Sunday, March 7, 2010

"hold the earth above me, lay down in the green grass"

Design, Landscape Planning & Ecology. Year two.



This was an interesting project and it is always a great experience to work in groups. The project was set in Dunbar and it was the first project that had a wider concept than just a park or a housing development. We were asked to find a new profile for the town to attract more tourists and improve the overall living standard.
The first half of the project we were divided into different research groups that all had different subjects. My group focused on the biodiversity in Dunbar and that meant hours and hours of reading documents given to us by the council. I found this fun and a good practice for doing research. Many times I often skip doing thorough research because I want to start designing straight away and that is never ever good. It always backfires somehow when you need to explain the choices you've made. So, this was really, really important for me on how to prepare myself before designing.




In the second part of the project we got split up into new groups so that one from each group ended up in a new one and it was now our research showed to be important in every part. To be able to deliver a good project like this one you really have to know all aspects of the client. I.e. Dunbar. Euan Maharg, Jono Burgess, Nicholas Gruter and I spent several weeks in the studio focusing on finding relevant solutions for a sustainable town but also to add more fun projects to attract visitors and make the people of the town more proud of Dunbar. We came up with an overall plan on how to make the town more self-sufficient, with local produce and Saturday farmers markets. We also connected the town with the so popular cycling route that runs along the east coast of Scotland. We had great fun doing it together and I learnt so much from the boys, my Photoshop skills improved dramatically as they showed me new techniques and pushed me to try new things. We were all very proud of our project and got very good response from the Dunbar council when we presented it.



Feedback from Simon Bell:
The work on nature conservation was a good summary and ...(have no idea what he wrote) of a lot of detailed material. The plan contained many original ideas, though was somewhat weak in the use of green corridors.


Grades:
Application of skills and knowledge in the design and planning of large-scale landscapes: B
An understanding of sustainability as it relates to landscape architecture: B
An understanding of the main principles and concepts of landscape ecology: B

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