Contextual design enables the designer to both understand the ‘parametres’ of a design problem and test the ‘strength’ of a design solution. They reflect what we do as designers intuitively most of the time.

The theories are useful for understanding how to place an object (ie. a fountain)…

1. What does the fountain look like?
2. What does the context look like?
3. What is the purpose of the fountain? What relationship are you trying to achieve between what the fountian looks like and what the context looks like?

Useful sites for starting to think about placement of fountain are THE FOUNTAIN AT KEW GARDENS (example)and the associated link to FOUNTAINS (range and history of types).

[http://www.articlesbase.com/landscaping-articles/the-hercules-garden-water-fountain-at-kew-gardens-655668.html]
[http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/fountain]

….through to considering the placement of facilities for events such as the equestrian etc events in a complex environment such as the historic and evolving Greenwich Park.

But it may not have been the concept [wanting to connect with the history of coal mining] or the idea [using black stone to represent coal in the pavement] that was the problem, rather the resolution of the idea and the concept within the design solution.

Here is how I see it:

The stream of thought (about the site and how you might approach it)…is a little bit like the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When she was good she was very very good and when she was bad she was horrid.

Whether the solution is beautiful or not will depend on the resolution of the concept [topographic referencing], idea [pathways and road as streams flowing to an island]. Whether the deisgn is functionally successful will depend on whether you fulfil your design objective [creating inviting patterns of movement and rest into, within and out of the site.]

Fortuneately, having already seen examples of your work, if I was the client I would have a good deal of faith that you could deliver on your concepts and ideas!

http://shorterwater.blogspot.com/2008/11/stepping-onto-site-its-apparent-that.html

its me trying to articulate some of the issues i have with concept based design

there is a strong case for context sensitive design, especially on sites with a long history or a special atmosphere. here you can build organically on what already exists.

creating a sense of place i think, depends a lot on creating the right mood or feeling, and its the over literal approach to a places history or context that sometimes makes me uncomfortable. Tom gave a very good example of this, where the designer of a paving scheme had used stretches of black stone to represent coal seams. but a street and a coal seam dont have much to do with each other, when you think about it

Can you think of an example of a weak context? Or a place where another (type of?) solution might be needed?

seriously, there are places where the existing context may be weak or some other solution is needed. i’d hate to approach a design with any sort of fixed ideas

Etymology: Middle English moste, from Old English mōste, past indicative & subjunctive of mōtan to be allowed to, have to; akin to Old High German muozan to be allowed to, have to

Date: before 12th century
verbal auxiliary

1 a: be commanded or requested to b: be urged to : ought by all means to
2: be compelled by physical necessity to : be required by immediate or future need or purpose to
3 a: be obliged to : be compelled by social considerations to b: be required by law, custom, or moral conscience to c: be determined to d: be unreasonably or perversely compelled to
4: be logically inferred or supposed to
5: be compelled by fate or by natural law to
6: was or were presumably certain to : was or were bound to
7dialect : may , shall —used chiefly in questions
intransitive verb
archaic : to be obliged to go
[Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/must%5D

MUST does seem to have many definitions….and these are only some of them! (I am supposing some are more dangerous than others?)