projects
connecting colindale: a flight path folly
|
In collaboration with Wayward Plants for the London Festival of Architecture and Barnet Council.
Colindale has a green core, a series of active green spaces that span the neighbourhood. But it lacks connection; a way to intuitively guide people between parks, linking them up and helping people navigate from one to the other - making the most of the rich offerings available. Connecting Colindale proposes a small pavilion structure that will aid navigation and open up the community’s understanding of the offerings their neighbourhood has to give them. Exploring the rich connections that Colindale has to the RAF, we discovered that it was more than just the home of the RAF museum. Hendon Aerodrome was a place of pioneer experiments, home of the Everett & Edgcombe Monoplane, the home of the first airmail, parachute descent, night flights and the first aerial defence of a city. Flight paths, aerial means of connection, direction and navigation, will weave together, linear vectors that will guide people from park to park. A verdant pavilion, inspired by these flight paths, will be constructed to create a physical map of the area and highlighting key pathways of connection. As the pathway flies overhead the map's shadow will spread across the pavement below. Each planter will support the framework at a key “you are here” junction, allowing people to connect with the park's outlines they are so used to seeing on google maps but seeing the highlighted green thread that shows them a new path to a park as yet unexplored. Over time the flight paths will gradually get filled with climbing plants making green pathways across the sky. Final photography: Luke O'Donovan |
