UCG Project development Report Project 1 2015

Student S0303476

Project Development Report There is an electronic copy of this report And The Book that goes with it at https://issuu.com/walldesign

Design Project 1 Design Level 4 : 2015/16 Tutor Darren Capp

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Whilst this is towards the start of this report it was the last piece of writing for this module. It is a reflective piece on what I learnt from these projects.

I gave this module quite a lot of consideration. I think design projects can be of great importance to the way the human race develops over time.

Initially I considered making a 3d model of something that might be a solution to a worldwide problem. I also considered looking at similar problems and designing a procedure for finding a solution to them. In the end I decided to look at a local problem which was the plight of empty properties in my home town of Caistor.

Initially I was not sure how I would demonstrate my findings but soon settled on the production of a book. I spent some time researching the problems and gaining an understanding of the effect they have on the local residents. I realised that until you actually start looking at “a set� of buildings you don’t really get a feel for the real effect of the issue so I photographed a selection for the book.

The feedback was most interesting. It would be good to get feedback from a greater number of people but the ones who did proved to be a good cross section of society of all ages and demographics. From the answers they gave it quickly became apparent that people generally think of what they need to make their own lives better, although there were exceptions to this rule.

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Reflecting on the

Learning Outcomes 1) Demonstrate the range and properties of media and materials available for creative expression.

During this project I used photography and writing to explain the story behind the project.

The internet was used extensively to research the subject of the project, empty buildings.

Book design/publishing and online publishing were used to enable people to see the final outcome of the project, the book.

2) Demonstrate an experimental approach in the use of media, process and technology

During this project I used desktop publishing to create the book and this learning journal.

I used online software such as Issuu to create an online presence for the book.

I also looked at various methods of producing books/bound articles. I considered heat sealing, commercial printing and also making books by hand.

3) Generate different approaches in response to given briefs and self-initiated activity

During the project I interviewed individuals in person, emailed people asking for views and created a feedback form so they could put forward their ideas. I also attended meetings where they were discussing the subject of the project, empty buildings.

4) Work safely with media and materials At all times health and safety policies were considered.

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y M

Random thoughts at the end of the project

There is no end to this project: my interest in empty properties and why nobody wants them will continue.

I am keen to understand what breaks down between the public and the authorities and why red tape has potential to hold up redevelopment. Why do we have global problems of homelessness and equally global problems of empty properties?

What you are about to read is the design process I followed to create a book called “The Buildings Nobody Wants�. The book is made up of different chapters starting with understanding the problem and resulting in a reflection based on what I discovered.

During the process I eventually focussed on one building, a former Co-op, and used this project to further highlight the issues of empty properties and how they affect the enviroment and lives of residents by making people aware of what I was doing. For example, I enlisted the help of the local deputy mayor to get the project’s feedback forms filled in.

As this stage of the project finalised, great news was received that the Co-op had put up vinyls in the windows of the former building to cover-up the untidy interior for passers-by.

Producing the book by hand created challenges with the binding. I will still be looking at alternative methods but for now I am pleased with what I produced, I hope others are.

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Design Project 1 asks us to think of a project close to us.

After considering a number of different projects I have decided to consider and look to identify the issue of empty properties and the effects they have on the people and communities that live around them. After considering different towns I have settled on my home town of Caistor.

At the outset I expect the outcome will be in the form of a reference book reporting on my findings. I will be looking to utilise a number of software packages, some I am familiar with and some I am not ,and also different methods such as 3d models, sketches and photographs.

I will look to interact with as many members of the public as I can and also to take comment from professionals such as architects.

I am starting this report three weeks into the module so initially it will be a review of those three weeks, eventually evolving to live reporting.

The initial stages will involve information that tells me that this is a real problem. The problem is currently being highlighted after recent govenment legislation that is pushing local councils to develop housing, even on greenbelt land.

“The book will follow The Design Process as per the poster opposite and then described in more detail on the next page�

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Introduction : To carry out a feasibility plan investigating the problems and potential solutions to the problem concerning empty commercial and residential properties, specifically in the small Lincolnshire town of Caistor and to identify the effect they are currently having on the lives of the residents and visitors.

Chapter 1 (Empathy) Spend time walking around the town, identifying and photographing empty problems around the town centre to gain a feel for how the properties affect the town.

Attend local meetings where empty properties are being discussed.

Talk to local people to discover what they think of the empty buildings Research the history of the buildings/ownership/reason for them being empty.

Chapter 2 (Define) From the information gained during the empathy stage look to define the actual problems being created by the empty buildings.

Chapter 3 (Ideate) Choose one or two properties and come up with a variety of possible uses for them that erase the problems discovered in the define period.

Chapter 4 (Prototype) Select one of the possible uses and create ideas showing how it would improve the locality

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Chapter 5 (Feedback) Identify a series of events such as a pop-up exhibition in the centre on market day to gain feedback from the local population and visitors and also to get further feedback from Grant funders / Property developers on the potential for getting the rejuvenation into reality.

Chapter 6 (Reflect) Consolidate the various feedback and consider the results of the feedback and measure the possibility of the feasibility study.

During the first few weeks of the project I will be looking to gather information and images to help me understand the level of empty properties in Caistor and get an initial idea of the impact it has on the residents.

I also plan to meet with Caistor Councillors, to include the Deputy Mayor Mike Galligan and Cllr Martin Sizer who is also the local postmaster. They are also part of the town’s In Bloom organisation and work with other volunteers to create a better environment.

One of the local empty dwellings is a very old building which is owned by The Co-op. They moved to new premises five years ago and since then the old building has remained empty.

There are meetings planned to discuss these buildings which I will attend to photograph and also to gain more information.

I will also attend a meeting and take photographs where a local architect is preparing a feasiblity study into what this building might become in the future.

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The Book It’s hard to know exactly how many pages the book will be at this stage but I expect it will be approx 100 pages.

I would really like to make it A3 landscape but this will create potential problems with printing as A3 is a lot more expensive and fewer commercial printers easily handle this format.

The best formats for printing would be either A4 upright or A5 upright or view. Another alternative would be a square format that is smaller than A4, 8 inch by 8 inches for example. Again this is to keep the book to a format that commercial printers easily handle. I can also print the book on a laser printer easily, trimming off excess afterwards.

The square format as a design convention appeals. It is a good compromise between A5 and A4 and has the capacity to stand out from other work. At the moment I favour this size but will keep an open mind.

I’ve created a design in Adobe Indesign for the book. It’s 8in x 8in with 5mm borders and I have included 8 columns. I will not use 8 columns but this is something I picked up from Tutor Stefan who does the same. I have never used Indesign in this way so it will be interesting to see the advantages, if any.

I really like the idea of the square book. Being a veteren photographer my happiest times were using a Hasselblad square format camera. Hasselblad used to publish square magazines and publicity material.

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November 5th Having thought of the square 8x8 inch book format yesterday, 24 hours later I am still keen on it. It’s an important decision as at this moment I plan to make everything that I submit square as a design feature of my work.

Today I am going to make a rough plan for the book with chapters that follow the design process mentioned earlier i.e.

Introduction Chapter 1 (Empathy) Chapter 2 (Define) Chapter 3 (Ideate) Chapter 4 (Prototype) Chapter 5 (Feedback) Chapter 6 (Reflect) :

The Introduction Page For the intro in the book I have selected a couple of images that I took on the initial walk around the town. The images were taken on Sept 27th 2015 and a few days later on Sept 30th. I also decided I would start the book with a quote and searched for one via Google.

During the Google search I came across Robert L Peters who describes himself as a “50s-something designer and principal of Circle, a Canadian design consultancy he Page 9

co-founded in 1976 in Winnipeg, Canada.

The quote I really like is “Design creates culture.

Culture shapes values. Values determine the future.”

I think as we get older we come to realise that we have been affected by what people have done before us, the legacy they left for us, the future they designed. In turn some of realise that the culture we design now will be looked back at in the future and that is maybe how future generations will define ours.

Robert L Peters also refers to a quote by Winston Churchill “First we form the world around us, then it forms us” which I think is also very apt.

November 7th 2015 I have borrowed a Hasselblad H4D camera from the university to photograph some bottles for a uni commercial project. If the weather is good and after I have taken the shots of the bottles, I am planning to shoot around the town. These shots will form the next 10 to 20 pages, a sort of rogues’ gallery of Caistor’s empty buildings.

I already think I know which buildings I think I want to concentrate on when it comes to look at the history of why they are empty and that is 1) The old Co-Op as a business premise 2) Westgate House as it’s a private house and 3) the old Council offices as they are owned by the authorities.

However I am open to having my mind changed once I have photographed the properties and it will be interesting to know if I am still of the same mind.

The images are part of “the define” chapter. I will also be writing in this section about the meetings that we have attended, where the attendees have been looking at the problem of empty buildings, more specifically the old Co-op.

Local residents have heard of this project and one, Rick Merrall, sent me a copy of an email he recently sent to the authorities. I have emailed him back to see if I can arrange to interview him further Page 10

“Dear Mr Gray,

You may recall that I contacted you via email in July of this year to register my protest regarding Westgate House and 7 Plough Hill, both long-term empty properties. You kindly responded to the effect that my protest had been registered and, indeed, I am given to believe that WLDC may be moving towards applying a Compulsory Purchase Order with regards to Westgate House. I would be grateful if you could confirm whether or not this is the case and also update me on what steps WLDC are currently taking with regard to returning 7 Plough Hill to use.

This, however, brings me on to the topic of two other long-term disused sites within Caistor, one of which would appear to be the direct responsibility of West Lindsey District Council.

In the first case, I would draw your attention to the old Council Depot site on Mill Lane.

Although I am a relatively new resident of Caistor, I know that this site has been derelict for at least the 20 years in which I have been a visitor to the town and I am told that it is something like 41 years since the site became redundant. My understanding is that the site was sold to Acis some years ago and that they applied for planning permission to build a number of houses but lost interest when WLDC didn’t approve the housing density that they had proposed. The site has stood abandoned ever since with the building becoming increasingly derelict and the yard overgrown with weeds. In recent months, Acis have loaned part of the site to Caistor Town Council for use as a car park but this does not mitigate the unsightly nature of the site or the fact that it could be developed for more meaningful use.

The other site to which I would draw your attention is that of the former WLDC offices and Council Chamber off South Dale and adjacent to the A46. I understand that the premises was abandoned some 12 years ago when WLDC relocated to Marshall’s Yard. The former Council Chamber became the Caistor Library and was then taken back by WLDC with a view to redeveloping the site. Since then, I have heard of no definitive plans for immediate redevelopment and the building remains unused. In the circumstance I describe, this site is very much in the purview of West Lindsey District Council and, whilst the buildings are not obviously derelict in appearance, it is, nonetheless, a site with no current utility.

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The issues here are clear. There is growing concern amongst Caistor residents over unsightly and unused Grade 2 Listed residential properties in the heart of the town; over the disused Grade 2 Co-op building in the Market Place, located in a key position in a town which desperately needs to revive its commercial heart; over planning applications to build houses on greenfield sites which, historically, have been treasured by the people of Caistor as beauty spots and over local authority plans to build nearly 600 new houses to satisfy supposed housing needs which will further erode the green and pleasant places which characterise Caistor. The Caistor in Bloom Group volunteers spend countless hours each year making the town a lovely place to live and to visit, only to be penalised by East Midlands in Bloom and Britain in Bloom judges for unsightly buildings and areas over which the group have no control.

Whilst I wholeheartedly support West Lindsey District Council in its efforts to force the issue of Westgate House and, since my previous correspondence, hopefully that of 7 Plough Hill as well, I am concerned that pressure should also be brought to bear on Acis regarding the old Council Depot site and I am becoming increasingly concerned that WLDC is abandoning its principles regarding its own property, the former council offices.

I would be very pleased if you would address these concerns for me and update me on the situation regarding all the issues which I have raised above. I look forward to hearing from you in due course.”

Yours sincerley Rick Merrall

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Westgate House Google searchs for Westgate House, Caistor brought up limited information. I wondered if this was because it had been unused for 30 years, i.e. before the internet age.

“Lincs to the past� described it as Name: Westgate House, 7 Plough Hill, Caistor Summary: Westgate House, 7 Plough Hill, Caistor Location: CAISTOR, WEST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE Description: PRN 56078 Early 18th century red brick house with slate roof, altered in the early 19th century and later. The interior contains a good original staircase and panel doors. (www.lincstothepast.com)

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The Former Co op The Co op moved into new premises in 2010 and since then the old ones which take up 25% of the town’s market square have remained empty.

At one point the local council looked at buying them but this did not happen. In Oct 2015 the same council

teamed up with the Co-op to invest ÂŁ25000 into a feasibility study into potential uses of the building.

The market place is a major landmark for Caistor with many functions being held there which has attracted 1000s of people over the years.

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Residents get together to discuss the town plan

From Caistorcitizen.co.uk

Caistor residents rolled up their sleeves yesterday afternoon (Wednesday, October 14, 2015) and got down to thinking about the future of the Co-op building in the Market Square.

Despite some frustrations over the past week, just under 30 residents sat down at the Town Hall to come up with ideas as to how the premises could be used.

The meeting was chaired by Liz Bates, Chief Executive of Heritage Lincolnshire, who acknowledged at the start of the meeting that there were some difficult issues.

But Heritage Lincolnshire, which has worked on seven other projects during its 24-year history, has helped with other buildings where the issues seemed just as intractable, she added.

Three representatives from Heritage Lincolnshire and two from Hodson Architects were present at the consultation event, which ran from 3pm-5pm.

Many of the attendees admitted they had only booked at the last minute.

The afternoon began with a brief run-through of some of the project's most "intractable issues" – such as Lincolnshire Co-op's commercial interests, that one part of the complex is Page 15

privately owned, that most of the building is listed, that there are difficulties with access and there is no room for extension. Plus nearby parking is limited.

Architect Mark Hodson gave more detail, starting with the history of the building. One of the photographs that accompanied his talk was an image of the Friendly Society Parade, possibly dating back to 1905. Old photographs showed how the Market Place has always been a focal point for Caistor, he said. The historical context of the building was just as important as the physical context, he added.

Mr Hodson said he had visited the site three times. Some parts of it were in "quite good nick," he said. Some parts were of poor quality. There were five different buildings on separate levels, some were two storey and some were three storey. There were some areas with pitched roofs and some with flat roofs. Some parts had been used for storage. There were three flats, one of which had been used until quite recently.

The Co-op has worked to "arrest the deterioration" of the site, the meeting was told.

The attendees then split into three groups which tried to think of commercial, community and residential uses for the site.

In an impressive display of pragmatism, Caistor tried to focus on suggestions that took all of the difficult issues into account.

The ideas ranged from a soft play area and community space for young people through to artists' workshops and small shops.

A museum and archive storage, business hub, live/work units, a cinema and health services such as a dentist and an optician were also suggested.

The meeting was asked for suggestions as to who could apply for funding for renovating the property. A new community benefit society and the Caistor Development Trust were suggested.

However, the meeting did not think that Caistor Town Council was a suitable lead applicant.

Town Clerk Helen Pitman, who was present, said she felt relieved about that.

The Co-op itself might also be eligible to apply for funding, said Ms Bates.

Another consultation is due to take place on November 4 between 3pm and 7pm at the Arts and Heritage Centre. It is hoped three designs will be put on show at a drop-in session.

After yesterday afternoon's meeting, Ms Bates praised the attendees for their positive attitude and thanked people for taking the time and trouble to attend.

About a third of the attendees were later seen buying groceries in the Co-op store next door Page 16

to the Town Hall. The general feeling among them was that the event had gone well.

Production under way December 2 I’ve been getting on with the production of the book. With 14 days until deadline it’s quite exciting. As much as it’s good to get something done I think it’s also good to feel the adrenaline of a tight deadline.

I’m on page 50 of the book and decided that I should do a test print run. With hindsight I should have done this earlier as I’ve decided that I need more of a margin for the gutter to make reading easier. I initially set the borders at 8mm around the edges and 16mm for the inner one. The inner one is too small so I’ve increased this to 25mm. When you change the margins on pages already created it means changing them on the master pages rather than the page set up. I then need to individually readjusting each page but I think it’s worth it to get it looking right and creating a product that’s easy to experience for the reader.

Re-adjusting the margins went quite well and did not take long. I have located a lot of information from the internet, especially Facebook groups concerning Caistor.

I’ve also created a mindmap showing the possible different uses and then created a feedback request form as shown below

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I’ve never produced a book by hand before although I’ve seen many of them at Book Exhibitions in the past.

I am going to have a go at making one during this project. My first experiment was to buy a thermal heat binder. It works very well and at just £25 and approx 30p per cover it’s going to pay for itself.

I produced a proof of the book which looks good but I think I used too thin a binder and some pages have come loose. It was extremely useful having the proof though as I could correct spellings and grammar etc.

My next idea is to buy old books and extract the covers. I visited

a Women’s

Refuge Shop and selected books that were the right

dimen-

sions. £1 per hardback book was excellent al-

though

two were from the Life Libray of Photogra-

phy that I

collected once in the 80s, another

was a drawing

book and the fourth was a

book filled with interna-

tional photographs all

taken on the same day, a fantas-

tic project.

I purchased a hot glue gun as on a youtube video I watched

they used one for bookbinding.

I locked myself away and began the task of printing and binding the book.

I was feeling a bit nervous as this was a journey into the unknown for me. When I had designed books before, I exported a pdf and the printers took over from there.

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The journey started by ordering paper of different weights and finishes. 100 g/m / 120 / 170 / and 250 all looked promising.

In the end I settled on the 170 gloss as it printed well, returned good blacks and nicely balanced colour images. It also worked fine with the Xerox duplex facility allowing me to print on both sides of the paper.

I decided to print the book in a square format and went for 8x8 inches so A4 was the paper to use.

I experimented with different settings on the Xerox and in the end printed with custom colour settings of +2 brightness and +4 vivid colours. I liked the results.

The Xerox performed excellently although during the print run the cyan cartridge ran out. I purchased the Xerox earlier this year (2015) from Printerland who did a fantastic deal on it.

After cashbacks it cost me about ÂŁ150. The crazy thing is though, orginal toner cartridges for it cost approx ÂŁ100 each so if I was to go for originals it would be cheaper to buy a new printer, expecially as the printer comes with full size cartridges.

I had decided to go with third party cartridges and had ordered a complete set in Page 37

for £90 but when they arrived the cyan one had broken open splashing its contents everywhere, the seller had refunded my money and allowed me to keep the other three for free. I then ordered a cyan from another dealer so when it ran out I just loaded the new one. Sadly though it did not work. I later found out that there were some cheap Chinese ones that did not work and this was one of them.

A third dealer supplied me with a working cyan for £38 and I was ready to go again.

As the Xerox churned out pages I turned to another purchase, this time a set of books I had paid a total of £4 for at a women’s refuge shop in Grimsby. I was quite sad to strip the books as two were part of a Time Photographic Series from the 80s, another about drawing and another about a one day project where photographers from all over the world contributed images. It looked a great project.

I carefully cut out all the pages from one of the photography books so I could read them later. I used this one as it’s square, the same as my pages, and I wanted the cover to put onto my book. I kept telling myself that they had only charged me £1 for it and that somehow made me feel better about the cannabilsm.

The Xerox worked away well. It really is a great printer and returns superb print. In the end I only had to reprint about 5 pages and that was my fault, getting the layout slightly wrong. It had helped that I had printed a proof previously and made corrections on that copy.

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I borrowed some clamps from my neighbour Matt who is a French polisher.

The clamps mush have felt at home as apparently they used to live at my studio, owned by Ted Colley who made wheels for the church bells. The studio looks different

now but if you are interested to see this video it’s at https://goo.gl/aIx3hB. Both Ted and his wife Nan have died now, going weeks apart in 2010.

The clamps worked superbly but unfortunately the hot glue was not as succesful as I thought. It worked well but it did not hold the paper together well enough and you could pull pages out quite easily. I wondered if it was because I had tightened the clamps too much and so I tried a second time with the pages extruding from the “vice” and flicked the pages and rotated the glue gun as I applied the glue but the pages still did not feel secure.

After the work that had gone into the project, the last thing I wanted was the book to fall apart when being assessed or looked at in the future.

To get the pages ready for gluing I wrapped a long piece of card around the pages so Page 39

as to keep them all together which worked very well. I decided that hot glue was not the answer and remembered that I had some very strong superglue.

I ensured the working conditions were safe by opening a window and wearing plastic gloves.

The glue made a fantastic bond but sadly it creeped between the pages gluing more than I wanted. Next was sellotape and during the next few minutes a nice system evolved. I took two pages and simply sellotaped them

together. I found sellotape stuck very well to the plastic, glossy paper. Once I had stuck all the pages together into twos I repeated the process sticking one set of two pages to another set, making sure the page numbers were in the right order. I continued with this process until eventually I had sellotaped all the pages together, it worked very well.

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I turned my attention to the book covers. I had purchased some sticky black plastic from a shop called The Range. It’s lovely material with a sort of wood pattern. I also purchased some special binding cloth from a supplier in the Orkney Isles who wrote enthusiastically to me as he had grown up in Caistor.

I used some rollers to smoothly roll the material onto the book and then double sided sticky sheet to attach the book covers.

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The finished book on my workshop table. I’d never made a book before. In the past I had made a pdf and sent it to the printers.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this one. It’s not perfect although it does work as a book, the pages turn and they do not fall out. I am going to spend more time researching other ways of binding. The supplier of the binding tape has an interesting website with many ideas at http://www.vintagepaper.co.uk/

I think it would be worth making up a jig to keep the pages perfectly together. I think a good professional guillotine so that all the pages could be cut together to keep them in line with each other would be worth having.

I am pleased with this book though.

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There is an online copy of the book at http://issuu.com/walldesign/docs/the_buildings_nobody_wants_by_stewa

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Almost to the moment I put the finishing touches to the book I received this email from Sam of the Co-op. After months of working with the Co-op they chose the very day I finished the book to put up vinyls on the Market Place building.

I popped over to have a look and wow what a difference they make. They have chosen to tell the timeline of the town and they have photographs of people which makes it look as though they are in the shop. It’s a stunning design, very clever.

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Bibliography http://www.lincstothepast.com/Untitled/910866.record?ImageId=571713&pt=S http://www.caistor.co.uk/ http://www.tappin-family.org.uk/postcards_outlying_areas_a_to_k.html http://www.marketrasenmail.co.uk/what-s-on/arts-leisure/bike-night-fills-caistor-market-place-1-6920141 http://www.roscho.co.uk/royschofield.htm http://www.roscho.co.uk/CDT/THI%20Project%20Summary%20040326.pdf www.caistor.co.uk Facebook past and present https://www.facebook.com/groups/644647628924180/?fref=ts Mind mapping software https://www.text2mindmap.com/ http://www.caistorcitizen.co.uk/

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