Architecture and Photography Blog

22-July-2005

Lower Mill Estate

This sneaked in under my radar somewhere, the Lower Mill Estate was discussed recently in a head-to-head between Stephen Bayley and Robert Adam. Unfortunately I missed this debate. It is an alternative vision to the ideas being promoted in the Academy of Urbanism, and to the notion of new urbanism itself. On this site at the Cotswolds water park designs by named architects are going to be used to build outstanding single (ie: detached) houses. I'm thinking that this place, a couple of hours drive from Poundbury (see below) will reside in a parallel universe, one in which the future and the modern continue to exert an influence.

The Lower Mill Estate looks like it is intended to create a kind of "icon park" and enshrines the buildings in their own private decontextualised space so that they can be viewed as ideals. This is just a different kind of Utopia from Poundbury, but equally might inherit the mantle of a "non place." As it will be a private development will it effectively be a "gated community" with or without gates? I'm as unconvinced that this is the way forward as I am by Poundbury... and equally convinced that I will find the individual buildings as compelling and desirable as the unreachable can be.

12-July-2005

Poundbury

Spurred on by the RIBA conference I paid a visit to Poundbury last Sunday. This is a development based on 'new urbanist' principles, as construed by the architects and developers who are working with the Prince of Wales. I parked next to a row of houses, next to what is currently rough land but which will one day be a park. My photography was somewhat constrained by the fact that residents kept popping out to talk to me. These people included the consulting architect who is responsible for Poundbury. I simultaneously found much to commend the place, at the same time as finding it more than a little uncanny. I have no doubt that there were plenty of people in the place, yet it gave me a sense of abandonment. It was difficult to get a shot which included a human figure.

Some of the positive achievements of the place are the general human scale of the actual houses, the attempt which is at least partly successful to mix some business in with the residential developments and the way that the balance between car and pedestrian seems to have been achieved. I say seems, because I never saw enough of either in the same place to ascertain how they would interact. Well, it was a Sunday, and still seemed like one of the old fashioned sort..

It was a hot day, maybe everyone was at the beach or just hiding in the cool of their houses, but otherwise it was the lack of street life which disappointed me the most. That and the fact that what at first appeared to be a cooling mediterranean square, complete with drinking fountain failed to quench my thirst. The drinking fountain did not provide potable water, it was just for show. Make of that what you will.

Here is the OU's view of it.

On a photographic front, it may be of some interest to note that these were taken with a Canon 1DsII digital camera mounted on a Cambo Ultima Camera. This provides the flexibility of digital combined with the movements of a 5x4 style view camera.

6-July-2005

RIBA Conference

A few notes on the RIBA conference 2005, which I attended at the end of last week. The theme of the conference this year was Urbanism and there were a number of speakers who I have read about and was keen to see, among them were Jan Gehls and Martha Schwartz. . An additional draw for me was the Bristol location and the presence of Jonathan Meades who was to give the closing speech. The strapline for the conference was "the principles of placemaking"

I've been checking out various angles on urbanism from the "New Urbanism" of Peter Calthorpe to the "Post Urbanism" espoused by followers of Rem Koolhaas'. John Thompson gave an overview of new urbanist concepts as they are described in a manifesto created as a part of the "academy of urbanism" instigated by RIBA. This he illustrated with a display of images he has collected over many years showing the triumphs, but often the failures of urban design. The overall tenor of the RIBA conference followed the thrust of the new urbanist approach which has at its essence utopian ideas of place-making Historically there has always been elements of successful prescription in the creating of places, but I'm not sure that contrived places are the ones dearest to our hearts.

Martha Schwartz gave a well illustrated talk on the role of art in the urban setting, contextualising the work of the contemporary landscape artist within art history starting with the obelisks of Karnak and ending up with a tour through land-art and its descendents and showing how her own projects develop from these influences. She humorously pointed out the prevalence in the European city of the "guy on the horse" sitting in the major memorial/official places.

Jan Gehls presented the immense strides taken by Copenhagen in moving to a less car focussed transport infrastructure. He is becoming influential in the UK as well now. I'm very warm to the ideas of the anti-car movement even though I depend on my own car to move around my heavy equipment. In an ideal world I'd bicycle or work to my studio or office.

Over a few talks, a vision of the future places which are going to be 'made' began to take shape in my mind. In these places, people will walk around or cycle. They will amble down 'ramblas' like those found in Barcelona. They will sit at cafe's and engage in human exchange. Their environment will be enhanced by works of art, or will be designed by landscape artists. They will wander in and out of art galleries, shops and well designed offices.

The first night of the conference we went on a boat trip of the Bristol docks. I've done this before, but on this occasion the tour went deeper into the architectural heritage of Bristol. The tour initially took in the various new residential developments of the harbour. Apart from one or two exceptions these are a horrific melange of superficial styles. I once lived in one of them. One of the few charming aspects of this development was its location next to a working gravel dredging works that dredges and processes gravel from the Avon. This business was something the residents complained about, even though its only real impact was the occasional clanking and blowing of horns. As we sailed around the western end of the docks, I began to realise just how much architectural serendipity is owed to the industrial heritage of Bristol from its 'Shot Tower' (listed) to its Granary as well as many more structures.

Towards the end of the conference I realised that my nagging worry about placemaking was connected to a fear of building the architectural equivalent of "empty calories", places which are perfectly contrived by the professionals, and the communities they consult but that lack the satisfaction of places which develop organically, warts and all, out of thriving economic communities. Hopefully there will remain a place for serendipity. There was a strong call from quite a few delegates to ensure that small companies can stay at the economic heart of the new places, so that there is a balance between them and the "gorilla" retailers who tend to make all town centres look the same.