Deer Park Alpha

PORTSMOUTH, UK: Deer Park Alpha’s Carl Leroy-Smith spoke to the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in Portsmouth at the Royal Naval Club & Royal Albert Yacht Club on Monday 30 March 2009.
Carl gave the talk on a vision for Portsmouth that connects communities and focuses on making a liveable city. He used John Ruskin’s five ‘life’ [...]

A student from Solent University sent DPA director, Carl Leroy-Smith some questions to answer. We thought we would publish the Q&As here:
What or who inspired you to study Architecture?
I always loved designing things and drawing. When I was about 12 my parents bought a house that required complete renovation and meant they had to [...]

BANBURY, UK: Our definition of Urban Design has been quoted in the Banbury Civic Society’s newsletter. You can view it here. Next stop the LA Times.

Portsmouth, UK: We have started a peleton cycling thing on Sunday mornings. Get a road bike, then look here:
portsmouthpeleton.wordpress.com

Our little urban design guidebook ‘Where We Live….’ has been reviewed in the Autumn 2008 issue of URBAN DESIGN JOURNAL. By all accounts a very positive review.
You can download a copy (500K) of the review here or see the article on the RUDI website here.

FAREHAM, UK: Deer Park Alpha are delighted to be working with VT Flagship on a project to develop advanced sustainable accommodation for the Royal Navy. 
One of the basic human requirements is the need to dwell, and one of the central human acts is the act of inhabiting, of connecting ourselves, however temporarily, with a place [...]

PORTSMOUTH, UK: We have been working on a new project recently. Another of our made up affairs that we will probably spend the next few months promoting. You can download a powerpoint presentation of the project here.

The project follows on the long term cancellation of the Northen Quarter development in central Portsmouth. A poor piece [...]

Portsmouth, UK: We have created a new web page for our Route project. It enables you to see in detail the whole of the original ‘Poster’ we created.
You can visit it here: http://dpa-illustrated-news.org/theroute/
In addition there is an animated powerpoint presentation here
We are also setting up an online petition for the project. We have presented the project [...]

Portsmouth, UK: As previously mentioned on here we have been commissioned to design a new adventure playground in Portsmouth. We are nearing completion and have produced our first comic! The comic records our research, the clients’ brief and the results of our community involvement events. We asked local children to make a playground out of [...]

Portsmouth, UK: We have recently obtained planning permission for this 2.5 metre wide house in Portsmouth. We are now working with the client to build the project.
Based on a concept derived from Italo Calvino’s ‘Baron in the Trees’ the house feels like climbing op through the tress to a view north of a single distinctive [...]

PORSTMOUTH, UK: Deer Park Alpha are really pleased to have been appointed to work with Portsmouth City Council on a new Adventure Playground in the city as part of the Pathfinder programme. We are currently carrying out research into the subject and will be holding three hands-on community consultation sessions around christmas. Look out for [...]

Over the past month or so we have attended a whole host of events where the creative economy has been hailed as the saviour of the nation. However, quite apart from the fact that the creative sector is seen by just about every region in the developed world as its saviour, we are worried that there [...]

PORTSMOUTH, UK: We filmed this lovely sunrise on the way into work on Monday morning. It is 5 mins long but very beautiful, even on a crappy Nokia phone. Must go HD.

The Beatles masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band took 129 days to make. That’s four months and they spent 700 hours on the job over that period, which ran from December 1966 to April 1967. Just shows what one can do in a short space of time if one puts ones mind to it. [...]

SOUTHAMPTON, UK: Deer Park Alpha Director, Carl Leroy-Smith attended the Cabinet public meeting on Monday. The meeting, held in Southampton,  was one of the latest ministerial “away days”. This Guradian link gives a pretty good overview of the meeting attended by around 150 people from from across the South East Region. Carl sat on a table [...]

PORTSMOUTH, UK: Our ‘The Route’ project featured in Portsmouth’s local paper The News on 18 October 2008. A most excellent article written by David Hurley gives a good and positive overview of the project. You can download a high resolution (6MB) version here

Our book ‘Where we live…..’ has been out for about six-months now. We have had some amazing feedback via the official feedback web form. A selction of readers comments are below:

“A CLEARLY SET OUT AND WELL WRITTEN BOOK”  

“IT IS OUTWARDLY APPEALING AND INWARDLY ENGAGING”

“With all the many urban design publications around, its nice to [...]