I have been incredibly lucky to collaborate once again with Mark Durey at The Cutting Room in Huntingdon. I worked with Mark on the cnc cut facade for the new Heart of the Campus Building at Sheffield Hallam University Collegiate Campus. I am indebted to him for bringing these projects to life in way I could not deliver on my own. My colleague Sarah Alldritt also deserves a big thanks for her work translating my original artwork into ai vectors. Mark imports these digital files and re-builds the artwork through an Alphacam CAD CAM softwareprogramme to create the work. That may seem a straightforward digital process created by clever software …let me tell you that it is not. The translation from my artwork to end product is anything but straightforward in this instance. Mark is the key here. He has a clear understanding of how the programmes work – but – more importantly he is prepared to go ‘off-road’ and put his experience to task, problem solving and bringing an entirely bespoke service into play to produce the outcomes you see. I am lucky to have him as a collaborator.
Mark has an individual methodology at play whilst creating the cutting files. He adds colour to enable him to plan the work and – indirectly, I find these images inspiring and creative in themselves. Probably annoyingly I am always asking for screenshots of particular details.
Manufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark DureyManufacturing drawings for The Flower Bowl cnc routed elevations. Image: Mark Durey
The latest image by the client Guy Topping – the left hand elevation for The Flower Bowl Main Entrance – but how did we get to this point?
Main Entrance Elevation in progress at The Flower Bowl. Image: Guy Topping
I haven’t updated this post for some time – actually since April 2017! Head down and just getting on with it …time flies. OK – I’ll now try to sum up what’s happened in the interim.
Following on from the initial research period, consultation & creative engagement phases of the project, a series of Creative Public Realm proposals were submitted for review. This work originated and was inspired by the positive & creative collaboration with our supporting artists in residence, Rob Young – Writer, Simon Williams – Filmmakerand Xtina Lamb – Printmaker. These collaborations proved to be highly creative as well as bringing a refreshing camaraderie and friendship to the work.
The proposals are presented here in the order in which the various sites are encountered along the route from Chatham Station down Railway Street to Military Road and the Waterfront. This is a visual account of how ideas developed and adopted into the scheme.
Chatham Station, although at the head of our scheme, will be the last Phase to be delivered on the ground & I will report on this work later in a separate post.
The sites where our work and interventions has been focussed are:
NEW CUT & NEW ROAD VIADUCT
ST JOHN’S SQUARE
LOWER RAILWAY STREET
MILITARY SQUARE
MILITARY ROAD
Chatham Placemaking Project. Route & Plan of Creative Public Realm. Image: Christopher Tipping
The Red Line indicates our project route & is titled the ‘Chatham Line’, after the Chatham Lines, the nearby defensive fortifications. The lines follow the historic granite kerb line & will be replaced in relevant sections by bespoke wide
granite kerbs and special transition granite units often with sandblasted or inset granite text. Text is based upon the surrounding local historic legacy & community engagement work & narrative developed by our writer in residence, Rob Young.
AREA 2 – NEW CUT
New Cut – Plan of Creative Public Realm. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut – Sketches & Draft Plan of Creative Public Realm. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut – Sketches & draft plan of bespoke granite kerb units. Creative Public Realm. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut – Sketches & draft plan of bespoke granite kerb units. Creative Public Realm. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut – Sketches & draft plan of bespoke granite & timber seating. Creative Public Realm. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut – Sketches & draft plan of bespoke granite kerb units. Creative Public Realm. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut – New Road Viaduct – Draft proposals for bespoke enamel panels below the balustrade, welcoming you to Chatham. Image: Christopher Tipping
As with most projects, not all ideas and proposals succeed.Budget limitations, critical rigour and often the subjective nature of the collaborative creative process all bring issues to bear in deciding what is destined to be built on site and what is left in the studio !
New Cut – New Road Viaduct – Draft proposals for bespoke enamel panels below the balustrade, welcoming you to Chatham. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut & New Road Viaduct – Draft proposals for bespoke lighting scheme welcoming you to Chatham. Image: Christopher TippingNew Cut & New Road Viaduct – Draft proposals for bespoke enamel panels under the bridge, welcoming you to Chatham. Image: Christopher TippingSt John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingSt John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingSt John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher Tipping
The approach to the materiality and scale of St John’s Square & elsewhere along our route, was influenced by the architectural & industrial heritage of the Historic Chatham Dockyard.
St John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingSt John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingSt John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher Tipping
This monolithic detail seen above was titled ‘The Submarine’, inspired by HMS OCELOT on display at Chatham Historic Dockyard . This sculptural form was to act as a dividing feature separating two flights of steps at different levels.
I didn’t make it through the final evaluation process…
HMS OCELOT, Chatham Historic Dockyard. Image: Christopher TippingHMS OCELOT, Chatham Historic Dockyard. Image: Christopher TippingSt John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher Tipping & HardscapeSt John’s Square – Draft proposals for bespoke yellow enamel cast iron bollards & landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingSt John’s Square – Research Image of Ropery Artefacts. Draft proposals for bespoke yellow enamel cast iron bollards & landscape interventions. Image: Christopher Tipping
LOWER RAILWAY STREET & MILITARY SQUARE
Lower Railway Street & Military Square. Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingLower Railway Street & Military Square. Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingLower Railway Street & Military Square. Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingLower Railway Street & Military Square. Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingLower Railway Street & Military Square. Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher Tipping
Military Square is a major pedestrian intersection in Chatham, at the crossroads between Railway Street, Military Road and the High Street.
Lower Railway Street & Military Square. Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingLower Railway Street & Military Square. Draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingMilitary Square draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingMilitary Square draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingMilitary Square draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher TippingMilitary Square draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher Tipping
THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE
Military Square draft proposals for bespoke landscape interventions. Image: Christopher Tipping
Found the Sigmar Polke retrospective very rewarding. Some images from the turbine hall installation by Richard Tuttle –
Richard Tuttle at Tate ModernRichard Tuttle at Tate Modern Turbine HallRichard Tuttle at Tate Modern Turbine HallRichard Tuttle at tate Modern Turbine HallRichard Tuttle at Tate Modern Turbine Hall
In December 2008 I was commissioned, along with a number of other artists, to respond to the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project, which was nearing completion after a 10 year ambitious and ground-breaking engineering-led programme.
The Combe Down Stone Mines Project was a major project undertaken by Bath & North East Somerset Council to stabilise abandoned limestone mine workings in the village of Combe Down and preserve the Health & Safety of the area. The aim of the Project was to remove the current threat to life and property of those living, working in and travelling through the Combe Down area. Collapse of the old mines, which in some instances, lay just metres beneath the surface, was a real possibility. In doing this, the Project ensured that the internationally recognised heritage, wildlife and environmental properties of the area were conserved for future generations.
The Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project was finally completed in 2010, with 25 hectares of very shallow limestone mines flooded with approximately 600,000 cubic metres of foamed concrete, the largest project of its kind in the world. Over the preceding 200 years some 700 houses had been built over the mines from which the stone was extracted to build Georgian Bath.
The project site of Combe Down, a village on the outskirts of Bath, falls within the World Heritage Site of Bath.
Publicity draft invitation to The Octagon installation and artist talk. Image: Christopher Tipping
The arts project team was managed and led by Art Consultants Frances Lordand Steve Geliot.“To celebrate the end of the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) granted £250K funding for commissioning public art. The Combe Down Public Art Project was the result of two years of activity, events, residencies and commissions”. Frances Lord
Combe Down Stone Mines. Early test samples of Bone China Plates with Combe Down artwork. Image: Christopher Tipping
Combe Down Stone Mines. Early test samples of Bone China Plates with Combe Down artwork. Image: Christopher Tipping
Draft design for the ceramic transfer back stamp applied to the bone china plates. Image: Sarah Alldritt
A 21st Century Miner greeting a 19th Century Stone Miner. Archaeologists found a single bone of the Hare whilst excavating & recording the stone mines – ‘probably someone’s lunch!’. The leek represents the 21st Century mine workers who mostly came from South Wales.
‘1479 plates’ installation at The Octagon, Bath, 2009. Image: Kevin Fern
Exterior of The Octagon, Bath
A selection of images from the Combe Down Stone MInes Project. Image: Christopher Tipping
Postcard invitation to The Octagon installation and artist talk. Image: Christopher Tipping
‘1479 plates’ at The Octagon, Bath. November 2009
Invitation to collect your bone china plate following the exhibition and project completion. Image: Christopher Tipping
One of 788 Bone China plates produced for the installation.
‘1479 plates’, The Octagon, Bath. Private View. Image by ZED.
The installation work ‘1479 plates’, was exhibited at The Octagon, an 18th Century Chapel in Bath, and featured a map of 788 bone china dinner plates , which explores the relationship between present day engineering and mining technology, stone mines heritage, archaeology, natural history, and two 18th Century entrepreneurs of the English Enlightenment, Ralph Allen and Josiah Wedgwood. The work was created in collaboration with ‘Autonomatic’ – 3D Digital Research Cluster at University College Falmouth. The plates were displayed on a curving monolithic wall, redolent of the architectural terraces in Bath, built with the stone from the mines. The exhibition was constructed and managed by REM, Richmond Event Management.
The local community was widely consulted and was from the outset a supportive and creative project champions group, attending meetings and contributing significantly to the outcome of the works. I often stayed with local families, which was a very engaging way of collaborating away from the formal meetings and group sessions.
The image above is an A0 size print made to commemorate the project which has the names of all the Miners employed by Hydrock who worked on and contributed to the Combe Down Stone Mines Stabilisation Project. Printed by Digital Arte.
Portraits of Hydrock Miners working on the Combe Down project. Image: Christopher Tipping
A proposal to print a limited edition of artworks to commemorate the project. Image: Christopher Tipping
A sample collection of plates from the 788 individual units, which made up the installation. Image: Portia Wilson
691 households affected by the stabilisation works were gifted a ceramic plate – one small part of the map – representing not only the individual household but the mining underworld beneath it. Following their display at The Octagon, the original 788 dinner plates were donated to form a large scale permanent installation in Combe Down village at some point in the future.
Publicity about the Combe Down project. Bath Chronicle, July 9th 2009. Image: Combe Down Project Office
A Celebration Poster design by Peter Brawne for the major community event, which saw the completion of the project. Image: Peter Brawne
