Urban Pioneers // Upper lee valley

For the penultimate workshop on Saturday 18 September, the Pioneers will be working with architects and designers Studio Superniche to build boats and sail down the River Lee. After looking at the built environment from a boat in Rotterdam, what will the Pioneers see from their own boats in the Lee Valley?

Check the blog for more watery updates.

It did not matter that Athena woke me at 3:15 or the fact that I only had 2 hours sleep, or that we arrived at St. Pancras before 5am. I was just glad that we were going to Rotterdam (and that Starbucks was open). Thankfully, no one missed the Eurostar and the train wasn’t delayed so thus began our journey to Holland! I like the idea of travelling by train, its was a longer journey, but it’s less polluting than air travel and it provided a long rest period, even if I did forget to bring my ipod =(
The Eurostar took us to Brussels and from there we took another train that went through the other cities to Rotterdam. Looking out of the window, Athena and I noticed how different the houses were from England and how each house varied from one another. Arriving in Rotterdam, Mariska was there to meet us with a big warm smile, and not long after we were all on red bikes. Our first stop was the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) where we were greeted by the tour guides/Architects and Silvia, a very enthusiastic woman that wanted to replicate this program in Holland =). We then spent most of the day touring Rotterdam on a boat, learning about the history and culture of the city. We visited The Pavilion, a floating Museum that resembles the Eden Project. Although, the structure of the building was fascinating; it made me feel quite sick, because you could feel the rocking of the water.

That night the Architects from the NAI took us to this amazing Moroccan/Turkish restaurant with intricate hanging lanterns and the biggest bounty of food I have ever seen! The next day we rode to Maccreanor Lavington Architecture Practice, where we heard a presentation from Kevin, a very inspirational Architect that could verbally destroy your favourite building and world famous landmarks in 10 seconds flat! But it was interesting!! And I can clearly say I’ll never look at the Sydney Opera House in the same light again. Other thing to mention is The Kube, which supposedly is a youth hostel, but it would rival many 3-star hotels I’ve seen. The building (as you may have guessed from the name and pictures) are formed from a series of cubes. Inside the hotel rooms were quirky-shaped walls that poked out and sunk in at unusual angles. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone travelling to Rotterdam.

Here are a few photos and artwork I did based on the Architecture of Rotterdam =)

Hotel New York Clock Tower

An early start (5:30!) meant we had the whole of wednesday to enjoy and explore Rotterdam…

As soon as we arrived we went from the station to hire bikes, and were soon on our way cycling to the NAI. Cycling provided a great opportunity to inspect the city’s architecture . However maybe the city was a bit too interesting to be viewed by bike, as I couldn’t help myself from compromising some basic road safety rules (e.g. looking at the road) meaning I did encounter some minor collisions!

Fortunately Mariska had organised a boat tour – so we could all enjoy viewing the city’s architecture safe from oncoming vehicles and the days rain. I found it  interesting hearing how the city’s architecture has been moulded by its history.

We then visited a floating pavilion in which was a display of possible solutions to flooding.  One idea was to create flood planes which could also (temporarily) serve some sort of function. Another suggestion was floating houses.

After a lovely evening meal, a good nights sleep and breakfast we set off to the offices of the architecture firm Maccreanor Lavington to talk to Kevin about the work the firm does in Britain and the Netherlands. What I was most struck by was the consideration given to the community (will this design exclude people, would demolishing a certain building harm the community, how can residents of an area be more involved in the designing of an area?). We then cycled to the NAI where we categorised photos taken from the day before. Next we looked at images of different waterfronts, an exercises that gave us an opportunity to consider what different components are successful.

Then it was time to go – a changeover in Brussels and back to King’s Cross.

Thanks to everyone who made this great trip possible!

Last week we were lucky enough to go on a quick trip to Rotterdam and it was fantastic! When we arrived we realised that the rain which had been pouring in London the day before had followed us, but this didn’t slow us down. When we arrived at Rotterdam Centraal Mariska took us to a place to pick up our bikes. The bikes were really nice, but my shortness didn’t really agree with them- I fell off/ stumbled quite alot. Even so, I loved cycling around the city and thought it was a great way to soak in the sights and sounds around us.

We went straight to the NAI after picking up the bikes, where we were introduced to the people we would be working with on the program. Everybody was really nice and welcoming. I enjoyed talking to the architecture students about where they had studied and where they would like to go in the future.

The area where we did our workshop at the NAI

After putting on our very attractive, fitted rain ponchos we set off to explore the city properly. From the Leuvenhaven harbour we went on a boat trip over the river Maas with a company called Archiguides. Hearing about the cities history was really interesting and I found it odd but quite funny when the guide described the bombings on Rotterdam during WW2 as being a ‘pleasant surprise’ for the cities architects- it enabled them to build lots of innovative and modern buildings.

The rain didn't dampen our spirits (haha it had to be done)

Just as the sun came out we visited the floating pavilion in the Rjinhaven harbour. Small models in the pavilion demonstrated the different solutions for flooding in rotterdam. Designers have reserved specific areas in the city which can flood safely and floating houses can also prevent peoples property being damaged. After looking around the Pavilion it was time for a big family type photo on the stairs outside. I felt a bit sorry for the guide who had to juggle about 5 cameras when taking the group photo.

Before people took their places in the Rotterdam family photo

After chilling out for a little bit at the weird and wonderful hostel (made up of yellow, tilted cube houses) we went to dinner with everyone from the NAI at a restaurant called Bazar. The food was so good that I’m in danger of talking about turkish bread, chicken kebabs and falafel rather than concentrating on buildings and architecture, so i’ll have to stop myself. But yeah dinner was really nice!

I'll make it a small pic- don't want to seem too crazy about the food

The next day we went to the offices of the architecture firm Maccreanor Lavington and talked to Kevin about the work the firm does in Britain and the Netherlands. We talked about loads of great ideas to incoorporate into both the workshop back at the NAI and our final presentation in October. The workshop in the afternoon was great fun. We split into groups and had to arrange the photos we had taken the previous day into different catagories. My group looked at detail,skin, angles and compostion and contrast. After this we fed back to the other groups and discussed where we thought each picture should be put on the “Seriously uncool, uncool, cool and sub-zero” wall which the NAI had prepared. After lunch (where we were all amazed by the presence of lime flavoured milk on the table) we started to look at other photos showing different ways people, buildings and nature can interact with water. We discussed everything from small norwegian fishing villages to people bathing in the Ganges river to the Guggenheim building in Bilbao. Soon we were all sticking pictures all over the wall and trying to justify why certain photos belonged in certain places. The exercise really opened my eyes to the endless opportunities architects have to create, change and shape an area.

Holly lovin' up the sub-zero section

The whole trip was great and made me seriously consider taking on architecture after my art foundation.

Thanks to everybody that made the trip possible!

Ellie

To be or not to be, that is the question. The answer is ‘to be’, we had a great time! We left early Thursday morning from London with the lovely Tom and Ruby to set out on an amazing architectural adventure to the wonderful city of Rotterdam. We have been doing lot of work in the Upper Lee Valley, so it was good to explore and contrast how the space and area is used by the local people and how they interact with objects and buildings in their surroundings.

We began the day with Mariska, a very intellectual and interesting architect, who now works for the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI). We firstly rented out our awesome bikes to navigate around the city.

As we began to cycle to the NAI I started to learn how much more friendly the roads are to pedestrians and cyclists compared to London.  I instantly took a liking to this. We arrived at the NAI where we met the rest of the group who were all amazing and polite people. We all briefly introduced ourselves to the group so everyone got to know each other and got a better understanding of the people we were working with.

We Urban Pioneers were then split into three groups; my good friend Andreas and I were fortunate to acquire a really cool team leader called Laura. This is where our main investigation architecture began.

Our task in groups was to capture pictures in the city of Rotterdam for an activity the next day. All the groups managed to cover a lot of ground on the bikesand the friendly roads and we made our way to the harbour. From the harbour we were given a tour through the water on a nice sized boat where we saw the area in a new light and were informed about the buildings, spaces and history if the different areas of Rotterdam, which was a highlight of the day for me personally.

For the second day we were involved in a discussion at the Maccreanor Lavington architect office by Kevin Logan. He talked about his office’s future plans for developmetn in the Lee Valley and talking about some of their previous works and opinions on different subjects of architecture. We then arrived back at the NAI where our images we took the previous day were. We arranged them into different categories which we then discussed and presented to the other groups. The next activity was a surprising twist where we had to stick up our photos on the wall in to four different groups – seriously uncool, uncool, cool, and sub-zero. After each group had stuck their pictures up huge debate broke out between the groups as to if the pictures were in the correct positions because of the different perspectives and opinions.

After things cooled down we had lunch and got back down to business. Each Pioneer was then given a photo from existing places in the world and from abstract landscapes. We all then voted as to where these should go alongside our photos and how they compare.

At the end of the day we all were very pleased about the places we visited and the amazing people we worked with. I am now looking forward to the remaining workshops and the presentation evening where we can all get to show off all of our work to everyone. I would just like to say a thank you once more to all f the people involved in the trip to Rotterdam. You guys have done an amazing job!

Thanks very much,

Michael

Me and Emre arrived to St Pancras station together. Everybody linked up then to the check in and boarded the Eurostar to Brussels, “Brixton”. We took another train From Brussels to Netherlands.  Finaly we arrived to Rotterdam Central station and we were greeted by Mariska From the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI). We then went to get our bikes and had our way to NAI centre  where we welcome by other architects and Annette.  We then putted our belongings into the lockers and left the NAI to get some lunch then off to a boat tour over the river Maas. The tour was guided by “Archiguides”, had a little history of the city as we were going on. We then got off next to the “Holland Amerika Lijn” and splited into groups to take pictures. Later on, we went to visit the “Floating Pavilion” in the Rijnhaven. After the visit, we then went back to the NAI centre to get our stuff to go to the ‘Stayokay’ Hostel, (time to refreshhh) and then off to eat at the BAZAR Restaurant. The dinner was delicious, we had a chat, had lots of fun and  enjoyed ourselves after a tiring day.

27 August 2010

Woke up around 7:20am and got ready to eat breakfast. Me, Andreas, Emre and Michael were the first ones to go down and eat. The breakfast was lovely. After the breakfast, we then left the hostel with our bags to get our bikes. Mariska was waitng us in front of the hostel when we went down to the bikes. We all then went to the architecture firm where we looked up the Upper Lee Valley and the future plans. Also we had  discussed it as well.  We then went to the NAI centre for the workshop by bikes with Maccreanor Lavington joined us.  We looked through the pictures we took in our groups and catagorised them into different groups which we named them. Time for the lunchtime. After lunch, each group had to talk about some of their pictures.  We then rated our picutures in, “Seriously un cool, Un cool, Cool and Sub-Zero” and the workshop went on. After it was time to finish, we said our good-byes to the NAI and went back to bike hire shop to hand in the bikes and from there to Rotterdam Central station to Brussels. We had two hour wait before we got on the Eurostar to St Pancras. Me, Emre Andreas and Michael Explored the station, went outside, also we ate. We then meet at the meeting point and went through the check in to go on the Eurostar. On our way back to London, I and Andreas and Michael wrote what we did for the blog.  We then arrived to London St Pancras station and wrote a little mesage to Annette and Mariska to thanks them then road to our homes.

The trip was FANTASTIC, it was SUPER-FUN.

Here are a few pictures from the Rotterdam trip.

DAY 1: Thursday 26th August 2010
5:00am, Holly and I arrived Kings Cross Station! An early start, but hey, all worth it, we’re going to ROTTERDAM. Half an hour flew by and it was time to start going, but of course there was someone that was late, not naming any names *cough cough* Tom but it was only a couple of minutes so it is all good. Check in was all good, and we boarded the Eurostar. The trip to Brussels seemed like forever. We had a short coffee break in Brussels before we had to get another train to Rotterdam. Another short train ride, and we were in Rotterdam.
When we left the station we were greeted by Mariska, in what we would call typical London weather, greeted with rain. We went to go get our bikes and then road to the Netherlands Architecture Institute or the NAI centre, where we meet with other architects, left our belongings. We then left the NAI centre and cycled to get some lunch, and then off to a boat tour of Rotterdam on the river Maas, where we had a little history of Rotterdam, which was fun, apart from the spiders! We then split up inot groups where we then had to take pictures of what we found interesting, beautiful, and also what we didn’t like. The rain was on and off, but we soldier through and went to the floating Pavilion. After it was back to the NAI where we picked up our stuff and then off to our Hostel, (which was more like a hotel, it was lovely) and then off to eat!
Dinner was fantastic! It was nice, and we got to mingle more, and sit back and enjoy ourselves after a long rainy day. We had plenty of laughs, good food and drinks. FUN! FUN! FUN! FUN!

DAY 2: Friday 27th August 2010
8:20am, up and ready having breakfast, another lovely meal. Surprisingly it wasn’t raining, which was good! After breakfast, we took our bags and bikes off to the Maccreanor Lavington architectural firm, where we looked at the Upper Lea Valley and future plans. Here we had a good discussion about people and living before we went back to the NAI where we looked through the pictures we took and separated into different groups which we chose. it was lunchtime. After lunch we then put the pictures that took and rated them. We then said our good-byes and off to the bike hire shop to go back home, on the 16.48 train back to Brussels. In Brussels we had a two hour wait before we got the Eurostar back to London. Holly and I explored the station, and found a little coffee shop before it was time to depart. Again, when it was time to meet up again, of course someone as late again, this time, it wasn’t Tom, it was the girls, tutut!
Card games, a little reading, talking, magazine reading, a little blog writing from Andreas, Michael and Akin, some jokes about our filming day we were back in London. We said a group good-byes and it was our journey back to home. Athena

Today we did filming with Verity (hope I spelt your name right) We were split into two groups. In our groups we decided on the different spots that we wanted to film and planned different things that we wanted to do at the different sites. My group decided to look at bridges and the landscape of the Lea Valley and incorporated different movements into our film. We used bikes to get to our places of interest at the valley. It was a lovely day, then it began to lightly rain, and then it poured it down with rain. To protect ourselves from the rain, we wore bin bags, apart from Holly, as she had a gorgeous yellow florescent cycle coat, but we ALL looked ABSOLUTLY GORGEOUS! After all the filming, we looked at the footage and as a group decided if we wanted to take some shots out, but as our film was SSOOOOO GOOD, we kept it ALL . After looking over the footage we all had to come up with different names to call the film, which were ALL great! We all had a good time in making them up!

It all seemed to start as a nice hot day when we went in, in the morning. We went into two groups which my groups Michael, Holly, Athena and me. We sat down an thought about what we was going to do for or short film, we all came up with crazy idea’s but at the end we thought of filming the bridges in Lee Valley. We were riding our bikes and stopping at the bridges and recording and some recording while riding which was fun. After all we realised the rain was going worse, which it didn’t stop us from recording, all we had to do was put on a dustbin bag =D. Then we all went back in and tried to think of a name for the film and we came up with all weird names and I can’t remember what we came up up with it at the end =D