Life at uni, so far!

As an architecture student with the imminent fear of reviews and deadlines, it is nice to get my mind off all the things I have on my ‘to-do’ list.

In true student style I, along with all my friends, take some nights off to ‘let our hair down’ and make the most of the night. As this topic is somewhat inappropriate for a blog set by the university, it is really quite lucky that last weekend my family came to visit me and I have something else to write about...

With my sister’s flight from London arriving late, it was nearly midnight before I was reunited with the fam and safe and sound in our wee St Andrews house. It was a very leisurely weekend with no work to ruin it, and no rain either! The most surprising thing about St Andrews that weekend was that when we went to the beach, there was NO beach. In all the time I have been going to the East Sands, I have never once not been able to see any sand, and either had my dad, in his 40 years of visiting St Andrews. However, it was remarkable and the frothy, white waves were so expansive that they looked like moving snow. Surfers were taking advantage of the sea conditions and were black dots among the waves. 

Although I had a very relaxed weekend, there was something missing. It was not the same without my twin sister, Louise, who was unable to come home for the weekend. I’ve been hearing all about her life of luxury down in Cambridge, and she was just too busy celeb spotting, (she’s seen Bill Nighy, Giles Coren and Emma Thomson in the past month, and is on the same course as supermodel Lily Cole…) going to balls and going punting along the River Cam to even come and visit her only twin. Truly heartbroken, but it sounds better than Dundee I have to admit…

London

Recently i visited London for the weekend. It was my first trip to the capital since coming to Dundee and, even though I’ve only been studying as an Architecture student for a little while, the difference these few months have made on how I view the world is incredible.

Contrast of old and new

On previous stays in London, and even when I lived there as a child, I never fully appreciated or really noticed the architecture. In contrast to these times, I was able to take in all of the unnoticed and small details of the buildings therefore making it a more exciting experience than ever before. 

The old Leadenhall Market

An ever developing London

The contrast of the old buildings and the new buildings in around the centre of London is quite extreme with the old churches and new modernist architecture such as the Lloyd’s Building designed by Richard Rogers, and the Gherkin designed by Norman Foster. Both the materials and the shapes in the buildings are different and this allows all aspects of London’s history to be seen in the famous London skyline. Typical stone and brickwork is traded for large amounts of glass panelling and stainless steel which adds a modern feel to the city, and in keeping with its high status in society. 

Hospitalfield

It was a brisk and chilly morning the day we visited Hospitalfield House. The weather was ideal for looking at the site, with the light jumping through the breaks in the tree branches and showing the true extent of the site. My initial impression of the site was that it was incredibly open and inviting. With the trees lining 3 sites of the site, the privacy levels are high which makes it the ideal places to create a semi-private and secluded building. While wandering about and attempting to draw (when really it was so cold my hands were hardly functioning...) I was aware of the history of the site, and the effect it had on me, even after I left Hosipitalfield House. 

With the history on the site having been there for over 150 years, the many uses of the site and the Hospitalfield House range greatly, from educational purposes, to being Scotland’s first school of fine art and now, a place where artists can go for long periods of time to paint and make art. As the site was so inspiring, with all the different tangible and intangible elements within it, this has allowed me to gain a lot of ideas for my design by looking at these elements.