design collaboration

Jackson Quay, a new housing development within the Barry Waterfront area, officially opened on June 10th 2011. With views over No. 1 Dock and a welcoming entrance sculpture by Angharad Pearce Jones, it is a great example of affordable housing.

Newydd Housing Association commissioned Angharad Pearce Jones to collaborate with the scheme architects Tony King Architects Ltd to create a sculptural landmark at the entrance to the site. The original plans for the pedestrian access to the site were put aside, to allow the artist a blank canvas and fresh look at the space. By combining her response to the style and scale of the architecture, local research about the history of the docks, as well as consultation with current Newydd Housing Association tenants, the artist developed her design.

Five stylised 'trees' stand along the curved edge of the pedestrian entrance area, looking out towards the direction of the town centre. (Their height means they can be seen from the Civic Offices) The tops of the trees are made up of sweeping, interlocking curves in a style reminiscent of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the tree trunks are more solidly industrial looking, reminiscent perhaps of the large dock stanchions. As with much of Angharad's work, there is a merging of the feminine with the industrial, to highlight that they are not mutually exclusive and make visible women's role in an industrial society.

It was decided to keep the area as open and welcoming as possible, so there is no fencing in front of the artwork. However, the housing on either side is fenced, and along these two sections of fencing, the artist incorporated a complementary curved design in keeping with the sculptures.

In parallel with the design development, the artist facilitated school workshops at Barry Island Primary School and Gladstone Primary School, to raise awareness of the housing scheme and introduce the children to the process of designing metalwork. Further workshops were held at Gladstone to enable the artist to create a permanent artwork for the school from the children's designs, which is now installed on the wall overlooking their playground.

This striking bespoke bench is a collaboration between artist blacksmith and sculptor Andrew Rowe and light artist Simon Fenoulhet.

Cardiff County Council commissioned the two artists to create the sculptural seating as part of the improvement of Delta Street - a key priority within the Cowbridge Road East Regeneration Strategy. The scheme reclaimed an area of highway to create new pedestrian public space at the heart of the busy shopping area of Canton. As well as designing a bespoke bench the artists also collaborated with the scheme engineer and planning officer on the overall shape of the space and location of trees. This was not a straightforward task since there are a number of services below the site including a gas pipe.

The bench itself is shaped like a small and a large ‘C’ interlocking. This shape is designed to allow groups of people to sit together in a more sociable way than is possible with a standard bench design. The two ‘C’ shapes are cantilevered from the central point and seem to hover over the pavement. At night, hidden lighting within the bench gives it a new lease of life, enhancing its shape and creating an attractive ambience for the night-time economy of Cowbridge Road East.

Delta Street is now a natural focal point along Cowbridge Road East and a popular resting place for shoppers and those on their lunch break!

press coverage:
http://www.welshicons.org.uk/news/cardiff/delta-street-regeneration/

In the summer of 2008 the Vale of Glamorgan Council appointed artist Charles Gurrey and poet Gillian Clarke to create a roundel for the newly redesigned public space in front of the Civic Offices.

To the left of the path leading to the main entrance of the Civic Offices from Holton Road is the Merchant Seaman’s Memorial and to the right is a new semi-circular seating area. The roundel is set into the paving within the seating area.

The brief to the artists was to create an artwork which in some way interpreted the concepts of civic and citizenship and to reflect Barry – the town and its citizens. However, this needed to be done with very few words in order to fit the space and in addition the poetic text needed to be in both Welsh and English. Gillian Clarke devised the following succinct lines which curve around within the circle:

“Severn tides lap Harbour and Knap
coal, wind and sea
- our history”

“Llanw a lli a llongau glo
dros y môr
- ein hanes ni”

Charles Gurrey designed the letters which were cast in bronze and set into a single piece of granite. The shapes of the letters are bold and sculptural, contemporary and legible, and suit the meaning of the text – Barry’s current day pride in its history. The background to the letters has a green, aged bronze patina whilst the letters standing proud are a shinier golden bronze but with a rubbed texture which has also picked up the green patina.

Charles Gurrey
Following a BA in Philosophy Politics and Economics at Oxford and an MPhil in Philosophy at Cambridge, Gurrey completed a five-year apprenticeship as architectural carver and decorative sculptor in Dick Reid's workshop in York. He then remained at that workshop as Principal Assistant until 1994 when he became a self-employed architectural carver and sculptor. Gurrey’s commissions include several works for York Minster, the complete scheme of figurework in stone for the West Front of Guildford Cathedral, and a sculpture for Dunorlan Park incorporating text by Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate at the time.

The vision for this project was to create a new park with a variety of play facilities out of an empty, flat field. Artist Andrew Small was selected to collaborate with landscape architect Ian Maddox on the overall design of the park and to create bespoke play structures.

Background

In October 2006, a report ‘Opportunities for Public Art in Adamsdown’ was commissioned by Cardiff Council to identify opportunities for public art in Adamsdown. Consultation was carried out with the local people of Adamsdown over a three month period and the report identified particular sites and themes for public art, which included suggestions that:

• The work should be uniquely created for the area
• The work, no matter what format it takes, should endeavour to be interactive in some way e.g. kinetic art, tactile art, evolving or changing work
• It should not be a traditional image of public art i.e. Bronze figures/statues like in Queens Street
• The work should challenge or push the viewer, and not be afraid to make a statement
• Sufficient time is taken in the development process of artwork to ensure that the community can build a sense of ownership towards it.

Project

In the summer of 2007 Cardiff County Council embarked on a project to transform an empty field in Adamsdown into a valuable amenity for the local community.

Artist Andrew Small was appointed to collaborate with landscape architect Ian Maddox on the overall design of the new park. Their task was to make the flat open space, used primarily by dog walkers and rarely used by children to play, into a flexible park and play area. The Council held a number of consultation events to find out what the local community wanted and did not want within the scheme.

Among other needs and constraints, Andrew Small and Ian Maddox aimed to create:

• sheltered spaces, since the field was windswept at times
• a designated space for children to play, where dog walkers would not go
• a defined ‘kick about’ area which allowed enough space for a game of football but which could also be safely walked around by others using the park
• creative play equipment aimed at a younger age group (11 and under)
• pathways and seating so that the whole of the space would be used
The result is a park with three main areas:
1. a defined play area at the front (along Constellation Road) with play structures designed and made by Andrew Small on a child safe surface;
2. a kick about area in the middle of the field with low mounding around it on both sides to define the space and protect people walking along the path from finding themselves in the middle of a game!
3. A less formal play area at the back of the field with a high mound incorporating a slide and other structures around it for climbing, swinging and jumping off.

Having developed a number of concept designs for various play structures, Andrew Small was commissioned to create two of them and consulted with a Health and Safety specialist at the detailed design stage. Andrew then fabricated these two structures which he called the Spending Time Machine and the Triphid. The Spending Time Machine is a curved wooden platform with a series of stainless steel arches above it as a roof. Children climb inside it and on top of it, and slide and run up and down the curved surface. It can be anything they want it to be – a space ship, a boat, a house, a den, a tunnel, a submarine, a cave and so on. It is a structure which allows their imagination free rein.

The Triphid is a climbing and balancing structure in galvanised steel, painted a deep blue. The tentacles can be climbed, swung on, walked along, and the soft ‘wet pour’ surface on the ground ensures that children can be more adventurous and risk falling off. The coloured patterns on the soft surface complement the Triphid and can form part of its use in a game.

These days, at the time when the school day has just finished you’ll see many children making full use of Anderson Field, whereas before the park was created, it would have been an empty site.

read more at
http://www.andrewsmall.org.uk/Andrew_Small/Blog/Entries/2010/3/14_Anders...