Green Growing Concrete

Grass can be grown directly in green-growing concrete.  It can be planted into different structures on roofs and also on the side of river banks.

"Green-growing concrete has the strength and durability of concrete, as well as the ability to grow plants like soil.

Not only can lawn or grass be grown on the concrete, but it can also take medium-sized trees."

Castleford Regeneration

Castleford in Yorkshire was in the spotlight earlier in the year as Kevin McCloud's Big Town Plan televised the regeneration of this former mining town.

Today I went to Castleford and saw the famous bridge and the Tickle Cock Underpass.  The bridge works really well and has some cleverly designed seating right the way across the bridge.  It curves across the bridge and there are four lots of seating.  

I was intrigued to see Tickle Cock Underpass because of the flocked wall and seating.  The Underpass itself is very well designed but the immediate problem as you can see from the photos above is that the flocked seating has been vandalised.   It was only opened on 27 June 2008 so what will it look like in another six months?

 Martin Richman selected this material so it will be interesting to see what materials he uses for the London Olympic bridges commissions.

 

Cold War Modern - Design 1945-1970

Cold War Modern - Design 1945-1970 at the Victoria and Albert Museum is on until 11 Jan 2009.  This is a long and very detailed exhibition which takes you through both US and USSR design developments during a time of extreme fear and anxiety after WWII.  "Modern Life seemed to offer both utopia and catastrophe" as both countries tried to out do each other with design complexities and innovations to build a better world.

Interesting though the exhibition is I didn't like any of the designs.  All this creative output was created by anxiety and fear which is the antithesis of anything I am interested in designing.  The paranoia and potential terror all filter into the work.

Smell: Fashion V Sport at the V and A

I really didn't like Fashion V Sport at the V and A.  I didn't like the way it was exhibited, nor the patterns, shapes, fabrics, colours, lighting or display of the exhibition.  

Two of the exhibits weren't working when I went, which I suppose as the exhibition finishes on 4 Jan is fair enough. 

The first one not working was "Please touch the wall to activate the smell" - I think you were meant to be able to smell BO.  The second one not to work said "Please walk over the floor to activate the smell" and I think you were meant to smell something musty but it had obviously worn off.

It was meant to be clever and witty...

Geffrye Museum

Two exhibitions about the home at the Geffrye museum:

Christmas Past: 400 years of seasonal traditions in English homes - finishes 4 Jan

This exhibition shows you a typical room with a typical Christmas table laden with the kinds of foods and drinks eaten.  Apparently the concept of politeness in the eighteenth century was more complex than today's present meaning and it included not showing extremes of temper or opinions.

Choosing the Chintz: Men, Women and furnishing the home from 1850 to the present - finishes 22 Feb.  What captured my imagination in this exhibition is the fact that men were the main selectors of soft furnishings and decoration in the home in the nineteenth century.  Women's influence in the home only developed after 1879 and the Married Women's Property Act when their legal position changed and they were allowed to retain ownership of belongings after they were married.  Until this time men chose their furnishings as it reflected their position and status in society.

Urine Odours on concrete

There is a forum for "Removing dog urine smell in concrete floors" which is quite comprehensive and makes lots of useful suggestions and white vinegar seems to be an effective solution.

Demos looks at happiness

Demos is an independent research and think tank.

A recently published book A Material World: Caring for the Public Realm stating "How things are kept and cared for demonstrated their significance...in terms of how much value we place on them".

Happiness is also something that Demos has noted that we are all taking much more interest in 

Guerilla Gardening

Guerilla Gardening has been described as political gardening.  Active guerilla gardeners enables derelict urban areas to be rejuvenated.  It's a global enterprise with examples from Australia, to US to Denmark to South Africa and to the UK.

There is a blog about Guerilla Gardening by Richard Reynolds who has also written a book "On Guerilla Gardening" and with instructions on how to get started.  The Community section on the blog shows how widespread it is with an international sunflower spreading festival.