London Futures

An exhibition of digitally enhanced images of London landmarks created to promote further awareness of climate change. The images are presented as postcards from the future, with the aim of 'bringing home the full impact of global warming, food scarcity, rising sea levels and how all Londoners will need to innovate and adapt to survive.' These images are impressive, disturbing, but complete fantasy. They show dystopia referring to a futuristic society that is purely fictional whilst applying symbols of real prejudice that is happening in the present and elsewhere in the world. They remind me of the last lecture, '...Other Destinations' where commonly known symbols and ideas are appropriated to a fake environment to stimulate viewers and evoke particular emotions.

The exhibition is currently on show at the Museum of London until the 6th March 2011. There are plenty of other images through the link - - Buckingham Palace surrounded by shanty towns, Parliament Square as a rice paddy and ice skaters on the Thames.

Yaohua Yang: Latent City

Source: Boiteaoutils

'Our friend Yaohua Wang (see his Carbon tower and his interview of Wes Jones, his thesis tutor) from Sci-Arc sent me his thesis project he just presented in a room apparently fully packed ! 
The production of work is simply amazing and the ingenuity of the project is being proven in every rendering. However, a very important part of what makes his Latent City such an amazing projects is embedded in its narration and in this regard I HIGHLY recommend to take the time of watching the 15 min long movie below that explains very didactically why this city is called latent.

The narration implies the architect Foral (aka Yaohua !) finding an agreement with the State in order to build a new city for almost no money. The agreement has to remain secret because it implies a manipulation of big industrial corporations that will own the land for twenty years, build an industrial city according to Foral's plans and therefore providing an important infrastructure. When the city is built, local economic policies forces industries to relocalize their factories outside the city which is abandoned. The state can thus build a new city on the other using the already built infrastructure that has been designed planning on this scenario to occur.

The latent city is thus a palimpsest city whose transformation has been planned since the beginning.'


Latent City by Yaohua Wang from Foral on Vimeo.

skate park project in association with the life centre

For my external design project I have been researching infomation on the Life Centre that is being built in Central Park Plymouth. The skate park which is in  the area now is going to be demolished and the area rebuilt on. At the moment this is the main park that skaters and bmx riders use the most. In my project I have been commissioned to design, using glass, a way that the concrete from the skate parks bowl can be recycled into 150 small awards and two large that will be given to the people that use the park. Before the park is torn down the bowl will be covered by an illustration by James Jarvis, a Londoner. This will be then carefully dismanteld (hopefully) so that it can then be combined with hot glass to create the awards.

Flooded MacDonalds

A recent trip to London to see the following film at an exhibition, which comprised a very convincing replica of a MacDonald's Burger Restaurant which gradually becomes flooded, replete with all the design paraphernalia and detritus that comes with themed restaurant spaces:



Flooded McDonald's from Superflex on Vimeo.

site specific architecture

Cathedral Of Nature

Miwok Roundhouse

Finding an example of architecture which was site specific using the natural environment was not that easy , I could of easily shown examples of our ancestors use of the land and the way they designed and built their homes, which was all land inclusive . Such as the Miwok Indians who built their homes from pine and cedar poles which were bound together with grape vine or willow, this was then covered cedar bark taken from dead trees . This way of existence treats nature as it should not taking from it but existing within it . However I wanted to try and find an example of a design from now as I said this was not easy, there were examples of buildings that Incorporated the land such as those with grass roofs or walls but none that used just the natural enforcement . The closest I came was the 'Cathedral of Nature' This was the creation of Guilano Mauri he has designed a living building. The cathedral is the same size as a real cathedral it covers 82 x 15 metres and is 12 metres high. The structures used to shape and support the cathedral will eventually rot away, by which tine the the trees will be able to support themselves. The cathedral can be found situated near Malga Costa in Italy. The design was supported by the group Arte Sella (an organisation that exhibits only natural land art) they believe that "the works come from nature they live in it and then over time return to it "

Mauri 's designs control nature bending them to form his designs however they also work with nature allowing it to continue in its growth and movement.

Community Conservation Development of Lake Turkana Kenya

Report on the development of eco-tourism as a source of income and a way to preserve the culture of the Turkana and wildlife of lake turkana.