{"id":760684,"date":"2024-11-11T06:49:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T06:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=760684"},"modified":"2024-11-11T08:50:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T08:50:22","slug":"nature-as-art-commissioning-installations-for-begbroke-science-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/practice\/culture\/nature-as-art-commissioning-installations-for-begbroke-science-park","title":{"rendered":"Nature as art: commissioning installations for Begbroke Science Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford University Development (OUD), a joint venture between Oxford University and Legal & General, is developing a new village around the university\u2019s Begbroke Science Park with 1,800 new homes (50 per cent affordable), alongside research and academic space. Masterplanned by Hawkins\\Brown with Utrecht-based landscape architects OKRA, the sustainable development will be built around parklands and \u2018green arteries\u2019. Alongside homes and open space, there will be up to three schools and community facilities. To help shape the site, OUD commissioned curator and consultancy Company, Place to develop \u2018Another Landscape\u2019, a long-term interdisciplinary arts strategy which includes a series of site-specific artwork commissions.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Who are you and what is the public arts strategy?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Vickie:<\/b><\/span> I set up Company, Place in 2018 when Anna and I worked together on King’s Cross. Most of my experience is in public arts and culture initiatives. Over the years, I\u2019ve become interested in materiality and how projects start, happen and end. This led to more thinking about regional materials and processes to make work that feels site-specific and unique to its location.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s often a distance between science and art but, in terms of process, they\u2019re similar: both are about experimentation and interpretation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

STORE\u2019s hay bales for community events<\/p>\n\t

Source:Kaye Song<\/p><\/div>\n

The arts strategy has been prioritised in early phases of the design rather than at the end. Why?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Anna:<\/b><\/span> The intent was to represent the next step in the evolution of the existing science park. We looked at public art as part of that development, but we didn\u2019t want to do the classic \u2018sculpture in front of a science building\u2019. We started working with Vickie and [Turner Prize-winning studio] Assemble to think about how we could create something that could be used by people in the existing buildings, as well as the wider community as it evolves.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The site was a farm until the 1980s. It is 400 acres with two Grade II-listed Jacobean farmhouses at the centre. It was used as the Weed Research Institute in the 1980s before the university bought it in the 90s to develop as a science park. This led to the concept of creating a weed garden. We\u2019re going to build a new village, homes, commercial space and new schools. What would the materiality of that new community be? Would it reference local villages or the innovation of the science park? We then thought about the rest of the site and engaging the broader community, which led to the artist-in-residence programme.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What site-specific art commissions do you have in place so far?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Vickie:<\/b><\/span> The first we completed was ‘Outdoor Canvas’ by STORE. We worked with designer Kaye Song, who led this part of the commission with engineer Structure Workshop. They designed multifunctional canvases that on one side house a changing art commission, the first of which was <\/span>Ungrounding<\/i><\/span> by The Rodina studio. They looked at farming vernaculars, trailers and hay bales. Using hay bales, they set up pop-up theatre and cinema spaces, ran community workshops and worked with Chilworth Upper School on some elements.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

The Weed Garden by Assemble<\/p>\n\t

Source:Yesenia Thibault Picazo<\/p><\/div>\n

Then there is <\/span>The Weed Garden<\/i><\/span>. All the hard landscaping has been done but planting is in progress and will be for years. This was initially a collaboration between Assemble and garden designer Sarah Alun-Jones. The idea was riffing off the Weed Research Organisation, which was originally located on the site. The garden is both an artwork and a biodiversity initiative, changing perceptions of what are and aren\u2019t weeds. It has included the building of an oolitic limestone wall sourced from Grange Hill Quarry and built by local stonemasons Love Dry Stone.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then we brought in Jaimini Patel, our first artist-in-residence. She\u2019s looking at self-sustaining systems and permaculture to initiate a physical installation that has a more reciprocal relationship with the land.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The art commissions seem to be designed to develop slowly over years. Can you say more about that aspect?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Anna:<\/b><\/span> We\u2019ve been working on the site for three years now. We\u2019re hoping to get full planning permission next year. We\u2019d like to get to the next milestone and then explore the next phases of the arts programme, building on what we\u2019ve learnt \u2013 hopefully through further artists-in-residence programmes. Within a wider discussion about new towns and grey belts, we\u2019re trying to create a high-quality development that can\u2019t just be done physically. You must think about ongoing ways of bringing people together: we don\u2019t want the new community to exclude the existing.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Design studio The Rodina\u2019s Ungrounding on one of STORE\u2019s outdoor canvases<\/p>\n\t

Source:Kaye Song<\/p><\/div>\n

How have you involved the local community in the programme?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Anna:<\/b><\/span> We\u2019ve done lots of outreach through the planning process and the arts programmes. We held garden parties, which showed a local appetite to understand what was happening on the science park. Thousands attended.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Vickie:<\/b><\/span> What\u2019s interesting about the three arts projects is that they\u2019ve all left space for other authors to come in. Jaimini\u2019s opening proposal was about \u2018cathedral thinking\u2019 \u2013 starting something you\u2019ll never see finished. It sounds scary; but if you relax into that idea, it opens possibilities. It was the same with Assemble. The planting will evolve over time and that\u2019s fine. There are already species in that garden because the wind brought them there. We decided they can stay and they are now in the planting specification.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The programme is very materials-led. What are the key materials and why did you select them?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Vickie:<\/b><\/span> There is a rich history of stone and limestone in Oxford and we\u2019re seeing a resurgence in their use as a low-carbon material that can be used in both traditional and experimental ways. The other ways we\u2019re looking at materials is through locality. The more local you can get, the less far it has travelled. It\u2019s a \u2018grow-your-own\u2019 approach. We had a lot of discussions with Hawkins\\Brown and OKRA at the start about what kind of spaces they were thinking about dedicating to growing materials. This concept of grow-your-own is also borne out of the material sciences aspect. It feels like this is a place where you can experiment.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Full Circle, Autopoietic Entanglement by artist-in-residence Jaimini Patel<\/p>\n\t

Source:Jaimini Patel<\/p><\/div>\n

What climate-resilient innovations or strategies are in the masterplan?\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Anna:<\/b><\/span> We have 400 acres [160ha] of farmland. We\u2019re going to build on 50 per cent of that but the other half is going into regenerative landscaping. We hope to deliver a 20 per cent uplift in biodiversity across the site. That\u2019s partly because we have a nature reserve within our site. We\u2019re going to build a new country park which is focused on appropriate planting. For example, we\u2019re looking at willow coppicing because that\u2019s a good way of managing flood risk. We also have some specific areas within the green space that we\u2019re retaining as agricultural land. We\u2019re hoping to create a community farm to create locally grown, sustainable food. We\u2019re working out how you can promote the best biodiversity outcomes balanced with high-quality amenity space.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What other arts interventions are you planning?<\/b><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Vickie:<\/b><\/span> We\u2019re concentrating on the evolution of the existing. You\u2019re on the landscape\u2019s timeline, not the other way round. There\u2019s a lot left to be revealed and explored and that\u2019s the great thing about art as nature. It\u2019s constantly new.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Anna:<\/b><\/span> We also need to reach the milestone of getting the full planning permission. Once we have that, we can build the programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

STORE\u2019s \u2018Outdoor Canvas\u2019 doubling up as a cinema<\/p>\n\t

Source:Kaye Song<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford University Development (OUD), a joint venture between Oxford University and Legal & General, is developing a new village around the university\u2019s Begbroke Science Park with 1,800 new homes (50 per cent affordable), alongside research and academic space. Masterplanned by Hawkins\\Brown with Utrecht-based landscape architects OKRA, the sustainable development will be built around parklands and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59337,"featured_media":760707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[702],"tags":[2924,2402,3686,5716],"yoast_head":"\nNature as art: commissioning installations for Begbroke Science Park<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Oxford University Development chief executive Anna Strongman and director at creative consultancy Company, Place, Vickie Hayward, speak to Fran Williams about their public art installations at Begbroke Innovation District\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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