The Beginning of Detailing

This is my detail work so far from my slide presentation:

The Missing Concept

So, a few days ago I posted Concepts and Masterplans but there was no concept.

A few weeks ago I started playing around with weaving, tri-axial weaving to be exact. It started with paper and then because I'm the sort of girl who has yarn hanging about the place I moved on to wool.

Originally, I think I was trying to weave together my 3 developments. The weaving was a mental exercise. But then it evolved into this idea of intersecting connections made by different landscapes elements. Although I could well be post-rationalising a spot of procrastination.

So Green is the doorstep landscape, Blue is the River and Black is the Urban Fabric. The nice thing about a weave is; when the strands are separated they're formless but weaved together they form a strong structure.

Next I started looking at other 3 stringed methods. The one I liked most is the fish tail plait, where one strand ties the other two together. Translated on my site this is the River bringing landscape and urban fabric together.

Moving into the realm of actuality: My aim is to use (for the most part) the historical template of farmland irrigation ditches to create a linked swale network connected to the River Stour. Therefore providing a linked, sustainable landscape.

Historical Map showing Highlighted Waterways

Concepts and Masterplans

Last Monday was the second Crit of my final MA Project. I've posted before (about the project) but I haven't actually explained what and why my project is or about. I think its time to correct this..

My project is about connecting the lost Medieval (more Industrial) quarter, Wincheap, to Canterbury City Centre. Wincheap formed during the middle ages along one of the major routes into Canterbury. Since then the area has expanded with housing to the south and Commercial/Industrial warehouses to the North. The latter area gives Wincheap something of an undesirable air.

As my course is Landscape Assessment and Design, I need some developments to look at. Mine consist of 3 separate developments that are hypothetically being consolidated.

In 2007 Canterbury City Council commissioned masterplanning for regeneration of Development 1: Wincheap Industrial Estate. The Plans only got so far but now (in the hypothetical student world) following the recent (again hypothetical as the developments are nearly completed) submission of planning on Development 2: The Tannery & Development 3: Bingley Court, the council wish the company who are planning Development 3 to head all three Developments as a whole (so I am assuming that Developer No.3 has purchased the rights to Development No.2). Issues the council wish the developer to tackle are:

1. The connectivity, particularly for the pedestrian, of Wincheap to Canterbury
2. Connections across all three developments into the doorstep countryside; namely Hambrook Marshes, Whitehall Meadows and Westgate Parks
3. The character of the development and it's relationship to Canterbury's Townscape character; this relates both to Massing, Street configuration and Building aesthetics.
4. The sustainability of the development, particularly in relation to SUDs for flood AND drought mitigation.
5. The benefits on the local economy. The developments should be mixed with a view to attracting tourists and to engagement with local colleges and/or universities.

So first off the existing developments need to be analysed using diagrams: