New year new luck as we say in my country. The new 2011 has started. And the third Focus week with it. But this time it was different. There were lectures in the MLT in uni. Tuesday and thursday were the 2 days with interesting people to see. So during both days I heard many young people talking about their practice in Landscape Architecture (LA). The interesting for me apart from the actual work they presented was actually each and everyone's personal approach to what they think LA was. For all of them it's about creating something. But some prefer to interpret the project through different prospectives. A story line, model making, garden restoration, community involvement. One of them uses her skills even for making a camouflage outfits.
The first person that spoke was Heather Ring (website). Like all other LA graduated students she also had found her own way to LA. Her studies were related to understanding the garden, how it behaves, how long it lasts and the story behind the plant.That understanding about the garden had led her to create ... gardens. Public or private they have many benefits. However her approach is not creating a huge park or green area on a massive scale. She prefers to create series of small pocket spaces filled with plants to create a network of green areas that link to each other and with big parks. By using this point of view she managed to integrate these pockets (some only a few square meters) around car parks. Apart from that one of her most successful projects is The Union Street Urban Orchard.
Christian Spencer Davies and his model making skills (website) had led him to success. Great variety of materials, inspirations and clients. All demanding perfection an he manages to do it every time. Conventional materials but unconventional way of making models like noone else does; working with the big ones; lots of money involved; managing with deadlines. These are the phrases that lead Amodels to success.
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| Bridge of reeds, lda design |
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| Park pavillion, city hall, dsdha |
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| WC gallery, carmody groarke |
The most interesting presentation was Je and Maria's one. Their unique approach of creating a story before the design is significant in all their projects after that. Robin and Freya is a masterpiece. The story is about that man called Robin and the lady called Freya, the place they lived, the interests they shared, the distance that separates them and the never dying wish to be together.
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| The location: Kielder water |
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| Freya's cabin |
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| Robin's hut |
Of course the characters, the legend and the story itself are not just random names. It all has been influenced according to the features of the site and the qualities of the space. Je and Maria use these elements to create that unique story and following it they develop their design which represent the characters. The cabin and the huts are view points situated on both sides of the lake and face each other just like Robin and Freya would do all the time.
Their second project of the presentation was as as good as the first one. It's called Blackburn's Secret Landscape Garden. The story this time is about a little boy that found a mirror on the floor of the shopping centre. Every time the boy would look into it it saw a magnificent secret garden. While walking in different parts of the store he saw more and more of the garden. That story awarded them with 1-st place in the current competition in 2008/2009. Of course this time it's not a random shopping centre or random garden. It's directly related to the site they intended to regenerate. A small green area in Blackburn.
Je and Maria are the creators of The Longest Bench and their first project which was called 140 Boomerangs
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