what's the difference?

From: http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0508/images/versaille.jpg

Here's a little puzzle for you...what's the difference between the formalist garden at Versaille, and this little garden in Brunswick?

el loco

A tarot card might seem like a strange thing to post here where I’m supposedly examining landscape architecture practice, but this card has today summed it all up. The Fool is for being "liberated by free will and trust, which lead [one] to explore simple speculations for their own sake. I don't know where I'm going, and I don't care where I've been. I only know that, as the hero of my own story, it's for me to find out. For, like Alice, I'm on the verge of stepping into a rabbit hole; unless I stop short and play it safe, I'll know soon enough where following my own feet has landed me on this curious venture."
It's true, it's true it's true! This is just how this exercise is going at the moment. I'm not sure how I'm going to practice or exactly what I want to achieve in any sphere right now, and that does make me feel like a bit of a fool, especially in the university system. Nonetheless I am completely happy with my process, a carefree wander, a dérive, if you like. It's an exploration taking me to places I would otherwise have bypassed unnoticed and I feel pretty safe in the knowledge that sooner or later I am going to get where I’m going, wherever that is.

In regards to "expanded field" I am glad I had to go look that up for myself, because it gave words to what I was on the verge of doing. Without the words for this I just couldn't get into it.

Expanded Practice Offers Greater Choice For Dental Patients In Williton

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Somerset people living in the Williton area now have a wider choice when it comes to choosing an NHS dentist.

The Stoneleigh House Dental Practice, based in High Street, has recently undergone major improvements and expanded so that alongside Dr. Andre Louw there are now three other dentists working part time.

The practice opened its doors to the public some weeks ago, but the formal opening was held last Wednesday, May 6th.

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It’s a great relief.If only I lived in Williton it would all make sense.

The fool asks you not to take yourself too seriously - and that has got to be the best advice to me, ever, who is far, far too serious. (Just ask anyone who’s ever played scrabble with me!)

To talk about my practice today in tutorial, as usual I made a pretty good job of avoiding the issue. I’m not finding it easy to be clear about what it is.

Should I ask myself the hard questions... or just carry on following my nose for a little while longer...?

click: this is a link to 'aboriginal archicture projects' at the rmit school of architecture and design.

just chicken feed

These trucks weigh about 1.3tonnes.
Australians eat 1.1 - 1.2 million kg of chicken meat each day, and 25 million chook eggs.

(Lucky she's got strong knees.)

Spencer Park Rezoning_my submission

11 South Street

Preston Vic 3072

24^th September 2009

Re: TOWN PLANNING SCHEME NO. 1A – AMENDMENT NO. 171

I have viewed the Town Planning Scheme No. 1A – Amendment No. 171 from the City of Albany website (http://www.albany.wa.gov.au/website/uploads/2472_AMD171_240909.pdf)

and would like to make the following comments and suggestions:

LANDSCAPE REQUIREMENTS

Porous Paving Surfaces

I would like to suggest that, as there will be an increase in impervious surfaces resulting from increased density in the Spencer Park Special Zone, that to maintain natural hydrological systems it be required as part of onsite landscaping to use porous paving surfaces (e.g. matrix paving, porous asphalt or similar.)

Stormwater

I would suggest that rock, stone or gravel be used to line stormwater basins or channels[1], to slow the rate of flow, dissipate energy and prevent surface erosion.

Infiltration Pits

I would suggest that infiltration pits or rain gardens be part of the landscape requirements or part of works undertaken by Albany City council to ensure return of moisture into the immediate site to maintain natural hydrological systems. Rain gardens have the advantage of providing beauty and interest to the streetscape.

General construction

It is important that locally-sourced rock be used wherever possible as this will minimise energy inputs. Using recycled aggregate for fill and sourcing rocks from on-site excavation works or other local construction sites would be two suggestions.

BUILDINGS

Energy efficiency in building function

I would like to suggest that design of all buildings including commercial and other non-residential building be required to meet highest energy efficiency standards and that design requirements be limited to these processes, i.e. that it not be part of the Amendment to recommend glazing areas greater than what would meet highest standards of energy efficiency, nor that a particular façade treatment be required.

75 to 85% glazing is recommended in the Amendment, which seems contrary to council standards for residential and dwelling requirements for energy efficiency standards in other documentation, e.g. Energy Efficiency Provisions for Houses BCA Part 3.12. I suggest that glazing and façade treatment recommendations be reconsidered.

Construction and function of buildings

I would like to suggest that requirements for meeting low energy usage in both construction and function of buildings be inserted into the Amendment.

Yours sincerely,

Christine King.

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[1] As well as many other WSUD recommendations from councils in Australia, many of which are available online, this fact sheet offers some practical suggestions that might be worth considering, obviously making adjustments to satisfy conditions specific to Albany: Water Sensitive Urban Design in the Sydney Region, Practice Note 7, Landscape Measures. Available from http://www.wsud.org/planning.htm, Accessed 24^th September 2009.

Rezoning Spencer Park

Albany City Council is proposing a change in zoning ratings in Spencer Park, which means an increase in permissible density.

Full document: http://www.albany.wa.gov.au/website/uploads/2472_AMD171_240909.pdf (accessed 3rd September 2009)

I'm in a hurry to get this posted, and haven't had a good look at the document.
If you have any comment to make about this or other proposed changes, including cycle ways, you have only got about a week to do it. Check out the council website:

Albany City council website: http://www.albany.wa.gov.au/

Public comment page: http://www.albany.wa.gov.au/your-council/public-comment/
(This is the first in the list of articles for public comment.)

Why Spencer Park?
What will it do to the character of the suburb?
How will these changes affect our imaging of place, as Albany evolves into a city?
What about water sensitive urban design?

design a city

group exercise.

characteristics of moments from our everyday:

	DOG	Free roaming
	ROLLING CHAIR	Directed roaming
	GUMBOOT	Protective roaming
	TRAIN	Directed
	CUP	Delivery
	COMPUTER	Free roaming	Free roaming	Delivery
	DISHES	Cleanliness	Place
	AFTERNOONS	Chill time	Other time Own time	Sunny	Relaxed
	iPOD	Free roaming (not fixed)	Delivery	Transportation	identity
	JUMPER	Warmth	Wind protection
	TIN ROOF	Shelter	Phenomenological	Experiential	sound

Use these characteristics to design a city.

Afternoon: what are the material properties of an "afternoon" site?
Where would you put the afternoon?
If this is a plan of a street, then:


Put the afternoon on top of a hill so it gets lots of sunlight. Then the morning is down the bottom, so you don't have to walk so far, and the evening is on the south side, away from the sun, because there isn't any then. Move between the different times of day.
A localized delivery system at the bottom of the hill for internet access, might become a transfer station: cold water moving down hill might capture heat produced by an internet service provider hub, and use that warm water to...warm a green house: transfer of enegry from isp to growing plants. Localised energy production at these sites, related to needs for each part of the day.


Move between days of the week. A circle of hills is a city layout, so that you move gradually from one day to the next.
Hill Friday might have a longer profile to accomodate the larger number of people there, and the delevery systems needed to supply what constitutes Friday, like alcohol, comfy couches, dance music...

Transition Towns

Caught this guy, Andrew Lucas, talking on Bush telegraph this morning, about changing suburbs away from fossil fuel dependency, growing food locally, etc.

If you go to the end of the article and click on the listen to this link, you'll hear some really inspiring ideas.

http://www.foe.org.au/resources/audio-centre/2009-sustainability-convergence/m_Andrew_Lucas_Transition_Town.mp3/view

turtle creek pump house

This is an image from the fabulous "Turtle Creek Pumphouse" project by D.I.R.T. studio that I'm investigating at the moment.
This image lifted from HATCH blog.
I just love that line of reeds coming down from the building, it's beautiful and funny. And it reminds me of a fellow student from Curtin, Jacqui Koffman, who did the most amazingly delicate work.

A link to acid mine drainage project on Pruned blogspot.

home ec

...the things you find in the corners of your bathroom.
home ecology.

Middleton beach regrade.

image from Leon van Schaik's Idoegoram exhibition catalogue.

This image works for me because it shows what I've been trying to draw, imagining a redesign of the grassy area next to Middleton beach (the Ellen cove end.)


It's a simple idea.
You have to imagine the wall out of the picture:
The idea is to cut the grass back down into a hollow that allows the sea to occasionally wash in,
Oh no, hang on! I can photoshop that out for you. (So don't worry about exercising yr imagination muscle.)

That is a photo of the real Middleton beach under the borrowed grass.

If you go for a walk down there, you'll notice that the edge closest to the water has become quite a hill. This is due, I think, to wind blowing sand off the beach and dropping its load as soon as it hits the grass.


Cutting this open changes the relationship between the grass and the ocean - at the moment the hill running along the wall blocks visibility and access. It is a real barrier between the beach and the play area. Let the high tides to wash in and see what new spaces result. What kind of vegetation will grow?

The design potential offered by these process is really exciting.
How can the site be redesigned to take advantage? The wind is already an active agent in the ongoing redesign of the site, but how can it be used more effectively?

Dendroremediation

Dendroremediation is an emerging phytoremediation technology for cleaning up environment contaminated with organic or inorganic pollutants by using living trees to remove, sequester, or chemically decompose the pollutant.
From the point of view of dendroremediation a tree may be considered as a solar driven pump-and-treat system, which may contain a contaminant plume and prevent the spread of contamination by reducing the movement of contaminated water and the erosional transport of contaminated soil. The efficiency dendroremediation has been proven in cleaning up soils polluted with crude oil, explosives, landfill leachates, metals, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and solvents.

DENDROREMEDIATION: THE USE OF TREES IN CLEANING UP POLLUTED SOILS
TAMAS KOMIVES AND GABOR GULLNER
Plant Protection Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Herman Otto ut 15, 1022 Budapest, Hungary, FAX +36-1-4877555,
E-mail: tkom@nki.hu

D.I.R.T.

check these guys out, they've got me very excited!

http://www.archinect.com/features/article.php?id=45200_0_23_0_M


Also, Phytoremediation,
and Duisburg-Nord



Looking at DIRT through the question "What can this practice teach me that will help my own practice?"
a) a precedent for working on site at a powerful and proactive community level.
b) phytoremediation as a valid action
c) a new way of thinking about site: as part of the ongoing process of globalized capitalism.
d) whose voices do we hear, when we design this site?
e) This project forced me to look at Robert Smithson in a new light: he is actually really interesting! And what I am reminded to do from this is to question my assumptions!

About a week ago.