Alney Context

 WEEK 10

Alney Design Context

SW

CONTEXT

The site currently, has both rural and urban aspects, making this a relevant concept to this particular area.

The concept also links to the land use in Gloucester, many areas are unused and an appropriate use of the landscape to promote human activity and community interaction is lost. Instead, there are many spaces used for the same use, such as retail or commercial services. It is said that “up to 40% of UK retail space is not needed” (Paul Michael Greenhalgh, 2020), which begs the question, how much of Gloucester is not being used to its true potential? The kinetics of moving aspects of the environments to different areas, such as promoting biodiversity net gain with the implementation of species from other areas, changes the site's chemistry. Also, human interaction on the location is modified via the interaction of humans with nature, for example, maintenance choices are adapted to the site and nature-based solutions change, resulting in planting and material choices that may not be ideal for the designated space. Conversely, the static use of the land in Gloucester is the location that is waiting for an opportunity to be used and transformed into a space ideal for both the needs of the landscape and the people living in it.

Furthermore, directly on site, we find generator areas, that use the effect of electricity, precisely linking to the kinetic portion of the concept. Kinetics can resemble the use of energy and its outcomes of use. This can be portrayed in the design via the use of aspects that cause movement (visible kinetics) via the use of electricity (chemical kinetics). Moreover, this idea showcases the power of using the resources of the environment and the opportunity they can bring to users. Therefore, we may conclude that nature supplies us with all opportunity and what else can it give us, that we haven’t uncovered? Or even what is nature’s ultimate use? If nature has one use, have we wasted that opportunity and is that perhaps why we are trying to replicate nature in current designs to truly uncover what nature wants to teach us is it describing how nature can only be imitated, not replicated? Nature is for experience, not abstraction. Currently, natural resources are being used to create new substances, rather than working with nature and using it to produce something that imitates nature, using nature-based solutions that also benefit human activity and create impact. It may be concluded that what we make as a society, or rather individual is an extension of who we are. Everything we make is “a part of nature because they are each extensions of our phenotype” (Browning, Ryan, Clancy, 2014, p.8), suggesting that the kinetic and static result of creation, is in part a moving limb of the creator.