Brown reportedly likened his design process to writing a text and punctuating it. I think this is going to be important for me - as the man himself did not write books about his work we have to pick up what crumbs of insight we have! I need to focus on creating some punctuation marks for Woodbury Hill. The reference is in 'Capability Brown and the Eighteenth Century Landscape' by Roger Turner.
I have also used 'Capability Brown, the story of a master gardener' by Thomas Hinde, and 'Capability Brown' by Dorothy Stroud, which has a black and white plate of Brown's 1778 plan for Moccas.
For contemporary inspiration I have been looking at the work of the artist James Turrell at jamesturrell.com. I think that the opportunities to view the sky at Moccas are quite special. I also see that it is in a 'dark sky' area, as defined by the CPRE. There is potential here for something unusual.
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Answers to pre-site-visit questions...
1. The key to this lies in a relationship between nature and the person in the landscape; this is what Brown manipulated, and the same can be done today - perhaps using similar techniques - but the relationship and experience of viewing need not be the same now as it was then.
2. Perhaps we learn most from Brown in his careful manipulation of the conscious and subconscious visual interpretation of the landscape - he makes us see what he wants us to see.
3. I don't think anyone would be excluded from this experience of connecting to and seeing the place, provided the design were both subtle and powerful enough.
4. I don't know yet.
5. If I use general principles extracted from Brown's work and related to the positioning of the person within nature, these ideas could be applied anywhere. The design statements would need to be bold.
6. The layers of history on the site are fascinating and important but perhaps the priority is to observe and conserve them whilst adding a new layer, rather than trying to decode them in some way or form them in to a coherent narrative. The site isn't like that.
2. Perhaps we learn most from Brown in his careful manipulation of the conscious and subconscious visual interpretation of the landscape - he makes us see what he wants us to see.
3. I don't think anyone would be excluded from this experience of connecting to and seeing the place, provided the design were both subtle and powerful enough.
4. I don't know yet.
5. If I use general principles extracted from Brown's work and related to the positioning of the person within nature, these ideas could be applied anywhere. The design statements would need to be bold.
6. The layers of history on the site are fascinating and important but perhaps the priority is to observe and conserve them whilst adding a new layer, rather than trying to decode them in some way or form them in to a coherent narrative. The site isn't like that.
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