Houseboats and grass covered stairs: King's Cross Development visit with MA students



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It is already clear when exiting the tube station that King's Cross is an up-and-coming neighbourhood. The market vendors have set up quite early and it’s not even the weekend. The areas surrounding the station are still not busy at 10.30 in the morning, but come lunchtime the place really fills up.

Turning north and moving towards Granary Square we find the grass covered stairs leading down to the riverfront, where they function as an amphitheatre facing the houseboats on the other side. For me, as a Norwegian student, the idea of grass covered steps is as foreign as houseboats on the river. It’s like the British wall to wall carpet taken to the extreme, but I have to admit it is extremely inviting. As we see on our way back, a couple of hours later, it is lunch time and carpeted stairs are filled with families (term holiday) and workers already!

After a brief introduction to the site and a look at the model we head towards the centre of the new development. We are originally interested in seeing the pool, which we are told is having its last day as a temporary instalment. The chilly wind on top of the viewing platform quickly draws us down however, and into the ‘Ship Garden’ directly below. This is a nice contrast to some of the more polished development, and we spend a good half an hour investigating all its nooks and crannies. Especially we have to admire the greenhouse constructed from windows and the actual skips converted to parcels. I have seen similar allotment gardens previously, but not as part of a new development in the same way. When we leave I find myself hoping that this place will remain in some form after the surrounding area has been transformed from the building site it is now.

Our last stop is the Gasholder Park. This is the now famous transformation of the previous gas holder tanks. In one of these old gasholders a small park has been constructed between the old beams. The shiny steal contrast against the lush grass of the lawn, where a curved mound function as a backrest making this a perfect stop for our lunch break. This focus on ‘loud’ materials is a bit of a difference to the more toned down, minimalist, elements found in Scandinavian landscape design. Here the outdoor structures have been allowed to make a distinct statement from the surrounding building architecture.

Thyra Frederikke Grimstad, MA Landscape Architecture student at WUC

 

Houseboats and grass covered stairs: King's Cross Development visit with MA students



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It is already clear when exiting the tube station that King's Cross is an up-and-coming neighbourhood. The market vendors have set up quite early and it’s not even the weekend. The areas surrounding the station are still not busy at 10.30 in the morning, but come lunchtime the place really fills up.

Turning north and moving towards Granary Square we find the grass covered stairs leading down to the riverfront, where they function as an amphitheatre facing the houseboats on the other side. For me, as a Norwegian student, the idea of grass covered steps is as foreign as houseboats on the river. It’s like the British wall to wall carpet taken to the extreme, but I have to admit it is extremely inviting. As we see on our way back, a couple of hours later, it is lunch time and carpeted stairs are filled with families (term holiday) and workers already!

After a brief introduction to the site and a look at the model we head towards the centre of the new development. We are originally interested in seeing the pool, which we are told is having its last day as a temporary instalment. The chilly wind on top of the viewing platform quickly draws us down however, and into the ‘Ship Garden’ directly below. This is a nice contrast to some of the more polished development, and we spend a good half an hour investigating all its nooks and crannies. Especially we have to admire the greenhouse constructed from windows and the actual skips converted to parcels. I have seen similar allotment gardens previously, but not as part of a new development in the same way. When we leave I find myself hoping that this place will remain in some form after the surrounding area has been transformed from the building site it is now.

Our last stop is the Gasholder Park. This is the now famous transformation of the previous gas holder tanks. In one of these old gasholders a small park has been constructed between the old beams. The shiny steal contrast against the lush grass of the lawn, where a curved mound function as a backrest making this a perfect stop for our lunch break. This focus on ‘loud’ materials is a bit of a difference to the more toned down, minimalist, elements found in Scandinavian landscape design. Here the outdoor structures have been allowed to make a distinct statement from the surrounding building architecture.

Thyra Frederikke Grimstad, MA Landscape Architecture student at WUC

 

Opportunity Space | Flash Design Competition

Van Alen Institute recently launched Opportunity Space, an international design-build competition to support economic opportunity and social inclusion in Malmö, Sweden.

Opportunity Space invites international, multidisciplinary teams of designers, economic development experts, sociologists, community organizers, and others to submit their ideas. Focusing on two sites – a well-used public park and an underused industrial building – in a rapidly changing district of Malmö, teams will have roughly five weeks to propose their interventions.

Responding to Europe’s migration crisis, Opportunity Space will install a temporary mobile structure in Malmö’s Enskifteshagen Park for two months to support education, job assistance, and social inclusion programs offered by government, business, and nonprofit partners. The winning team, to be announced in early December, will receive a $10,000 award and $25,000 to build their proposal.
Opportunity Space is the first in a new Van Alen Institute series of Flash Competitions: challenges that bring together multidisciplinary teams of designers and other experts for short, intense projects in cities around the world to take on urgent societal issues through design. Teams can find the competition brief and pre-register by November 7, 2016 on the project website. The competition deadline is November 18, 2016.

Opportunity Space will make vital services more visible and accessible to people who need them, and will bring new and established residents together. The project will establish a replicable process for engaging diverse stakeholders across sectors and disciplines to design more economically and socially inclusive neighborhoods and cities.

See http://worldlandscapearchitect.com/24542-2/#.WBIuBk0zXcs for more information.