Better late than never

Note the complete lack of annotation on this one. I am planning to do that next, I always hate it so leave it until last.
I read in one of my books that taking a photo at this angle is a good way of getting a perspective view of a plan drawing. It seems to work quite well.My sections - my last ones were naive apparently. I think we've got as far as playschool now. Sophisticated they ain't.


Haven't done the overlays yet - might try and start them tonight, but I'll see how much time it takes me to do the image sheet.

Seeya tomorrow

Can't teach an old dog new tricks

MISERABLE ME
Feeling a bit low after yesterday.

There hasn't been a single unit of this course that I've found easy - I have had to work hard just to keep up but I've enjoyed it all and love that I can see the world in a new way. But I have to ask myself regularly, if I am finding it so hard, maybe I'm doing the wrong thing?

And this blog thing....are we supposed to only write stuff we want our tutors to see? "I'm working really hard"...."it's all coming together now"....."I seem to be making progress". Or can we say what we really think? Which at the moment is..."I don't think I can do it". And will they think that's just a whinge? or a cry for help? an attempt to get some comfort? Or just the truth?

There have been brief highlights when I've thought "yes, I can do it, I know I can". But they have been few and far between and are getting rarer. And, sometimes when I've got it right, I'm not even sure WHY it's right. If you are struggling with your design, and you just don't know what to do to make it better, so you draw and sketch and you go to the lectures and the tutorials and you take notes and read the books and think and analyse and worry and sit up all night and worry some more and shout at the kids and kick the cat and you're still getting nowhere....what does that mean? Am I unteachable? Surely designing is a skill that can be learned? So where am I going wrong? Why can't I learn it? I learnt to read and write and add up and drive and type and speak French and take shorthand and play the guitar. So what's happened to me?

I want to be able to do this thing. Maybe I'm just too old to learn how.


NORMAL ME
Too old? Too old? Listen to yourself you miserable cow. Sort yourself out. Shut up Jackie and stop moaning. Go and prove to yourself and everyone else that you've got what it takes to get this degree. Stop wallowing about and just do it.

you've got to accentuate the positive
eliminate the negative
latch on to the affirmative
don't mess with mister inbetween

Wise words indeed.

Subliminal Stuff

I keep thinking about the conversation we had with Andrew last week about what influences and inspires us as designers and how he felt he'd been influenced by the countryside surrounding where he lived as a child.

It's very true that the connections we make with things which remind us of childhood are strong, and that before we can make mature and critical choices of what is "good" or "bad", we subconsciously believe that what we knew as children is what is "right". I suppose the familiarity makes us feel comfortable.

As we grow and our experiences widen we can start to make more reasoned decisions about what we like and dislike, and why.

I grew up in Sidcup and spent my formative years playing in and around the Footscray Meadows, fishing in the River Cray, paddling in the lake there and generally enjoying the great outdoors. I thought it was paradise. I thought it was nature, and that was what the countryside looked like - in fact I didn't even think that much about it, I just assumed that was what the outdoors was supposed to look like. Of course, what I didn't know then was that it was totally man-made. The Meadows are all that remains of two mid 18th Century estates, Foots Cray Place and North Cray Place. Foots Cray Place was a palladian mansion and the remains of Mawson's Edwardian terraces and planted avenues of Lime Trees can still be seen and North Cray Place's remaining legacy is The Five Arch Bridge and landscaping designed by Capability Brown in 1781.


So does this influence me now? Yes, hugely! I love the wavy lines, the clumps of trees, the serpentine lake. To me it feels like home. And I suppose we are driven to recreate what makes us feel at home. But I must be careful not to let this influence what I do in an overwhelming way. One persons Brownian landscape is another persons craggy fell. I must learn how to discover the essence of what my future clients connect with, and then try to recreate it for them. Is that what makes a successful designer?

All this deep thought has left me very behind for tomorrow - I've got a cold and feel miserable, so the only thing influencing my design at the moment is how often I have to stop to blow my nose. And as for mood images! Huh! There's only one mood round here and it's bad!

Oh well, I'm not going to get too worried - I will press on and do as much as possible. See you all tomorrow!

I want to be a postman

My site is driving me mental. It's like trying to solve a Rubik's Cube. Every time I get one bit sorted out, I look at another part and that's all messed up. Just when I think I've got all the green squares lined up, the red ones start misbehaving.

If my main aim is views - planting any trees immediately ruins them. I know I've got to deal with levels in my central plaza - so how do I drive a lorry across steps? If I want to lower the banks of the river, how do I stop the whole place flooding?

I've decided I want to be a postman - letter, letterbox, avoid nasty dog. Straightforward, if you know what I mean.

Aaaaagh!

Can you tell what it is yet?

Here are the before and after sketches from Monday's class. It really made me realise that I had no idea what was going on in several areas, so it was back to Hadlow for me yesterday to take yet more photos. It must be the most photographed site after the Taj Mahal.


Anyway - Andrew's slide show also gave me some inspiration, the problem, as always, is getting the ideas out of my head and down onto paper in a form that other people can understand.

I'm going to write my brief now - I just hope it doesn't take all day so I can start the three overlays. This is never-ending.

Space....the final frontier

Why do I keep using Star Trek terminology? Hmm very weird. But those words keep going round in my head. It's the space, you see. There's so much bloody space in my detailed area and I don't know how to fill it! See what I mean.....



Vast areas of landscape just waiting for something innovative and dynamic and interesting.

Went to Hadlow yesterday to do some (more) surveying. Thank you to Claire for holding the other end of the tape measure and writing notes in sub-zero temperatures. Her detailed area was much more exciting - leaping across streams and fighting through undergrowth - mine was dull in comparison! The whole day was a bit of a class reunion - behind every shrub was a student with a clipboard!

Can't help feeling I'm going over old ground with the survey - I did learn some new things though and, yes, Jamie, the building IS 3.5m high, not the 2.5m that I somewhat tentatively suggested on Monday. It was definitely worth the trip, but I'm still feeling a bit daunted. Oh well, tutorial tomorrow, hope to get a few more pointers on what to put where.