Building Design articles from January 2002

Building Design archives from January 2002

Stars' vision for NY.
January 18, 2002... Forty-five of the world's leading architects have drawn up designs to replace the devastated World Trade Centre. The often radical plans will be revealed this week at a Manhattan art gallery in an exhibition that will stoke the already...

Bad week at South Bank: MPs reveal extent of SBC's woes as talisman chairman quits.
January 18, 2002... Troubles mounted for the [pounds sterling]200 million South Bank Centre project this week as the driving force behind the redevelopment resigned and officials admitted to MPs that key plans to build under the Thames-side Jubilee Gardens site...

Arup ready to brave Kashmir: practice continues to support school project in global hot-spot. (News).
January 18, 2002... Arup and Arup Associates are to shrug off fears about the crisis between India and Pakistan in Kashmir and are planning to send a member of staff to the troubled province as part of a charitable commitment to support a school-building...

Farrell goes back to housebuilding. (News).
January 18, 2002... Terry Farrell & Partners is returning to housebuilding with designs for three multi-million pound luxury homes in Surrey--its first houses since the late 1980s. The designs are for Thirlstone Homes at Petersham in Surrey and represent a...

BDP has won planning consent for a dramatic [pounds sterling]13 million business school at Napier University's Craiglockhart campus in Edinburgh. (News).
January 18, 2002... Caption: BDP has won planning consent for a dramatic [pounds sterling]13 million business school at Napier University's Craiglockhart campus in Edinburgh. The titanium-clad building, which will incorporate a new entrance, lecture theatres and...

Low-rise for King's. (News).
January 18, 2002... Plans for the [pounds sterling]1.5 billion King's Cross Central development will feature mainly low-rise buildings, a report from the developer Argent St George reveals. The conclusion comes after the developer analysed similar projects such as...

Piano hits West End. (News).
January 18, 2002... Renzo Piano has won the commission to design a [pounds sterling]750 million redevelopment in London's West End. The project, which will replace offices at St Giles Court to the east of Centre Point will comprise mainly offices and also shops...

Pool scoop. (News).
January 18, 2002... John Pardy has won an RIBA competition to design a [pounds sterling]250,000 indoor swimming pool and studio for a private client in Haslemere, Surrey. The sole practitioner beat six other practices for the work: Boyarsky Murphy Architects,...

Pier passes test. (News).
January 18, 2002... London mayor Ken Livingstone has given his approval to Marks Barfield Architects' plan for a new passenger pier on the Thames. The [pounds sterling]1.35 million structure, to be built near the Tate Britain, is due to open this autumn.

Bristol docks inquiry. (News).
January 18, 2002... A public inquiry is due to begin on January 22 into Barlow Henley Architects' proposal for a mixed use development on the south side of Bristol docks. Objectors, including the Bristol Civic Society and English Heritage, will argue that the...

Budapest offer. (News).
January 18, 2002... Graphisoft, the developer of Archicad software, has launched an international competition to design a conference centre for its business park in Budapest, Hungary. The conference centre is to be built along a stretch of the river Danube....

Goldfinger boost. (News).
January 18, 2002... The RIBA has teamed up with the Foreign Office to launch a scholarship scheme allowing Hungarian students to study in the UK. The [pounds sterling]20,000 scheme will help either one student through a post-graduate study programme, or two young...

PRP wins first housing PFI. (News).
January 18, 2002... PRP Architects has been handed the contract to design the UK's first major PFI housing project, amid claims the design of PFI housing will be better than that for hospitals or schools. PRP's consortium, with the Harvest Housing Group, beat...

Delayed opening for Baltic Centre. (News).
January 18, 2002... The opening of Ellis Williams Architects' [pounds sterling]46 million Baltic centre for contemporary art has been delayed until the summer. A crucial element in the regeneration of Gateshead's quayside, the building was due to open to the...

Experts back Brum demolition proposals. (News).
January 18, 2002... Urban design experts are backing Birmingham City Council's plan to demolish more than 300 residential towers in the city. Birmingham-based Cabe commissioner Les Sparks said the towers, almost all built in the 1960s and 1970s, are "an...

Bradford abandons its city masterplan. (News).
January 18, 2002... Bradford City Council is to scrap the masterplan for its much-heralded new city centre because of intervention by the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward. The move casts further doubt over the government's preferred investment...

Legal threat halts Stoke regeneration. (News).
January 18, 2002... A [pounds sterling]4 million regeneration project in Stoke-on-Trent has been put on hold because of fears that European law makes it illegal to publicly fund the scheme. If local officials' concerns are correct, it would paralyse the UK's...

Rippling walls herald an architectural breakthrough. (News).
January 18, 2002... An alliance of architects and mathematicians has discovered a way of making walls ripple and break like waves in response to computer programming. The firm behind the invention, Decoi Architects, is claiming a breakthrough for architecture...

National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. (News).
January 18, 2002... Caption: Work has started on a [pounds sterling]5.3 million revamp of the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, designed by local practice Partneriaeth James Jenkins. The scheme aims to increase public access to the copyright library's 4.5...

York: this charmless scheme. (News).
January 18, 2002... Cabe and English Heritage again found themselves on opposing sides when they faced each other at the public inquiry into Chapman Taylor's Coppergate proposal in York earlier this week. But in a reversal of the Heron Tower enquiry, EH lined...

Ferguson to tackle RIBA's London bias. (News).
January 18, 2002... Bristol-based RIBA presidential candidate, George Ferguson is pledging to step up the assault on the institute's London-centric image if he is elected in the ballot this spring. Ferguson is also planning to make the quality of architecture...

Selfridges plans growth. (News).
January 18, 2002... Selfridges' expansion into the provinces marches on, with Newcastle, Glasgow and Bristol now in its sights. The moves follow its establishment in Manchester and Birmingham, where Future Systems' radical design for a [pounds]40 million Midlands...

Manchester-based practice MBLC. (News).
January 18, 2002... Caption: Manchester-based practice MBLC has completed this [pounds sterling]2.5 million multi-purpose sports and learning centre in the city's Moss Side district. The scheme, dubbed The Youth Power House, was backed by Manchester City Council.

Stratford plan nears final act. (News).
January 18, 2002... The team behind long-held plans to build a replica Elizabethan town near Stratford-upon-Avon as part of a [pounds sterling]100 million visitor attraction based on Shakespeare is stepping-up its efforts this year. Architect Jane Duncan has...

BDP ups building ownership plan. (News).
January 18, 2002... BDP is bidding to extend its experiment of owning and managing public buildings as well as designing them. Practice chairman Richard Saxon told BD that it was in the running for two more PFI projects for school and college buildings, both...

Sir John Soane's Museum redesign gets underway. (News).
January 18, 2002... Julian Harrap has won the commission from the Sir John Soane's Museum for a [pounds sterling]755,000 conservation and rebuilding project on the celebrated architect's former home. The work involves three courtyards behind the houses at...

Window display for micro-flat. (News).
January 18, 2002... Piercy Conner has pulled off another publicity coup by building one of its much-hyped "micro-flats" in the window of Selfridges on Oxford Street in London. The model flat will be inhabited by two "micronauts", young professionals who will...

South Bank needs a champion. (Leader).
January 18, 2002... Architecture needs champions. It is a lesson not lost on Cabe which has made a priority of identifying design leaders in both ministers and Whitehall. They are essential at other institutional levels too--people with the determination to push a...

Holyrood hush money. (Concrete Boots).
January 18, 2002... Hearing reports of an extra [pounds sterling]10 million on the bill for the Scottish Assembly building, Concrete Boots calls the office of the Holyrood Progress Group which is looking after the project to see what's going on. Leader Linda...

Sedator McCart. (Concrete Boots).
January 18, 2002... The South Bank Centre's attempts to charm the powers that be to help them out of their redevelopment hell seemed to be going quite well at this week's select committee hearing. That was until project leader Mike McCart sent the committee's...

Manson's house. (Concrete Boots).
January 18, 2002... Fiery Fred Manson's post. Southwark career still isn't taking off it seems. He signs off his latest moan about architects in a rival magazine with the sizzling news that he is "catching up with domestic tasks and contemplating his future". Come...

Norman conquest. (Concrete Boots).
January 18, 2002... Well, we were all thinking it when we saw Norman's plans for Spitalfields. Now, Gerards Cross architect Vincent Ford has put it on paper with a vision of our Lordship swapping helicopter for bulldozer as he annihilates the built heritage of the...

Smooth operator: Simon Thurley promises to bring experience, taste and judgment to his new role as chief executive of English Heritage. (Comment & Analysis).
January 18, 2002... The appointment of Simon Thurley, director of the Museum of London, as the next chief executive of English Heritage has produced a near-ecstatic reaction in the embattled world of heritage. When Thurley arrived at a pre-Christmas party at the...

A sorry estate: poor client consultation led to the rejection of Alsop's Aylesbury estate. (Comment & Analysis).
January 18, 2002... It is hardly surprising that "flagship" projects such as the Ayles-bury estate attract controversy. The mixture of high-density public housing, community consultation and cutting-edge architecture can be highly explosive--as we discovered in...

Letters.
January 18, 2002... Resident aliens From Anne Bryne, director of development, Stonebridge Housing Action Trust, London The recent spat between Will Alsop and the Housing Association movement (News January II) is a good example of the fraught relationship...

Facing up.
January 18, 2002... When I took an Art A level many years ago, one of the questions asked for the design of the elevation of a building in three different styles. I remember a standard Georgian house front adapted in the style of Sir John Soane's Museum, and...

Bubble wrap: celebrated academic Peter Cook's Modern Art Museum in Graz, Austria, in his first major built project and is set to do for the city what the Guggenheim Museum has done for Bilbao. (Perspective).
January 18, 2002... Peter Cook's moment has come. After some 35 years in architectural education as a distinguished and provocative academic whose avant-garde ideas have appeared in other people's buildings across the globe, the paper architect is finally getting...

Face value: retention of a facade with a modern building behind it is deplored by both architects and conservationists, but often seen as the easiest option. Revisions to PPG15 aim to strengthen advice on the subject.
January 18, 2002... Retaining the facades of historic buildings with incongruous new development behind them is too common and undermines architectural integrity; says a new report by urban design and conservation consultant Richard Coleman. His views are backed...

Urban myth maker: Rem Koolhaas' Project on the City series continues his run of polemic publishing, rekindling a fresh interest in urbanism. (Culture).
January 18, 2002... If architectural greatness and immortality are at least partly achieved through production of polemical and authoritative books (Palladio, Le Corbusier) then Rem Koolhaas got his foot on the ladder long ago and has been climbing, slowly but...

Moore than before: an exhibition on Charles Moore in the turbulent 1960s offers timely guidance for New Yorkers in the wake of September 11. (Culture).
January 18, 2002... The task of memorialising the victims of September II in New York City has been in the news as Americans look forward to 2002. In his farewell address, Mayor Giuliani called for construction of "a soaring, monumental, beautiful memorial" on...

The sweet taste of success: the Tastemakers charts British Art's explosion to public consciousness. Architects should learn from it. (Culture).
January 18, 2002... Just so you know where you are, Rosie Millard, author of the new Tastemakers book, is the B BC's arts correspondent, not its art critic. So if you're tempted to buy this book, and you should be, don't expect an intellectual critique of the work...

Diary.
January 18, 2002... LECTURES MONDAY * Chris Perry and Marcelyn Cow (Servo), the elastic archive. Venue Architectural Association, 36 Bedford Square, London. 6.30pm. Details 020 7887 4111. TUESDAY * The world's tallest hotel. Venue...

Plotting your own demise: what happens to a practice when its founder retires? David Littlefield hears about the importance of planning. (Practice).
January 18, 2002... Planning how to retire from your own practice is like working out how to recycle a building you have just completed--most architects rarely do it. There is a phalanx of first-generation practices which is on the cusp of waving its founders into...

Leading by example with Robbens Systems. (Showcase).
January 18, 2002... With limited usable wall space and a desire to employ energy efficient products in a project close to its heart, contractor Phelan Construction specified a Robbens Underfloor Heating System for its own new head office in Essex, having tried and...

Metsec bones beams in 'The Burrow'. (Showcase).
January 18, 2002... Metsec Building Products' lightweight steel lattice beams are being used as the main roof supports for an underground house, carrying loads of almost 1.5 tonnes per sq.m. 'The Burrow', a 635 sq.m single storey house with indoor swimming...

"Heritage" blends provide aesthetically pleasing clay tile effects at concrete tile prices! (Showcase).
January 18, 2002... A range of varied colour blends which provide specifiers, developers and contractors with an aesthetically pleasing random clay tile effect has been introduced by Russell Roof Tiles Limited. Known as "Heritage" blends, these packages have...

Style and sophistication with Verosol Fabrics. (Showcase).
January 18, 2002... Combining elegance with efficiency, Verosol's range of sunshading products is specifically designed to minimise glare and combat solar heat gain in today's buildings. Popular with architects and designers alike, they provide an innovative means...

New composite wood hanger launched. (Showcase).
January 18, 2002... Following widespread success in North America, a hybrid hanger which incorporates the advantages of both face and top mount hangers is now available in the UK. Designed for use with composite wood products, the new US hanger both...

Single moulding eX-Plane polycarbonate barrel vaults. (Showcase).
January 18, 2002... Clear diffused polycarbonate eX-Plane barrel vault roof lights are manufactured by Hartington Conway Ltd in a single moulding to match most modern profiles. What's unique about eX-Plane is that it's an out-of-plane rooflight which can be...

Howard's way. (Back Space).
January 18, 2002... "His body leaned back against the sky. It was a body of long, straight lines and angles... He stood, rigid, his hands hanging at his sides, palms out." Sitting on an aeroplane reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, I realise why it is that it has...

Weight Watchers.
January 18, 2002... Monday Invent a new building material, nanobibendum. Each molecule contains a powerful sprite; when provoked by a change in the weather, or a sudden influx of heavy people, the molecules work out a compensatory shape and tensile strength. ...

Education on the brink: Months of consultation end in acrimony as Britain's leading teachers warn the RIBA they are ready to break ranks on schooling.(Royal Institute of British Architects)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... The RIBA is facing a rebellion from top British architecture schools which have threatened to cut ties with the institute this week over its controversial new plans for the future of education. The heads of both the Bartlett and Sheffield...

Design champions under fire.(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Ministerial design champions are to be called to account by a group of architects and parliamentarians under a plan being drawn up by Bartlett graduate Debra Shipley MP, a new voice for architects in the House of Commons. The Labour member...

RDAs leaving architects out: Out of 126 regional board members, only one is an architect. (News).(Regional Development Agencies)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Architects have almost no say in Regional Development Agencies, the government's preferred urban renaissance funding vehicle. Surveying the nine agencies, BD found that only one of 126 board members is an architect. The lack of architects...

RIBA's shift on Stirling slammed. (News).(Royal Institute of British Architects)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... The RIBA's announcement that it will look kindly on projects with a tight budget and in a vernacular style in this year's Stirling prize has been attacked as "meaningless and cosmetic" by a leading neo-vernacular architect. In what appears...

Masterplan offers hope to Hastings. (News).(Martorell Bohigas Mackay hired as architect)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Leading Barcelona architect Martorell Bohigas Mackay has won the masterplanning commission for an ambitious new phase of the troubled [pounds sterling]150 million road, rail and regeneration development for Hastings in East Sussex. The...

Wobbly bridge. (News).(future of Jubilee Bridge is discussed)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... The future of London's [pounds sterling]15.5 million Jubilee Bridge is now in the hands of the mayor of London, according to a member of the Jubilee Bridge Trust which is overseeing the financing of the project. The footbridge, to run from...

Cabe stands tall. (News).(praise for several building designs in the United Kingdom)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Cabe continued its support for tall buildings this week with fresh backing for the latest design of Renzo Piano's tower at London Bridge, calling it "clear, credible and very positive". Cabe was looking at new proposals for where Europe's...

World Heritage bid. (News).(for Royal Botanic Gardens at Kewin)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kewin south-west London has been chosen as the UK's 2002 nomination for World Heritage site status. The architectural features of the 132ha gardens include Kew Palace, the Queen's Cottage, the Orangery, the Temple...

Belfast project sidelines Torp: Norwegian star architect will take design of high-profile soloist building to planning-then local practice will take over. (News).(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Norwegian star architect Neils Torp is to be sidelined from the design of the most prominent building project in Belfast for years and its execution handed to a local practice. Torp's design for the Soloist building on the banks of the...

Ken attacks delay to Arsenal decision. (News).(Ken Livingstone, Arsenal stadium)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... London mayor Ken Livingstone has attacked the government for delaying its decision on the [pounds sterling]400 million Arsenal stadium proposals until the end of next month, accusing it of failing to deliver on its much-trumpeted promise of...

Row kicks off at Fulham FC: Dropped practice says it retains copyright of stadium design. (News).(Snell Associates)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Fulham football club is embroiled in a legal row with the designer of its new stadium following the club's decision to hire a different firm to oversee completion of the controversial scheme. The sidelined firm, Snell Associates, claims it...

[pounds sterling]826,000 lawsuit overturned. (News).(in contract dispute with David Walshaw, Peter Sheard of Sheard Walshaw Partnership)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... An Appeal Court judge overturned a [pounds sterling]826,000 lawsuit this week against two semi-retired directors of Manchester-based Sheard Walshaw Partnership. In 2000, the duo had been ordered to pay out after Judge Bowsher of the...

[pounds sterling]170m Danish project scrapped. (News).(plans for archive building)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Denmark's recently elected right-wing government has pulled the plug on plans to build a [pounds sterling] 170 million national archive building in the Orestad district of Copenhagen. Danish architects fear the dramatic move could herald...

Classicists ready to fight their corner. (News).(Robert Adam will lead international network of architects)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... An international network for traditional building arts & urbanism was launched in London this week with its leaders hoping to challenge the international dominance of modernist style. The group features practitioners from the Middle East,...

'Give young a better chance': Architecture minister wants more work for young architects. (News).(Tessa Blackstone)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Tessa Blackstone, the architecture minister, has demanded that young architects are given a better chance to build in Britain. It follows complaints that the design of contemporary buildings in the historic environment is failing because of...

Scotland unveils a model parliament. (News).(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... An MDF mock-up of the debating chamber designed for the new Scottish Parliament has been completed at a submarine base in Rosyth. The [pound sterling]24,000 set, built by joiners from Babcock BES, will give architects and MSPs the chance to...

Arb lists newcomers in 'Times'. (News).(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Newly qualified architects have for the first time been listed in the Times, in an Arb initiative to raise the profession's profile. Arb intends to publish a list of all those who register with the board each year. Last year, 1,200...

Falconer urges speedy reform. (News).(planning minister Lord Falconer)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Planning minister Lord Falconer has told local authority leaders that he wants them to press ahead with his radical reform of the planning system without waiting for legislation, which is now unlikely to be introduced until at least 2004. ...

Office design improving. (News).(according to report from British Council for Offices)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... UK office design has improved but should be better, says a new British Council for Offices report. The report, based on a series of in-depth interviews with II major occupiers, says there have been "significant strides" in design standards...

The RIBA must not be defeatist. (Leader).(Royal Institute of British Architects)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Are we witnessing the dumbing down of architecture to being purely about the management of the building process? Respected academics such as the Bartlett's Peter Cook certainly think so. Other heads of schools are considering joining him in...

Bills of frights. (Concrete Boots).
January 25, 2002... The fallout from the collapse of Alsop's Aylesbury estate rebuild is proving to be medical as well as political. A poster has gone up on the south London estate offering free therapy for residents to deal with the stress caused by the event....

Bolognese source. (Concrete Boots).(Ricard Reid wins project in Italy, Gerry Adams moves into Westminster office)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... There's a whiff of terror in the air this week. First, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams moved into a Westminster office just two doors down from the architect Sir Sydney Chapman MP, raising the prospect of some interesting corridor conversations on...

Bevelled edge. (Concrete Boots).
January 25, 2002... How gauche of us. Our recent item about new Eton Fives courts under the Westway ("Eton trifles" December 7) didn't cut the mustard with one correspondent going under the name Lord Snooty. Where we talked of shelves, false walls and drains...

Waterhouse blues. (Concrete Boots).
January 25, 2002... Remember Barry Sheerman, the Huddersfield MP who said he wants to shoot architects? Well, one local architect's attempt to take him at his word and face the infidel in a dual is being met by deafening silence from Sheerman's office which is now...

Gathering dust. (Concrete Boots).(documentary film will report on Scottish Parliament)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Reports this week from Edinburgh of what looks like another cover-up job in the Scottish Parliament saga. A fly-on-the-wall documentary "The Gathering Place", detailing the goings on at the over-budget project, has been filmed by Scots media...

Number one. (Concrete Boots).(award to Richard Hywel Evans)(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... Richard Hywel Evans has won the prestigious 100 of the year award. He must be feeling flushed with success. We couldn't resist, sorry.

House master: Martin Richardson, who died last month, was devoted to the cause of good design in housing. (Comment & Analysis).(Brief Article)(Obituary)
January 25, 2002... Martin Richardson, who died last month at the age of 72, will be remembered for his devoted enthusiasm for the cause of good design in housing. My earliest personal contact with him was in the mid-eighties when he joined the RIBA Housing Group....

Practice makes perfect? New research revives the debate on the gap between architectural practice and education.(Brief Article)(Column)
January 25, 2002... This week's launch of Learning to Work: Working to Learn marks the end of a nationwide survey in which practitioners and students of architecture and related disciplines were asked, among other issues, how links could be reinforced between...

Letters.
January 25, 2002... The public works From Mark Granger, London The South Bank saga continues ("Bad week at South Bank' January 18). It's better than EastEnders or Coronation Street any day. It's seen its fair share of top stars come and go. And what...

Double vision.(Art's influence in architecture)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
January 25, 2002... Listening to a radio feature previewing the Royal Academy exhibition, Paris, Capital of the Arts, I was struck, not for the first time, by the absence of an acknowledged architectural equivalent for surrealism. This seemed to reflect the same...

Breaking out of the box: Gordon Murray and Alan Dunlop architects' new addition to Edinburgh park sets a high standard for the business estate's denser urban spaces. (Building Study).(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... One of the most tedious aspects of many large-scale new architectural and urban projects in and around Edinburgh is the predictable reversion to type: namely the adoption as template of the neo-classical New Town master-plan. "Classicism is...

All fired up: Lengthy revisions to Part L on conserving fuel and power might not pose a problem to the manufacturers, but clearer thinking at a more strategic level is needed if it is to make a difference. (Environmental Systems).
January 25, 2002... Many people assume that trying to satisfy the requirements of the 2002 edition of the approved document to Part L - the Conservation of fuel & power, to be published on April 1 - is going to get them into hot water. Following a lengthy...

The fame game: Kester Rattenbury ponders the issues of fame, as explored in the latest copy of Architectural Design. (Culture).(Brief Article)
January 25, 2002... "Press attention is not an add-on, but is endemic and immanent to architecture's continued existence," says David Dunster in the opening essay of Fame and Architecture, published this week by Architectural Design. "Without magazines and media...