preparing for the Hybrid Home

The site for the final project will be located in or near Wicken fen. In the next semester you will be offered a choice of sites that will provide suitable locations for the design of a dwelling in the fens. All the sites are, or will be, owned by the National Trust as part of their Wicken Fen Vision. This 100 year project is a proposal by the National Trust to buy 53 square kilometres of Cambridgeshire, between Wicken fen and Cambridge, with the aim of returning it to fenland. It is absolutely essential that you have a thorough understanding of the National Trust's Wicken Fen vision and their environmental strategy in order to ensure a good start to the final project in the new year. All the relevant information can be gleaned from their website. The links below are only an introduction so explore the whole site. Make sure you do as much research as possible now so that the majority of your time in the next semester can be dedicated to design work.

http://www.wicken.org.uk/vision.htm
http://www.wicken.org.uk/resman.htm
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-chl/w-countryside_environment/w-environmental_practices.htm

Remember, you will use your device in the early stages of the next project to record your chosen site, so your device must be operational and able to produce a coherent image by the next semester.

Use any spare time during the vacation to finalise and document the first and second projects for your portfolio.

camera space / fenland exhibition: 11 - 18th december 2009

the fens of east anglia are a place where boundaries are blurred between the natural and the man-made; a palimpsest that describes a history of intervention and the creation of a synthetic nature embedded within the landscape. unit h students took their ‘camera spaces’ to this restless landscape to record and respond to wind and water, light and time, qualities of perspective and horizon, and the man-made interventions that attempt to cope with the forces of flooding and weather.

Crit of Camera Space project with Nick Westby, followed by
Private View 6:00pm, 11.12.2009, Unit H studio space.

Burwell visit 4-6 december 2009

photo from Burwell Lode by Guillem Vaquer Piza

Guided walk of Anglesey Abbey gardens and Hoe Fen, Lode
Guided walk of the ancient fen, Wicken Fen reserve, with the grazing warden
On-site device testing, Burwell House, village and lode