Film Credit: Wilson Massie for Balfour Beatty Living Places and Southampton City Council
These were the brilliant guys on the ground who installed the Canal Shore works – Martin Miller & Jay Geary of Balfour Beatty. Image: Wilson Massie, Balfour Beatty Living Places
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 GroupThe letters are cut from granite tiles. Image by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupImage by Ashfield GroupThe finished step block with negative text space awaiting granite letters to be inset. Image by Ashfield GroupFinished ! Image by Ashfield Group
This is the Central Chelmsford development as seen from the southern edge of the site, looking north.Draft designs for granite inset text to York stone steps & cnc routed text to timber seating of ‘The Steps’ at the southern end of the site.
The Central Chelmsford development has been in progress on site since 2012. I was commissioned to join the team as project artist in January of this year.
You can hear more on the project via this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orYUpbnacis
The site has a number of key buildings which were once a part of of Anglia Ruskin University. 507 new homes as well as retail and offices will make up the new development. The project is delivering a new community in Chelmsford.
One of the most historic & resonant as well as the earliest buildings on the site is the Grade II listed Anne Knight building, 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, attending the World Anti Slavery Convention meeting held in London in 1840. Her views and correspondence on women’s rights led to her publishing what is considered to be the very first leaflet on women’s suffrage in 1847.
I have also responded to the landscape plans and architectural flow & rhythm of the site as well exploring how the various elements & spaces of the site are navigated and used by pedestrians. As the hub of a new community, the communal areas of the development are important places for people to take ownership of.
As well as collaborating with the project team I am also working and collaborating with several manufacturers and specialist contractors such as Hardscape, Ashfield Ltd & City Squared on elements of paving, seating and steps throughout the site, where interventions will be made via cnc routed text into timber and water jet cut and sandblasted granite.
I am working with City Squared in Leeds to develop the bespoke timber seating as well as to perfect the cnc routed text applied to the the timber. I have most recently been in discussions with a typographer to ensure that all the text is delivered with clarity and distinction.Draft visual for proposals to sandblast detail onto a large granite platform seat.An aerial view of the site which sits adjacent to the railway line – outlined here in red.Vertically set, black brick curving facade of The Gate which forms the key elevation & gateway on siteDetail: Plan drawings & draft scope for timber seating and granite detailing within The PlaceThere are a number of brick built tree planters within The Place. Several of them have timber seating detailed as part of the artwork scheme. This visual for a large timber platform seat with longitudinal timbers is still in development. It will also have text added via cnc routing. Visual by City Squared.Draft: Granite text to York Stone double step risers with timber seatEarly draft visual – an elevation drawing of The Steps, with inset granite text to York Stone risers and digital manifestation to the glazed curtain wall.
On Tuesday 29th April I travelled up to Hipperholme, Halifax to meet with Dave Lowe of Hardscape who is delivering a major feature of the Station Quarter North Project. – ‘Canal Shore’ is a 174m long linear artwork in black basalt which forms the kerb and pavement edge along Blechynden Terrace. The work is inset with text in contrasting light grey granite.
Hardscape are working with their sub contractor, Scribble Stone who specialise in water jet cutting.
This work is an element of a much larger public realm project around Central Station which I am working on in collaboration with Balfour Beatty Living Places, CH2M Hill, Southampton City Council and Lighting Consultants Michael Grubb Studio. This project is in turn part of a wider a transport interchange programme reviewing pedestrian and traffic flow around the Station principally on an East to West axis.
