Alney 01

 Week 10

Alney Island First Impressions Sketch

To illustrate my main concerns with the site and therefore what I want to improve, I sketched the overall areas of the site that I want to incorporate and in particular, the cultural aspects I would like to include. 

Firstly, flood-resilient planting is a must as this ensures the long life of the planting that will be installed and will assist with the binding of the soil and in due course will aid the landscape's soil erosion, seen especially in periods of prolonged rain and flooding. 

Secondly, I have included a water walk that ensures all destinations on site can be reached, even in the event of a flood. Furthermore, this gives interest to the site, function and interlinks spaces. These walkways will also create patterns on the master plan at 1:1500.

Moreover, I thought a glass deck, connected to a bird hide would be ideal to encourage people to use the site, stay there and hopefully revisit. Moreover, this reconnects the user with the useable environment.

A proposed tree top trial is also listed, to add height to the space, which mimics the height of the trees and surrounding buildings, giving the impression that you are above the water and floating when the land is flooded. This too adapts the space and gives alternative routes that could link other areas, giving meaning to the spaces. 

As the site is prone to flooding, I believe that the road and path condition needs to be improved so that the site can last longer, through different periods of weather, and to limit future maintenance needed. 

Overall, I want this space to link humans with nature, by living and operating amongst water, almost like adaptation methods some communities take in niche methods to cope with the event of a flood. However, this design will be more procured and studies to provide the most suitable solutions.

Next, I intend to produce an almost complete masterplan for next week to present. This may have a courtyard, concluded event space, orientated event space and sculptures.

I need a good concept to link all of my ideas together.