Urban Pioneers // Battersea

Today the Battersea urban pioneers did filming for our final event with filmmaker Sara Muzio.

We made our films using a variety of techniques such as by tracking an object or taking stills with a camera and stringing them together in order to create a continuous image. We paired up of filmed in groups. I created a film using still images about urbanisation in Battersea. I decided to film both nature and industry exclusively in Battersea power station.

On Tuesday 14 September, the Battersea Urban Pioneers will present their work to the public. If you would like to attend, please download the Battersea Urban Pioneers invite

It was two days of fun and work for us Urban Pioneers! On the 16^th we met the brilliant Tomas Klassnik at Batersea Power Station, where he introduced us to his idea of the perfect working and living environment, at first we all found the concept a bit hard to get out heads around but after we realized that even if the idea seemed unusual, nothing is impossible and would also have huge positive impacts on the environment! Shortly after the presentation we got busy designing different idea of how we would made Batersea Power Station an energy source where the public could visit as well. All the Urban Pioneers had brilliant ideas in addition we had a great time coming up with them!

Leading on from this, Tomas told us to pick one part on the map of Batersea and the Upper Lee valley that we would think is a good location to place our sustainable energy source inventions/ideas. We made each of the selected locations as eco- friendly s possible! I definitely liked this part of the day the most, because I was actually able to make 3D models of my ideas.

The variety of different inventions and concepts were amazing and Im sure that if the whole of London was as eco friendly as some of our ideas then carbon emissions would be reduces unbelievably!

On the 17^th we were introduced to architects David Pierce and Juliet Quintero who work at Dallas Pierce + Quintero architects.  From the moment they told us we were going to make our own mobile market stall I knew that the teams were going to have so much fun! Our brief was to use umbrellas and bicycles to come up with an original and functional market stall.

 To make the process easier we were split into two groups to come up with seperate ideas of how we would construct the umbrellas to form a shelter and how to stabilize the bicycles…. But I think there was no need to do any drawing!  The moment we got busy making, all our thoughts seemed to merge together!  Somehow the two separate groups managed to connect the umbrella and bicycles together perfectly.

The team was just fantastic and overall it was a day filled with lots of laughter and creativity.

Today we had the privilege to meet a guy call David Pierce and a woman called Juliet Quintero. they were here to tell us about their work and help us make our market stall for the final  day on the 14th September. This was more like a keep your hands busy as possible this was a GREAT day. Everyone was working together and laughing its was really nice getting to do something physically.

David and Juliet brought some umbrellas, 2 bikes and bamboo sticks, to help us to create our market stall. First of all she split us into groups and she told us to make a brainstorm on ‘functions of a market stall’ we came up with the basics of it; being able to display food, have shelter, have a salesman and easy to remover after when we have finished. We did some sketches on what we’d think would look nice.

After we had done that, as a group we explained to the other group what our intentions were and then they told us their idea. We couldn’t have 2 different market stalls could we? what else could we do ? answer was MERGE. So once we had the ideas we were split into little groups which had a different thing to do; Structure, Shelter and Table.

Mending. Cutting, Talking, Stopping, Working Out Things. We were AWAY. Design Mode !

Shelter made of  9 Umbrellas. Structure made of 10 Bamboo Sticks And 2 Bikes !

Cool Day this was and we are quite proud of our work. (:

Today we were with a guy called Tomas Klassnik, to design future Battersea. He came to speak to us about the power station and what we would like to happen to it, he showed us what type of work he did and there was a very un-usual one that stood out; which was a building on top of a church, seeming as church’s hold a lot of space he thought that if he was to put a building on top of another building you would be good use of space. We did 3 activities where we had to create our own version of the power station but it had a little twist to it the building had to have the element of Eco-friendliness.

This when everyone let their imagination go wild we used colouring pencils first on our initial drawings then we used a larger sheet of drawing  of the power station and we did a collage of our initial design. Each of us came up with very different ideas and then presented it afterwards to everyone else.

After lunch we had to pick a place around the Battersea borough and re-crate that place into a energy saving Eco-friendly place to go. We were given plain paper to design the place it also had to be in 3D to make it stand out and give more of a real feel to it. Oh, we had to explain what we were going to do, what it helps and contributes to.

Then we had some other architects come in and view our work and we also had to explain to them what we did. They gave us really good feedback, they liked our work. It was very nice to hear that.

P.s: Good News our food we planted is growing , Bad news the fox ate the Cucumbers ahaha…

Jackie

On Thursday 29^th July we met the brilliant Arthur Potts Dawson, and were introduced to his adventurous life, where he told us about his change from being a robotic chef to a more experimental chef in his own well known restaurant!

Our whole day was very hands on and exciting, we saw our own patch where we were able to grow vegetables of our choice, such as cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and different seeds. Half of the group went with Ruby to the Thrive project in Battersea Park to collect the seedlings that we were planning to grow. The other half of us were getting dirty filling the patch up with compost and water…I have to admit I had a lot of fun with the watering and get partly soaked with Jackie hahah. After completing the compost patch and drowning the veryyyyy dry grass underneath, we were ready to plant the seedlings into the ground.

To complete the day, Arthur told us about the origins of food and the importance of planting in a world where food is becoming less and less sustainable. I learnt that we need to be able to plant our own food so that we don’t spend money in supermarkets that are harming the environment dramatically. That is why Arthur Potts-Dawson has just opened The People’s Supermarket, a cooperative retailer aiming to sell the best food at the lowest price possible prices in Bloomsbury.

This was by far one of the best days so far!

On the 28th July, we had a morning session with Guy Pollock and Alison Moffett, who drew the Union Street Urban Orchard pictures on the A3 sized magazine, at the Battersea Power Station, looking at how different perspectives of photos from different locations can give off a unique effect with contributing elements, such as the time of day.

After we got acquainted we made our way up one of the power station’s four iconic chimneys, we drew various images from the different location on the perimeter of the chimney and plotted our skillful and creative minds onto our sketch books.

We later on made our way down the riverside where we made the most of our opportunities by depicting the scenery and unique features in our sketch books, that gives Battersea its historical and contemporary presence.

Finally, we made our last stop at home base by drawing a final image of the Battersea power station itself, receiving compliments from all over, as all of us made sure we summed up our day with this final masterpiece. Guy gave us an opportunity of his view on the world…through a teeny-tiny hole?! Yeah serious. He explained how his pin-hole camera works and what requirements are needed to get the best photos out of this historical piece of kit.

All of us got an opportunity to get some pictures taken of the power station, which allowed us to end the session on a positive by experiencing the architecture of the historic building.

Marcus

Today we met with a guy called Arthur, he is a chef he told us about his life with food and how the industrial revolution has changed how we get our food.. it was a eye opener because you wouldn’t expect to hear that much about food and how people these days are using and wasting a lot of energy for food. Not knowing how bad the outcome of this is going to be on the world itself  in years to come.. he came to help us with planting our food seeming as he does this for his restaurant.

Then the REAL stuff happened. PLANTING the vegetables. But a dilemma occurred the grass was to dry, so we had to create a bed for the plants to go, so we started off taking the layer of grass and and then wetting the soil.. Mohadeseh and I got the wheel barrow for Oliver and Junior to put the compost in, THEN we got our hands in and started dumping the compost in our ‘bed’, while Mohadeseh was watering. Marcus and Orlando went with Ruby to get the seedlings while we did all the dirty work ..

We used the whole bag. Great stuff, fitted perfectly. We had to wait for Ruby, Marcus and Orlando to get back. The dirty part was heading our way ..

Planting the food. Everyone got their hands dirty we had to ‘dig’ a hole with our hands and put the plant in there was a LOT of plants. The dirt in our nails, well thats another story ..

We had Chillies, Pepper, Tomatoes, Cucumber and loads more

I think that today was a really good because i like doing stuff like this and it was a great experience all thanks to Arthur .

Jackie