A Happy Accident

So, like I said in my last post, I spent Wednesday afternoon in my room building this site model. (Photos to go up later) I decided to use foam board in the end just for convenience but I could have used cardboard as well. I was originally going to make it to scale - using our site printouts but found that was far too small so I had to improvise and make a rough sketch slightly bigger than the site. I was going to make it completely stepped but realised that this would use a lot more foam board than I had and again improvised by making 6 large/wide 'steps' instead of several smaller ones. This actually worked out better due to the scale and the thickness of the foam board. My original idea was to make the steps from one side of the site going down to the other. I worked with this until I put one of the pieces in the wrong place. But it worked. Rather than having a straight line of steps down to the water, there is one step about half way down that  is slightly different and create a space that is a bit separate from the rest of the site. This space would be good for more private functions of the kayak centre and I am now looking at putting the meeting rooms on this part of the site.

The layout of the site reminds me of the ripples that the river made and I remember making a video of the currents in the river just up stream from the site. This connection to the river works well and I can use this idea to further develop my design. The river is, after all, key to the project and to Ironbridge. I know need to concentrate on relating my buildings to the site and therefore to the river. I am currently working on the site layout and how I can create enough height within my buildings.