Focus Week 3:

Docklands & Canary Wharf:

After going to the Monument me and Spencer decided to go by the Docklands Light Railway from Bank to West India Quays. Its the best visable way to see the changes in the east of London. On one side of the line are newly growing penthouse apartments with views over the docks and the Thames and on the other side of the line are the post war council estates that are in a desperate need of regeneration and refurbishment. But it shows how so called regeneration pushes out the people that it is supposed to benefit, as they can no longer afford to live there and communities are usually broken down in doing so.

Focus Week 3:

Design Museum, Docklands & the Monument:

Yes it's that time of the month again when we are told to focus. So I have decided to focus upon events that are happening in London and to also explore parts of London that I havn't properly explored or havn't seen in a long time. From browsing www.londonarchitecturediary.com I came up with a series of things to explore for this week.
Going with another out of focus pupil Mr Spencer Darg we set off for the Design Museum, whilst passing through More London. A project by Tower Bridge that is constructed around Ken Livingston's City Hall. Good old Ken he wants areas all across London to become more densely populated, so currently my family and neighbours are having to campaign against a planning proposal of a three storey block of flats from being built at the bottom of our back garden, which won't even be affordable housing. Maybe Mr Livingston could realise that there are plenty of empty houses and building plots across London, as well as various inner city areas that would benefit from being regenerated and reinvigorated rather than trying to make the whole of London a building site.

Any how back to normality. By city hall they are re modelling an existing public space called Potters Fields Park at a cost of £3 million, designed by Gross Max Landscape Architects. It is meant to be a design of high quality with innovative lighting and new kiosks. Parts of the park look to tie in well with existing materials, yet the paths running through the space do not complement the existing granite paving surrounding City Hall.
Design Museum:

Beyond Tower bridge through the converted warehouses of Shad Thames is the Design Museum. Currently it is going through a bit of a re-fit so only the second floor is open, but still has three exhibitions on. "Confronting the chair" is an exhibition of the work by Martino Gamper. It displays designs created by Gamper from discarded and donated chairs, mixed and matched to create entirely new seating design. However, some of these chairs are the most uncomfortable things i have ever sat on, but they are all meant to be a bit of fun :-)
"Designing Modern Britain" looks at how design has affected the lives of the British people and what people have designed on our shores. From Harry Beck's circuitboard based design of the London Underground Map, to Penguin book covers, 60s furniture design and the proposed plans for the 2012 Olympic games with visualizations and sketch models.
The third exhibition is of the life of Robert Brownjohn who died before he was even 45. He was born in America, but moved to Britain in the 60s and designed numerous graphical posters; record sleeves for the likes of the Rolling Stones; short films and the titles for early James Bond Films. An area of the exhibition i found interesting were the adverts for the Midland Bank (now HSBC) where words and a logo are animated in ways that can tell a story and bring to life what is a really simple concept. Letters move, dissapear or add in relation to a words meaning.

The Monument:

After going to the Design Museum we went to have a look at London's new public square that is Monument Square, which consists of a decked wooden seating area and a glass pavillion that houses a toilet designed by bere:architects. It is glass encased cube structure with stone gabion walls, that is meant to complement the style of the Monument. The pavillion is the unusual centre piece to this square and has over 100 pieces of glass on it's roof so, as to seem as a feature from when looking down from the monument.

I have never been up the monument and at £2 for entry it seemed like pretty good value so i decided to have a look. Little did i know how hard it would be to get all the way up to the viewing platform at the top. Running all the way up inside the monument is a never ending spiral staircase that is barely wide enough to allow people pass by you. At about half way up you can feel the temperature reduce and the lactic acid in your legs build up causing you to wonder when it is you will ever reach the top. At the top is a caged platform with great views all across London it really is pretty amazing. I have hardly ever seen London from above so it was interesting to see how everything looks from a birdseye view. Below are a series of panoramics i took from up at the top, whilst trying to hold onto my camera and belongings in the wind.