This short creative contract to research and develop concept-led proposals for design interpretation and public art for Winchester Station Approaches has now completed.
Winchester Station and approaches 2019. Image: Christopher Tipping
This work was intended to inform discussion, dialogue and consultation with regard to the final form and feel for the public realm around Winchester Station. This form of placemaking based upon creative site analysis and creative research , which hopefully results in an original interpretation for the site, is essential to create a space fully responsive to its local environment and client & user aspirations.
Draft concept study for an interpretive public art & public realm to Winchester Station & Station Approaches. Image: Christopher Tipping Artwork superimposed onto LDS plan. Draft concept study for an interpretive public art & public realm to Winchester Station & Station Approaches. Image: Christopher Tipping Study with Key to concept & research led creative proposals for interpretation and public art with which to influence the design process for public realm at Winchester Station. Image: Christopher Tipping
Above: This draft study detail of the key to materials, finishes and 3D objects, is a concept only proposal and not intended as a final design. Its description of materials, forms and finishes is subject to further discussion and comment. with a future project team.
Draft concept study for an interpretive public art & public realm to Winchester Station & Station Approaches. Image: Christopher Tipping Draft concept study for an interpretive public art & public realm to Winchester Station & Station Approaches. Image: Christopher Tipping Concept & creative interpretation studies for form and shape of seating, public art & interpretation for Winchester Station & Approaches. Image & Artwork by Christopher Tipping
A short post on patterns of paving, used externally in the City streets. These images are a simple & straightforward record of paving and materials used in highway engineering and the public realm in Winchester. What I am interested in is the variation and the happenstance, which occurs between pattern, materials and textures. The ordinary and mundane, boring ?…no ! Some richness and patterns emerge, often as a result of repair & regeneration. Interesting to note changes at thresholds and edges. Old and new side by side. They are perhaps not the most exciting of images – but for those of you who look down to see & care about what you are walking on – you too may also see something that inspires you, as I have been inspired.
Winchester Station. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingWinchester Station. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingWinchester Station. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingWinchester Station. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingWinchester Station Approach project. Station Hill. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Outside Winchester Museum. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. High Street. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in the streets of Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave LoweWinchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave Lowe
…and finally – all roads lead to the Cathedral.
Winchester Station Approach project. Paving patterns and materials used in Winchester. Images: Christopher Tipping & Dave Lowe
The image above is a detail of the beautifully carved ebony black polished stone 12th Century font, with its depiction of the miracles of St Nicholas. It is without doubt one of the Cathedral’s greatest treasures. It was brought from Tournai, in modern day Belgium. It has been in use ever since. It is astonishingly fresh and wonderful.
The building materials of Winchester. Image: Christopher Tipping
It isn’t too hard to find odd and quirky combinations of both mundane & exotic materials and examples of spectacular & naive decorative arts and crafts side by side in Winchester, especially in the Cathedral. Almost one thousand years of continual occupation of this religious site bears witness to an unbroken architectural legacy, one that is brimful of odd juxtapositions, exotic materials, renewed or replaced fabric, scratched graffiti, vandalism and destruction. Like walking through a time-warp. Robust Norman Romanesque Architecture to Perpendicular Gothic in one step. Swedish Marble to Purbeck Stone in another. Extant 13th Century inlaid ceramic floor tiles to 1960’s replicas. Striking thresholds crossed mixing time and material, yet the experience is not jarring or disjointed. Time itself has softened these transitions and blurred the edges.
I am continually cherry picking from the world around me, plucking at things, tucking things away for later – like a squirrel, gathering nuts for winter or in the manner of a herbivore, continually grazing, & chewing the cud. I am gathering visual information – an extraordinary cabinet of curiosity in my mind. Certain things catch my attention, whilst others pass me by. This eclectic meander is not a considered or deliberate creative manoeuvre. It is innate. It is my pattern of speech, it is my handwriting. It simply is.
A mash-up of the decorative building materials of Winchester & my own patterns. Image: Christopher Tipping
SANDSTONE – FLINT – LIMESTONE – EBONY BLACK TOURNAI MARBLE – HAND MADE BRICK – OAK TIMBERS – INLAID CERAMIC TILES – MONOLITHIC GRANITE – CAST IRON – GUN METAL – CARVED OAK – STAINED GLASS – WINDOW TRACERY – LEAD
The building materials & memorials of Winchester Cathedral. Image: Christopher TippingAn abstract mash-up of the decorative building materials & styles of Winchester mixed with my own ‘Winchester inspired’ patterns. Image: Christopher TippingThe building materials & memorials of Winchester Cathedral. Image: Christopher TippingThe building materials of Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingThe building materials of Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingAbstract drawings based on knapped flints, one of the building materials of Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingAbstract drawings based on knapped flints, one of the building materials of Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingA mash-up of the decorative building materials of Winchester & my own patterns. Image: Christopher TippingThe building materials of Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingThe building materials of Winchester. Image: Christopher TippingAn abstract mash-up of the decorative building materials & styles of Winchester mixed with my own ‘Winchester inspired’ patterns. Image: Christopher TippingA mash-up of the decorative building materials of Winchester & my own patterns. Image: Christopher Tipping
