Aron Downing Landscape Architecture
Portfolio
Contact
Aron Downing 07876021718 arondowning@hotmail.com
Table of Contents
One Design & Community Project - Fryston Community Centre Garden
Two Urban Green - Leeds Brewery Park
Three Rural Design & Silviculture - Torver Common
Four Landscape Character Assessment - Calverley Village
FIVE Hand Drawn - Assorted Material & Media
One
Survey & Analysis
Design and CommunityGroup Work
Project Brief
Theme: Public Realm Client: Casteford Heritage Trust Location: Wheldon Road, Fryston Village, Castleford, West Yorkshire
Initial Brief: The small village of Fryston, just east of Castleford has secured funding to build a new portable community centre. The task was to design the landscape and garden around which the dwelling resides ready to be planted and constructed by March 2013
Flora species present on site
Evaluation & Planning
Fryston graphic - Created for use in Community Consultation
Communinty Consultation
Community engagement
A graphic word-web, created by the group to ensure the whole team had an equal input into the design statement and that everyone knew which direction the design should be heading towards. The words which make up the web are a mixture of comments and frequently occuring words from the community consultation, key words extracted from the brief and a couple of individual thoughts from group members following the site survey and desk study analysis.
Vision Statement Consultation Result
To create a flexible, robust and social space, with elements to engage an inter-generational user group. Incorporating a variety of educational activities, and reflecting the heritage of an important past in an interesting and innovative way.
One
Community GardenIndividual Design Digital Modelling
Digital Modelling
The design takes inspiration from the rich heritage of the site itself, which previously housed a canteen building for the workers of Fryston Pit. By using reclaimed industrial steel to create sculpture like pergola structures in the dense garden area, the design aims to mimic the sense of enclosure felt by the miners working underground in the tunnels. A variety of flora will provide a biodiverse space and by including local species and retaining existing trees the garden should begin to blend with its surroundings quite quickly. The design also incorporates a large iron-age roundhouse structure, requested by the client which will be constructed using traditional methods in order to acquire a grant for construction and material costs.
Perspective Axon
Garden Masterplan Using a mixture of AutoCAD, SketchUp and Photoshop, the above graphic is able to show the whole garden site from an elevated perspective where directly up is south-east. The design is broken up into three main zones; The enclosed garden, behind the community centre featuring dense vegetation and industrial pergolas. The entrance semi-circle which shares a boundary with the car park and uses a sculptural raised structure to represent the entrance to the garden on a more vertical plane. The lawn/roundhouse space, a multifunctional, open area which provides the community garden with the flexibility to host a number of activities and accommodate a variety of user groups.
One
Exhibition Building
Design And Community ExhibitionGroup work Final Outcome
Foamboard Mounting
Exhibition Impact
Exhibition Success
One
Exhibition GraphicsIndividual Input Garden Visuals Four images were used on the exhibition to show key views within the garden. The images were created from combining both digital methods and hand drawn media.
Visual Creation Beginning with an AutoCad drawing of the garden design in plan, this was then imported into SketchUp where a simple scale model was constructed without any texture or colour being added. From SketchUp, a 2D graphic is exported into Photoshop where large areas of block colour are added with fading gradient effects. The images are then printed where textures, details and depth is added in ink followed by a select swatch of markers to complete the graphic. The final images used in the exhibition were given a sepia overlay to in-keep with the rest of the exhibition content.
Diagramatic Illustrations The exhibition also contained some diagramatic, informative visuals which display the more physical and practical aspects of the design. The image to the right shows an axonametric representation of the forest garden space situated behind the community centre dwelling. The client requested that the southern face of the building should remain relatively clear to maximise light intake, the drawing shows how strategic planting can still allow light to get through by leaving the windows clear and using smaller or dwarf species within the garden. The schematic graphic below displays primary pedestrian movement routes on site, designed to be both safe and efficient from site entrance to destination. The image was taken from the simple Sketchup model and edited using Photoshop using simple graphics to produce an immediate and informative schematic.
Movement Schematic
Forest Garden
Two
Urban GreenSite Study, Survey & Analysis Project Brief
Theme: Urban Design & Green Space Location: Tetley Brewery Site, South Bank, Leeds, West Yorkshire
Initial Brief: The Tetley Brewery was closed in 2011 and shortly after demolished in 2012 leaving a 13Ha foot print on the Leeds South Bank. The task was to create a visionary design for a city park to accommodate the space. South Bank Developments: The Leeds South Bank has big development plans for the near future, plans for the creation of Sovereign Square have already been approved and a number of other developments are on the way, including; a southern entrance to Leeds Train Station, the proposed High Speed 2 train station and a collection of server storage buildings. Although the newly built Clarence Docks complex maybe struggling to attract the visitors needed to thrive, combined with the new developments they will posses the potential to pull the South Bank into the future and revive the famous hype of the historic area.
Tetley Site: The Tetley Brewery Site is situated just south of Brewery Wharf, and hugged by busy road to the south west. Meadow Lane, Great Wilson Street and Crown Point Road carry heavy traffic most times of the day and create a sturdy boundary along the southern edge of the site. A series of high builds comprising of permanent residential, business and hotels span the northern boundary of the site, blocking any view north into the city centre or of the River Aire. Current Features: The site is currently being used as a car park complete with a hand full of trees in wooden planters. Two buildings remain on site, one is an original structure from the Tetley Brewery itself which is now listed at grade 2 and is destined to be an art gallery in the near future. The other building is Huntsman House, a typical metal - glass structure full off offices which isn’t listed and currently appears unused.
South Bank Development
Tetley Site Photograph: The Photograph to the right has been taken from the north-eastern corner of the existing car park and describes both the northern and southern boundaries to the site. The faded part of the image represents aspects not within the existing site which predominately consists of the row of high builds on the right of the photograph, from right to left which are; Balmoral Place, Cromwell Court, Jurys Inn, Brewery Walk and Waterloo Apartments. Access Schematic: The Schematic diagram below shows some potential access points to the site itself along with the busy road boundaries which hug the southern half. Access points to the site are of great importance when creating links between the new design, existing features and future development areas. Having entrance and exit points in the correct place can reduce both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, provide safe movement routes and allow the overall design to integrate into its surroundings well and retain any harmony and flow present in the South Bank.
Site Access
Created in Photoshop by rendering a simple SketchUp model built upon an AutoCad drawing from an OS-mastermap download, configured using AutoCad Map 3D to show building and road details.
Two
Urban GreenVisionary Master Planning
Tree Types
The vision includes both typical urban trees and an urban forest around the southern edge. The urban forest comes with a variety of benefits, both to the design and the city of Leeds itself. Urban trees provide cleaner air, a more stable temperature and help with flooding, a problem which has caused trouble to the Leeds South Bank a number of times. The urban forest will also provide a more pleasant environment in the park by reducing sight & noise pollution from the busy roads around the southern boundary.
Movement Types
Movement throughout the park occurs on two different levels. The main reason for a higher movement route is the efficiency created for pedestrians and cyclists commuting into the centre from the South Bank, the route is also much safer, with the user not having to cross a single road travelling from anywhere between the Clarence Docks area and the Train Station.
Grass Types
The park is predominantly softscape with swirling paths cutting through large lawn spaces. There are two main types of grass used in the scheme; formally maintained lawns in the central space and wild style meadows around the outskirts. The wild meadows should attract a variety of fauna which may not usually live in the urban realm, creating an interesting biodiverse space in the heart of the city. The meadows which the urban forest will be planted will see little human interference which should result in a natural succession occurring, a rare sight in such an urbanised area.
Visionary Masterplan
“A park to reconnect a city to its lost space, to link people with the environment... A park where urban meets green�
Two
Urban GreenHigh Route Walkway Concept
Concept Masterplan
The raised walkway twists and winds its way throught the park, allowing users to move seamlessly through the park without getting held up by obstacles found on the ground such as buildings and street furniture.
High Route Montage
Two
Urban GreenGallery Plaza Concept
Existing Space
The existing brewery building has plans to be converted into an art gallery, this characteristic building has great potential for the conversion and with the correct external design could really shine as a centre point to the park.
The park design has paid special attention to the remaining brewery building and has proposed a whole plaza to be created around the building featuring multiple varieties of flora and also a rich swatch of hard materials.
Gallery Montage
Two
Urban GreenBrewery Gardens
Detailed Masterplan
Brewery Gardens is a strip of space in the northern part of the park which acts as a key feature to the park by providing both space for people to congregate, socialise and just relax as well a biodiverse and ecologically interesting space for flora and fauna to thrive in. The Gardens are open to the public through the permeable form and structure of the space but have also been designed with the immediate local residents in mind. The residents live in the flats located just north of the park which unfortunately don’t have a garden space and have been limited to a small balcony. The Brewery Gardens provide a shared garden space for these people just a short walk from their doorsteps. The gardens in the north open up further south to reveal large areas of raised grass which drain quickly and can be used for recreational activities. The grass areas have been designed with a renting/booking ability in the months of better weather so that the Jurys Inn Hotel can pay for the space to maybe conduct fitness classes such as yoga or dancing out in the park. This would provide the park with a form of income which would go towards the maintenance of the gardens to retain its welcoming and attractive aesthetics.
Perspective Axon
Two
Urban GreenBrewery Gardens Visuals
Cross Section
Two
Urban GreenBrewery Gardens Visuals The visual shows views into Brewery Gardens from the main north-south path, the permeable access occurs down both east and west sides of the gardens broken up and enclosed via the avenues of lime trees. Different views in are available along the main path, this one being particularly open as further down the raised planters block views into the more enclosed parts of the gardens. The image was created by using a previously created SketchUp model to achieve precise perspective, the view is selected and exported, along with a separate file containing the shadows within the model. Once exported, trees, which have been used in previous digital graphics were added with transparency effects and slight colour fills using Adobe Photoshop. Large areas of colour such as the paving and gravel are also added. The images are then printed and sketched over using black ink to pick out and add more detail which was not present in the digital model. A final colour render of marker is then added to pull out further depth and tone.
Two
Urban GreenBrewery Gardens Visuals The visual shows views north across the sunken garden capturing the boundary of buildings to the north in the background. From this angle, the soft pastel tones of the flora present in the sunken gravel garden are shown how they carefully complement the angular structure of the wooden boardwalk and decking islands. The image was created byusing the same method described on the previous page.
Two
Urban Green Brewery Gardens Construction
The hard materials used around Brewery Gardens are designed to compliment one and another whenever they interact, for example; the angular interest created by the herringbone paving provides a balancing contrast when it meets the more flowing tone of the resin bonded gravel which appears to be more of a singular maleable unit. Another pleasant contrast appears when the cold, angular in-situ concrete is combined with the warm tones of ipe hardwood decking boards. The ipe hardwood especially well around the sunken garden where it creates a welcoming seating space and also acts as a change in floorscape material to warn of a change in level.
Two
Urban Green Brewery Gardens Planting Plan
The soft materials present in the design were all chosen as they are tough, hardy species and are pretty easy to maintain with little requiring any special care. The raised planters contain a mixture of dense, architectural grasses which are complimented by small colourful flower heads of clump forming perennials. As the Autumn and Winter roles in the strong colour and elegance of a hand full of Japanese Maples will burst through to provide the visual warmth needed in the colder climate.
The foliage used in the sunken garden produces a calming wash of pastel colours which provide a fitting backdrop for the linear form of hardwood structure. The comfortable looking textures and smooth natural forms also balance out the dominating hard materials to create a harmonious and visually interesting space.
Three
Rural DesignTorver CommonForest Design
Project Brief
Theme: Rural Design Location: Torver Common, Coniston Water, Lake District, Cumbria
Initial Brief: The town of Coniston is recieving more and more tourists each year, the task is to design a visitors centre and forest landscape on Torver Common, a hillly area located just a few miles from the town of Coniston, the space should contain a range of facilities to attract tourists in order to ease the stress on Coniston and its residents.
Site Photos
Forest Masterplan
Proposed Woodland 2 Proposed Woodland 1
Existing Woodland
Three
Rural DesignTorver CommonForest Design
Four
Landscape Character AssessmentCalverley Village Project Brief
Theme: Landscape Character Assessment Location: Calverley, West Yorkshire
Initial Brief: The task was to conduct a landscape character assesment on a transect containing three 1km x 1km squares through Calverley village. The assessment is conducted in groups to ensure results are not bias to a single opinion. To obtain an overall character score for each seperate area in the transect, the area is scored on three seperate values and averaged out into a final score. During conducting the assessment, Arc GIS software was used to create visuals and map information related to the study.
Contoured Level Change
Visual Values
Historical Values
Landscape Values
Five
Hand DrawnAssorted Material & Media
Armley Ink & Marker
Headingley Campus Ink & Marker
Black ink conceptual visuals for a “green� site at Leeds Metropolitan Universities Headingley Campus just north of Leeds City. Images Are rendered with ProMarkers.
Five
Hand DrawnAssorted Material & Media
Greyscale Assorted Media
Amsterdam Sequentials