King's Cross, Urban Pioneers

Design with Anthony at Public Works.

At The Camden Art Centre, Anthony and I meet Andreas from Public Works, an art, design, and architectural practice. We were shown around their latest exhibition, where they used a milk float to capture 'community spirit'. The main purpose of this was to challenge the conventions of regeneration projects, by encouraging the community to self-regenerate their area, if that makes sense. I thought the idea was great! They had spent time talking and working with people from the community, creating posters that inspire and call upon the community to help themselves. They were then going to fly post these posters around the area. Love it!

That was just one example and there are may more of how Public works are able to challenge people's conventions and create new outlooks on things, such as a Museum that they were commissioned to build. Instead of a building that would house the history of the area, they use this iconic milk float again. They created a portable time capsule/ display hub. They even produced 2D paper frames that people could used to display their historical possesions with throughout the town. I think this was such an inventive idea, but I’m not sure if my descriptions are doing it any justice. By taking this approach, they were able to create something more than a museum; it was more personal because the town was able to take an active role in the development of the museum. Then came our turn to put all of out experience to the test…the assignment, set by Andreas, was to come up with a event within King Cross, for the public. Antony agrees, I was the competitive one, and so this seemingly friendly assignment, turned into a full on competition.

In the end, Antony came up with a community food market, which would replace the old Charlton Market, beyond it former glory. As this one pulls on all of the community to take an involvements, food that was grow and produced locally and cooking session, where people are able to teach the next generation to cook, whilst creating a closer sense of unity. His slogan was 'Culture through cooking'. In all honest I thought this was a winner.

My idea (in as little detail as possible) was to create an annual, one week event were college graduates were able to exhibit there works on the street corners of Kings Cross. Which would build the exhibitors confidence and could result in design based jobs for them, which as a result, could lead to an alternative future to university. Whilst being be a great tourist attraction for the area. This street exhibition week would not just be art based, it would take on a festival vibe, as during the night there would be live music, food, students, and dancing. In the end, there was no real winner as Andres chose my idea and Ruby chose Ant's, soo Diplomatic! In all fairness, both ideas were great and it was a fantastic day!

Right, Friday 12th event planning at Jefferson Communications and Saturday 13th March with andreas (public works) doing something completely different. Well, event planning at Jefferson Communication was interesting, it was a good, sit down, cuppa tea chat with Ian, Martha and David who we talked with and helped us to plan the event on the 30th.

It crossed none of our minds to ask about the name Jeffersons, and it was inspired from Thomas Jefferson who was the author of the Declaration of Indepentence, thats all we knew anyway. Clearly the name had significance and is important to the company. Ian was the man in the middle, "Whai is your position in the company Ian?" asked Naomi I think, and David answered "Well, Ian is the co-founder, but made your cups of tea" And i thought that summed up Jeffersons pretty well, it's an inimate practice so it felt kinda relaxed but they handle some serious cases. At the beginning, yes it was like what do do for the final event? Any tips for it? Then it gradually progressed more into a chat and talking more about architecture, after all, they are placed near Liverpoll street with a view of the Gherkin from their window. Anyway, they helped us out tremendously and gave us lot ideas that we never thought of. A pleasent afternoon i thought. Those of you who are attending the final event are in for a treat.

And today at the Camden Arts Centre was fun. We met Andreas from Public works, who do amazing events and interventions in the public realm. The things he can do with a milk float are amazing. He's a cool guy but he challenged quite a bit. Well 'us' is to say Holly and I because of the horrid travel situation and all that unfortunate stuff. And our loose brief was to do for the pubic something in the public realm, not art or sculpture-based but an event, say a festival or a walk.

Holly and I were asked to develop them seperately, so the competition was on, Holly was more competive than me so I was a bit reluctant. But nevertheless we created some good stuff. I planned a cooking food market where people from all over can cook and eat. It would strech the whole of Charlton Market and hopefully bring back the spirit that the market bought there before. Holly's idea was to have public area where students after graduating from A levels and possibly before had the chance to exhibit teir work, the idea was to generate interest from prospective employers and universities. Look out for her blog for more on that idea. Andreas liked the orginality in Holly's, and so did i, and chose it to be the winner, Ruby chose me out of fairness and that was always going to be the result.

All in all, it was a good, fun, exhusting, interesting couple of days  and looking forward to few days that we have.

Antony

On Saturday 13 March, The Urban Pioneers met Andreas Lang from Public Works, who talked to them about how the practice engages communities in public realm projects. The Urban Pioneers then had to design a structure to facilitate a temporary event.

That was a busy week (some time ago, my blog is late..)We brought down mountains, fought wars and slated dragons. Oh yeah, we did get some King’s X things done too. We started off the week by a failed trip to Lille. Not a bad start in my opinion. On Wednesday we had much more success. We met people behind a vey interesting project, which captures people’s voices around King’s Cross. This way, the memoies and experiences will never be lost. Unless ‘Windows’ crash and all data is lost. Stupid Microsoft. Anyway, we got a chance to interview and record some vey interesting people ourselves and that was great. Also, it was good to have someone to have on board with us who knows the whole area and is an inspiring figure himself - Alan Dein. His personal project of interviewing random people in phone booths has actually inspired me a lot and I think that poject was absolutely epic.

The next day we went to a large corporation BDP. They gave us a tour around their offices and ended the day by talking and showing how CAD works in reality. What struck me the most was that “it doesn’t matter what program you use and how you get to the final thing, the final thing is what matters”. This means there’s no need to show off with fancy programs if you can get you thing done right easily on SketchUp or something “amateur” as that. After that, they gave us a USB with their propaganda, i mean logo, and kicked us out.  Straight after, we had a huge contrast. We met Adam Khan who designed a youth centre by himself alone, which contrasts heavily with BDP work as they employ a lot of people working towards the same project.

And for the finale on Friday, we went to Squire and partner where we got a task to do. Without visiting the site itself, only by looking at the pictures, we had to design a tram shed into something awesome. And we did, a nightclub for the masses! The model wasn’t so awesome, it was bit embarrassing showing it off to all the big people, because of how bad it was. I mean, the roof didn’t hold itself on properly. Epic Fail. However, we did get the closest thing done, because a bar/club was actually built in that place. So Epic Win for us. It was interesting to see even the chairman coming down to see what we had to present, but I think we got a bit too carried away with the arguing. Some people did anyways. All good though, more bloggingness to come later. Peace. 

Who is this film lady who calls herself Harriet Fleuriot? Actually a pretty cool film maker who tried to teach us how to make a short film in just about an hour, a herculean task but she pulled it off rather nicely I thought. Nevertheless the task for us was to create and direct a short film about King's X, easy, and we had the reasonable freedom to do whatever we wanted, and watching Harriet's videos, that was no problem. For me, as a complete noob to the art of film making, it was a tricky task, creating the logo was a breeze but this task was something different. In the end, after many times of revising the idea, I chose used the King's cross voices and put some film on top to that to make my short video. A humble and simple video I think, which is what I wanted so I'm pleased with it. Working with Benas was heplful because he had alot more knowledge about film making than me so I trusted him with the shots etc. And I'm not sure about the other videos that the others in the group are making, I suppose I'll just have to leave that one a surprise. I guess the reason for that perhaps was the fact that planning, location finding and filming took alot out of us and we spent little time together as group except in the begginning where Harriet was showing off. Plus I had to leave early so I don't know much about the films. So I'll be as surpirsed as the guests on the final night when they screen the films. But on the whole it an enjoyable day, tiring but looking to forward to how all the footage is put together.

Antony

This time, we had a about a week to recover from that half term week of activities, thats how I saw it anyways. This time, we did some designs for the invitations and I think the banner for the website which should hopefully be done soon. Anyway, we basically got the design brief, which was quite loose, basically do anything you want, and we just started from there.

Sarah, the project manager at the YCN, gave us lot a quick run down ofwhat YCN does and trying to inspire us at the same time. And Alex, an intern there, helped us out with our ideas, helped us out with the software and all that stuff. I might have under-played his role a bit as he helped out alot. And Nick the director popped in and out a couple of times. It was kind of refreshing to see people who are really laid-back and informal about their job, since we've met architects and designers, there's professional and perhaps formal feeling that I get. But today was like laid-back and cool atomsphere.

So in the end, we decided on a couple of different outcomes, it's hard to desrcibe in words but I'll try. My idea was a typical london underground logo but played around a little bit. Benas's one was a grid-like, train tracks design. Naomi's idea was to use the metaphor of a camera in a cool sort of way but that's as much as I know. And Holly did a 'tag' kind of design with Kings with train tracks etc. Ufortunately Michael and Kofi couldn't show up so I suppose they'll have to like what we've got. All in all, it was a fun excerise and it was cool, relaxed way to end a Friday afternoon. For me anyways. 

Oh, and I have to thank Sarah for the magazine and the other stuff, it was interesting to look at and still reading it.

Antony 

Well, now we come the end of the half term week and what I busy it has been so far. The past few days have been very engaging and tiring so I was looking forwad to seeing what Ruby had in store for us lot next. In my opinion, the things that we had been doing were very diverse like the sound trail and the visit to Camley Street park, which I never thought could relate to architecture. 

On thursday, we had a tour of the BDP offices by Lee Wyles and Julie Hawkins and gave us an introduction on the work that goes on there and how they use CAD for all sorts of things like design to simulation, and from initial designs to mapping out the final buidling (piping, electricals) etc. The building itself is quite a mission to get to, Holly and Naomi got lost but I can't blame them. The building was in an extraordinary location though, around slick and modern buildings and the bridge that connects the path to BDP's building is a cool feature. But think the fact that we got to watch architects and designers at work and in their offices was quite refreshing and gave us a great insight into the business we could be stepping into. Since there was no walls in the offices, we could see almost everything that the people who worked there were doing, and we got a very open and free feeling when we were toured around. And the models and plans of buildings and landscapes were impressive too.

After the tour, we were given a room where we could do some CADs of our own. Lee gave us quite a comprehensive talk about the ins and outs of the various uses of CAD and gave us a quick demo on the program sketch up. For me the program was tricky at first, but I got the hang of it after a while and got hooked, and I have been using it ever since. Afterwards, we had lunch with Adam Khan who designed the Youth Centre in King's Cross, around the Somers Town area just off Euston road. I think the most intriguing thing about the day was to exprience a major interdisciplinary pratice like BDP in the morning and then talk to Adam Khan who did it himself in setting up his own pratice. The youth centre itself is very interesting and one could see that Adam had put alot of time into it. The roof is made of copper, whch was the most striking feature of the buidling and the light reflected off that roof made it all the more spectactular. But the best thing of the building for me was the practicality of it. The interior of it could be chopped and changed, used for all kinds of purposes, and there is alot of storage. So al in all, the day was great us prospective architecture student to get insight on the business and different ways to approach it. 

And finally, Friday with Squire and partners. This is up there with one of the best days so far and possibly the best day so far. We got to redesign the tram shed in Kings Cross. But of course it wasn't for real but the competition made it worth while. But before that we got a tour of the office by Will and Clare, the offices were much like BDP's and it was great to step and work in that type of environment again. And the models were stunning and in abundence. We got seperated into two teams, one consisting of Namoi, Benas and Michael, and lead by Will. And the other made up of Holly, Kofi and I that was lead by Clare.

Kofi was definately the protagonist of our group and it was fun to watch arguements between him and Holly. The major one was about astro turf vs real grass, I wasn't paying attention much becuase I was on model making duty and just sat back and watched the arguement. I'm sure they'll shed light on the arguement. We ended up doing a day nursey/play centre by the day and in the night it would transform into a cinema showing independent/arthouse movies, it was a well-rounded idea and Clare was a big help in helping us with the needs of the Kings X area. The other group did an orginal night club/bar type of arrangement which they defended quite well I thought. The competition at that point got to the stage where we were trying to throw the other team off during the presentation. Surprisingly Michael Squire listened in on our presentations and he was impressed with what we did. Of course he was reluctant to pick a winner and was a wise choice in my opinion. But as I am currently going through the material that we produced that day, it is hard to pick a winner. Then afterwards, I spent the end of the day in the tram shed which was converted into a cafe/resturant/bar by Squire and Partners. It was a relaxing way to end a busy day and was a great experince for us to get to work with an existing building and going through sthe processes. We got quite passionate about the ideas at the end of the day. Also, we meet some people (very sorry about forgetting your names) from the hertiage lottery fund who visited in the afternoon, it was great to see their perspective on it as they represented the company who funded the project.

Yeah so you are now up to date with the project so far and looking forward to the upcoming days and things Ruby has planned.

Antony

On this day, we met a Librarian called Richard, who stored recorded voices of people, telling their encounters within the King's Cross area in Holborn Library. People telling their stories and talking about the 1940's onwards. Some were funny and had songs in them but others were quite tragic and sad, drawing on personal experiences within the area, expressing what they had to do to 'get by' and their childhoods. From all these recordings i was able to hear the history and even feel like i was in the same room as them, listening. Looking at their wide range of recordings, and the time and care spent in collecting them was fascinating - its sad that Richard will be leaving.

Our task was to re-in act what Richard had spent years doing, and interview people around the spaces we would be going to and talk to them, letting them tell us about their experiences. After this, we met an oral historian, Alan Dein, a broadcaster, who first took us to Coram's fields, which was a playground for children aged 12 or 14 and below and no parent could enter unless they had a child with them, this was strange to me, but was a good idea because children were kept safe and also could interact with children their own ages, just having fun! *=]... "Oh to be young again..."* It was kind of sad, just standing at the gates, peering in, wishing time could go back *hehehehe*. Having Antony amongst us, who also went to the playground as a kid, being a local in the area, we thought we should interview him and let him tell us about his childhood.

Listening to him reminiscing about the area and how much he enjoyed 'playtime', there was a correlation to what he said and what others, that were in the 60's, had said. After this, we went to 'The Boot' which was a pub, just off of Cromer Street, and walking into the place, you could definately see the history of it, the motif of boot ornaments that filled the shelves and the people seemed so nice, especially the Irish bartender who told us stories, at first being reluctant to be personal, but then feeling comfertable enough she explored some areas of her life in the area of King's Cross/Holborn - seeing a lot of things and meeting a variety of people, i particularly liked the Ghost story she told *=]... Did i get scared...? Nar, you must be joking! =P*.

Walking around King's Cross with a massive microphone and a tape recorder, was just too tempting not to mess around with - i think i may have annoyed the others *Ooops..* My favourite part of the day was talking to random people *Like i don't do that already =P* in King's Cross station, asking them what they thought about it, the area and where they were going, especially the little kid who did not seem to care much, but was really sweet. The couples, the person who was 'jamming' waiting for a Cab and listening to Prince, the people who just come to London for business, the person who could not speak much english, the people who just wanted a day out, people from France, Berlin all over were interviewed and i liked listening to what they had to say, the hardest part was asking the questions... Working with Alan Dein was great, he taught us a lot and also talked to us about other projects he has pioneered and the results he got from them, and how he uses that to progress, i thought was really interesting. I'd definitely do it again.

The Urban Pioneers completed their first design challenge on 19 February, when they visited Squire and Partners and were given a design brief for a former tram shed in Kings Cross. In two groups, they redesigned the building and presented their work to Michael Squire, and finally visited the building to see what the practice had done with it...