Wednesday 27 January 2010

Group 5 - So far...



MATRIX summarizes the chosen key concepts from previous project to be explored. Mindmap is drawn to transpose these initial IDEAS into site context. 3 aspects were prominent: Regeneration [: The site was simply disused : Transits to be viewed as places vs nodes (ref t.o.d. theories) :]; Sound Acoustics [: Sound can be viewed as a representation of mobility : Site response is in the sound- in the rhythms of the trains, the absence of car traffic noise, etc : Sound/acoustics to be used as strategy :]; Layers [: Layers formed by various modes of transportation as seen in Glasgow site model/analysis : Layers potentially informs the design form: above ground, ground level, tunnels, etc :]. What is the potential of sound as STRATEGY ? All things related to sound was investigated resulting in a split in the approach to the research: 1. Sound as acoustics [Can silence be a form of sound?]; 2. Sound as graph [Glasgow site and Birmingham site depicted in a 'Soundscape'?].


So far.....

Suzanne & Pui San
Group 5

A Polyark Glasgow Birthday Party

At Polyark Glasgow birthday party's we eat cake and discuss gallery layouts!






Happy 22nd Birthday Cameron Young...

Monday 11 January 2010

Thoughts on a place

In Birmingham, the Car is king!






The former Curzon Street station - Desolate, a mass expanse of concrete, the solidity of which has no purpose, a graveyard to urban decline. Roll up the concrete and reveal the beauty of the earth beneath. It waits to rise from it's suffocation and show the congested city a place of contemplation and urban retreat.





Some sites and sounds...



D.Fletcher

Tuesday 5 January 2010









The City


The primary organisational components which define modern Birmingham are massive works of civil engineering. This seems to have been the case throughout history. The monolithic Brunel Viaduct, the link to the vast canal system which fed Britain’s industry to the ‘spaghetti junction’. The city has always been a place where the only permanence is movement.


The Site


The site has been grazed by many different forms of transport. Each have left their scars on a once useful site. The potential still exists for the site to again embrace it’s surroundings and allow the city centre to breathe.


Cedric Price


Birmingham’s continuous movement led me to the following C.P. quote in the Winter 2001/02 edition of GlasPaper


“ A progression of patterns but at any one time they are fixed...Lets take a wet sandy beach and you are in a car with patterns on the wheels. After you’ve passed over it the patterns are crisp in the sand. They should be blurred all the time but they are not. the wheel s moving and yet is leaves a static track in the sand, it isn’t a great smear. It leaves a pattern. And that is a moment in time.”


C. YOUNG