We walk around edinburgh sometimes.

I gotta talk about the parliment first, and forgive me if this becomes a rant but im trying to figure out why i dont like it and i think this is why: Firstly lets start by saying i suppose that it is impressive looking and it is really well finished BUT from an architectural technologist point of view i think that what happened with this building was that the architect came up with his design and progressed it fairly far along and then unfortunately he died. However then i think the reverance to the architect took over and practicality was left at the door. Like no technologist or contractor looked at things like the weird supposedly curtain shaped panels on the external walls and said "hold on sec, is this practical and if its not well does it at least have a specific aesthetic intent??" which i dont think it does.

for instance, and i laughed at this, the tour guide said that there were loads of symbols and features of the building which nobody could interpret that were a "mystery" and im just thinking that this is a parliment building that stands for a nation. It should be readable and symbolise that nation easily. I dont know, there were some things i liked, the landscape features around the entrance were attractive, the lobby with the up-turned boat ceiling was really nice, there were a couple of nice hallways. The debating chambers roof has the most un-readable structure i think, i couldnt understand that at all.

To end on a positve note, i love edinburgh, i love just wandering around it, reminds me a little bit of dublin at home, but more kind of medieval and fairytale like.

Mediator Project

I think the general feeling that people took back from hospitalfield was one of eerieness and death, especially after the story that mr payne told us of all the dead lepers they found under the topsoil....like two truck loads of corpses or something. I was intrugued by that, and the dead rabbits, that really caught my attention i dont know why.

Our tutor group fairly struggled over a creative leap in the beggining, i myself was in a mind blank, felt very un-inspired. Our initial thought (probably like everyone else's) was that of an experience which was uncomfortable and played a lot with light. The shadows from the trees particularly inspired our ideas towards using light. I was really unhappy with this idea...i think so were the whole group. Struggling for inspiration i started looking at tim burton material funny little melancholy stories that were just black and white. (type in vincent tim burton to you tube)

So as a group we decided to move away from our first idea and we looked at a few things and ended up at some shadow play, like a mobil. ot mobile, whatever! a childs thing!

Then finally from this we progressed to playing with ink, and dropping it on canvas. Basically our idea was to drop ink from a height onto a canvas with objects on the way down to disperse the ink. The basic concept is that of time and un-predictability, which is supposed to reflect upon the history of hospitalfield and the eclectic nature of the actual building and the uncertainty of its future. it worked fairly well on the day, not a complete success but it was grand, everyone got the idea, i think??

Hospitalfield site visit.

cold, tired, damp and foggy! that was my first impression of hospitalfield. I didn't really find it that inspiring at all to be honest. There were some small parts of it which i liked. The twilight effect sunlight on the morning we were there was quite nice, especially in the lawn area surrounded by trees. The shadows cast were interesting. There were also some nice textures and intricacies to the materials used in the building and out-houses and how moss and other plants had started to inhabit it.

The dead rabbits around the place were the most curious thing about hospitalfield.