Rural downland museum: experience and critique

Tuesday was a day spent in fine weather, following my own advice for focus week. Having already visited the three other long barrows in Kent (see post before this one), I spent the day visiting the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum.

It was not as informative on traditional woodland management practices as I had hoped, although it seemed that there were special days when singular skills and traditional practices were taught by historians and demonstrated, but you had to be there for each of those individual events (@ £8.00 a pop!) and as luck would have it, I wasn't.

Still ,the visit was worthwhile on a number of levels: For one, I was able to see the much talked of Downland Gridshell. This fabulous sinewy building is in effect a shell, which is formed of many pieces of overlapping timber bound into a shape that exists under constant compression and tension. This makes for not only a fabulous shaped piece of architecture, but also a self enforcing structure of extreme strength and longevity. Further to this, timber, unlike other materials, has a natural ability to weather with its surroundings meaning that it is already seamlessly a part of the landscape. And yet it retains on the interior, the beauty and warmth that timber is renowned for. It really is an engineering achievement, but it is not this that you appreciate when you first see it, but rather the sheer scale of the thing. It has to be the largest timber structure that I have ever layed eyes on and this is emphasised by there being no compartmentalisation within the building, leaving a vast open space flooded with natural light, filtered by the beech trees which surround it. It all makes for a wonderful workshop, where it is hoped, Britain's foremost research and restoration of timber buildings will be able to take place.

Overall I hoped more of the place than it was able to offer, but this is not a bad reflection on the museum, as they do not pertain to offer what I sought. Rather it is an observation, that alongside their work on the preservation of ancient timber structures, they could also preserve and teach the traditional wodland crafts that provided and supported the industry of building during the historic periods in which the buildings were erected. To go a step beyond their current practice, an increase in the times available for vistors to observe and/or take part in these traditions would be only to their credit, and when these events are not taking place, some literature available from the shop and some information plaques around the site with visual examples akin to what they have for the buildings, would all be worthy additions.

Beyond this experience, it was a great family afternoon, and I picked up a fantastic bargain on a beautiful Eco homes book. Oh, and Ash got a toy tractor :)

Experiencing Kent's Neolithic long Barrows

A couple of weeks ago I was re-visiting Shrub's Wood Barrow (the site of our ongoing AONB project for university), and I took the opportunity to also visit the other three long barrows of Kent: The Countless Stones near Kit's Cotty, Coldrum Long Barrow, and Addington Long Barrow (this last one does not have a photograph here as it requires payment to be visited and is unimpressive, existing in a restricted site with a road running through it's middle).

The visits proved well worth my while, and helped largely to inform me of the attitude taken by the relevant authorities towards the celebration and upkeep of these ancient and internationally important monuments.

Addington had a road put through it by the local council in the fifties to discourage pagan worship rituals and is really just a mess split behind two fences with sheep grazing it.

The Countless Stones were unimpressive in themselves. Simply a jumble of large sarson stones with slight remnants of neolithic markings on their faces. But a lot had been done to take care of them, and the owners of the land along with English Heritage have placed a black wrought iron palisade fence around the outside to mark it out and protect it. There is also evidence that the grass within the fenceline is regularly mown, and a small information board sits at the entrance. It is, however, obvious that the location of the stones, and the neighbouring Dolmen Kit's Cotty were in accordance with most of these sites and were placed in a dominant position over the landscape, at a high point and commanding good views. Interestingly not far from the Countless Stones, perhaps 200m, there were three more large stones that appeared to be sarsons, being used as boundary markers to a junction of three fields, so perhaps they too were once part of the group of stones that it was said of that 'no two men could count them and achieve the same result'.

Finally, Coldrum Long Barrow was by far the grandest of the sites to visit. Commanding a spectacular view across a long vale, it stood at about thirty feet high with a grand entrance framed by three giant sarsons. This site is owned by the National Trust, and it is obvious that they have invested some thought in how to commemorate the site. It has a very modest but locally accurate split pail beech fence running around it with simple steps cut into the embankment from whence to gain the summit, and a beautiful beech hedge fronting it onto the adjacent farm lane. It also has two very detailed plaques with a great deal of illustrated information and an artists impression of the barrow in it's former glory.

We arrived first thing in the morning with a feint distant mist and the sun peaking in perfect alignment with the barrow's head stones. It was at this moment that I really felt the full significance of the alignment of these monuments and appreciated the spectacle all the better for my positioning (also in alignment and facing the east). I really felt that this experience helped justify in my mind my proposals for Shrub's Wood Barrow, which also runs in east - west alignment but is currently obscured from the sun until around 10 or 11am when it crests the dense woodland that surrounds the barrow.

Job Hunting: aspirations for a future career

Drawing near to the end of the year, and amidst the chaos of university work, I keep thinking about the job scene. There are so many advertisments for Landscape Architects in Vista, Landscape and on the Web, and I find myself looking at each of them and considering what it is about them that would attract me to work for them. What kind of work are they producing? Not just in terms of quantity and quality, but also their focus on issues such as sustainability and their approach to landscape. What is the common denominator in their project profile? How would I characterise their style of design, and is their style one which I identify with? Could I see myself sitting behind a desk in their office (location!), and working on their schemes?

I guess that having worked for three years in practice whilst doing my course, I feel more strongly than some, that I would really like to run my own practice one day. I certainly came in at the beginning of this course thinking that I never would, but somehow, I really see that side of the coin too now. It would be so easy to work for a company and enjoy the benefits of set hours, good pay and a wide range of projects boulstered by a large and important clientel, and so difficult to spend so many hours working on the paperwork and admin that self employment would, for many years, supply me. But then the attraction of it has to be that your work is no longer subject to drastic and often detremental changes behind your back. And you would be secure in the knowledge that the integrity of your interventions would remain.

Still, after all that, I know that for many years I will work for a company, where I will get the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of my peers and form a more solid basis for my own work. But that brings me back to choices of placement. Whilst I gain this precious experience, I don't want to become stiffled in my own aspirations, having thoughts and dreams of excellence shoved aside. And so it must be crucial to pick a practice that I know will nurture these ideals and allow them to flourish.

Reading through the practice profiles on the Landscape Institute's website was no help whatsoever, as the most unimaginative bunch must have written them, or perhaps they employed the same person to write them all! Certainly it wouldn't read very differently if they had been cut and pasted five hundred times. I only really began to get a good impression of practices when I looked at their websites.

I know that I made a beeline to look at practices with an imaginative title, and good website design helped to boost this further. But actualy looking at their work is what really keys me in.
I am happy working on a vast range of subjects both hard and soft, and being environmentaly minded is a big plus for me, but none of these arenas should have to sacrifice style, imagination and ingenuity. I want to work for a company that is strong enough in itself, to not be pushed around by the architects, but to be treated as equals and receive fair budgeting and have it's choices respected. I want to work for someone who rewards creativity, and has big hopes for their employee's prospects, not just the company's. And I want to work in an environment which aids spontaneous thinking and frees the mind to recreate the paper. And above all, I don't want to feel as if I'm going to work, and end up dreading it after a year.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplearts/605426302/

LI Conference report, day 2 of 2

A second riveting day has now drawn to a close, and it was in many ways more informative than the first. But particularly because there were less figure's and jargon being bandied about and more simply understood information, giving us a true depiction of our role as Landscape Architects. I guess then, that the best use of this blog, is to finish what I started yesterday and complete the recording of the most impactive comments from today's meeting.

"Landscape = habitat + man"

"The growing season in Scotland, has increased by 33 days this year."

"Hot stuffy cities are going to depend more and more on the cooling and relaxing effects of Britan's coasts."

"If we could increase the planting in cities/towns/housing estates, etc, then we could hold surface heat levels, halting the furthering heating effect, and cooling our cities."

"The sea ice in the Arctic during the last year has shrunk by an unprecedented 1 million kilometeres."

"We cannot be sluggish in our response, we only have 10 years to avoid a dangerous level of change."

"The lighting of one lightbulb absorbs the energy (through poor connections) of thirty effective lightbulbs at the source."

"After today there are no more chances."

"It's so easy to become paralized like rabbits in headlights."

"The very thing that is causing our epidemic is the thing that soothes our conscience concerning it: shopping."

"After the final 'no' there comes a 'yes'. And on that 'yes' the world depends."

"Information like 'if we all used low energy lightbulbs we could shut down two of our country's power stations' will give people a sense of indivdual hope that they CAN make a difference."

"Consumerism has been used as an opiate of the people, feeding our deepest desires and turning us into mass, irresponsible consumers."

"Owning a car has become a rite of passage, and relinquishing this can initially be hurtful, making us feel depleted. But the eventual effect is empowering, as we become more aligned with our ideals and values."

"Let's change the colour of our money."

"What is the wealth of our community?"

"How can we call ourselves successful, when we spend 9.6 years of our lives watching television and living other peoples lives?"

"If you think you can't change, you're always right, as the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones that do it."

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

"What you say is 1/10 of the total absorbed meaning. The rest is who you portray. If you find that people aren't willing to listen to you, it's because you haven't earned the right to be listened to yet. Living what you are preaching gives empowering and motivating conviction that people will listen to."

"'Return of investment' is a terrible measure. We don't apply the same question to a new car which costs thousands a year in depricieation, so why apply it to something that fulfils an ideal?"

All of these and more, are the cumulative thoughts of Englands Landscape community, and it really does appear to me that without this collaboration, we are going nowhere. There are still too many practices acting in a competitive nature and as rivals. This will never facillitate the kind of multidisciplinary compimentary work that we must have in order to fulfill both what the public require of us and the land. One of our primary goals must be that every peice of work that we do, carries a brazen message of hope, that educates the public as to who we are, what our role is in their lives and where we can lead them. Their confidence must be lead to rest in us, in order for us to make the scale of changes that are needed long term. how can the Landscape and Architecture communities possibly survive if we allow selfish motives to seperate us from eachother and from truthfull pleasure in our work. If all projects are born of the selfish concept of "I must have that project, and I will do what I need (including sacrificing moral and ethical standards), to have it," then all project outcomes are going to be fundamentaly flawed, as they cannot possibly have the full spectrum of opportunity and motive that the world increasingly needs. I feel motivated to strategise my approach to practice and project, and hope that I do justice to the true needs of my fellow citizens during my career. What a FANTASTIC and worthwhile conferance!

LI Conference report, day 1 of 2

Wow! What a day! Information overload. The first day was fantastic and so informative, not just in terms of understanding the multidisciplinary nature of Landscape Architecture and the partnerships and alliances we form, but also what exactly the issues are that we hear continually alluded to without clear definition, and then of course: what we can do about them. On returning home tonight, I had a fascinating conversation with my mother-in-law, outlining her feelings that not all the issues are being honestly portrayed and that the opposite argument is not even being permitted a voice in this country. My response in the light of all of the information, that we have heard today, was that, well yes, that may be the case, but not because people don't care, or are in the game for ulterior motives, as these issues have been born out of genuine concern. Not only this, but even if the opposite argument was proven true, the issues that have been brought to light by the current movement towards greener thinking, are of huge significance anyway, enabling us to better our living condition globally, and why wait for that?! The other thought I had is that for those of us currently in the profession, we now have scope for a form of landscape design that would not have been available to us even thirty years ago. Now we can be more creative, we can be more environmentally and socially environmental, and we actually have funding and support to do it, and the clients want it! COULD IT BE BETTER?!! Similarly one of the quotes from the day was given by Kim Wilkie, when he said that his answer to anyone stating that "the earth is just going through a routine cycle and not to worry about it", is that "well that may be so but if you were told after having a heart attack, that you shouldn't worry, you're just genetically prone to them, you wouldn't say "oh well never mind then", you would do something about it!"

Other memorable quotes from the day:

"Landscapes in limbo" (Landscapes that either don't have the current funding or expressed need for improvement and so remain a void, effectively fulfilling no purpose)

"Leading farmers (who control the vast majority of British land) towards new socially collaborative ways of thinking, is key to progress in land use"

"The first question that should be asked at the beginning of every project, is: What is the true primary need for this land to perform, environmentally, socially, locally and regionally"

"The social function of the designer is not exploited nearly enough"

Paraphrased: "In order to breed hope, people must be organised. Every project must tell the public a needfully responsive and responsible message."

"We need to move from value for money, to values for money"

"Cheap food should not be an indicator of progress, this attitude just shifts responsibility on to others. Unlock this chain, buy good local organic food."

"We need a change in information given to the public. They don't need, or want a complicated and at times contradictory message, what they need is small easy to understand rewarding steps that make up the bigger picture."

Landscape Institute Climate Change Conference Page

Somerset Dreams

After savouring the flavour of America's deep south, the next taste would be from our own fair shores in and around Somerset. We spent a few days there driving and walking through the countryside, visiting ancient monuments, and the like. I was surprised to find that in Salisbury Plain I could see further afield than when looking across the wheat fields of Illinois. The fields were also much more structured, and separated from each other by hedgerows in patterns of brown, gold, red and green. This could be seen clearly from the summit of Glastonbury Tor, a place that I have always wanted to visit and finally did. It was worth it - WHAT a place! WHAT a view!

Another great asset of the English country, is the manner in which the houses have been built. Every village has been constructed from local materials, meaning that as you drive through them you see the colours subtly changing, through reds (iron rich sandstone), dusky yellows (loamy clays) and mottled greys (slate and rough hewn granite). This lends a wonderful sense of identity and individualism to every new location, something that has been lost in the mass production and distribution of building materials such as brick that can now be bought for a new build in any colour desired ("Staffordshire Blue" etc.) Now, to build in local materials is being encouraged as an eco friendly approach to new build and as a result, the cost of these materials has rocketed making it prohibitive to attempt in some places. Sad.

American landscape.is... meaningful.

Well, I just got back from a week's vacation in the states, and it gave me so much to think about. Rather than going to a holiday resort or anything particularly commercial, we drove from Chicago to Nashville, Tennessee (sticking to the country roads) and then we drove east of the city into the mountains, where we hired a beautiful big cabin looking out on its own 150ft waterfall. From here we based our activities and went canoeing down a river for four miles and spent a day walking through the mountains on a trail named the Fiery Gizzard, where legend holds that Davy Crockett burnt his tongue on the gizzard of a lizard he was cooking! This was all marvellously beautiful, wild and rugged, but in terms of an understanding of landscape it was the four days spent driving, that really opened my eyes. The country through which we drove was mainly agricultural, with small run down townships and the occasional small city. But what was interesting, was how much one place could change from another just down the road. Two petrol stations next door to each other show differences of half a dollar per gallon in price; a successful city shares none of its prosperity with a small town just five miles away; the farming communities who grow their produce sell it all to the food giants; and rather than cooking at home, whole communities eat every meal they have at the local restaurants. While this all seems very negative, there are a number of positives that can be drawn from it: Because farmers sell all their produce to large companies, there is no local competition and no angst between them. Because their produce is largely crops, there is a set time for everything and apart from weather, this form of work allows for a gentle slower pace of life and lower stress levels. Because people eat all their meals at local restaurants they all know each other well and there is a real sense of community spirit, with generations of people living in the same town because that's where their friends are. And all of this community spirit spills over into how they situate their houses: In the cities everyone has a fence up and all boundaries are clearly marked, but here in the country, the property deeds are the only thing that shows where one garden ends and another begins and neighbours share each other's porches watching the sun go down over fields of golden corn at the end of every day. Seeing all of this and experiencing it, touched my heart deeply. If only things were kept this simple and meaningful in England, if only our society was this tightly knitted.

Down-sizing Landscape's Carbon Footprint

What with all of the recent pressure being placed on companies, to offset their carbon footprint or to make it smaller, there has also been a radical shift in the manner in which landscape architecture firms are approaching their projects. For instance, I was recently looking for some wood benches to make a feature in a restoration project, and in doing so, I found that a lot of companies that create furniture, though they may be based in the UK, are outsourcing to all over the world for the wood. Not only this, but they are often very reluctant and defensive about giving you this information! As a result I had to greatly refine my search in order to come up with a small number of conscientious suppliers who are sourcing local and sustainable timber for their products. One of the best is this artist and tree surgeon based in Pontypridd Wales, whose work I saw last year in a park in the Brecon Beacons.

www.gno-sis.co.uk

Gorgeous isn't it?

One of two beautiful sister churches in East Sussex in the heart of Ashdown Forest where I work. This one is being considered to be made redundant, and in true Grand Designs style, I can't help but dream of a home conversion. What a fabulous house this would make and great garden space for me to play with too. Ah well, we dream!

Portland Island was a surprise to me. I drove onto it purely by accident, but once there found it to be a pretty sort of place with four lighthouses within 500m of each other and a very quiet nature to it.Tthe surprise came when I parked on a tiny entance to a dirt track and walked down to some cliffs I thought I had seen at the bottom. Here I found the most astoundingly beautiful views I could imagine, with scenes that conjoured up images of places such as Motopos in Zimbabwe, and the cliff top amphitheatres of Athens, Greece. This island is the home of Portland Stone, the well known building material famous since its wide spread use over the past two to three hundred years (although it was used locally for far longer). Here on these clifftops the remnants of quarrying and huge basic machinery designed to lower vast blocks of freshly squared stone onto ships waiting far below still remain, and the region's rugged nature is only complimented by man's hand shaping of its ancient rock faces.

Lullworth Cove: a continuation of the World Heritage Coast, this utterly beautiful inlet of the sea has at least three crystal clear, fresh water streams tumbling down over its smoothed pebbles to terminate in its gentle clear waves. Surrounding the water on all sides are an incredible array of cliffs with all of their strata clearly visible like the layers in a giant onion, seemingly scrunched up in ridges where their collosal movement was recorded centuries ago.

On Monday the 26th I left at 5.30am for Weymouth Dorset, where a large scale conservation project has recently been completed. Chesil Beach was my primary target and although spectacular when viewed from the right place I was astonished to find that its beauty contributed only a very small amount to the overall majesty of this untamed coastal region. Below are some images including panoramics from my visit, click on the image to go full screen (Strongly Advised!)

Taken on a walk round the lake of my local park in Crawley, this image goes a long way to remind me of the infinate quantity of inspiration ready to be drawn from the smallest aspect of such an untapped resource as creation really is (Creativley speaking)