a review of my ideas...

Apologies that I have not been on here for a while but a mixture of holidays and lots of reading has prevented me from writing...

Over the last few weeks, my thesis proposal has dramatically changed, for the better I feel. Here is the current proposal...

"In October 2008, Barnsley Council announced a new partnership with the borough of Newham, hosts of the 2012 London Olympics. A series of cultural and sporting events are planned to bring the Olympic buzz to Barnsley, so in keeping with this partnership I propose to design an adaptive structure promoting the Olympics. By using one of the numerous empty shops in the town centre, I intend to design a space which will be of benefit to the community of Barnsley before and after the Olympics, whilst assisting with the ongoing town regeneration.

In order to produce a worthwhile design that will benefit Barnsley once the Olympics are over, I plan to engage the community of Barnsley by asking for their input into possible ideas for the structure’s use. By using a space of around 400m2, with the possibility to extend onto two floors and into the street-scape, I hope to explore the design in both concept and detail.

Following my previous work looking at sustainable and mobile exhibition spaces, I want to use my final design project to explore this further. By exploring the principles adopted by the 2012 Olympics programme to provide resources that have a legacy, I aim to explore the creation of an exhibition / promotional space in Barnsley, away from the main centres that engage communities in the games; and which after the Olympics have a legacy use for the local community.

In addition to considering the Olympic plans, I also intend to research into previous urban regeneration schemes to establish ideas and designs that have proved successful. By evaluating schemes used across the world and for various uses, I will gain an insight into what temporary ideas are already available and discover where my design fits."

So I am currently attempting to contact Barnsley Council to gain copies of plans and access to a shop within the town...It is taking a bit longer than I expected however I do have a back-up plan available if it does take much longer. I am conscious that this delay is preventing me begin the design project however I have been reading a really interesting book called "Temporary Urban Spaces: Concepts for the use of city spaces" by F Haydn & R Temel. It has some good essays by a variety of people involved in regeneration, and is definitely got me thinking about what my design project will entail.

Once I have some more news on the project, I will let you know...anyway back to some reading!