast' and reject the whole proposal. Now another student who hasn't been taught by Jamie may very well become stressed, frustrated, disappointed and upset but I truly hope I feel relief and go back to creating a better design for them. Because after all a negative opinion is better than no opinion.
 

06/11/2020- PHOTOSHOP PIXELATED FILTERS

This is a railway line that can be seen from walking through Sutton Park in Birmingham. We were given a brief to play around with the pixelated, crystalized filters to the entrance of our homes. My home (student accommodation) has the same entrance as a majority of my class so I decided to do this railway, it also helps me to understand drawing in perspective a lot better. What I like most about this filter is that it disorientates the image, the pixelated image looks like a motorway or a valley with a hillside on the right. It also simplifies the complex palette of colours nature offers to a variance of shades that can easily be blocked in, It reminds me of those instructed colouring sheets given to children where the spaces are numbered with colours for them to fill in with the given paint set. But an adult version. With photoshop.