Building Design articles from April 2007

Building Design archives from April 2007

RIBA fails to promote us to public, say members.(Royal Institute of British Architects)
April 5, 2007... Largest ever survey of the profession calls on the institute to campaign harder on key issues Will Hurst The RIBA is failing to communicate architects' role and status to the wider public, the largest ever survey of the thoughts of the...

As library seen as new cash cow.
April 5, 2007... The RIBA has revealed plans to open up its greatest treasures to the public through digitising the bulk of its 4 million-strong archive and by making access to its library free of charge to everyone. The digitisation process - which will...

Manta ray bridge glides into Dublin.(Future Systems)(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... This slender structure spanning Dublin's Royal Canal is Future Systems' Luas Bridge in the city's docklands. The bridge, commissioned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and the Railway Procurement Agency, is part of the area's...

LEADER - How to solve a problem like RIBA.(Royal Institute of British Architects)
April 5, 2007... AMANDA BAILLIEU Members want the RIBA to be more proactive, but that depends on how engaged architects are with their own institute Architects continue to believe that the RIBA exists to defend their interests. This was one of the...

LEADER - Transport makes a U-turn.(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Street parties, borrowing a cup of sugar over the garden fence and bowling a hoop down the street may be the stuff of memories, but creative types at the Department for Transport want roads once again to become places for playing and "community...

IN BRIEF: ODA masterplan `robust' - Cabe.(opinion of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment on the masterplan of Olympic Delivery Authority)(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Cabe has given broad support to the Olympic Delivery Authority's planning application for its Olympic Games masterplan. The design watchdog called the plan a "robust basis for future development" and welcomed the strategy to embed legacy...

IN BRIEF: Moneo's Prado extension opens.(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Pritzker prizewinner Rafael Moneo's modernist extension to the 19th century Prado Museum in Madrid has been completed after a five-year build. The #92 million annexe in red brick, granite and oak, known as the Cloister of Moneo, sits next to...

IN BRIEF: Public buildings get energy rating.(Yvette Cooper)(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Public buildings from the House of Commons to local libraries are to get energy ratings similar to those used on fridges. Housing minister Yvette Cooper announced this week that the ratings must be displayed to the public from April next year....

IN BRIEF: Welsh architects' green proposals.
April 5, 2007... The Royal Society of Architects in Wales this week launched its first architecture manifesto, 21 Actions for a Better Wales, to influence candidates for the Welsh Assembly election on May 3. RSAW has emphasised the importance of...

IN BRIEF: Architect fined over Legionnaires.
April 5, 2007... An investigation into the UK's worst outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, which killed seven people in the summer of 2002, has found a catalogue of mistakes by officials at Barrow Borough Council in Cumbria. The 50-page report by the HSE...

New CDM guidelines in force.
April 5, 2007... New safety regulations for the construction industry will come into force tomorrow, despite the Tories' efforts to derail them. The revised Construction, Design & Management (CDM) guidelines, which are supported by the RIBA, will require...

Policy upturn hands streets to designers.
April 5, 2007... Architects called to help revolutionise public space as priority shifts from cars to people Marguerite Lazell Architects have been handed the chance to lead the way on new residential public space after the government published new...

Booming hotel sector set to rocket.
April 5, 2007... Architects working in the hotel sector have been boosted by a new report predicting rapid growth in the UK market. The already buoyant sector will expand by 8% in the next two years, according to accountant and business advisor PKF, which...

Edinburgh scheme approved.
April 5, 2007... Controversial plans by Gareth Hoskins and Comprehensive Design Architects for this redevelopment in the Edinburgh world heritage site have been approved. The #50 million project at St Andrew Square for ING Real Estate will provide 9,300sq...

Blackpool's regeneration hopes look up.
April 5, 2007... Regeneration task force launched as Lords reject casino decision James Rose Hopes for the regeneration of Blackpool have received a double boost with the launch of a new regeneration task force for the city and the House of Lords'...

House takes the rough with the smooth to bridge buildings gap.(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... This residential property by Alan Camp Architects is shortly due to go on site in south-east London. The two-storey house, on an empty 250sq m site in Blackheath, features a neolithic-style area built from volcanic stone at its centre,...

Fat wins its first work for Liverpool.(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Fat has beaten competition from Marks Barfield, Page & Park and Hawkins Brown to design a new building within Liverpool's #900 million Paradise Street retail development. The practice won its first project in the city - a distinctive two-...

DEVELOPMENT: BDP submits campus plans.
April 5, 2007... BDP has submitted plans for a #120 million campus for Worcester University to include a university town square, an 800-seat open-air amphitheatre and a conference and performance centre. The development, which will stand on the derelict...

OBITUARY: Ivor Cunningham.(death of Ivor Cunningham)(Obituary)(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Ivor Cunningham, the architect and landscape architect best known for his Mallard Place housing scheme in Twickenham, has died aged 78. Cunningham joined property developer Span Developments in 1955 and promoted landscape design for residential...

SUSTAINABILITY: Your direct line to Prince Charles.(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Next month's Think07 sustainability and regeneration conference is inviting architects to submit suggestions for climate change pledges to be presented to Prince Charles during his video address to delegates on May 1. The best suggestions...

REGENERATION: #3 million helps colliery refurb.
April 5, 2007... English Heritage has given #3 million to help refurbish and secure the future of buildings at Stoke-On-Trent's historic Chatterley Whitfield Colliery. The 11ha site includes 34 buildings. The money will also be used to tackle structural...

Land deal gives Trinity Quarter green light.(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... Tom de Castella Scottish Parliament architect EMBT will see its second major project in the UK built after a land deal was finally struck for a Leeds shopping centre site that has been in limbo for most of the last decade. The Trinity...

LETTER: Olympic rethink.(Letter to the editor)
April 5, 2007... I enjoyed Sean Griffiths' observations on Mipim 2007 (Opinion March 23); the decadence, the vulgarity, the male testosterone and the leggy blondes. I couldn't help thinking we've created our very own parallel universe but unlike the...

LETTER: Pull the other one.(Letter to the editor)
April 5, 2007... Come on BD! Your Solutions page (March 30) repeated an awful lot of green mumbo-jumbo when describing projects being built in the United Arab Emirates. Transparent glass facades, even when double-skin, do not keep out solar radiation! Do...

LETTER: Put context first.(Letter to the editor)
April 5, 2007... Hooray for Ike Ijeh (Letters March 23) who hits the nail on the head with what should have been obvious all along - that the true starting point for any development plan or policy in London (or for that matter anywhere) is the character of the...

LETTER: Boot out Arb.(Letter to the editor)
April 5, 2007... Perhaps the time is now right for the profession to seize back the initiative, boot out Arb and put professional indemnity insurance back on top of the agenda, reorganised in an equitable way. On May 10 2004 I wrote to Humphrey Lloyd at Arb...

LETTER: We were first.(Letter to the editor)
April 5, 2007... Great article (Solutions March 23) about the work that Andy Ford and Mark Hewitt have been doing with interseasonal heat transfer. But "first" as claimed in the headline - I think not. In 1997 our Archaeolink Visitor Centre opened outside...

LETTER: This is different.(Letter to the editor)
April 5, 2007... The Archaeolink building (which I know well, and admire) developed by Edward Cullinan Architects and Andy Ford at Fulcrum is a version of the Rocky Mountain Research Centre passive annual heat transfer technology, which is referred to in your...

LETTER: All of us need a green strand.(Letter to the editor)
April 5, 2007... You report that the Building Research Establishment thinks architectural education is lacking in the area of sustainable design (News March 23). I am programme leader for architecture and architectural technology at Sheffield Hallam University,...

OPINION - Not another Babe Ruth-style disaster.
April 5, 2007... BILL MITCHELL Boston faces a loss comparable to the sale by the Red Sox of its iconic player. It must be stopped Some things - polyester pants, invading Iraq, paying O J Simpson to write his memoirs - belong in the Bad Ideas Hall of...

DEBATE - Should the new CDM regulations be delayed?
April 5, 2007... YES James Preston-Hood Chairman, CCG Health & Safety Group Neither the British Property Federation nor the Construction Clients Group is disregarding the welfare of workers on construction sites, as has been reported. In obtaining...

WORKS: BOYARSKY MURPHY - Thin end of the wedge.
April 5, 2007... SPECIFICATIONS Architect: Boyarsky Murphy, Structural engineer: Michael Baigent Orla Kelly, Quantity surveyor: PT Projects, M&E consultant: McDonnell Langley, Planning consultant: Washbourne Greenwood Development Planning, Contractor:...

WORKS: MUF - Filling the hole in the doughnut.
April 5, 2007... UK architet Muf has been asked to come up with ideas to reverse the decline of the neighbourhood of Northside in Pittsburgh . Ellis Woodman looksat the practice's proposals An opportunistic attempt to cash in for private gain on the public...

HOW WE CRACKED IT - Fast track for shipshape pavilion.
April 5, 2007... The challenge To take a temporary visitors centre from concept design to finished building in just three months The solution On-the-hoof detailing and robust fixings Architect youmeheshe Site Cutty Sark dry...

SOLUTIONS - SWIFT AND ENDURING.(Cutty Sark )(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... In 1870, when the Cutty Sark was launched, she was expected to have a life-span of around 30 years. Yet today the ship retains around 90% of the original hull fabric. In the mid 1880s, well into her sailing career and captained by a highly...

SOLUTIONS - The shunting of the Sark.(Cutty Sark )
April 5, 2007... A visitor centre for the Cutty Sark will be made possible by raising the sailing ship 1.5m to create space underneath, reports Elaine Knutt The temporary visitor pavilion alongside the Cutty Sark's dry dock in Greenwich, south London, was...

PRACTICE - How will new CDM regulations affect me?(construction design and management)
April 5, 2007... ASK US A QUESTION Richard Brindley RIBA director of practice Laura Atherton Solicitor, Kennedys, London EC1 What are the transitional arrangements for the new CDM regulations, and what are the implications for my existing...

Publicising your practice through one-off campaigns.
April 5, 2007... Can project-based PR give you the profile without the long-term expense? asks Zoe Blackler There isn't a PR executive in the world who can convince a journalist to publish an architect's work regardless of quality. Yet there will always be...

HOW PR ADVICE AND BLOODY MARYS HELPED PRACTICE LAUNCH ITSELF INTO MIPIM.
April 5, 2007... Clerkenwell-based Hawkins Brown has attended the Mipim property fair in Cannes for the last six years. To establish a stronger presence there this year, it worked with PR company ING Media on a targeted campaign around the event. ING...

ROLL ON FRIDAY.(Brief article)
April 5, 2007... `REGENT'S PARK IS PACKED WITH ARCHITECTS SWINGING THEIR BATS ON A WEDNESDAY EVENING' Practice Denton Corker Marshall Location Clerkenwell, London Size 30 people "We think sport is a really nice way to unwind after a day in...

CULTURE - The post man still delivers.(Charles Jencks )
April 5, 2007... Thirty years after his seminal book on po-mo, Charles Jencks continues to grapple with the world after modernism. As his latest book on the subject is published, he speaks to Ellis Woodman For a man who got off a plane from Dubai the...

The world of illusion made real.
April 5, 2007... The latest exhibition of surrealism shows its influence on modern architects, despite the discipline's modest role in the movement. This pleasurable show should be a blockbuster, says David Cunningham EXHIBITION SURREAL THINGS:...

THIS WEEK: Georgian architecture.
April 5, 2007... Richard Rogers has urged city planners to learn from Georgian buildings. "The battle is to get cities as a whole up to the standards that Georgian cities used to be at with tree-lined avenues, wonderful squares and great windows over looking...

THIS WEEK: Welsh planning.
April 5, 2007... Each planning authority in Wales is to receive #70,000 from the Welsh Assembly to help them improve their service as part of an overall #1.75 million investment. An extra #250,000 will support a range of Wales- wide planning projects. ...

THIS WEEK: The Housing Pathfinder scheme.
April 5, 2007... The government's housing market renewal pathfinder took a further knock when a judge halted plans to demolish nearly 600 homes in Oldham. He said the council had ignored environmental factors. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

THIS WEEK: Prisons.
April 5, 2007... The UK prison population has reached an all-time high of 80,300 with only four places left. Former head of the prison service Martin Narey added that there could be 100,000 people in jail by 2010. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

Housing Corp gets tough.
April 13, 2007... Corporation sets out strategy to boost quality of affordable homes Will Hurst The Housing Corporation has heralded a new era of well designed affordable homes in England with the launch this week of its first formal strategy on design...

Adjaye is chairman of the boards.(David Adjaye)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... Work on this prefabricated house in east London, designed by David Adjaye, is almost complete. The timber-frame building, in De Beauvoir Town, Hackney, was largely constructed in just five days last summer by contractor Eurban, which...

LEADER: Rouse's invaluable legacy.
April 13, 2007... Zoe Blackler The Housing Corporation's new design strategy demonstrates impressive ambition Three years ago, as Jon Rouse left Cabe to join the Housing Corporation, this paper questioned whether he would take his advocacy for design...

LEADER: Great Arch is still a potent symbol.(london's euston station)(Landmark overview)
April 13, 2007... When Harold Macmillan gave the nod for the demolition of the Great Arch at London's Euston station he unwittingly fostered the modern heritage movement. The arch, designed by Philip Hardwick and completed in 1837, was a proud symbol of the...

IN BRIEF: Skanska to develop City offices.(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... KPF will work with contractor-developer Skanska to design this eight- floor office development at 20 Gresham Street in the City of London. The #68 million project, for client Hermes Real Estate, will offer 21,000sq m of lettable office...

IN BRIEF: Three Brits up for Gulbenkian.(Purcell Miller Tritton, Long & Kentish and Building Design Partnership Ltd.)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... Purcell Miller Tritton, Long & Kentish and BDP have made it onto the short-list for the #100,000 Gulbenkian architecture prize. Purcell Miller Tritton's #19 million transformation of the Weston Park Museum and the restoration of Kew Palace,...

IN BRIEF: Vinoly wins Battersea Power site.
April 13, 2007... Rafael Vinoly has beaten Foster & Partners and SOM in a secret competition to masterplan the 38ha Battersea Power Station site. Vinoly is said to have taken a "flexible and pragmatic approach", and consultation has now begun with planners...

IN BRIEF: Urban golf enthusiast dies at 34.(Jeremy Feakes)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... Friends have paid tribute to Jeremy "Jez" Feakes, a director of architecture practice Unit 20, remembering his "drive, intelligence, zest and sense of fun". Feakes died earlier this week aged 34 after a fall at his studio. The founder of...

IN BRIEF: Bad PFI schools lead to `bullying'.
April 13, 2007... The government's Building Schools for the Future programme is leading to designs that promote bad behaviour and bullying, teachers have warned. Delegates to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference last week said that...

ACA attacks chartered scheme.(Association of Consultant Architects)(Royal Institute of British Architects)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... The Association of Consultant Architects has attacked the RIBA's plan to launch its controversial Chartered Practice scheme, to be launched in the summer. The ACA, which represents around 250 of the country's leading practices, claimed...

Candys' sweet deal for Rogers.
April 13, 2007... Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners gets off to a flying start with #600m Chelsea Barracks win James Rose Richard Rogers' newly restructured practice Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners will masterplan what is thought to be the most valuable...

Revamp for Euston station.(Leo A. Daly Co. got the contract )(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... American architect Leo A Daly has beaten competition from Make and Arup for a #1 billion redesign of one of London's most notorious 1960s eyesores, Euston station. The Omaha-based firm was part of a successful bid last week from British...

Livingstone backs green roofs policy.(Ken Livingstone)
April 13, 2007... Marguerite Lazell Major new developments in London will be expected to include vegetated roofs and walls following a policy U-turn by mayor Ken Livingstone. An outcry by environmental campaigners has prompted the drafting of a strict,...

FIRST LOOK: Camden cafe site rises againas arts and restaurant complex.
April 13, 2007... The Forge Arts Recital Studio by Burd Haward Architects has just gone on site in Camden Town, north London. The #2.8 million, mixed-use project for client Calyx Property, engineered by Arup and Max Fordham, includes a music recital hall,...

Kelly refuses to rein in councils on green homes.
April 13, 2007... Communities secretary Ruth Kelly has refused to rein in those local authorities demanding faster adoption of the Code for Sustainable Homes, despite intense lobbying from house builders. Speaking at a local government conference last week...

Shore thing.
April 13, 2007... As Britain basks in the first sustained period of sunshine this year, Lionel T Dean of design firm Future Factories has unveiled his vision of a contemporary beach hut. The twister-shaped Wizard of Oz design is one of 100 models that will...

Arb moves to outsource exams for foreigners.
April 13, 2007... James Rose A much hated exam that foreign architects must take to qualify in the UK is set to be overhauled after the Arb offered other institutions the opportunity to run it. Arb's prescribed examination - formally known as the...

Liverpool win for Haworth Tompkins.(Haworth Tompkins Architects)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... Haworth Tompkins is celebrating its biggest project win to date after it was appointed to design a #35 million revamp of the Everyman and Playhouse theatres in Liverpool. The theatre specialist, which designed Bath youth theatre The Egg...

Edinburgh critics will fight on.(Allan Murray's scheme for Mountgrange)
April 13, 2007... #300m Caltongate project in for planning, but campaigners fear it could jeopardise city's world heritage status Heidi Ancell Heritage campaigners have pledged to step up their campaign to block a #300 million scheme for Edinburgh's Old...

Soho pool restoration.
April 13, 2007... Munkenbeck & Marshall's proposed #25 million redevelopment of this historic Soho swimming pool has been submitted to Westminster City Council for planning permission. The grade II listed Marshall Street Leisure Centre, opened in 1928, has...

Six in running for Eltham mixed-use development.(Jestico and Whiles Ltd., Niall McLaughlin Architects, PCKO Architects)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... Six firms have been shortlisted in an RIBA competition for a mixed-use scheme at the Eltham Baths site in south-east London. A-EM Studio and Audley English Associates; Jestico & Whiles; Niall McLaughlin; Walter Menteth Architects; PCKO and...

BLACKPOOL: #4 million for seafront revamp.(Northwest Regional Development Agency)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... The Northwest Regional Development Agency has approved #4 million of funding for phase two of Blackpool's Central Seafront redevelopment, masterplanned by Edaw. The news follows the creation of a new task force for the town's regeneration,...

PLANNING PERMISSION: Marylebone project go-ahead.
April 13, 2007... Westminster council has granted planning for Make Architects' luxury apartment development on Weymouth Street in Marylebone. The 12-flat, 2,000sq m complex includes three penthouses and is an extension of the existing building at 10...

AFFORDABLE HOMES: Housing Corp beats its target.
April 13, 2007... The Housing Corporation has delivered more than 40,000 affordable homes in the first year of its National Affordable Housing Programme - 10% more than its stated target. Deputy chief executive Steve Douglas said: "We will be working with...

WORK & TRAINING: Inspire East and CIC East join up.(Construction Industry Council)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... The Construction Industry Council East and sustainable communities body Inspire East have signed an agreement to work together. The two organisations will support a joint CPD training scheme for CIC members, and will work together to...

London plans world's largest architecture show by 2012.(Peter Muray)(Brief article)
April 13, 2007... Will Hurst London's architecture biennale is set to expand into the largest architecture festival in the world by the time the capital hosts the Olympics, its organiser Peter Muray has revealed. Murray said that growing public appetite...

Archive of slides.
April 13, 2007... A unique archive of slides and audio footage recorded by the legendary architectural editor Monica Pidgeon, 93, has been digitised under a collaboration with Murray. The archive features talks by major figures who have since died including...

OBITUARY: LAURIE BAKER - Guru of low-cost housing in India.
April 13, 2007... Laurie Baker, who has died in India aged 90, was a passionate architectural innovator who faced fierce criticism for advocating construction using only local materials, writes Robin Spence With the death of Laurie Baker in Kerala, India, on...

LETTER: Customer service.(Letter to the editor)
April 13, 2007... Since I became a member of the RIBA in the 1970s, I have been hearing the same call for the institute to "promote" architects more. And I have seen the esteem in which architects are held and the power they have steadily decline. Using an...

LETTER: Small is beautiful.
April 13, 2007... I read with interest your March 23 front page where the ODA's Jerome Frost and Ricky Burdett are quoted as expressing concern that the procurement of designs for venues for the 2012 games will be a "mad rush". This must be the most glowing...

LETTER: Arb's legal advice.
April 13, 2007... I echo Paul Hyett's comments regarding Arb's appalling performance based upon incompetent and inaccurate legal advice (Letters March 23). I was one of the two innocent architects referred to in Paul's letter and would wish to express my...

LETTER: Ahead of time.
April 13, 2007... To save energy I have been running a campaign to realign UK time. There can be considerable savings in abandoning GMT in favour of Central European time. At present, during winter there is a mismatch between London working hours and daylight,...

LETTER: Appraisals work.
April 13, 2007... It is inspiring to read about those who have recognised the crucial link between the "two-way street" of staff appraisals and practices developing as happy, learning and continuously improving organisations. (Practice March 16). While...

LETTER: BBC needs to reinstate design.
April 13, 2007... Your front page article and leader on Cabe's accusation of dumbing down the final phase of the BBC redevelopment (March 30) highlights the fact that for many multiheaded corporate clients, "architecture" is at most skin-deep, one reason why the...

OPINION: Back to basics is the way forward.(Column)
April 13, 2007... PAUL MORRELL Management is increasingly driven by process, not purpose. The remedy is to put the client first Wanted by the Office of Government Commerce: a "strategic director of collaborative procurement", whose job would be to...

DEBATE: Should the RIBA drop its chartered practice scheme?
April 13, 2007... NO Jane Duncan Chair, RIBA Small Practice Committee What a lot of old traditionalist fuddy-duddies we architects must appear to our clients. If you read the letters published over the last few months, we surely seem to fuss and spout...

WORKS: ABK - Cool heads at city hall.
April 13, 2007... The architect's acute observations of Cork and conceptual understanding of the city's urban context have produced a splendid extension to the city hall, says Robert Payne PROJECT TEAM Architect: Ahrends Burton Koralek, Structural...

SOLUTIONS: ROOFING - Hats off to Shigeru Ban's Pompidou-Metz.
April 13, 2007... A `woven' roof is the unifying feature at the Pompidou Centre's new gallery. But the gesture is not as simple as it may appear, as Beatrice Galilee discovered when she spoke to Arup's roof team Paris's Pompidou Centre famously displays...