Building Design articles from December 2006

Building Design archives from December 2006

`Design is at the heart of what we are doing here'.(2012 London Olympics)
December 1, 2006... Exclusive: Ricky Burdett joins Olympic design team l Peter Cook revealed as stadium's secret weapon Amanda Baillieu Ricky Burdett is to become design adviser to the London Olympics after mounting critcism that the design of the 2012...

Heavyweights boost prospects for Olympic showcase.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Design savior Peter Cook is best known for his work with Archigram, the 1960s collective whose "pop" architecture defined a decade. He was shortlisted for the 2004 Stirling Prize for the Kunsthauz in Graz, in collaboration with Colin...

IN BRIEF: Mayor's Award for planning excellence.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... HOK Sport's Emirates Stadium for Arsenal Football Club took the Mayor's Award for planning excellence at the London Planning Awards on Tuesday night. The collaboration with engineer Buro Happold and planning consultant Hepher Dixon also won...

IN BRIEF: Reports of a 2,500-signature petition.(filed against muslim community )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... YAYA 2006 shortlisted practice Mangera Yvars Architects has played down reports of a 2,500-signature petition from local Muslims against its Abbey Mills mosque in east London, to be built for the global missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat. "On...

IN BRIEF: Oakmayne Properties permission.
December 1, 2006... Oakmayne Properties has won permission for this scheme, by PKS Architects, at the Elephant & Castle in south London. The #70 million scheme will include three towers housing a hotel, 216 homes, a cinema, offices, restaurants and shops. ...

IN BRIEF: Government issues draft of the new Part B.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The government has issued a draft of the new Part B - the building regulations relating to fire safety. The 300-page document - more than twice as long as its 2002 predecessor - shifts the responsibility for a building's safety onto its owners...

Government slashes density requirements.(housing )
December 1, 2006... Will Hurst The government has scrapped its plans to force local authorities to build to densities of up to 70 dwellings per ha, it was announced this week. To the surprise of leading architects in the housing sector, the recommended...

BD sweeps the board with four awards.(Ellis Woodman of Building Design gets awards)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Building Design has swept the boards at the prestigious International Building Press awards, beating publications across the construction industry to the coveted title of Magazine of the Year. BD's buildings editor Ellis Woodman scooped an...

IN BRIEF: Power stations legacy.(Historic Scotland and English Heritage to list decommissioned nuclear power plants at Sellafield and Dounraey )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... English Heritage and Historic Scotland are considering listing parts of nuclear power installations at Sellafield and Dounraey to prevent them from being demolished after they are decommissioned. Post-war buildings are only listed if they are...

A little local colour.(public library at London Borough of Barking & Dagenham)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Winchester and London based practice Architecture PLB has won a competition to design a new public library in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, on a site within one of Ken Livingstone's 100 Public Spaces in the capital. The #14.5...

Miller teams up for Birmingham.(alliances of John Miller and Partners with Sidell Gibson)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Groundbreaking deal unites gallery specialist John Miller and Sidell Gibson for 20-year museum project Ellen Bennett Gallery specialist John Miller & Partners has forged a groundbreaking alliance with commercial practice Sidell Gibson,...

A marriage of convenience.(design deals for John Miller & Partners)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... John Miller & Partners, directed by Miller and wife Su Rogers, has notched up numerous gallery projects including a major extension to Tate Britain, the Serpentine Gallery, an extension to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, and a...

McCloud blasts changes to Castleford bridge.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Kevin McCloud, presenter of Channel 4's forthcoming series on the Castleford regeneration project, has raised fears over the design quality of the scheme's "jewel in the crown" development with an extraordinary attack on lead client Wakefield...

Carbon neutral homes for Prince's Poundbury.(Cornhill Estates)(contracts)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Prince Charles has handpicked an architectural practice to design a carbon-neutral extension to his flagship Poundbury development in Dorchester. The Prince has teamed developer Cornhill Estates with Penzance practice Rodda Lloyd Travers...

Better late than never.
December 1, 2006... More than 30 years after his death, Le Corbusier's l'Eglise Saint Pierre in Firminy-Vert, France, has been inaugurated. Designed in 1961, work on the building only began in 1970 - five years after the architect died - and has been completed...

IN BRIEF: Green machine.(Elephant & Castle)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... XCO2's ecopod has landed at Elephant & Castle. The pod gives up-to-date information about the area's regeneration, 24 hours a day. During the day it is an exhibition space, and at night a short film about the Cross River Tram will be projected...

IN BRIEF: Lengthy gestation.
December 1, 2006... New figures from the Home Builders Federation show that local authorities are taking an average of almost nine months to issue planning approval after an application has been submitted. The DCLG's target is for 60% of applications to be...

IN BRIEF: Stone me.
December 1, 2006... Richard Rogers' Welsh National Assembly Building's use of slate has won it the Stone Federation of Great Britain's 2006 Natural Stone Awards. Stanton Williams' Tower Environs Scheme won the landscaping category and Michael Laird Architects'...

Young firms lined up for Liverpool housing.(Urban Splash is working with Shed KM, Riches Hawley Mikhail, Alison Brooks, and Querkraft)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... James Rose Urban Splash has assembled a crack team of young practices for a trailblazing housing scheme in south central Liverpool. Shed KM, Riches Hawley Mikhail, Alison Brooks and former BD Young Architect of the Year Querkraft are...

Less is more at Holland Park.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Aedas has revealed designs for a city academy in Holland Park, controversially replacing the existing school, London's first ever purpose-built comprehensive, and building on playing fields. The designs, for the Royal Borough of Kensington...

LDY to masterplan Buncefield fire site.(Llewelyn Davis Yeang)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... A year on from the devastating fire at the Buncefield oil refinery in Hertfordshire, Llewelyn Davis Yeang has been appointed to masterplan a new 324ha business park for the site. It is the first commission by English Partnerships through...

East Anglia: Tip top toilets.(Cambridge City Council )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Cambridge City Council has won RIBA East's annual Spirit of Ingenuity client award for an innovative set of public toilets. The Freeland Rees Roberts-designed Victoria Avenue public convenience is inspired by African huts. The building contains...

East Anglia: Honours from Beds.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... South Bedfordshire District Council has presented this year's design and planning awards for local housing, commercial, community and public buildings. Project Design Studio was presented with the barn conversion award for work on Herne Poplar...

East Anglia: New look council.(Huntingdonshire District Council)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Alfred McAlpine is to build a #16 million headquarters for Huntingdonshire District Council. The development, by SMC Corstorphine & Wright, is set to start on site next summer. Meanwhile, work on the council's #4.6 million operations centre at...

East Anglia: Fire station start-up.
December 1, 2006... Planning proposals have been submitted for a new fire station and training centre in Ipswich by Capita Percy Thomas. The project is part of a government PFI scheme worth #22 million to rebuild and refurbish fire stations throughout Suffolk. ...

East Anglia: Cambridge seminars.
December 1, 2006... RIBA East is holding two seminars: Natural Ventilation in Low Energy Building Design - Complying with Part L and Part F will be held on Thursday December 7 at the St John's Innovation Centre in Cambridge, while a building conservation seminar...

East Anglia: Looking for luxury.
December 1, 2006... SMC Covell Matthews Architects has lodged a planning application for a luxury development in Newmarket, Suffolk. The plans, submitted to Forest Heath District Council, comprise 20 flats within three pavilion structures. The four-storey...

1,160 enter Stockholm library competition.
December 1, 2006... James Rose An astonishing 1,160 entries have been submitted for an open competition to design a #60 million extension to Gunnar Asplund's iconic public library in Stockholm. Entrants to the anonymous competition, organised by the...

Tees Valley says yes to Marge Simpson's hair.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... A flagship development near Middlesbrough by architects including Will Alsop, Grimshaw, Feilden Clegg Bradley and Studio Egret West will go ahead after terms were agreed with developer BioRegional Quintain. Urban regeneration firm Tees...

IN BRIEF: Scene setter.
December 1, 2006... The Royal Opera House has announced that it is to build a new campus in Thurrock, Essex, for its construction, carpentry, metal work and scenery painting. It hopes that manufacturing businesses will follow it to the town. No architects have yet...

IN BRIEF: Fighting talk.(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The development industry is still doing too little to fight climate change, according to Jonathon Porritt, director of Forum for the Future. "I'm not sure we have got to a real turning point in our grasp of what sustainability means," he said...

IN BRIEF: Culture club.
December 1, 2006... Culture must be at the heart of the Thames Gateway, culture minister Tessa Jowell told the Gateway forum. She announced a conference with developers, planners, local authorities and housing associations next February "to look at the best way of...

Brixton beacon.(architects services)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has praised a Brixton housing estate by Bill Dunster Architects and PRP as the model for all new housing in the Thames Gateway. Livingstone said the St Matthews estate was "the closest we have got to...

Cabe to act as enforcer for Gateway `design pact'.(Commission for Architecutre and the Built Environment)
December 1, 2006... Ellen Bennett Cabe has been appointed to perform an audit of the design quality of all new housing built in the Thames Gateway between now and 2010, it was announced at last week's Thames Gateway Forum. The watchdog will enforce the...

Ken fumes at climate change underestimate.
December 1, 2006... All the climate change predictions for London to date have been wrong, mayor Ken Livingstone revealed at last week's Thames Gateway Forum. The capital will be between 4x and 9xC hotter than forecast by the middle of the century because all...

Profile: Guilty pleasures.(Erick van Egeraat)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... As Erick van Egeraat puts the final touches to his first UK building, Middlesbrough's new Art Gallery, he talks to Zoae Blackler about guilt, the Gateway and a life in hotel rooms. Portrait by Sanne Peper For the last 15 years, Erick van...

Letter: Insurance should rest with the client.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Anthony Pearson, Bath Your articles last week (News and News analysis) expose the fault line in the business of insurance in the building industry. It seems to me that the essence of the problem is that the architect is, in effect,...

Letter: Can RIBA redress?(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Jack Pringle, president, RIBA The RIBA has been considering issues of consumer protection over the past year and how clients like Mr and Mrs Shaw (News analysis November 24) could best be served. Various forms of compensation schemes are...

Letter: Small risk.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Sunand Prasad, president-elect, RIBA Your leader last week highlighted how very tiny a risk is presented to clients by small practices and sole architects with a low turnover. The evidence is even stronger than the figures you quote....

Letter: Bypassing Arb.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Name and address witheld There must be many who, like myself, can barely believe that Arb can charge so much for so little for its part I and II assessment. I suggest that European Union citizens with a degree recognised by the...

Letter: Reform's school.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... George Oldham, Hexham Jee Eun Lee and John Assael (Letters November 24) have every right to be incensed at the cost of the Arb assessment process; #2,400 for a process directly comparable to that which the RIBA administers for #250 simply...

Letter: Learning curve.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Christopher Cross, secretary, Schosa; Sibyl Coldham, director of CEPLW, University of Westminster; Katharine Heron, head of architecture, University of Westminster; Sarah Chaplin, head of architecture and landscape, Kingston University ...

Letter: Urban urgency.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2006... Tony Godwin, executive director, Commonwealth Association of Architects Your report on the postponement of our conference Society, Architects and Emerging Issues (News November 24) did not mention the new dates for the event which are...

Editorial: Amanda Baillieu - A good news week for Olympic design.
December 1, 2006... Just when things were looking chronically bleak for those charged with delivering the London Olympics, this week has good news not just for architects, but for anyone who was worried the games would be a missed opportunity for the UK's talented...

Soapbox: Helen Webster - Why UK housing can't just go Dutch.
December 1, 2006... In creating South-east England's growth areas to boost housing supply, the Department for Communities & Local Government, and previously the ODPM, encouraged the UK building industry to look to modern methods of construction and procurement....

Works: Beyond Brookside.(Van der Heijden, Biq)
December 1, 2006... Much-vaunted Dutch housing design has come to Merseyside, but the expectations gap yawns wide, finds Ellis Woodman. Photography by John Davies The Netherlands' approach to tackling housing provision has long been held up as a model that...

Solutions: How we cracked it.(stage building contract of Richard Griffiths Architects from The Trustees of Methodist Central Hall)
December 1, 2006... The challenge: To install a stage in an Edwardian auditorium suitable for worship, conferences and concerts The solution: Five moving hydraulic scissor lifts Architect: Richard Griffiths Architects Project type: Public building ...

Recycling gets the runaround.
December 1, 2006... The high profile of renewable energy is making recycling look green around the gills, writes Elaine Knutt To shrink buildings' carbon footprints, we have Part L to promote energy efficiency and the ever-spreading Merton Rule to encourage...

Culture: Story of a city.
December 1, 2006... Urbanist and architect Mike Macrae's film A City Begins With People, about Milton Keynes' early development, will be shown from December 1-March 11 at Milton Keynes Gallery Project Space, Margaret Powell Square. Tel: 01908 676 900. ...

Culture: Parkrand in the spotlight.
December 1, 2006... Jacob van Rijs of MVRDV will discuss the Amsterdam practice's proposals for the high-density Parkrand Building as part of the Architecture Foundation's Real Architecture series. December 7, 6.30pm, Centrepoint, London. Tel: 0870 906 3888. ...

Culture: Play the pipes.
December 1, 2006... Ioana Marinescu's photographs of painted gas pipes in her grandmother's town in Romania are on show at the Architectural Association. Gas Pipes, An Exhibition of Photographs, until December 6, 36 Bedford Square, London. Tel: 020 7887 4000. ...

Culture: Got a new motor?(Rob Voerman's works)
December 1, 2006... Rob Voerman's Annex#4 is half car, half cabin and typical of the Dutch artist's preoccupation with social order, writes Ellie Duffy Another strange structure has materialised at the south-west corner of Bedford Square in central London -...

Culture vulture: Mark Garcial.(Interview)
December 1, 2006... How would you spend the day indulging in cultural pursuits? My ideal day is a packed day. Wake up with a swim in the mountains or by the sea and listening to Arvo Part or Sigur Ros. Then gym and a plane to somewhere completely different for...

Bob bows out with Barthes.(Bob Maxwell )
December 1, 2006... The profession came to pay tribute as Maxwell's last lecture posed the audience some challenging questions. Kester Rattenbury was there That doyen among architectural teachers and critics Bob Maxwell warned us we'd be "stretched" by what...

Momentary lapse.(Perry Roberts' digital time-lapse photography exhibition)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Birmingham architecture from the sixties and seventies is the unlikely inspiration for an exhibition of digital time-lapse photography by artist Perry Roberts. "I like the uncompromising nature of the buildings and their sculptural forms....

Gazprom jury walk-out.
December 8, 2006... RMJM wins St Petersburg tower competition - but where were the architect judges? Ellen Bennett Norman Foster and Rafael Vinoly walked off the jury that chose RMJM's designs for the massive Gazprom City development in St Petersburg....

RIBA awards shake up will add prize for time test.
December 8, 2006... The RIBA plans sweeping changes to its awards programme including a new "test of time" award, taking a second look at 10-year-old prize-winning buildings. Speaking at the first SMC Group conference at Portland Place on Monday, head of RIBA...

Harbour lights.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... Boston's new Institute of Contemporary Art, designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro Architects, opens on Sunday. Standing on the south Boston waterfront, the 6,000sq m building cantilevers to the water's edge. The width of the north facade is...

IN BRIEF: First annual conference.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... The largest employer of architects in the UK welcomed more than 200 delegates to its first annual conference, held at the RIBA this week. The SMC Group, led by chief executive Stewart McColl, also announced plans to acquire practices across...

IN BRIEF: Winners of the RIBA president's students medals.(Royal Institute of British Architects)(university students received the student medals)(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... The winners of the RIBA president's students medals have been announced. Dalibor Vesely from the University of Cambridge won the Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education; Gillian Lambert from the University of Westminster won...

IN BRIEF: Birmingham comissioning masterplan.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... Birmingham is commissioning a masterplan to guide all development inside the city's ring road over the next 10 years. The city council meets this week to approve #750,000 of funding towards the #1 million consultants' fee for the job, the...

IN BRIEF: Future of London Bridge station.
December 8, 2006... The future of London Bridge station will be discussed on Tuesday by a panel including Christopher Bennie, principal director of TP Bennett Architects; Southwark council's planning director John East; and developer Roger Zogolovitch. The debate...

Barker planning advice offers work windfall.
December 8, 2006... Marguerite Lazell Architects face a bonanza of work following Kate Barker's recommendation that minor projects should go ahead without the need for planning consent. If the government, which commissioned the report, accepts the...

PGS could be here within three years.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... The government could bring in a controversial planning gain supplement (PGS) as early as 2009, according to Gordon Brown's pre-budget report on Wednesday. Consultation papers relating to specific policy areas were released on the same day...

IN BRIEF: Bob White to become chairman of Constructing Excellence.
December 8, 2006... Bob White, who wrote an explosive report for the RIBA on the future of the profession, is to become the chairman of Constructing Excellence next year, replacing Peter Rogers. Chief operating officer Don Ward will become chief executive. ...

IN BRIEF: Bennetts Associates appointments.
December 8, 2006... Bennetts Associates has promoted David Henderson from associate director to director; associates Richard Warwick and Nick Dodd to associate directors; and senior architect Peter Fisher to associate. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

Cabe called in to boost new schools design.
December 8, 2006... Cabe is to be drafted in to improve the design quality of the government's #45 billion Building Schools for the Future programme. Sally Brookes, division manager of the schools capital and building unit at the Department for Education &...

New kid on the block.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... Grimshaw has won planning permission for Keyworth II, a new building at London South Bank University in Elephant & Castle. The eight-storey building will accommodate the Faculty of Health & Social Care, the Department of Education and...

IN BRIEF: War of words between Jack Lemley and the government continues.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... The war of words between former ODA chair Jack Lemley and the government continued this week, with Lemley telling the media that the government knew the bill for the games would be much higher than the original predictions, but tried to hide...

Rogers and Marco settle out of court.
December 8, 2006... Richard Rogers and Marco Goldschmied have agreed to an out-of-court settlement of their #10 million legal battle over the future of the Rogers' Hammersmith offices and the surrounding development. The deal, the details of which will be...

Major names vie to design Jewish centre.
December 8, 2006... Chipperfield, FOA and Viuoly contenders for flagship London building Will Hurst David Chipperfield, Rafael Viuoly and Foreign Office Architects were among a glittering shortlist interviewed this week to design a flagship Jewish...

Long and Kentish plans new Jewish Museum.
December 8, 2006... * Architect Long & Kentish has submitted plans for a new Jewish Museum to the London Borough of Camden. The museum, which will triple the size of existing facilities, has secured #4.2 million of heritage lottery funding and is planning a...

Vivien Duffield: the bossy benefactor.
December 8, 2006... * Daughter of Charles Clore, the former owner of Selfridges and founder of the Clore Foundation, she became chair of the Foundation after his death in 1979 * Created her own Duffield Foundation in 1987, and merged the two in 2000 to become...

Rem wraps up in Riga.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... Rem Koolhaas's practice the Office of Metropolitan Architecture has revealed its design for Latvia's first museum of contemporary art. The design will wrap a 4,000sq m exhibition space around a 1905 former power plant in Riga, retaining...

IN BRIEF: Academic interest.
December 8, 2006... Manchester City Council has received DfES approval for expressions of interest for three of the six academies it plans to build, each linked to a growth area of the local economy. These include Brookway High School, Parklands High School , and...

IN BRIEF: Memorable memorial.
December 8, 2006... Gustafson Porter's controversial Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park has won the top award for design and technology innovation in stone at the Stone Federation of Great Britain's annual awards ceremony. Copyright: CMP...

IN BRIEF: Venue valued.
December 8, 2006... Dartford Borough Council has granted planning permission for a 5,200sq m exhibition and events venue by Denton Corker Marshall for developer LendLease, at the Bluewater centre. Construction is expected to start in mid 2007, with completion in...

King's Cross plan flawed says Cabe.(Commission for Architecture and Built Environment)
December 8, 2006... Marguerite Lazell Cabe has found major flaws in John McAslan & Partners' designs for King's Cross station in London, which were submitted for planning in May. Its design review panel described the links between tubes and trains as...

Report pinpoints road and rail congestion.
December 8, 2006... Cabe's comments come a week after the Eddington Transport Study was published. In a report commissioned by the treasury, the former BA chief executive Rod Eddington said that rising levels of road congestion and overcrowding on the rail network...

`Unfashionable' Catholic heritage in jeopardy.(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... The UK's Catholic heritage is "hanging by a thread," English Heritage has warned. The heritage adviser believes only 18% of Catholic churches in England and Wales are listed, against 80% of Anglican churches. It has published a public...

Country house design floats.
December 8, 2006... Platform 5 has won planning permission for Meadowview, a country house in Bedfordshire. The #400,000 landscape-oriented scheme replaces an existing bungalow. "It had to be of high design quality and a sustainable nature, so we took...

IN BRIEF: Little and large.(council home renovations)(Brief article)
December 8, 2006... The government has approved plans for a #95 million PFI regeneration of the Little London area of Leeds, one of its most deprived areas. It involves large-scale renovation of 922 council homes, 122 new homes for sale and rent, regeneration of...

IN BRIEF: Mixed bag.
December 8, 2006... English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation have asked Urbed and the University of Westminster to carry out a study to give housing providers practical guidance on managing mixed communities. Initial findings will be published in January,...

IN BRIEF: Taking a lead.
December 8, 2006... Culture secretary Tessa Jowell will launch the Better Public Building report, and be keynote speaker, at Cabe's national conference for local authority design champions on December 12. The conference, Leadership for Design, will focus on...