the colour of north street

If you take the words and the branding out of the hight street is it less demanding? Might this be the same for people who speak another language or cannot read? Are we so familiar with the brands we can tell what they are just by the colour combinations?

cognitive benefits of natural environments

Perhaps unsurprisingly, recent research by Kaplan and Berman, psychologists at University of Michigan has found that a short urban walk can cause cognitive deficits compared to a walk in the park because natural settings do not require the same amount of cognitive effort. The concept of ART Attention Restoration Theory, suggests that immersion in nature may have a restorative effect (p21) Could small scale interventions - a glimpse of growth in unexpected places within the urban commercial environment have some of the same effects? Personal experience of comparing london Victoria to a rural walk would definitely support this. 

the urban idea of rural

According to Global Colour Research this is the latest colour trend "a play on the rural stereotypes that urban dwellers imagine still exist in the countryside and try to replicate with visits to farmers’ markets and organic retailers"  

What impact could introducing authentic elements of the rural environment have? A tree stump, a rock,  a sheep, a telescope to a large sky but no wind no rain no fresh air. in Paris supermarkets they have the sound of tweeting birds in the veg section ....could we have breeze doorways? - or is that just air conditioning?

an empty cinema

Went to see a one off showing of Fish Tank at the local Odeon. Such an alternative film that they didn't bother to put any adverts on before the film. I was the only one in there. Beautiful

the colour of midsummer

Nearly everyone who responded to my Do you need time out? survey has a preference for a rural or natural environment and outdoors rather than indoors. Perhaps this is predictable . Perhaps there is some kind of collective subconsciousness that responds positively to growth? This is midsummer on the england scottish border : as much green as I have seen in the past year, without a building in sight.

the colour of churchill square

Having done a combination of mapping with google maps and pacing the streets, I made a colour sampler to demonstrate the (visual) experience from photographs that I took in churchill square using the eyedropper in photoshop. This is a colour palette of the environment, not the people.