Victoria Henshaw urban planner

 

Henshaw with local children on a "smell walk" during Manchester Science Festival 2013

It is a while since I wrote in this blog.  I have been busy with other things, notably writing a book about drawing, but I hope to return to this blog soon.

I recently read about Victoria Henshaw who died recently, far too young.  Her field of research was the influence of smell in cities, "an aspect that is entirely invisible, but which she was convinced had a huge influence over how we perceive places".

Steven Holl at Glasgow School of Art

A great exhibition at the original Mackintosh building of Glasgow School of Art to celebrate its new cousin, the Reid Building, designed by Steven Holl Architects (New York) and JM Architects (Glasgow), and located right across the street.  An airy light modern version of a design/art school.  Steve Holl's watercolour sketches show the thinking behind the new design.  Check out the link above for more info and some great photos.

One of many small watercolours in the exhibition "Drawing on Holl"

   

CRM building on left, Steve Holl building on right (note the funnels of light)

Riffing on Christopher Alexander's patterns.

Alexander does not take a conceptual approach to design, rather he designs from "feel".   In his book, "A Pattern Language" he and his colleagues collected over 200 categories of habitual space, ranging from whole cities to the corner of a garden.  These categories, or "patterns" as he calls them, are found whereever a human being or group of human beings feel "alive" and comfortable and in their skins.

This approach does not mean that Alexander is not theoretical or conceptual at all.  His ideas are underpinned by scientific and mathematical principles, but he uses these principles as a springboard from which to work intuitively.

I have been trying to work through some of the patterns in an attempt to explore them.  There is really no short cut.  You have to experience the place or space you are working in and relate to its uniqueness in relation to the patterns.  It is a gradual process.  I tried to capture the essence of some of the patterns by making simple 3d models, but that way was too abstract and not in the spirit of the pattern language.  The approach is place specific.  

So I focussed on my own garden both for real and in models.  Then started playing with drawings of the models.  Here are some riffs on Christopher Alexander's pattern "Half Hidden Gardens" # 111 in his book.  All drawings done with charcoal and paint on paper and about A3 in size.  I had tried to be very analytic and conceptual, but the drawings ran off with me into a different place altogether.  This is probably in the spirit of Alexander's work.