01_What is a Research File?

What is a Research File?
Friday October 05th 2007, 1:23 pm / Filed under: London.IS / from Helena
The typical research documents that you should find for your area are:

* Site Visit:
- photographs of your site and its neighbouring area
- material samples (in photograph, sketch form or physical sample-collection)
- preparation of a planting palette (in photograph, sketch form or physical sample-collection). You can also go to the natural History museum website and find the native species for your specific site: The Postcode Plants Database - Natural History Museum
- sketches of the existing site from various points of view
- record any conversations and/or interviews with people that you meet on-site

l Off-site research:

Local authority search:
find the local authority -or council- for your site (Southwark) and look at their planning department. Is there any information that will help you understand the site’s past, present or future? Are there any projects proposed that may affect your site? (For example, a new transport facility or a large school being built nearby). Find the borough’s framework plan and order a copy, or download its PDF. The framework plan usually sets out planning for the next 20 years for every area in London. It includes maps, graphs, images and a lot of text.

Online resources:
Find and make a database of all the online resources available. This will be very diverse in form and will include; websites, online documentaries, youtube videos, radio programmes, news programmes, images, texts of people written on blogs.
Calendar of Events: find activities happening in and around London that relate to your site. Make a calendar marking lectures, exhibitions, festivals, walks, talks, and regeneration -related activities that may be useful to attend between NOW and SEPTEMBER 2008.

Library research:
search the slide collection; search the documentary & video collection; look through and photocopy important articles in the journals available; photocopy passages, excerpts and chapters from books in the library that will be useful. These can be about the history of your site, its architectural merits, its landscape or urban peculiarities. You should also research the TYPE of regeneration of your site. In the case of Southbank, we are looking at Cultural Renovation, so find data to support the ideas for and against renovating an area through culture.

l Photographs:
- Include all of your site photographs in the file
- Enlarge. remember the exhibition we saw on landscape photography. Large images are clearer to read and look very good. So select a few and enlarge.
- Annotate. Write, scribble, cut, copy, paste them if there is something special you wish to point out or remember. This can be done on photoshop or with a marker, post-it notes, etc.. be resourceful and remember they are just research images so they don’t need to look perfect.

l Maps:
- Ordnance Survey (OS) Maps. Find the OS map for your area (in Digimap) and print at a reasonable scale. Not on an A4 sheet of paper. Outline your site with a red marker.
- Topographic maps. Find the topographic map for your area (Digimap)
- Tidal maps. If appropriate (for those with sites next to River Thames), find the tidal maps or waterway maps for your site.
- Historical maps. Look for a site before the regeneration occurred
- Various. Remember there are many types of maps and drawings to look for: charts and diagrams, for example, will tell you about the social and economic characteristics of your site

You will find a good selection of links from where you can begin your search:


Source from Helena