Building Design articles from August 2003

Building Design archives from August 2003

Client calls end to elitism.
August 8, 2003... A leading developer working in Liverpool has attacked architects For being "adversarial" and "elitist" in their dealings with developers. The head of Rumford Investments, Richard Miller, who is proposing one of the largest developments in...

Glasgow snub angers Scots: council lines up superstars ahead of locals on 40m [pounds sterling] museum.
August 8, 2003... Scottish architects this week hit back at plans by Glasgow City Council to award the design of a 40 million [pounds sterling] museum in Glasgow to a major international name such as Frank Gehry or Norman Foster. Glasgow-based architects...

Urban strategy launch.(News)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... The East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has published a draft strategy to regenerate urban areas by Llewelyn-Davies. Its proposals include a regional centre of excellence and an expert panel to advise on regeneration issues.

New BRE fire guide.(News)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Construction research body BREhas published a guide to fire safety engineering for architects. Fire Safety Engineering: A Reference Guide is available to download at www.bre.co.uk/frs, or in print form to buy from www.BREbookshop.com

Motley crew.(News)(regatta held at the Isle of Wight)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... The Little Britain Challenge Cup--the annual construction industry regatta, held from September 11-14 at Cowes, Isle of Wight--has launched "crewsearch". Solo sailors and skippers looking for a crew can register their details on the LBCC...

Davidson memorial.(News)
August 8, 2003... A memorial will be held on Thursday, September 4 to remember Ian Davidson, founder member of Lifschutz Davidson, who died suddenly last February at the age of 48. It will take place in the early evening at Bernie Spain Gardens, by the Oxo Tower...

Glitz-free Olympics: Sydney experience swings London games master planning role for Edaw and HOK Sport.(News)
August 8, 2003... HOK Sport's key role in the 2000 Sydney Olympics was the telling factor that blew away a glittering list of competitors--including Richard Rogers, Foster's, Herzog & de Meuron and Farrell & Partners--London's Olympic bid team said this week....

Take it away, Stratford.(News)
August 8, 2003... A possible London Olympics in 2012 could be topped off by the great vanishing stadium act. Plans for an athletics stadium that could be taken down after the games and used somewhere else have been presented as a way of avoiding a "white...

Reform land supply, Cabe tells Treasury.(News)
August 8, 2003... The government must reform the supply of land if it is to solve the housing crisis in the South east, Cabe chief executive Jon Rouse said this week. Cabe told a Treasury review of housing supply that there were insufficient funds in the...

McAslan tipped for Beijing.(News)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... John McAslan & Partners has moved a step closer to designing its first major Chinese building and is soon expected to be unveiled as designer for three towers as part of a major commiercial development in Beijing. McAslan is in final...

Paddington gets the OK.(News)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners' designs for phase II of the redevelopment of Paddington Station have been approved by Westminster Council, subject to approval of the listed building content by English Heritage. The scheme includes the...

Seaside tower attracts abuse: architect called 'madman' and 'lunatic' in anonymous e-mail.(News)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... A Brighton-based architect has been branded a madman and a lunatic as local opposition to his eight-storey tower in a nearby village got personal. Alan Phillips Associates' proposals for a 2.2 million [pounds sterling] residential tower in...

Flat vat at mercy of horsetrading.(News)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... The future of a multi-billion-pound tax regime which holds back urban regeneration is at the mercy of Brussels "horse-trading", campaigners for its reform warned this week. The VAT regime on construction has been primed for reform by the...

Go west: wages soar in Wales.(News)
August 8, 2003... The RIBA's annual survey of UK architects' employment and earnings has revealed a dramatic rise in earnings among architects in London, Wales and the South-west. The survey, which was sent to one-fifth of the estimated 24,000 working...

Baillie Scott pictures sold.(News)(Atkins Walters Webster buys drawings and photographs)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Rare drawings by celebrated arts & crafts movement architect Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott have been bought for posterity by an admiring firm of architects. The collection of drawings and photographs of two houses--the 1909 Priestcliffe...

Villas under road threat.(News)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Italian president Silvio Berlusconi has been condemned for giving the go-ahead to a motorway that would blight 16th century villas by Palladio at a World Heritage Site south of Vicenza. A new report by campaign group Save Europe's Heritage,...

Reasons to recharge your batteries.(Comment & Analysis)
August 8, 2003... Enjoy the holidays, because while you are boozing in Barcelona or sketching in Siena, the profession's collective inbox is filling up with serious challenges for autumn. While a move to Wales to chase soaring salaries might not top your...

We can't afford it.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Lee Mallnett, London BD may be winning its very welcome Flat VAT campaign, the one thing that irks us venal developers in London most is not VAT, onerous though it is, but bonkers affordable housing policies that, true to the...

Listing badly.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Gavin Stamp, London Why on earth should there be concern over English Heritage taking control of the listed building regime (News July 25 2003) when the whole programme of postwar listing has been carried out EH with conspicuous...

Jury surface.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From John Smith, chair, BBC Music Centre Jury, London The BBC's continuing pledge to champion new architecture is not in jeopardy. As you reported (News July 25), we have delayed the announcement of the winner of the competition to design a...

Know your density.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Stan Green, Newbury, Berkshire There we have it, a new minister of housing and planning who knows precious little about the industry (News July 25) being urged to use the RIBA as a resource for his steep learning curve. Poor Keith...

Pair bond.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Richard Ellis, London As Keith Hill's architect "pair" I can assure readers that he will be an excellent minister. He is approachable, diligent and receptive to new ideas.

Timespam.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... 1953 Modernism's first obituary drafted by disgruntled modernist. 2003 As Olympic Games construction deadline nears, Athens roofers practise their Mexican Wave. 2023 All vernacular architecture now officially Gehryesque.

Meeting of minds.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Humphrey Lloyd, chairman, Arb I am writing about the letter from Ian Salisbury (Letters July a 25). First, once it was clear that counsel's opinion would not be ready until after Ian Salisbury had gone on holiday, he was...

'Pool resources.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Graham Thew, Liverpool David Dunster's observations about the city authorities, the voters and the architects of Liverpool are at best, a misinformed attempt at being sensational, and at worst a mischievous undermining of the very...

Frank exchange.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Bryan Perry, Lewes, East Sussex Having recently seen Oscar Niemeyer's splendid little pavilion in Hyde Park and an impressive documentary on Brasilia, I couldn't help wondering what Niemeyer would have designed for Brighton seafront...

English lesson.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... In your student review (BD July 25) many said they were Scottish and some that they were Irish. Only one was English. Most answered that they were British. Does this epitomise the view that the English are embarrassed about admitting to the...

Flexed up.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Duncan Gunn, London I am sitting with the July 18 BD open on a curious piece of furniture that is casually flexing to serve a number of functions. My mistake, it's a table, although I'm sure messrs Beigel, Christou, Heidegger and...

Short of a picnic.(Letters)(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
August 8, 2003... From Keith Brownlie, London Are all architects this mad and affected? First, in the Sunday Times there's Eva Castro of Plasma Studio dressed head to foot in red leather, with matching long-sleeved gloves to complete the uber-fetish...

Erratum.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
August 8, 2003... From Andy Turner, London An error in picture transmission in Class of 2003 (July 25) gave Dundee part 2 student Steven O'Mahony the wrong face. He does in fact look like this.

Adios to the Olympics.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... If only we British could relax more, mused this reporter after a call to MBM Arquitectes in Barcelona. Following its unsuccessful attempt to win the masterplan for the 2012 London Olympic bid, the team has clearly gone for beach therapy. The...

A good sport.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... British firms do not appear to be quite so sanguine in defeat. One source at Richard Rogers Partnership complained of "bloody all-nighters" and seemed a little frazzled by the whole experience. Interesting to note that Richard Rogers' colleague...

Short answers.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Backpage lovely Ian Martin has slipped effortlessly into Bermuda shorts and flip-flops mode with his annual small-practice summer survey. And the questions are as entertaining as ever. For example: if your practice was one of the seven dwarfs,...

Air of mystery.(Comment & Analysis)
August 8, 2003... Is anybody still labouring under the misapprehension that air travel is inherently groovy? Surely not: we have all suffered enough in transit to recognise it for the cattletruck it is. Yet air travel tends to induce a collective miasma: we...

Duty calls.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Cabe boss Jon Rouse has scotched rumours he is about to quit by committing himself to the job until next year at least. He felt he had to tell his board and make a statement on the matter such was the gossip. The question now is whether he will...

Spin doctored.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Splendid contribution to the "education in crisis" debate raging this summer, from a chap calling him self "Archie" at Panter Hudspith. Students might rely too much on visualisations these days, but we have those skills to thank for this...

Exit Sadam enter Frank: Bechtel is not the only US institution trying to rebuild Baghdad. Eastern-influenced designs by Frank Lloyd Wright are being revived by Islamic scholars.(Comment & Analysis)
August 8, 2003... "It is yours, Mr Wright," said King Faisal of Iraq to Frank Lloyd Wright, referring to an island in the river Tigris. It was 1957 and the American architect was in Iraq to present his Greater Baghdad project. He wasn't convinced that downtown...

Learning curve: the new Ludlow library and resource centre may not rank among Aldington Craig & Collinge's best work, but it could mark an escalation in scale for architecture's best-kept secret.(Building study: Aldington Craig & Collinge, Ludlow)
August 8, 2003... Ludlow's citizens have been manning the battlements for a thousand years. The Shropshire town dates back to the 11th century, when Ludlow Castle was erected as one of a string of fortifications built to keep out the Welsh. In the Middle Ages...

Gesture politics: innovative use of technology is not enough. The Houses of Parliament's temporary ticket office is a poor reflection of the role architecture should play in British life, argues Ellis Woodman.(Building study: Pringle Richards Sharratt, Westminster)
August 8, 2003... Next time you catch Andrew Marr broadcasting from the lawn outside the Houses of Parliament, take a look over his shoulder. There, emerging from the ground like the hand of the undead in a George Romero zombie flick, you'll find a new addition...

Manual labour: a monograph on Allford Hall Monaghan Morris breaks the mould yet seems disingenuous in its uncritical claims for what is still a young practice.(Culture)(Book Review)
August 8, 2003... There was a time when you knew what to expect from a practice's first monograph. Square and compact, such books presented a collection of projects introduced by a short "critical essay"--which, as often as not, seemed to be by Kenneth Frampton....

Journeys into space: Monica Bonvicini's artworks provide a critique of architecture as something creating discomfort and dysfunctionality.(Culture)
August 8, 2003... This is Monica Bonvicini's first solo show in the UK and includes a new installation piece specially created for the large upstairs gallery at Modern Art Oxford. She works with video, film, drawings, text collage and assembled structures, but...

People's home: New Home is a kind of Top of the Pops of new house design, but there's no real criticism.(Culture)(Book Review)
August 8, 2003... You've got to admire people who can write about architecture in a straightforward way, for a non-specialist audience--and on these terms, James Soane's book New Home gets the thumbs-up. It's a guide to nice, contemporary house design that is...

Diary.(calendar of events)
August 8, 2003... LECTURES WEDNESDAY James Soane: serious qlamour. Architecture Foundation Summer Nights social evening. Venue Quiet Revolution, 49-59 Old Street, London. 7pm. Cost Free. Details 020 7253 3334. NOW BOOKING OCTOBER 8...

Modern morals.(Back Space)
August 8, 2003... At a recent event in the Oscar Neimeyer-designed pavilion at the Serpentine, Richard Sennett and Alejandro Zaera-Polo and I discussed the subject of the modernist city. Rowan Moore, the chair, wondered why all aspects of the modernist project...

Ian Martin.(meshed briefs)
August 8, 2003... Monday I am gutted to learn that my consortium will not after all masterplan London's Olympic bid. Too radical, I have heard through the grapevine. Our proposal was to create not just a carbon-neutral Olympics but a carbon-neutral city--by...