I had arranged to have a meeting with Joan Geddes from the Fife Council’s Physical Environment and Regeneration Team , at the Town House Kirkcaldy at 0900hrs.  Unfortunately, Joan was not available, but I was able to met with someone from the same team.  Gill Baldwin, a landscape architect and I had a discussion over a cup of tea and I was able to explain the MDes research project and presenting an initial powerpoint presentation of my findings and research to date.

The aim of the meeting for me, was to try to establish any opportunities to link in with any of the potential development schemes that the Physical Environment and Regeneration Team were workingh on currently or in the near future.

I feel my presentation was well received by Gill, as it enabled us to discuss a wider variety of topics related to my own project. This council team have a reasonably wide remit and are linked to other teams such as the Transport team etc.  There  is potential to tap into the council archives with regard to photographic sources and to make new links to other contacts within the council.

Town Centre Regeneration Initiative;  Economic Develoment; Town Centre Management; Kirkcaldy Civic Spaces Project, etc.

The emphasis of my research at the moment was on wayfinding as a way to develop an enhancement of the towns access routes by creating information flow signage and clearer routes of traffic flow. This would ultimately benefit all users of the wayfinding to improve navigation and information for  improved traffic flow and to highlight features and palces to visit in the town.

Gill’s comments were that signage / wayfinding was perhaps too obvious a selection and commented that I should perhaps look an a more urbanist approach by developing ideas for walking and cycle routes  linked with the huge potential to develop innovative design ideas for the main promenade along the riverfront.

Flooding : interestingly, on Tuesday 30 March,  Kirkcaldy was subject to the worst flooding on the promenade for 30 years, due to a combination of heavy rain and extreme high winds, which compounded to create 3o foot high waves.  Flooding of buildings and roads along the promenade of the ‘Lang Toun’,  highlighted a real problem to be assessed and solved for a future strategy.  I will post photos later from the local press for reference.

TASKS: I now need to rethink my strategy for my project and perhaps re-assess the research question. I have already started looking at case studies from other coastal towns, such as Rhyl in Wales and Clacton-on Sea , to compare how a development process for Kirkcaldy can be developed.

Hopefully, Gill Baldwin will be able to  provide  contacts with other relevant people and departments within Fife Council, to enable me to make further stakeholder links.

There  is also the possibility of participating in future development workshops for a variety of different projects.

Many thanks to Gill for her time and expertise in discussing my proposed design research project.

At the start of the design research, I was looking on a much broader scale, and I was looking at the Kirkcaldy town maps from  records and also referring to current maps of the town. The town has evolved from its origins as a harbour port and from its Fife Mining Heritage. Although mining has ceased to be a productive industry, linoleum is still produced in the town and  both these  elements. Through time the post industrial development of the town has been quite fragmented and the elements of history have lost emphasis.

Referring to older maps of the town centre and with recent developments in the retailing heart of the town, it is clear that something has been lost in the characteristic appearance of the urban and civic centre.

Historical references do exist within the town centre in different areas, but they have been bypassed by other factors such as economic development and the expansion of out of town retail developments in competition with the original town centre. Kirkcaldy is actually fighting against itself. The car is prime in this town. Buses and taxis are also major transport factors and the impact on the town is that there is constant movement  in and out of the town.

As Kirkcaldy is ideally placed as a commuter hub for Edinburgh and Dundee, the railway system is also a major transport element and Kirkcaldy is a mainline station on the East Coast Railway network. A train can take passengers to London in approximately 5 hours.

QUESTION : Could Kirkcaldy Town Centre become a car free zone and could the bicycle become a sustainable alternative to the predominance of the car, which has major traffic effects at peak times on the periphery junctions around the town?

Car parking accommodation is a huge factor in trying to attract visitors , tourists and shoppers to the town, and the current wayfinding signage is based on this need to bring people and customers into the town. This approach has been to the detriment of the town’s appearance and functionality.

QUESTION : How can WAYFINDING SOLUTIONS or  bring new benefits to the economic, civic and cultural centre of Kirkcaldy and how can it assist its  residents, businesses and tourists and visitors to make it a more attractive and interesting place to live and work ?

I think there is a need to integrate and develop a holistic approach to the regeneration of the civic centre , which will involve a wide range of stakeholders, and a variety of different, but complementary solutions to enhance and develop the town centre as a place to be.

I have a meeting with Joan Geddes from Fife Council, to discuss my project and to obtain information and hopefully, an endorsement that my project is of value to the town development.

The short videos made last sunday from my driving trip into Kirkcaldy from the different access routes, is not really of the best quality. It was the first take of using video as a potential method for gathering research data for the design project.

I need to purchase a griper tripod to allow me to attach it to a fixture within the car interior ( rear view mirror ) or set up a a frame structure into the front passenger headrest. It need to operate as a hands – free format as I will also be driving.

I will need to plan the next filming session for this sunday  4 April at a very early time , as I do not want to have too much traffic to deal with.

Alternatively I can use my bicycle as the mode of transport for more local and town related  film recording.

I have included  some more traffic signs within the town centre area.

Today, Monday 29 March 2010, I need to refocus my project. The development of the project has to be included as a presentation for SID and foe MDP,

SID – Strategic Information Design

2 pieces of information design needs to be produced.

1  PRINT                                                                  2   WEBSITE  / DIGITAL

MAP                                                                          BLOG

POSTER                                                                   WEBSITE

Production has to be developed from now with submission on 3 MAY