Portsmouth

'Hard Times'

The Hard was created in the 1700's by locals dumping clay into the water at low tide and rolling the clay until it was hard.  Today, it is visually and physically disconnected from the rest of the city and the waterfront where visitors arriving in the city are faced with an impenetrable urban landscape. The Hard', is marred by competing priorities between traffic and people and unfulfilled potential as a 'gateway' to the city for travelers by sea and rail.

University of Portsmouth students looked at temporarily transformation of 'The Hard' utilizing brightly coloured beach huts as markers and identifiable points of attraction along defined routes to seek community feedback and raise awareness of the possibilities for future regeneration inspired by heritage and local memory.

The beach huts acted as a means for distributing postcards to collect peoples' views and memories of 'The Hard' and were installed at the end of three routes marked out by fluorescent paint from 'The Hard' to the city centre, the historic dockyard and the waterfront.  A textured walkway was installed in the subway entrance to the Gun Wharf Quays shopping complex and Brightly coloured figures were installed on rooftops in the area to encourage people to consider the place as more than somewhere to pass through