Crazy Town

On Saturday lunchtime I arrived in Wales to catch up with my university unit for a study visit to Portmeirion. It was designed and built by the somewhat eccentric architect Clough William-Ellis, and for us was a surreal backdrop to create films about perception, imagination and form. It has really got me thinking/stretching my brain but through the creative process I think we have come up with incredibly interesting outcomes.

Funky Fez

For our studio study trip, last week we flew to Fez in Morocco. We've been studying the courtyard house typology and went to see it first hand. Fez has a dense urban fabric: it's like a labyrinth and many times we got lost, had no idea which direction we were going in and had to dive out of the way of the donkeys and carts flying down the narrow streets. Being in the medina is like stepping back in time - the historic architecture, being car free, the markets for shopping and the crafts people working on the street. It's the latter that intrigued me the most. There are silk weavers using the street as their workshop, men banging copper into shape in the square. 

Seeing Fez was an intriguing cultural experience, whether I could live there myself is doubtful - being back in the hustle and bustle of London was oddly calming!

Abandonment

In parts of North Dakota, people have moved on and moved away. Barns and farmhouses sit empty in the vast, endless landscape, crumbling day by day. This evening, I came across these photos by Rick Craig, who captures these incredible scenes. This is the America that I am fascinated by and would love to explore. It's a place with some kind of personality, but with no persons there.

Images by Rick Craig

Winding Souk

It's incredible how much we rely on the internet. Since moving up to Manchester we've only been able to get online here and there, but today we got connected! 

It's been a busy week since our course has started. I picked a unit where I can continue studying my interest in housing by looking at courtyard housing around the world. There'll also be a study trip to Fez in a few weeks, so I can go and discover another North African city.

Image by tkarty

Farm Yard

The other night, just before I went to sleep, I had an epiphany. Whilst studying I had really got into urban agriculture and "food architecture" but looking back to my design outcomes, I'm not entirely satisfied. So I decided at this late hour, that I'm going to get back to my research and continue to develop my ideas.

As my searches started I came across BRACKET, a design collective who produce topical publications the first being [on farming]. It's a collection of essays and investigations by various people. There are some great images and once I have got my ethos, I hope to make some fab images of my own.

Image of Art Farm from BRACKET