Notes and sketches on the development of the 'thing'

Serial Views 07/10/2009

Here are my serial views that i sketched, to help me get a better understanding of the section and heights of our group route. Sketching these views enabled me to get a better understanding of the depth and height of the architecture and spaces of our route.

Ryan

Detailed ideas on the 'thing' and presentation notes 14/10

m

An Urban History of Studio 1am's Route

Portsmouth by the early 18th Century was reaching a crisis point in its density, as an increase in activity at the dockyard had lead to an influx of workers all clamouring for accommodation. As a result by 1710 we find that the Dockyard craftsmen had begun to build houses on the west dock field known collectively as the common.

Portsea developed itself over the 18th Century around a central street, which provided the focus for the town and also incorporated schools, shops, pubs, small businesses and housing along its length providing a mixed and varied social atmosphere. Smaller grid streets then radiated off this core of activity and filtered into it. Portsea at this point can be read as a semi lattice city, a concept developed by the urban theorist Christopher Alexander which simply means the various functions of a city are represented as points interconnected in every possible combination thus creating a fully cohesive and interconnected society and urban fabric.

After an organic and gradual growth for over two centuries the cohesive built form and the social structures that inhabited Portsea were disrupted with the advent of the Second World War and the ensuing destruction it wrought over Portsmouth as a whole. Portsea lost the dense and merging built framework that bound it together socially, the activities that had lined its streets were parcelled off elsewhere in the city to form individual, detached islands focusing on specific functions.
The neat ordered terraces that encouraged a sense of ownership and community were mostly replaced with self contained blocks of flats, designed as machines for containing people; clinical, expressionless and practical. While these undoubtedly were an improvement in terms of organisation and sanitation people couldn’t ‘own’ or truly inhabit these spaces and this has led over time to the erosion of community and the remaining individual inhabitants becoming passive and uncaring towards their surroundings. Christopher Alexander would label this process as the creation of a tree city, an urban form that has the appearance of being a whole but in fact divides off into a mass of individual branches all unconnected to each other.

This social predicament is currently being further exaggerated with the construction of new apartment blocks targeted specifically at a professional section of society that is unwilling to engage with other sections of the general public. This is reflected in new buildings targeted towards specific user groups with gated entrances, blank ground floors, underground car parks and completely self contained parks and gardens; there is usually a prevailing sense of edge but this is not accompanied with any visible social or physical threshold to cross.

STUDIO STATEMENT

'The fracturing of the built environment has resulted in the fragmentation of society'

Urban Development of the Route

These figure ground diagrams convey the thinning of the urban build up. This shift in the built environment has then been represented in society with a thinning out of activity and function.

The Developent of Urban Fabric along the Route

the 'THING',Ryan, Rich and Henry Video 5 - 13.10.09

Route Montage/ the 'THING' Video 4 - 13.10.09

Route Montage Video 3 - 12.10.09

Route Montage Video 2 12.10.09

Route Montage Video 1 - 12.10.09 Ft the Martin Pearce

Work on section and Height 12/10/2009

I created a few designs on adobe photoshop CS4, collaborating and disecting photos (from which the group snapped) to try and give a sense of space, confinment, height and depth.

Ryan

OUR 'THING' PLANS........

Here are some photographs of the rough plans we have to make the box, which will house a variety of images, found objects and also a unique collection of the things we have found and want to show as a representation of our route around Portsea.

We have decided to use 4 A1 size foam boards, which will be black to show a relation between our other displays around the studio, as well as 6 little triangular shaped pieces of wood, which are going to be the foundations and points of which the structure will be held together.

In each corner there will be one of the six mounts, and then they will be glued on two of the three sides so the the boards can be held in one place.

THE STORY SO FAR............

Activities and Uses - Symbol Ideas/Development

Here is further exploration of the journey and how we will be representing these ideas. I have created a page in my sketchbook of some serial photographs taken in Admirality Quarter which clearly show the difference between the council houses on the right and some new and modern apartments on the left. Next i have drawn a small diagram which consisits of a rough diagram and explanation of our final 'thing' which is based around a box shape in which people can get in, and explore seeing items and images from our interpretation of the route. I also drew a small brainstorm on my main focus on the route which is sounds and smells containing some ideas of how to convey these factors. I lastly showed a rough idea of the wall montage we are creating and what each of the aspects mean and relate to.

Activities and Uses - Initial Ideas

Ama and I have been given the task to analyse all of the activities that take place on the route through Portsea. Our initial reaction was to walk the route at different times of the day to gain a greater understanding of what people are doing and how they are using the area. We were also able to gain a greater knowledge in the different demographics that use the route and how their activities vary from others.

We then looked at how we could represent our findings, trying to avoid the more 'literal' approaches and therefore looking at abstract ways of expressing the uses.

MONDAY MORNING WORK 10AM-12PM.

These images here i the ones i have been working on this morning, again i tried to capture the emotions and a real image of the randomly urbanised area , which is Port sea.

I wanted to make these look as clear, effective and as professional as possible. I used the effects on photoshop to the best of my ability , to give real feel of the cityscape, and edges in the dockyard area or Portsmouth.

This has worked out very well, and i am very pleased with these images in there final stage. I especially like the artificial sunlight i have created using the lens flair effect, this gives another real life like feel and , makes the image look much more refined and focused. My favorate of the three images is the one to the left here.

I haven't actually edited this very much, the image itself is actually a raw photograph, in which i took with my digital camera. all i have done is added colour and layered a few effects over the top to give it a much greater and delicate feel. The contrast between the victorian era street lamp and the great skyscraper is simply amazing, and i am very pleased with the result. Being an incredibly simple but effective example of how the Port sea region has changed over the years, and also created these unintentional edges, which has formed the very foundations of this project.

richard.

Some serial views I have done in my sketchbook with annotations and studies

I have taken a series of photographs to represent the route. They form a type of flip book, which would also work well as a short film. I chose to angle the camera from the floor to represent following my footsteps. This way i think it feels more realistic than a simple landscape photograph. It is also another way to show my serial views.

Some examples from my sketchbook of my first walk around the route, highlighting initial thoughts. 3/10/09