Today I decided to go and take a closer look at the sites and maybe start having a think about which one I would choose for my project.
The first site include the old library, the shops adjacent to it and the car park behind it. One of the interesting features of the site was the cut through from the main road to the car park and the World Wide supermarket behind it. While creating a link between the two, there were very few people around to actually use it.
In order to get to the remainder of the site, I had to rejoin the high street and walk up the side road adjacent to it; the fence barely let me see into the other car park, let alone let me though.
I found the variety of element on this site really interesting and my interest in historic buildings is drawing me to choose this site. The library is something that I would really like to include in my designs and something that I would look into is precedents of sensitive retrofits of listed buildings.
The second site was the one of the old police station. This was much more connected to Cheetham Hill Road and in a way, acted as a barrier between the road and the housing behind it.
The third site lay in the midst of all the housing behind the second site. It was a cemetery that has now fallen into disrepair and has been consequently closed to the public. Having said this, while there was no entry through the main gates, someone had made a gap in the fence and left some of the large stones on the pavement as a step to provide access to the site. The height of the site above the rest of the area works as a vantage point but also separates it further from the surrounding area.
'To become completely lost is perhaps a rather rare experience for most people in the modern city'
Lynch
My trip to Newcastle mainly focused on my essay and gathering research for it. I want to use Kevin Lynch's text, The Image of the City. In it he talks about navigating the city and the imageability of the city as determined by 5 elements: paths, nodes, landmarks, districts and edges. As I hiker, I have developed my sense of navigation and since coming to Manchester, I enjoyed immersing myself in the city. The first thing I do when visiting a new city is to pick up a map. This time however I didn't.
I wanted to map my way around Newcastle and use Lynch's methods to find my own way and to eventually be able to create my own map of the city. I want to then compare it to the actually city and see what the results are.
After spending 4 days wandering around the city, I began to not only connect parts of the city together but I was also able to consider the geography of the city when doing it.
I visit Byker and the housing estate designed by Ralph Erskine. On arrival, I didn't actually realise how big it was and although I didn't see the whole estate, I wandered around to get a feel for the place. The Wall was built as a barrier against the noise from the metro and the busy road adjacent to it and while it achieves this, it also creates an intimidating façade.
I felt that while there may be a strong sense of community within the estate, there didn't seem to be much connection to the surrounding town, despite having good connections by foot, bus and metro to not just Byker but the city as well.
I think I will be able to use Byker Estate as a comparison for my project.
Another thing I found on my travels were the street markets. These weren't markets in the traditional sense of a collection of stalls in a square either every day or one day a week, they were seemingly random stalls dotted about the city. The first I saw was on Northumberland Street, the main shopping road in Newcastle. The road itself was pedestrian only and this fruit and veg stall was sat in the middle of the street outside Superdrug. It was an unexpected sight.
The second I saw was near the large shopping mall. Eldon Square is surrounded on three sides by the mall and next to one of the exits was another fruit and veg table. I would have walked straight past it had it not been for the owner shouting to passers by in an attempt to bring customers to the stall.
Today, we went up to the site again to find out what the general consensus of where the Cheetham Hill boundary was. We had printed maps and we were going to ask people to mark on where they thought the Cheetham Hill boundary was.
We started at The Fort and tried asking people if they had a couple of minutes to answer out questions. While we did get a couple of answers, the majority of people we asked clearly didn't want to talk to us.
We had to try a different approach.
Rather than asking people, pen and paper in hand, if they had a couple of minutes. I suggested we went for the 'lost person' approach. We began asking people if we were in Cheetham Hill and if not, where it was. People were more open to helping us and extended the conversation by asking us where we were trying to get to exactly.
Once we had the information we needed, we then simply marked it on the maps ourselves. It was interesting to see that people in the industrial estate considered themselves to be part of Cheetham Hill although they acknowledged that the main town was further north.
As we approached Strangeways and the Prison, people did begin to seem unsure as to whether they were in Cheetham Hill or not.
Some people didn't seem to understand our question and pointed us in the direction of Cheetham Hill Road.
First studio day of year 3. Not sure I'm ready to get thrown in at the deep end but not sure I've got much say in the matter!
We started the day with discussing what the atelier, MSA Praxis was about and we split into small groups to discuss 'participative techniques' that are used in architectural practise to engage with the clients. We were given a list and we talked about which ones we knew about, what we thought others were and whether we thought they were actually used in practise. They were all things that we can use in our own projects as well.
Over lunch, we were tasked with making a cognitive map of a familiar route. These were then compared when we restarted. Most people did their route to university although not all were the half hour or so commute; some were from home to Manchester. It was also interesting to see the differences in the maps. Some were really literal (like mine) and easy to read while others were more abstract and only clear if you knew the route.
Then the REAL map came out. Of Cheetham Hill.
As I hadn't had the chance to visit the site before studio, the area was completely unknown to me and reading an unfamilar street map upside down doesn't really reveal much. As it is such a large area, we split it up into 6 areas, one for each of the groups. The task was to survey our area and to make a panoramic street view of a section of Cheetham Hill Road. The following week, we would then present our findings and collectively, we would all have a better understanding of Cheetham Hill
The second site was the one of the old police station. This was much more connected to Cheetham Hill Road and in a way, acted as a barrier between the road and the housing behind it.
