Tag Archives: Interpretation

‘VOID’, LONDON ROAD 2008

‘During the nights of 30 November and 1 December 1940, the Southampton Blitz reached its climax as the city came under sustained attack. Hundreds of tonnes of bombs were dropped during the two nights, whilst on 30th November alone some 634 individual properties were left ablaze –’. Ordnance Survey

Sustained & heavy bombing between 23rd – 30th November 1940, left Southampton City Centre devastated. The destruction at the very heart of the built fabric of the city left seven Churches destroyed, including Holy Rood, All Saints, St James’, St Mary’s, St Luke’s & St Paul’s.

Sexfoil Terrazzo seat on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Graham Redman

Above: ‘Void’. A bespoke black terrazzo platform seat, one of two sexfoil shaped seats commissioned for the London Road scheme, completed in 2008. The public art and interpretation for the public realm and highways improvement project was inspired by the Parish of St Paul’s Church, London Road, a vibrant community and shopping street, which was effectively destroyed on November 30th 1940 during the Southampton Blitz, when the Church was bombed and devastated by fire. London Road was badly damaged and the Church never rebuilt. An evocative image from the time shows the Church interior with the shape of the destroyed Rose Window appearing as a black void. This project evolved around this one powerful image. It evokes a legacy of community, architecture and people, which is explored in the public art seating other found on site today.

St Paul’s Church, London Road, Southampton. Image: Southampton Local Studies and Maritime Library & Southampton Archives
The manufacture of the bespoke terrazzo benches was carried out by Quality Marble (Pallam Precast) at their works in Enfield, London.
‘VOID’, sexfoil geometry drawing. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
‘VOID’, sexfoil bench geometry drawing. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
‘VOID’, sexfoil bench sketch drawing for stainless steel leg supports. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
‘VOID’, sexfoil bench sketch drawing for test sample. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
‘VOID’, sexfoil geometry drawing. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
‘VOID’, sexfoil geometry drawing. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sketch line drawings for paving and seating plans. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sketch line drawings for paving and seating plans. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sketch line drawings for paving and seating plans. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sketch line drawings & models for paving and seating plans. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sketch line drawings & models for paving and seating plans. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sketch line drawings & models for paving and seating plans. London Road, Southampton. Image: Christopher Tipping
St Paul’s Church, London Road, Southampton. Image: Southampton Local Studies and Maritime Library & Southampton Archives
St Paul’s Church, London Road, Southampton. Image: Southampton Local Studies and Maritime Library & Southampton Archives
Sexfoil & Lozenge shaped Terrazzo seats installed on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Graham Redman

This project was commissioned by Elizabeth Smith, Public Art Officer for Southampton City Council in 2005, to work in collaboration with the project team to research, develop and create concept designs and proposals for environmental public artworks integral to the London Road scheme.  I was asked to establish an overall concept for the area with particular consideration of pedestrian use and movement across roads and through spaces & placemaking and urban form, hard and soft landscaping, paving details and surfacing treatments, thresholds, markers or ‘gateways’, seating and / or sculpture. My contribution was contextually driven and collaborative.

Sexfoil & Lozenge shaped Terrazzo seats installed on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Graham Redman

2 No. 3000mm diameter x 140mm thick pre-cast dark grey/black terrazzo platform seats manufactured in one piece to a Sexfoil pattern, inclusive of a 160mm built up external edge with 100mm radius semi bullnose detail and 10mm pencil round rebate. Grade C40 concrete is to be used. All terrazzo mixes and samples were approved prior to manufacture by Southampton City Council engineers and the project artist (me). The seats are reinforced throughout to A393 with 10mm welded bar mesh. Bottom mesh to full cover. Top mesh localised cover only to ‘hot spots’. All grit polished to a fine 120 honed finish, chemically sealed with anti-graffiti finishes approved by SCC.

5 No. 3000m x 700mm x 140 lozenge shaped benches were also manufactured, each with inset text. Both bench types have stainless steel leg supports, 316 SS spec.

The benches were positioned at relevant site along London Road, which related to past events and distant voices as well as lost buildings.

Text from an old St Paul’s Parish Magazine reflected the local community. Image: Christopher Tipping by permission of Southampton Local Studies & Maritime Library.
Text from an old St Paul’s Parish Magazine reflected the local community. Image: Christopher Tipping by permission of Southampton Local Studies & Maritime Library.

Above: Ordinary lives and everyday events were recorded in a series of surviving Parish Magazines form St Paul’s Church. These distant voices of a local community and Parish still seem fresh and lively.

Text from an old St Paul’s Parish Magazine reflected the local community. Image: Christopher Tipping by permission of Southampton Local Studies & Maritime Library.
The Manufacture of the bespoke terrazzo benches was carried out by Quality Marble (Pallam Precast) at their works in Enfield, London.
The manufacture of the bespoke terrazzo benches was carried out by Quality Marble (Pallam Precast) at their works in Enfield, London. The moulds were all made by hand and cast by hand too. Image: Christopher Tipping
The manufacture of the bespoke terrazzo benches was carried out by Quality Marble (Pallam Precast) at their works in Enfield, London. The moulds were all made by hand and cast by hand too. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sexfoil & Lozenge shaped Terrazzo seats installed on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Graham Redman
Sexfoil & Lozenge shaped Terrazzo seats installed on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Graham Redman
Lozenge Terrazzo seat on London Road, Southampton 2008. “the spirit of the townspeople is unbroken – December 1940′. Image: Christopher Tipping

Lozenge Terrazzo seat on London Road, Southampton 2008. “Mile End, 6 hours, Saturday 30th November 1940′. Image: Christopher Tipping

‘Naked Street takes National award. Southampton’s new ‘naked street’ in London Road has picked up a national award for the Best Urban Transport Design from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, regarded as one of the top industry awards 2010.

This is a significant boost for the naked street concept, the principles of which promote a balance of traffic movement and social uses of public spaces. London Road in Southampton was stripped of road signs, given ‘informal’ road signs, and widened footpaths. The scheme has already had a positive impact by decreases in serious injury accidents and a reduction in vehicle speeds. Living Streets believe that schemes which use naked streets principles have great potential to make our streets safer and more people-friendly, by changing the behaviour of all road users for the better. London Road in Southampton is a good example of a scheme that has improved safety and ensured accessibility.

This scheme has also been chosen by the Department of Transport (Dft) as an example of best practice and will be included in the Dft’s national design document ‘Manual for Streets 2.’

Highly Commended: London Road, Southampton

Solent Quality Places Design Awards 2010

Sponsored by PUSH, the Solent Design Awards are all about the encouragement of Quality place-making: schemes that create special places, lift communities, create richer experiences …not just iconic buildings but also the places in-between, the carrier spaces for our daily lives.

Street scene on a regenerated London Road following the project completion in March 2008. Image: Christopher Tipping
Street scene on a regenerated London Road following the project completion in March 2008. Image: Christopher Tipping
Street scene on a regenerated London Road following the project completion in March 2008. Image: Christopher Tipping
Sexfoil Terrazzo seat on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Christopher Tipping
Street scene on a regenerated London Road following the project completion in March 2008. Image: Christopher Tipping
St Paul’s Church, London Road, Southampton 1890. Image: Southampton Local Studies and Maritime Library & Southampton Archives
St Paul’s Church, London Road, Southampton. Image: Southampton Local Studies and Maritime Library & Southampton Archives
St Paul’s Church, London Road, Southampton. Image: Southampton Local Studies and Maritime Library & Southampton Archives
Sexfoil & Lozenge shaped Terrazzo seats installed on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Graham Redman
Sexfoil & Lozenge shaped Terrazzo seats installed on London Road, Southampton 2008. Image: Graham Redman

Seen in a new light…a bronze dog & a surgeon’s leg

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs with assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

Above: Bespoke inlaid flooring with a Surgeon’s leg.

 

I have worked at Dorset County Hospital on two previous occasions, both memorable. My association with the Trust and its Arts in Hospital Team goes back to 1993, some 26 years! This recent visit to start a new project for the Radiotherapy Unit at the recently completed Robert White Centre, was quite poignant, because I made a concerted effort, whilst there to re-connect and revisit two commissions I had previously created for the Hospital, in 1993 and 2009 respectively. I have deliberately not looked back at the files for these projects, in fact I am not sure I still have the 1993 project on record. That was definitely pre-digital.

Interesting to see things again – unplanned and in the moment and experience them anew.

 

The Dog Courtyard at Dorset County Hospital 1993. Bronze Dog by Dame Elisabeth Frink. Courtyard Landscape by Christopher Tipping

 

The Dog Courtyard at Dorset County Hospital seen through rain spattered windows on a bad weather day. I couldn’t access the courtyard directly yesterday due to the weather. The bronze dog is by Dame Elisabeth Frink, who I was extremely privileged to meet at her home in Blandford Forum in 1992, when I was taken there by my commissioner Val Pitt-Rivers, the founder of Arts in Hospital and a great friend of Elisabeth’s. Elisabeth Frink died in 1993. The courtyard was designed and created around this beautiful sculpture and was loosely based upon a roman villa garden.

‘In 1987, the Vice Chairman of the hospital, Val Pitt-Rivers, started Arts in Hospital with the help of a few friends. Since her retirement in 1998 she has continued to support us as an active patron. Her first committee was responsible for some of our most iconic artworks such as the Red & Blue Crayons by Peter Logan and the Dog by Dame Elisabeth Frink, a founder patron of Arts in Hospital.​
After the opening of Phase 1 of the new Dorset County Hospital in 1987, the internal courtyards became the main focus of the arts project. The first to be completed was the Waterfall Courtyard by the sculptor Hamish Horsley. Soon after followed the courtyard to house Elisabeth Frink’s Dog, which was designed by artist Christopher Tipping, and then the Bird Garden designed by John Hubbard with stone fragments engraved by Richard Grasby’. Arts in Hospital

The Dog Courtyard at Dorset County Hospital 1993. Bronze Dog by Dame Elisabeth Frink. Courtyard Landscape by Christopher Tipping

I love to see the lichens growing everywhere…a sign of age…as well as the Box and Bamboo topiary, maintained as cubes as per the original design.

 

The Dog Courtyard at Dorset County Hospital 1993. Bronze Dog by Dame Elisabeth Frink. Courtyard Landscape by Christopher Tipping

 

The Dog Courtyard at Dorset County Hospital 1993. Bronze Dog by Dame Elisabeth Frink. Courtyard Landscape by Christopher Tipping

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs with assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

The Hospital Streets project was completed in 2009 & was commissioned by the then director of Arts in Hospital, Alexandra Coulter.

The project was focussed on colour and wayfinding over three floors of the hospital, with the inspiration coming from two days spent walking & exploring along the Jurassic Coast and another day buried deep in the archives of the Dorset County Museum fossil collections. We collaborated with Tarkett flooring and created bespoke motifs which were inlaid at key points along the Hospital Streets such as lift lobbies and stairs. The work is now almost 10 years old and still looks remarkably fresh considering the heavy traffic.

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted belemnites by the Chapel entrance. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted found objects. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs & trolleys. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs & trolleys. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & hospital beds. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & fossil sea urchin. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & assorted hospital legs. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs with fossil sea urchin & yellow truck. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

 

 

Hospital Streets Project at Dorset County Hospital completed 2009. Tarkett vinyl flooring with bespoke inlaid motifs & an obliging hospital porter. Image: Christopher Tipping 2019

18th June 2015 – Going Public – Bus Station Contextual

I recently posted a very long set of images which formed the basis for a research & contextual study I have produced for the Bus Station Project. I have now managed to sort out how to post a link here to the actual pdf document, which you can now view with much more clarity.

This pdf is only a part of the contextual research which has been done – but forms a good basis on which to reflect upon the influences and threads of research which have caught my attention. Much more work has been done since this was completed and I hope to post more images of draft and concept drawings and sketches very soon.

The first page of the pdf looks like this image below – so you will know you are on the right tracks!  Click here:

Christopher Tipping Bus Station Contextual

18-06-15 The lead page from the Merthyr Tydfil Bus Station Contextual Research document by Christopher Tipping - Project Lead Artist

18-06-15 The lead page from the Merthyr Tydfil Bus Station Contextual Research document by Christopher Tipping – Project Lead Artist

Central Chelmsford – York Stone steps in progress

Works are well underway by the Ashfield Group to manufacture and supply the artwork step details to the project. The double height steps in York Stone are being inset with a darker granite text detail set into the face of the riser, which is part of the art interpretation on site. These double height steps will also have a slatted timber top, which creates ad hoc seating within the main sequence of steps at the southern end of the site. The timber will also carry cnc routed text.

Individual water jet cut granite letters are inset into York Stone, which has had the word already cut by water jet as a negative space. Image by Ashfield Group
Individual water jet cut granite letters are inset into York Stone, which has had the word already cut by water jet as a negative space. Image by Ashfield Group

The letters are cut from granite tiles. Image by Ashfield Group
The letters are cut from granite tiles. Image by Ashfield Group

Waterjet Cutting the stone (4)
Image by Ashfield Group

Image by Ashfield Group
Image by Ashfield Group

Image by Ashfield Group
Image by Ashfield Group

Image by Ashfield Group
Image by Ashfield Group

Image by Ashfield Group
The finished step block with negative text space awaiting granite letters to be inset. Image by Ashfield Group

Finished ! Image by Ashfield Group
Finished ! Image by Ashfield Group