Masters Thesis Project - Inchindown Tanks

Throughout our visit to Scotland, our aim as a studio was to choose a site for our individual thesis project. Before visiting Scotland, I was keen to see Inchindown tanks due to their history and connection to Invergordon. When looking at photos of the site, it was interesting to see a dystopian effect due to its abounded nature, which I was keen to explore first-hand.

When visiting the site, I was struck by the sculptural nature of the oil tanks and how they helped define and frame the local landscape. The tanks were extremely large, making their impact even greater. The site terrain was very rough due to the site being left since the 1960’s, creating interesting challenges when trying to get closer to the tanks. Overall I was struck by the site’s beauty and decided that this would be my thesis project location. I am interested to see how the site will influence my design work and how I use the site. Below are some of the images taken today when exploring the area.

Masters Thesis Project Site Trip - Inverness, Scotland

During our stay this week in Inverness, as part of my final year design project for my MArch, I collected many interesting photos capturing Scotland's beauty and industrial heritage. This is somewhere I have never visited before, and was struck by the beautiful landscape and its connection to the industries around the highland Captial. Below are some of my favourites, and I would highly recommend a visit!

Grandmas Garden Transformation

During weekends and evenings my family and I took part in a transformation of my Grandmas Garden. The brief was to create a low maintenance garden and create a new path down to the shed. The project took us just over 6 weeks to complete.

At the start of the project, I sat with my Grandma and discussed what she wanted for her garden.  We talked about the size of the path, the types of plants and how the garden could be designed for easy maintenance.  I designed some quick visualisations and she decided which design she liked best.

When undertaking the work, it was decided to incorporate some sleepers to the left hand side of the garden to address a difference in level between my Grandma’s garden and the level of the barge board to her neighbours fence.  Other than this alteration the work was carried out in accordance with the designs I drew.

The result has been a great success finished off by planting some winter bedding plants and planting some bulbs for the spring.  Overall, I am incredibly pleased with the result and so is my Grandma.  She is looking forward to enjoying her garden next summer.

Various design options for the garden