Cans Festival

On Saturday 3rd May 'Cans Festival' opened to the public. Banksy, along with street artists from around the world, injected new life into a disused tunnel underneath Waterloo Station.

This exciting half-mile stretch of tunnel, loaned out by Eurostar for six months, opened my eyes to street art. The central location and scale of the place is ideal for raising awareness of high quality graffiti and I think it may make the society look at this type of art in a different way.



I like this kind of art as it is very bold, imaginative and brings colour to the urban landscape.

Banksy said he wanted to "transform a dark forgotten filth pit" into "an oasis of beautiful art".





Frequently these stencils are trying to communicate something to the viewer. Banksy has shown a man cleaning a wall perhaps to suggest how he would like the street art to remain in the tunnel.


There was so much variety on the walls with several of the murals playing to the grimy feeling of the tunnel.

One memorable piece that was different to the others was of two giant faces. Instead of just applying paint to the walls, the surface had been chipped away to form a picture, with the left over pieces still on the floor. This also gave it a 3D quality.


Another successful factor of the Cans Festival is that in the opening three day exhibition, the public had the chance to participate by adding their stencil work to the tunnel walls, making it their own space as well.

Banksy says: "I've always felt anyone with a paint can should have as much say in how our cities look as architects and ad men."

Kilmorey Mausoleum Wildlife Garden

On Saturday 26th April I was invited by Claire McCormack, of the Richmond Environment Trust, to volunteer at Kilmorey Mausoleum Wildlife Garden in Isleworth. I found out about volunteering when I saw some of the work that they exhibited at the Landmark Eco Fair.


The grounds consist of the Kilmorey Mausoleum set in approximately 1,352 sq metres of mixed hardwoods, hedgerow shrubs, wild and cottage flowers and a summer meadow, all hidden behind a high brick wall. The only access is through one door in the wall.

Kilmorey was left abandoned for years but is now being restored by the Richmond Environment Trust. The garden was originally part of an estate which once belonged to Lord Kilmorey, who had a Mausoleum (burial memorial) built in the early 1850s for his mistress and himself. This Egyptian inspired structure has quite an impact on arrival and is the center point of the garden.
The site has been opened to the public on several occasions (including London Open House weekend), attracting hundreds of visitors on each occasion.





One element of this site that particularly interested me was that it incorporated a children's story telling circle which is similar to one of my own proposals in a uni woodland project. The outdoor classroom has a series of tree stumps to provide seating for local school children, which creates an ideal environment to learn about wildlife.



Amongst the 30 volunteers many were children accompanied by their parents. It was encouraging to see them learning about nature and the importance of conserving it from such a young age.


One of the tasks (which was advised by the Stag Beetle Biodiversity Group in 2005) was stacking tree stumps and logs which would rot and provide habitats for insects. Adult and larval stag beetles and lesser stag beetles have subsequently been found in these piles.

Other jobs included wood chipping the paths and the story telling circle as well as managing the weeds. The rotting chips attract a wide range of invertebrates, which in turn have provided a valuable food resource for larger creatures such as song thrushes and foxes. Stag beetle larvae have been recorded in other wood chip paths on other sites, so it is hoped that they will breed in Kilmorey too.


Kilmorey was overall an eco friendly site.
A Sun-Mar composting toilet was installed in a shed built during February 2007. A composting toilet is a waterless toilet, i.e. one that doesn’t use water to take the waste somewhere else; it also allows natural processes to produce useful compost. This composting toilet works by winding a lever to allow for an aerobic breakdown of waste.

Somerset House - 'London Open City'

Design for London's exhibition, London Open City, is being held at Somerset House between March and April 2008. London Open City offers new perspectives on the city and suggests an approach to unlocking the potential of London's public places and streets.

The exhibition is split up into three sections titled 'Connect', 'Activate' and 'Unlock'.


As you walk into the first section of the exhibition, you are presented with four wooden huts, which look at how connections between different parts of the city can be improved; how a better balance can be achieved between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians as well as suggestions of how to remove the physical and psychological barriers to movement through the city.

The enclosures created a miniature environment for each aspect where information could be absorbed effectively. One of the huts was interactive including a wheel with a rope that could be pulled to turn to the next slide e.g. plan of the East London Green Grid.




At Aldgate the gyratory accentuates the division between the City and the East End. In readdressing the balance between people and cars it is possible to reconnect parts of the city and create spaces which work at a human scale.
This video was successful, using mixed media including sketches to show change. The way people use space is through movement and sometimes video is the most effective method to communicate this.



The second room held a series of tables illuminated with images from a selection of projects involved in the 100 Public Spaces programme, such as Victoria Embankment, each one accompanied with a stand and book. This was a creative way to display ideas with the glowing images attracting your attention and the books complimenting them with text and plans for the future of the site.

Victoria Embankment is an important project that seeks to enhance the riverside as a public space, to connect both sides of the river and to knit the South Bank and Jubilee Gardens with Trafalgar Square and the Royal Parks beyond.


The third room was all about nature in London, with woodland wallpaper in the background setting the scene. The East London Green Grid, represented in photos lining a box, is the first phase of a project to enhance the intrinsic qualities of London's natural habitats and to create a network of living spaces across the city. As well as providing places for recreation, the grid will improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, improve biodiversity and alleviate flood risk by restoring natural river banks.

Eco Fair

During late September 2007 an Eco Fair was held for the first time at the Landmark Centre in Teddington, South-West London, where over 70 exhibitors displayed different eco-friendly products and services to encourage people to lead a sustainable way of life.


The Landmark is a former Gothic church, which was restored to be used as a cultural centre for the arts. The high ceilings and historical architecture acts as a dramatic backdrop for exhibitions, creating a vibrant atmosphere.


One of the stalls was based on the Local Biodiversity Action Plan, which sets out the framework for the protection, conservation and enhancement of wildlife within Richmond Upon Thames. This section of the exhibition was aimed to raise awareness of local wildlife and habitats and how all sectors of the community can get involved to conserve biodiversity.


Cut My Carbon offers innovative products and technologies, to homeowners and businesses, to help reduce their carbon footprint. Solar lighting is an example of the products that were being shown.


There was also an architecture display showing how sustainability had been implemented into the projects. An example of this (shown above) is in Maidenhead, where the housing association 'Housing Solutions' approached INTEGER in 1998 with a scheme for a site called Alpine Close. The design incorporated many innovative environmental features concerning low energy use, and therefore, low bills for tenants was a central theme. One design consideration was that houses were orientated and configured to benefit from passive solar gain from their south-west elevation.


Urban Lifetile are London's only multi-disciplinary team of architects, engineers, designers and landscapers to focus exclusively on urban roof gardens and green roofs, and aim to raise awareness of the benefits of these green spaces. Green roofs can provide habitats for wildlife, and are able to absorb up to 75% of rainfall, thus reducing the runoff dramatically, and lowering the risk of floods. Setting up a green roof sample at the stall was an effective way of presenting the idea, as it helped the viewer to imagine the possibilities.

Tate Modern - 'Global Cities'

Global Cities looks at the changing faces of ten dynamic international cities: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, São Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.


50% of people on earth are living in cities.


One of the most eye catching features of the exhibition were the density models, which represent the population and shape of four cities. These were Greater London (foreground), Cairo (right), Mexico City (left) and Mumbai. Showing the data three dimensionally was effective, as it helped the audience to interact with the installation and compare the cities easily.

Many 'mega-cities' - cities of over ten million - spill over the municipal boundaries, like Mexico City and Sao Paulo. Others, like Cairo and Mumbai concentrate their multi-million populations in relatively small land areas where people live at high densities. The populations of Johannesburg and Los Angeles are far more dispersed. Thus adversely affects consumption and pollution. More compact cities arguably provide the most sustainable models for urban growth.



Video was also shown which added to the variety of media used in the exhibition. This shot from the video was interesting, showing the diversity of populations in cities.


The roof of the bus shelter has been adapted to host a drought resistant garden, to show how the city's green spaces might look in the future, given the onslaught of climate change.

Sustainable design will play an essential part in dealing with future problems, such as the rise in population of our planet.

Hudson River Park

Not since Central Park was built 150 years ago has New York City witnessed a project as bold as Hudson River Park. When completed, Hudson River Park will extend along the Manhattan's West Side waterfront from 59th Street to Chambers Street. The Park encompasses 550 acres, including 400 acres of open water that will provide an exciting public venue for boating, touring, fishing, swimming and many other activities.


The Greenwich Village section of the Park is approximately three-quarters of a mile long. It begins immediately north of the Tribeca section and joins the Chelsea section at the Gansevoort Peninsula. The Greenwich Village section opened to the public in May 2003 to rave reviews and large crowds.

Hudson River Park is all about spectacular views and high quality materials with a clean cut finish.


Accessibility into the park was good with wide, gentle ramps.


The heart of the Park will be 13 old maritime piers that are being reconstructed as public park spaces, one of which had a seating area with shelter, and a playground (right of picture). Other piers will include; lawns and gardens, picnic areas, scenic overlooks, ball fields, volleyball courts, community docks, historic boats, a living museum, research and educational facilities, event space, places to eat and much more.


The Esplanade, constructed of bluestone and granite, with aesthetic metal and wood railings and benches in many areas for sitting and enjoining the River, runs the length of the Greenwich Village section and is an attractive area for strolling, jogging and walking. This is paralleled by four miles of tree-shaded lawns, which act as a soft barrier from traffic. There is a pleasing balance of hard and soft materials down this stretch.


There was a road running adjacent to the waterfront that was dedicated for the use of pedestrians and cyclists only, which made it feel very safe.


I really liked this park as it was refreshing, clean and relaxing. Hudson River Park is similar to Bryant Park in terms of a retreat from the city, but with different uses. Bryant seemed more like a community space, whereas Hudson was used more for relaxing exercise. Overall the water element of Hudson River Park made it feel more fresh than Bryant Park.

New York

Bryant Park

Bryant Park is located in midtown adjacent to the Public Library. This green space is a haven within the city, ideal for pedestrians who need a pleasant environment to relax in and office workers who need to take a break.


The avenues are lined with London Plane trees which gives a distinctive European feel, as a contrast to the typical New York scene. When entering the park the trees transform the environment instantly, and one forgets this is a busy urban city.
There are many access points with stairs and ramps for the disabled that open up the park to the public. The moveable chairs work extremely well allowing people the freedom to choose where they relax, creating an informal and inviting environment, which contributes to the success of the park.





Ivy acts as an effective green boundary creating a separation from the hard materials of buildings outside the park.


On the terrace the patterned paving of granite, bluestone, and cobbles add interest.