A model of the future

For some while now I have been interested in New Urbanism. Not so much the neo classical position taken by but the process of master planning undertaken by studios such as Urban Design Associates and Duanny Platter Zyberk. I like the plot driven approach, run in parallel with say something like a pattern book. With this approach we don’t have to rely too much on any place making attributes of

Naturally Beautiful

This week I have been working on a nice little design project in Cheltenham.  The Regency character of the town has prompted to look again at proportions and harmonic ratios such as the ‘Golden Section’. It’s been years since I looked at this. In fact probably not since Year One at Architecture School. We were all asked to fill a sheet of paper with drawn rectangles. They weren’t measured they

Master Planning – A step by step guide

We are working through interesting times. What ever we did before, we now need to be quicker, more decisive, while continuing to provide quality for smaller fees. I have been arguing for some time that the process driven, step-by-step master planning process, we inherited from the CABE, The Urban Design Compendium  and most of the urban design profession needs to change. It‘s far too clunky, slow to respond, short of

Being, Doing & Sawing

This week end Felix and I (the cat I share the workshop with) started working on two pieces. The one at the back has working title of Turbine…its the remains of our very old teak sun lounger which finally died this year. The other piece is a new departure. For the first time I decided to build from scratch one of my sketches. It’s a huge learning curve as it

I paint

I have been painting on my Iphone again. Its getting easier since I bought a little touch screen pen for it. (£4.99 from Amazon). I have no idea how it works as it looks and feels nothing like my right index finger. Anyway here they are…

More productive landscapes

Another drawing is emerging. This seems to be a set of defensible houses located in the shallow mouth of a Western estuary. Some time ago they were flooded after an unusually high tide. You can just see the lines of the walls rising out of the surface built up out of assembled stones in frames and roughly cast blocks located on the windward side. You can also see copper bottomed boats