Urban Explore - Windows of Old Town

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I chose the east-west street in the Old Town of Edinburgh to explore, that is, from King's Stable Rd to Abbeyhill, passing Johnston Terrace, Lawn Market, High St and Canongate.

I like the streets of the Old Town very much, because it is surrounded by many historic and distinctive buildings of Edinburgh and has a variety of features. There are residential houses, office buildings, vintage shops, cafe, as well as many historical and cultural heritages.

I choose the window as the theme of urban explore because I believe that the window can establish visual communication between indoor and outdoor, as well as a special connection between people, society and nature. As a person standing outside the window, I can see the life of many other people in Edinburgh through the window.

Last week, I divided the topic of windows into three directions, and chose the third direction, which is the windows of Old Town themselves, as the final research direction. Because I found that the windows may contain a lot of details worth exploring. For example, the texture and shape of the windows and walls around the windows, are related to the climate and history of the city, and these characteristics build the uniqueness of windows in different cities.

These remind me of a photography I once saw. It was Andre Concalves, a photographer with a collection of photos documenting the windows of different cities. It is obvious that the window features of different cities are irreplaceable.

Windows of the World - Trento, Italy by Andre Concalves

Windows of the World - Notting Hill, England by Andre Concalves

Windows of the World - London, England by Andre Concalves

In my research last week, I focused on collecting materials of windows and walls.

I conducted some AI graphic production.

And i also did some manuscript of the wall texture around the windows. I was inspired by Andre's photography project and found that the windows and the walls around the windows could actually be regarded as a whole, and it was this whole that made the vision unified and rich in the characteristics of the city of Edinburgh.

During sketching the manuscript, I experimented with crayons, watercolors, gouache, and water-based markers. Finally, I found that the characteristics and texture of water-based markers were the most suitable one for my topic. Because geographical location of Edinburgh is near the sea and it has a unique temperate maritime climate, which made the city rainy but dry. Many of the walls are made of stone and brick and window frames are corroded to varying degrees because the salt content is high in the air. This characteristic gives me a hard, wet feeling, which bears a lot of resemblance to the textures drawn with water-based markers.