Week 1

Sky Garden Mural

On our first day in for this next Unit was quite different from anything I’ve done so far on the course. This was firstly a collaboration between other students from different courses coming together with a few of us production arts students to create something memorable. Secondly this was a real world industry brief, which meant it wasn’t simply a student led assignment we hand in and get graded for. We were working on a creating something that would be on display at the well known Sky Garden or Walkie Talkie building at 20 Fenchurch Street, that is a landmark of the city.

This made it all the more exciting to be given the opportunity to face the challenges within our group and then finding the ability to come together despite our differences to present a piece of artwork as a team. The first day we came to learn about the different courses everyone was in and despite being a group of roughly ten we each displayed a varied set of skills brought to the table and furthermore each held a distinct approach to the client brief.

We went over the proposal provided by the company we were presenting to, known as Design LSM and they gave us a lengthy presentation on the space we were designing for. Sky Garden was opening a café facing their entrance where people queue for known as ‘Larch’ and it was to be a friendly welcoming space was visitors to unwind at affordable prices and we were to design a mural for their wall that ran above a bench seating as the first part of our project.

screenshot from Larch brief given in class

screenshot taken from the presentation provided by Design LSM

The second part which I was looking forward to was to pick up after our winter break and it was to design a projection mapped animation on the floor space before the Larch entrance and project over the pillars as well to invite visitors inside. We had plenty of work to do in terms of looking into the company themselves and what was precisely expected of us to produce as we had specific guidelines to follow that were in accordance to their brand identity.

Sky Garden Visit

We visited Sky Garden as a group on a site visit to view the space the mural would be placed in. The building was under construction so there was a lot of ducting on the ceiling over the pipes and the space felt a lot smaller than the concepts provided in the brief. We weren’t able to properly assess the measurements of the wall as there were furnishings that were to be done below and beside it which meant we were either working on a bigger or smaller scale.

picture taken of the cafe entrance facing the main lobby for the cafe

picture taken of the wall space for the mural

We spent quite a lot of time to ourselves inside the Sky garden itself and found that we were all recording interesting observations to discuss as a group. I found I wasn’t particularly inspired by the plant life inside that day mostly because it was quite gloomy and overcast which affected the overall ambience and because of the season it was fairly generic and plain looking. I did however find the architectural elements more inspiring because of the scale of the space, shape language and the floor to ceiling windows that allowed for a play of light and shadow across the space.

view from the stairway landing inside sky garden

view from the side ascending the stairs

main scenic view of the river Thames from the top floor of the sky garden

On my way down from the third floor terrace I paused and noticed the way the ceiling appeared as though it were tunnelling inwards and gave a warped perception of the interior. Another observation I made was an image I took from inside, was the sky garden reflected on the glass which appeared as though it were actually floating on the clouds above the city and reminded me of the dream sequence in the film Inception when the large structures of the buildings morph into one another enveloping the space in between.

sketches made during my visit of basic shapes with simple line work

sketches of the arched ceiling in Leadenhall market and the curved roof in sky garden

After spending time inside the building we went on a walk to Leadenhall Market as a group to assess the architectural and historical landscape of Fenchurch Street by making note of any observations that caught our eye. From the images I took here and inside Sky Garden I created a collage of the shapes that I found most striking on Procreate.

Leadenhall market visit

image of installation suspended through windows above the street view

collage made on procreate by editing and layering images to discuss in class

another collage made based on the image taken of the sky garden reflected through the window above the clouds after overlaying and color correction giving it an almost science fiction, Inception feel.