Brief:
“Working in pairs, using your workbooks as the primary tool of investigation, choose a ’site’ within a 2 mile radius of the University. Document the site considering a mix of drawing styles, notation techniques, contemporary and historical data, reportage, existing and fictitious narratives, coincidences, lies, etc… all woven into a complex and sustainable narrative map of the environment. This project will form the groundwork for the mapping projects latter in the module and ensure that you have no excuse for not buying and using your workbook. In the following weeks sessions you will be (randomly) expected to tell your narrative through your workbooks and a composite map (edited workbook material compiled into one map) [ie, individual members workbooks and a single group map].”
Introduction to our project
For our IDAT101 project, we had to choose an area within Plymouth, and create a case study. My group consists of me, Luke Best and Scott Penhaligon. Originally we were meant to be in pairs but Scott joined us later on.
For our study we decided to choose the Bretonside Bus Station in Plymouth.
There were a few reasons we decided to study this area. The first was because we knew how busy the station was throughout the day and how many people used the services there. This then meant that we could study the different amounts of people that use the station. As well as it being busy, it is an unusual place because it is remarkably different at different times of day. Being there in the daytime is completely different from being that at night. During the day it seems like a normal bus station with other vendors selling their goods next to it. However at night time the bus station bare hardly any resemblance to the daytime. Being there at night makes u feel unsafe and constantly looking over your shoulder.
Another reason we chose to study the bus station was because of its importance to Plymouth and the condition of it. It is nearly central in Plymouth, and is a vital part in Plymouth’s public services. However for such a vital place, it is in need of some serious repair, just walking around in it and you can see the graffiti on the walls and rubbish on the floor. We will examine this is in more detail and provide some ideas on how to improve the station.
In our previous visits to the bus station, we had noticed how different the people that uses the station are and how they don’t really mix. During the day you have your “normal” people, the type of people that just use the bus station for busses, the obvious use of a bus station. At night the whole atmosphere changes, from people going there to leave Plymouth city centre, to people going there to enjoy the actual station. There are 2 main types of people that use the bus station at night; they are two very different types of people. The first are the “clubbers” who go to the bus station to visit the White Rabbit, an alternative music club that regularly houses live music. The other type of people that visit the bus station at night are the “homeless” people; they visit it to use it as a place to sleep and keep warm & dry at night.
This difference in people and the way they use the bus station turns something that from the outside looks like a boring, standard place into an exceptional place to study and one of the more interesting places in the city.
We hope you enjoy our study of the bus station.
