Moving mountains with a pencil

Ever since man has looked at his environment he has wondered how to manipulate the environment to better suit his needs, we've litrally come from picking up rocks with our hands to tunneling holes through mountains. We lift it, shove it, place it, pick it, press it, turn it, pull it and dig it. From the mole hill right up to the granite based mountains. Nothing gets in our way, if it's inconvenient we change it, maybe not the most holistic approach to deisgn but you have to admit the logistics and engineering involved are really incredible.

The project I am about to show you is not as extreme as moving a mountain but impressive none the less, it involves manipulating an a old unused coliary (were coal is mined). With the ultimate objective of realising a retirment village. The most influential aspects of the brief were to implement a SUDS (sustainable urban drainage system) and to manipulate the mounds on site so that all material was used.

In order to undertake this project and any major project for that matter a study and analysis had to take place in order to calculate the amount of material that we were dealing with, the quality of the land and of course the topography. Without going into too much detail for the purpose of this blog I am simply posting a picture of the model a group of us made to help us understand the space and evalute what had to be done.

Above you can see a profile of the model, an image was taken and then photoshoped to help commuinicate levels and drainage, the entire analysis was documented in an A3 folder, which was presented with the final project submission.

My solution for the retirement village involved meeting five objectives:

• To create a natural space by interlinking the design with the surrouning forest of Dean
• To create recreation for the clientel of the retirment village by creating suitable uses throughout the scheme
• To create a sense of place by implementing a landscape that is unique to the site and has a central basis for the community
• To create a sense of safety by forming dwellings that overlook large open areas
• To incorporate a SUDS system that would create features throughout the scheme that would aesthetically compliment the landscape as well as being functional

Below I have put a page showing the overall scheme, including levels and the drainage system. All the residents have been given dwellings over looking the amentiy spaces and also over looking a community centre that acts as a place for meeting and carrying out activities. The SUDS system takes on both a naturalistic design as well as a formal design in other areas which is evident from the plan below.

The final project was realised in model form, allowing people to understand the space in a tangible 3D form. I think it's funny that with all the computor aided design packages and all the talent and skill that people offer as a result of computors, for me nothing conveys a concept better than an actual model of the design.

If a picture says a thousand words, then a model must say at least a million.

It was named Lightmoor Retirement Village, it accomodated 40 residents, a community centre and parking for 50 cars.