The creative process
The vision for this project is to create a distinct ‘place’ which is set apart and made more visible through high quality design, engineering and art. Nayan has been working in parallel with the design team to contribute another layer to the road improvements. This means that any proposals realised through the project become integrated into the main works on site.
Nayan considers that this critical piece of transport infrastructure creates a complex set of conceptual, formal and technical challenges through which artworks can grow. He is excited by the opportunity to contribute to the way that a new linear landscape can be informed and transformed through the agency of contemporary art.
The identification of appropriate opportunities at this site is an important part of the design process. Areas for consideration might include contributions to the landscape, cuttings, bridge structures as well as cycle and pedestrian links.
Nayan believes that the Sadlers Farm project comes at a time of rapid change in the Thames Estuary. The relationships between economic and social development that will play out in this area of England through the agency of rapid population growth and demographic change are going to be extremely interesting. This means that large-scale infrastructure changes will become the focus of public debate.
The concept proposals have developed from an initial extensive period of research and creative development. At the centre of this primary work two questions acted as guides: What makes a place? What makes a great road? From this research notions of landscape intervention emerged that could exploit the possibilities that the new road forms produces.
The concept Oasis: Five Gardens for Essex seeks to challenge the dominant language of road landscape design through proposing ideas of narrative and issues of experience at the forefront of the design.
Nayan and the design team will work in partnership to maximise quality, value and simplicity of construction and maintenance.
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“The sources from the concepts come from many places. However, the Essex location and scale of the proposed changes to the local landscape interest me. Inspiration is as varied as a small tyre used as a planter at the Watt Tyler Country Park and as complex as the communities that visit Pitsea Cemetery. In other words, the local landscape.”
Nayan Kulkarni
