King's Cross, Urban Pioneers

On Saturday 16th January i felt a bit nervous at first, to find out who i was going to be working with, but as the day went along, the activities we did and the sites we went to see, the group was getting a long well and we were all interacting with eachother. Though it was pouring down with rain, it did not stop our enthusiasm, well not mine anyways. Walking was the hardest part, but it did not bother me much.

Our first visit was to an amazing Art Gallery, where it's original old structure of the building was still a main theme within the gallery, and so the modern features that were added were built around steel pillars that were situated in the middle of the room, and were visible as soon as you entered. This was a strong feature to the building and was not over powering, as the whole gallery was spaced out and painted white. After observing the paintings, we walked again, in the pouring rain, to the side of the canal, where we looked at the boats and appreciated the history of the canal. It was quite funny because it was frozen, so hardly anything was moving and the birds were still - we thought they were frozen too.

Walking around Chapel Market, i was able to veiw the normal life styles of others, and just absorbing the surroundings of the area, taking pictures of funny, random and strange things. After another long walk, i was refreshed by lunch, to have another long walk to Camley Road - lucky i wore my Wellies. There, i learnt the importance of green spaces around London and the history of Camley Road, especially its importance with the Canal and the effects of Coal on the trees. Being there was fun, because i got to see and know how the plants and trees were maintained in such a busy and polluted area. The technology that was used to help different species was very interesting, and also i had the opportunity to make a bird house myself with the help of Antony - who helped me to hammer properly after many failed attempts to knock a nail into the wood. Knowing the effort and planning into creating public green spaces and areas for communities, has made me think more about my own community and how i can help in keeping London green.

Day one of the urban pioneers project had a great start with rain and a frozen canal, but aside from that, it was overall a great day. Due to the fact that boat trip was cancelled, we decided to walk along the canal instead, from City Road Lock to Kings Cross. Along the way we visited the Victoria Miro Gallery, walked through Chapel Market and eventually arrived at the Guardian building for lunch. Of course we dicussed the buildings, their context, design, structure etc amongst ourselves and with Ruby, Tom Keeley and Juliet the architect (sorry about the vague-ness of the descriptions). Now personally I thought talking about buildings all day would have been too formal and too exhausting but the conversations turned out to be quite relaxed and engaging, which surprised me alot.

Tom and Juliet also shed light on studying architecture at university and university in general. Perhaps Benas and I went a bit overboard on probing Juliet extensivly on studying architecture, but we got excellent advice.

For me the second half of the day, visiting Camley Street Park in Kings Cross, was the highlight of the day. Since the focus on the day was looking at green spaces in the urban envirionment and the public realm, it seemed appropriate the we visited the site because it was the only natural reserve in a heavily urbanized space. It was refreshing and a pleasent surprise to see such a change from concrete and steel, especially since I live local. The atomsphere was friendly and welcoming, Oliver who toured us around the site and Phil the site manager hepled us alot to understand the site, the history and the surprising politics the site was involved in.

Overall quite an impressive day and not what I expected at all, I'm definately looking forward to the rest of the project.

Antony