Process makes perfect?

It's a wonderful thing to see, something you've designed coming into being. After so much speculative work at university, this is the icing on the cake, it's the closure that's been missing. Initially what I felt was that this was a great thing and instinctively it made me think of the project as having come to a close, but I soon realised that, in fact, it's never that simple. There are just so many things that can yet go wrong and surprisingly, it's the small jobs that you'd think were the easiest, that in fact stand the greatest risk of going drastically wrong. This appears to be because larger jobs have more money in the balance and so a greater investment is made into their running. A role that deals with the running of the projects is the Clerk of Works, something I came across this year which basically means the person who acts as the Landscape Architect's eyes and ears on site, maintaining a high level of work and reporting back to the office, thereby ensuring an efficient process. This is a great role for a student to have, as it enables them to better appreciate the practicalities of their own designs and the difficulties that can ensue from them.

Identity crisis

Whilst working in conjunction with one of the nefarious borough councils, I was recently asked to create an arboricultural and ecological survey. This is a role usually fullfilled by a professional, subcontracted either by our company, or directly by the council. However, on this occasion the council wanted to skip a few corners and so I was given the task. Already having a good working knowledge of trees, I found this part of the task simple enough, but attempting to identify and document a field full of wild flowers has proven a little more challenging to say the least. It was, though, enjoyable and has taught me a lot - not least that a landscape architects role can be widely and surprisingly varied.

Inspirational surroundings

The company i've just started working for have relocated to a new office in the Ashdown Forest right by A.A.Milne's Pooh Corner (Hartfield). we're now in a converted stable block with great scenery quiet surroundings and no mobile signal. But it's really great to work here as, for me its inducive to creativity.

Materiality

I recently spent the day in the fair town of Lewes, that well known medieval humdrum on a hill. Here I was able to delight my heart in documenting key elements of one of my favourite areas: the South Downs. This area is soon to become a national park that is proposed to include Lewes as one of its key towns, exhibiting the past faces of this hill country in a very picturesque manner (http://www.lewes.gov.uk/environment/3548.htm). What I spent my time doing was putting together a material and colour pallete that is typical of this area of the South Downs at its best. I really loved spending my time this way - not only was I able to learn more about hard landscaping detail, but I was able to see how the detailing has changed over time and the patterns that these changes have made.

The tides of change

This summer I have begun working for a new company, EXCITING STUFF! On starting, I was immediatley thrown into a scintillating project that was still in its early stages. My job was primarily research but this quickly progressed into extensive survey and mapping work. This has really been a challenge as it involved translating information from a series of 300-400 year old maps among other tasks. One of the most fascinating elements of this work is the apparent degradation in the art of map making since then. It is a privelege to work with the beauty of a large hand drawn map which is quite literally a peice of someone's artwork. Contrast this to the 'High Quality' of an OS map from today... well, see the difference for yourself...

Living Project

During the summer I was priveleged enough to be working with a practice involved in designing a new library landscape. And though many changes have been made since that stage, this profesional model expresses the finished landscape as initially designed by myself. The model and the images are the property of the architectural practice Penoyre and Prasad, who are the designers of the new library.

www.penoyre-prasad.net

Landscape.is... vision

Open your eyes and you will see a world awaiting thee...
Isn't it incredible the way your vision changes over time? I don't mean the way your focus gets a little fuzzy round the edges with age. But rather as your interests, tastes, feelings and knowledge changes, so your eyes adapt and you get those odd moments where you remember how you saw things before in comparison with how you see them now... and there's a world of difference! This is exactly the way I have found myself contemplating the past year's learning curve, and how it is now continuing with my summer placement. The practice that I am working for is (as I am) very pro a hands on approach and this has enabled me to get to grips with a vast array of new knowledge and begin to view my world through landscaped eyes, in a working manner that I feel sure will help me in entering the new year at university.

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under forest)

Landscape.is... practice

Practice makes perfect?!! Well working in one is certainley a step in the right direction and happily I can now say that I have been gainfully employed in just such a position with a landscape institute registered company named "Lizard Landscape Designs" for the summer months. And it's in Worthing, right by the sea, GREAT !!!

Ben Morgan

Photograph: www.flickr.com (under lizard)