The project has been going great so far. In the first session we met some very professional people including Pandas-loving-amazingly-awesome people [at Camley Street Natural Park]. Each one of us can learn something from them. Their determination and passion to take their idea forwards is inspiring and breathtaking at the same time. Shame we didn’t get to cook some pizzas in their nice stove. The People’s of “King’s Cross Urban Pioneers” minds remained focused even when everyone was getting soaked in typical lovely British weather which kept us all going, and guess what, it was raining the next two sessions as well.
Our second session involved meeting the people behind St. Pancras station. The super-charged brains were Alastair Lansley (the architect) and Arup's Ian Gardner (the engineer). Alastair generously dedicated few hours of his time to enlighten us on the processes of building one of the world’s most extraordinary stations (yes, we will buy your book Alastair – promise). Alastair made an interesting comment after telling about working with Sir Norman Foster: “I became so Fostered, I nearly got adopted”. He also quotes further one of the greatest contemporary architects: “I don’t want reflections or shadows”. Alistair admitted that most of modern civil sector buildings are based on this principal. St. Pancras was no exception. It’s a shame Gardner had only small amount of time available for us, although what he said in that short space of time settled in each one of us for countless years to come...or at least until Uni. Again, both of these men showed inspiring enthusiasm and professionalism. I suppose that is what’s going to have to keep us going in the studies ahead?
A crowd of tired early-morning faces greeted everyone in St. Pancras. Just on time to catch the Eurostar, oh wait, where’s Kofi? 1 hour 6 minutes, 2 assaults through customs and 1 cup of coffee later Kofi did manage to join us in the queue to board the train. But then, a great tragedy. Collision between two trains in Belgium on the Brussels branch led to all Eurostar to Brussels being cancelled. 16,250 times of begging Ruby to go to Paris later, we were forced to postpone the trip to another date. We did manage to meet and have a very interesting and rather friendly talk with Tom Dyckhoff, but more on that when we actually get to Lille next month.