The timber seating units for The Gate – a set of 6 radius benches with cnc routed text – are currently being installed at the Central Chelmsford site. The benches are being manufactured by City Squared in Leeds & installed by Ground Control. The designs were developed in collaboration with City Squared. The cnc routed text refers to the history, location and memory of the space & is defined by the adjacency of the Anne Knight Building, which has been refurbished & is considered the anchor building of the development site.
Plan drawing showing the arrangement of radius timber benches within the area known as The Gate.One of the benches in the factory during manufacture by City Squared. Image by City Squared.Detail: Timber sections set out in the factory. Note the cnc routed text. Image by City Squared.For engineering & structural reasons, the long arcs of the benches had to be constructed in two sections. Image by City SquaredEach of the benches has a timber upstand end against which one can rest or lean. The timber detail is reinforced with a stainless steel internal frame and horizontal steel pins. Image by City SquaredThe detailing is very well engineered and finished. Image by City SquaredThe timber benches sit atop a brick built plinth, which mirrors the semi circular setting out of the site. The benches here have not be fully installed and fastened. Image by Ground Control
Detail of cnc routed text. The benches are constructed in two sections. The sections have yet to be aligned during installation. Image by Ground ControlImage by City Squared.
Bicester Community Hospital – Image by Kajima.co.uk
The new works will be digitally printed onto optically clear vinyl and applied to the glazed window & door screens of 10 ward rooms throughout the building.
Typical glazed integrated door & window screen for digitally printed artwork.
External view of ground floor elevation with glazed screens
The work is being manufactured and installed to my designs by Guardian Window Film.
The digitally printed glazing manifestation artworks will be manufactured and installed by VGL.
VGL’s production artwork with annotations by the artist in red & blue –
Phase 2 draft artwork with production notes –
Phase 2 artwork draft with production notes – detailPhase 2 artwork drafts with artist production notes – detailPhase 2 artwork drafts with artist production notes – detailPhase 2 artwork draft in full –Phase 2 – Detail of artist draft –
The draft designs for the digitally printed vinyl manifestations to the glazed curtain wall at CentralChelmsford was approved some time ago, but I have omitted to post any images for some obscure reason !
Here they are ! –
Draft artwork for digitally printed vinyl to main entrance screen and lobby
In a similar approach as that adopted for my recent manifestation project at Sheffield Hallam University, which is a print-white only process, layering transparent & opaque detail onto optically clear vinyl. This project is being delivered in collaboration with VGL Ltd
Detail: Digitally printed vinyl manifestation to the glazed entrance lobby screen
Detail: Digitally printed vinyl manifestation to the glazed entrance lobby screen
Detail: Digitally printed vinyl manifestation to the glazed entrance lobby screen
507 new homes as well as retail and offices will make up the new development. The project is delivering a blueprint for a new community in Chelmsford.
The site has a number of key buildings once part of Anglia Ruskin University, which are being partly or wholly retained and refurbished. These are the Frederick Chancellor Building of 1905 and the Law Building of 1931.
One of the most historic & resonant as well as the earliest buildings on the site is the Grade II listedAnne Knightbuilding, a former Friends Meeting House from 1824. Named after one of Chelmsford’s most distinguished women, Anne Knight 1786 – 1862.
Anne Knight was a Quaker and a stalwart Anti Abolitionist, one of very few women to attend the World Anti Slavery Convention meeting held in London in 1840. She would have attended this Quaker Meeting House, now named after her. This is the key anchor building on site.The refurbished Anne Knight Building with new public realm
The view of The Gate with its blue black brick curved elevation. This area is intended as a public open space, extending the forecourt and public realm of Chelmsford Station. The ground floor elevations are glazed and the interiors will be used as retail and food outlets.
Looking South, through the aperture into The Place. The elevation of The Gate is dynamic & brooding. The crisp detailing is pared down. A facade of cantilevered black balconies appear to jut out from deep into the interior of the building from recessed windows.
Looking south towards Central Park through The Place. The main pedestrian route will be on the left of this image, with the remaining site will be landscaped as a formal courtyard garden for residents and visitors alike
The view north, towards the Station from within The Place
These are both samples of text to be used in the interpretive artwork which is embedded throughout the site. The sample on the left is York Stone with inset water jet cut grey granite, by Ashfield Ltd. Inset text such as this is used for step risers at the south of the site. The sandblasted sample on the right is part of a Royal Green granite paving supplied by Hardscape , called The Stream which runs continuously through the site north to south. Both interventions are based on contextual and site specific research I undertook.
Tuesday 16th September 2014Southampton A brief site visit today to review the installation of ‘Canal Shore’, as part of the Phase 1 works on the Station Quarter North Project in Southampton managed by Balfour Beatty Living Places for Southampton City Council. This is one of the more direct outcomes of the interpretive and contextual work that I did which was intended to ‘influence’ the design process throughout the project. The project as a whole however is a collaborative process and I have worked with many others in the realisation of this work.
Mr Thankful Joy was landlord of the Railway Tavern on Blechynden Terrace from 1884 to 1890
‘Mr Thankful Joy – Landlord of the Railway Tavern 1884 – 1890. Bombed 22nd June 1940’
Thankful Joy: born 1836 – died 1913, aged 78, Market Gardener of Shirley. Father – Thankful Joy – also a Market Gardener Births & Marriages Records SCC Archives The Railway Tavern aka West Station Tavern, was situated at No 12 Blechynden Terrace. 17 Public Houses have graced the local area over the last 100 years. There were also many beer retailers too. To counter this, a number of Temperance Hotels & Houses were established. ‘Southampton Inns & Taverns’. Tony Gallaher 1988. SCC Archives Ref: C4 / 1861 Census & Kelly’s Directory 1877.
The ‘Heart of Oak’ Public House was on nearby Hill Street. The whole street was demolished in the 1960’s to make way for Wyndham CourtIn 1847, Lady Charlotte Fitzroy lived at No 1 Blechynden Terrace
‘In 1847 Lady Charlotte Fitzroy lived at No 1 Blechynden Terrace. Joseph Hill, Surveyor, lived at No. 6’
In 1847 No.1 Blechynden Terrace was a large detached villa to the south of the current carriageway at the bottom of Kingsbridge Lane. Its ornamental gardens ran down to the shoreline of the Test Estuary. These eventually became the goods yard for the railway as the land was reclaimed from the sea.
Looking east along Blechynden Terrace towards Kingsbridge Lane & the Civic Centre
‘Wyndham Court is a Brutalist building’
Wyndham Court is a block of social housing in Southampton, England. It was designed by Lyons Israel Ellis for Southampton City Council in 1966, and is located near Southampton Central Station and the Mayflower Theatre. Wyndham Court includes 184 flats, three cafes or restaurants and 13 shops, and was completed in 1969. The building replaced the original dense footprint of small streets and courts, which had remained unchanged on this site since pre-1846. The area was badly bombed during Southampton’s blitz & never recovered. Architecturally, it is suggested that the form of Wyndham Court evokes cruise ships, which sailed from the nearby Port of Southampton. English Heritage described its irregular facades as “sculptural and expressive” & the architects’ use of white concrete was intended to be sympathetic to older civic buildings, which dominate the city centre.
‘…the kerb edge marks the route of the Southampton & Salisbury Canal…an ill-fated venture 1795 – 1808’
The carriageway of Blechynden Terrace is generally understood to be the filled in canal basin of the Southampton & Salisbury Canal. The original villas along Blechynden Terrace, destroyed by bombing during WWII, were built in 1830 along the edge of the now filled-in basin. ‘The Bankrupt Canal’. 1795-1808. Yellow Southampton Papers No.5
‘it was so busy at weekends there was no room to sit down at high tide…’
Pre-1847 & the coming of the railway, the area was described as ‘Southampton’s Riviera’. REF.16/7/82 HS.h. History Localities. SCC Libraries & Archives. Local History & Maritime.
Looking west along Blechynden Terrace, with Wyndham Court on the right hand side, towards Southampton Central Station on the left. This was the historic shoreline of the River Test Estuary.
Detailed design for the Inset text to the Eastern set of steps. Central Chelmsford.
Detailed design for text to the Southern set of York stone steps. Central Chelmsford.
Ashfield Ltd released some images of sample details for the York Stone steps with inset granite text. All looking very good & can’t wait to see a finished step. The text is in a mid grey honed granite. When wet this will become darker and much more of a contrast to the York Stone. Hopefully Ashfield will issue more images as the works progress.
Details of the text for several steps are used here on a sample panel awaiting approval.Details of partial words and phrases – “Calm & quietude’, ‘Can you see the Can?’ & ‘Hurricane’. Inset granite text to York stone step.Text sample images. Central Chelmsford project.
A few more images of the installation of the ‘Canal Shore’ artwork and highway works have been issued by Balfour Beatty from the site of the Phase 1 Station Quarter North project in Southampton.
Blended Granite for highway and pavement.Blended Granite for highway and pavement.Black basalt kerb detail with water jet cut & inset granite text.Black Basalt kerb detail with water jet cut & inset granite text.
I travelled down to Southampton for a site visit to review the basalt kerbs installed along Blechynden Terrace.
Looking East along Blechynden Terrace towards Central Station, with the Grade 2 listed Brutalist Wyndham Court on the right hand side. The kerbside artwork feature is 290 metres long & features an inset narrative relating to to specific events and places along the line.
These robust blocks form the kerb edge to the ‘Canal Shore’artwork currently in production by Hardscape up in Halifax. Some corner quadrant features have been installed. This feature runs from outside the Station Forecourt, to the bottom of West Park Rd and Kingsbridge Lane. This text based work – the text is created via water jet cutting and inlaying a contrasting granite into the basalt – is 290 linear metres long x 795mm wide. The text slabs have arrived on site, but awaiting installation in July.
Draft artwork for part of the text feature ‘Canal Shore’.Draft Artwork of text for ‘Canal Shore’.Draft setting out of text for the ‘Canal Shore’ detail.Robust basalt blocks from Hardscape on site awaiting installation as part of the kerbside feature ‘Canal Shore’.Large scale basalt quadrant blocks installed on site along Blechynden Terrace.
