Own Work: London Historical Cartography Version 1-3 March 2014

 Historical Cartography was created by compiling historic maps of the London region, which began with the first arrival of the Romans. This was then blended with local knowledge, archeological surveys, area/street names, road and sewer routes to create a fairly precise map of what the area could have looked like in a time around 200BC, when much of the land would have been largely as it was before iron age settlers had began to alter the land with large scale agriculture. This was done in order to create a true opposite to rationalised architecture and the two were juxtaposed with each other in my future models.

It is worth noting that due to the time constrictions this map was unable to be completed using all sources. The next stage would be to incorporate studies on soil types which would alter the sizing of the forests and marshes. I will do this at a later date and create version 4, which I will take into further study and likely come out with several more refinements.

 Plotting information from the map on three dimension contours on the Thames Valley region

 London's Street Map with what is buried beneath it's surface long ago

Final Version For Masters showing these native environments with a street map overlay to pinpoint the original site context for any given site in the region

Own Work - Site Visit: Dungeness November 2013

Dungeness is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the Europe, and is classified as Britain's only desert by the Met office; Dungeness is a headland on the coast of Kent, England, formed largely of a shingle beach in the form of acuspate foreland. It shelters a large area of low-lying land, Romney Marsh and has a nuclear power station, 2 lighthouses and seemingly endless of amounts of deserted crumbling fisherman shacks. There are however still a few holiday homes nearby the road that have been well maintained, a small pub and gift shop/cafe by a light railway station.

Dungeness lies on the south east peninsula of kent

It really does feel like one of the UK's only wildernesses and despite receiving a few visitors each day it really does give an intense feeling of isolation. I attended on a cloudy autumn day and one can't help but be reminded from a scene of Hitchcock's 'The Birds' and a sense of otherworldliness.

A fishing boat marker, used to line up boats when going ashore, is begging to degrade with coils of steel rope unravelling at its base.

 

The shacks, mostly deserted have almost all lost their doors and protection from the elements. In some tools are laid out seemingly carefully on workbenches as if they were about to be used, but are now covered in dirt and rust. I couldn't help picturing some sort of horror movie where the town's people disappear over night leaving only traces of the tasks they were doing at the time. 

Whilst moving through the shacks you could see distant solitary shadows moving along the horizon now and then. I was warned that some people may still live within these spaces.

The site is littered with rusting pieces of machinery which alone seem out of place to what this place has become

The decaying fisherman equipment has started to foster life allowing moss and grass a surface to adhere to

 

 

A decaying boat, pulled in from a catch and never used again, the rotting machinery are still attached to its stern that pulled it in

Train tracks, no longer going anywhere. Rotten carriages with there wheels collapsed inside of them are not far away

The power station and nearby string of houses, cafe, garden and pub are the only source activity in the area

Sunset on the nearby beach