Building Design articles from January 2004

Building Design archives from January 2004

Hands off the greenbelt: Richard Rogers ones Planning Bill a 'drubbing' as massive building projects in Milton Keynes and Ashford are announced.
January 9, 2004... Richard Rogers effectively called on the government to put the Sustainable Communities Plan on hold this week as schemes emerged to double the size of Milton Keynes and Ashford largely on greenbelt. In a rearguard action against...

No place for design codes in Ashford masterplan decision.
January 9, 2004... Ashford will not be the exemplar of strict design coding in the South-east after a new urbanist team including the Prince's Foundation was beaten by Urban Initiatives to masterplan a doubling of the Kent town. The team comprising...

Daniel Libeskind's 3 million [pounds sterling] graduate school for the London Metropolitan University on the Holloway Road is nearing completion.
January 9, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Daniel Libeskind's 3 million [pounds sterling] graduate school for the London Metropolitan University on the Holloway Road is nearing completion. The distinctive building in north London, which Libeskind...

Fergie to the rescue in bar brawl: RIBA president hailed as 'Superman' by local newspaper after racing to the aid of New Year's Eve revellers in his Bristol bar.(News)
January 9, 2004... RIBA president George Ferguson began the year in flamboyant style by diving into a bar-room brawl to make a citizen's arrest after a man started behaving threateningly to female patrons. The profession will hope that Ferguson shows the same...

2004: design-led firms' chance to shine: will 2004 reward the talented, hard-working young thrusters of the UK architectural scene or will clients once again flatter to deceive? Karen Glaser gazes into the crystal ball.(News)
January 9, 2004... Predicting the future is a notoriously risky business, but even the most cautious soothsayer should agree that 2004 will be the year when design-led hard-grafting practices finally win over traditionally resistant housing and commercial...

Looking forward to payback time.(News)
January 9, 2004... "I am quite excited about the next 12 months. Last year was sluggish; this year we have got lots of exciting things happening, such as our bridge in Channel 4's Castleford Regeneration programme, as well as an incubator office building and...

Cabe skills centre bid.(News)
January 9, 2004... Design watchdog Cabe is preparing to commission a study into a national centre of excellence to foster the skills needed to deliver the government's sustainable communities plan. Cabe is developing the concept with government skills tsar...

350m [pounds sterling] PFI for Ryder.(News)
January 9, 2004... A consortium including RyderHKS has been named preferred bidder for a 350 million [pounds sterling] PFI healthcare project for the University of North Staffordshire NHS Trust and the North Stoke Primary Care Trust. Ryder will design a new...

Design champs named.(News)
January 9, 2004... Cabe this week named the organisation and people who have done most to promote good design in 2004. Public-sector winners were the BBC, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Octavia Housing and Care, North West Development Agency and...

Mayor defies experts with Ilford go-ahead.(News)
January 9, 2004... Ken Livingstone has ignored the advice of his architecture advisers and given his backing to a 31-storey residential tower in Ilford, Essex, that experts have branded "clumsy" and "confused". Pioneer Point, a 65 million [pounds sterling]...

Cabe chief hits out at masterplanning.(News)
January 9, 2004... Cabe chief executive Jon Rouse has lambasted the state of masterplanning in the UK, and made a thinly veiled attack on architects such as Will Alsop, who promote plans based on "big architecture" through a media keen for "cheap thrills". ...

Offers flood in for Piano.(News)
January 9, 2004... Renzo Piano has been inundated with offers of commissions from London developers since his 300m Shard tower won its planning battle in November. His practice has had a number of offers, but will not be taking them up. William Matthews,...

King's Cross masterplanners move to unite regeneration schemes.(News)
January 9, 2004... Radical proposals to link up the three major schemes at London's King's Cross Station due to go in for planning permission were revealed to BD this week. In a tacit admission from the developers that the proposed railway lands scheme to...

Mao house at heart of 500m [pounds sterling] scheme: Benoy to masterplan commercial scheme around former Chinese leader's house.(News)
January 9, 2004... The house of the founder of the Chinese communist state. Mao Tse Tung, is to be the heart of a 500 million [pounds sterling] mixed-use project in Shanghai masterplanned by British practice Benoy. Under the scheme, expected to be approved in...

Top UK firms vie for Shanghai airport.(News)
January 9, 2004... The Richard Rogers Partnership and Terry Farrell & Partners are in the running for a 700 million [pounds sterling] airport extension in Shanghai. Their bids come just two months after rival British firm Foster & Partners scooped the 1.2 billion...

Chipperfield in Alaska confusion.(News)
January 9, 2004... Chipperfield Architects this week moved to scotch local reports that its $90 million (40 million [pounds sterling]) expansion of the Anchorage Museum of History & Art in Alaska has been delayed by a year. Funding for the 10,000sq m scheme...

New Year's Honours for architects.(News)
January 9, 2004... Preservers of historic buildings have figured prominently in the Queen's New Year's Honours list. Chief architect of Welsh heritage group Cadw, James Douglas Hogg, was awarded an OBE following acclaim for the preservation of Ty Mawr, a medieval...

Safe mud bricks for Iran.(News)
January 9, 2004... Traditional building materials condemned in the wake of the Bam earthquake disaster could hold the key to reconstruction, rather than modern materials, experts told BD this week. Following the Iranian earthquake, which levelled an estimated...

Birmingham library secret.(News)
January 9, 2004... Birmingham City Council's review of its plans for a new library by Richard Rogers has been completed, but the conclusions are being kept confidential. Project consultant GVA Grimley has been instructed to take the scheme to outline...

Bridging the Clyde.(News)
January 9, 2004... The Lighthouse, the architecture centre for Scotland, is running an exhibition throughout January on the competition for a new footbridge over the river Clyde in Glasgow. The competition was won by the Richard Rogers Partnership last year, but...

Library competition.(News)
January 9, 2004... The RIBA is running a competition for the University of Portsmouth to find a practice to design a 6 million [pounds sterling] extension to the existing Frewen Library. The 3,000sq m extension will reach into Ravelin Park on the university's...

Northampton school.(News)
January 9, 2004... Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects has won planning permission for the latest academy school, in Northampton. The secondary school, which will specialise in sport with business and enterprise, includes four faculties, a central courtyard and...

Aukett Croydon win.(News)
January 9, 2004... Michael Aukett Architects' scheme for a mixed-use development on a 2ha site in Croydon has won full planning permission. The decision on the council backed scheme disappointed rival developer for the site, Stanhope. The developer, which has...

Cathedral contest.(News)
January 9, 2004... Liverpool School of Art & Design has launched an open design competition for a "radical glass footbridge" across St James Quarry to the eastern elevation of Gilbert Scott's Anglican cathedral. The competition for a bridge with a dramatic 60m...

RIBA to pulp latest client guidelines.(News)
January 9, 2004... The RIBA has scrapped its latest client guidelines because architects were outraged that the document omitted fee scales. In an embarrassing and expensive U-turn, the institute has decided to pulp all copies of A Client's Guide to Engaging...

Job cuts at RIBANet as costs are slashed.(News)
January 9, 2004... Two of the three members of the RIBA's internet department have been laid off as part of the institute's drive to slash 750,000 [pounds sterling] from its annual spending. The RIBA is reviewing all services to make savings in the wake of a...

The last building designed by the late Peter Smithson has been completed in Lauenforde, Germany.(News)
January 9, 2004... Caption: The last building designed by the late Peter Smithson has been completed in Lauenforde, Germany. The 1.4 million [pounds sterling] museum, featuring chairs from the modernist movement, began on site just a week after Smithson's death...

Local bid to list Tricorn Centre.(News)
January 9, 2004... The brutalist Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth is this week expected to be put forward for listing by local pressure group the Portsmouth Society. If the widely loathed building is listed it would scupper redevelopment plans by Chapman Taylor...

Edinburgh set to name design tsar.(News)
January 9, 2004... Edinburgh's first design tsar is set to be unleashed on the city next month. Edinburgh City Council is down to a shortlist of two "leading architects" and will announce the tsar--who will act as a watchdog on emerging schemes--at the...

United front will halt qreenfield march.(Comment & Analysis)
January 9, 2004... If political influence is slipping from Richard Rogers' grasp as house-building targets take precedence over urban renaissance in 2004, he is not letting it go quietly. The mandarins in John Prescott's planning department were this week...

Sinking lower.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From Peter Thomas de Cruz, London The planning system is in crisis, with poor-quality, over-worked, inaccessible planning officers who know little or nothing about design determining what is or is not built in this country. Only those...

Teed off.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From Keith Dunn, Cumbria Regarding the recent letter from planning minister Keith Hill on the subject of planning implementation at crisis point (November 28), recently when walking my dog past the entrance to Kendal Golf Course I noticed...

Abuse of power.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From Jennifer A Webb, Leeds Yet again, our company, Acanthus WSM Architects, is being asked to pay an inflation-busting increase of more than 7-5% for the annual retention tee for Arb. while we have no option but to continue paying the...

RIBA at risk.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From Allen Cunningham, France That the business regulatory team of the Cabinet Office is likely to review the functioning of Arb provides a timely opportunity to assess its conduct of affairs. When it comes to the role of institutions...

Timespam.
January 9, 2004... 1994 Ethnically ambiguous landscaping takes Hampstead by storm. 2004 Thames Gateway protected by PFI bouncers. 2014 Karmic energy silos revitalize rural England.

Change of scenery.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From Hal Moggridge, Gloucestershire Your issue of November 28 is full of landscape design. On pages 4 and 5 are hospital designs, with the public to vote on the most comfortable. Vegetation is everywhere, which is not surprising...

One to remember.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From John McKean, Brighton Fascinated by your major feature on the one figure who towers over contemporary architecture (Building study December 12), I was reminded of the comment: "Rem Koolhaas--who the hell is he?" It is ascribed to...

City confusion.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From Jo Watkins, Deptford Three times in her opening paragraph, Amanda Birch describes Swansea as a town (Technical December 12). To the best of my knowledge it has been a city since 1969. If she was in any doubt, there's a bit of a clue...

Twisted logic.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From Ian Jamieson, London I read the article "Salford somersault" (Housing November 28) with disappointment. Not only were the last residents of a community being moved out to make way for new development, but the quality and maturity of...

Stokey hokey.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
January 9, 2004... From David Lewin, Space Homes, Enfield Further to your article "Into the woods" (Building study November 14), I am writing to highlight the errors made in Catherine Croft's article about our conversion of a former workshop in Stoke...

Quality controls: requiring conservation qualifications minimises risk--and fresh thinking.(Comment & Analysis)
January 9, 2004... 2004 will be the 10th consecutive year of expansion for the construction industry, which has ridden confidently through the wider uncertainties of the past three years. So does this benign climate mean ever-broader opportunity for architects?...

Alsop's wing causes flap.(Concrete Boots)
January 9, 2004... Alsop's latest creation in Ontario, Canada, has prompted mixed reactions from the local folk. The distinctive new wing of the Ontario College of Art & Design is very nearly finished and got a good review in the Toronto Star this week, but...

Give what you can.(Concrete Boots)
January 9, 2004... Foster & Partners' National Botanic Gardens may be struggling to save itself from permanent closure, but it has won the first Dewi-Prys Thomas Prize for architecture in Wales. In a terrible twist of irony, Foster's managing director,...

God with the wind.(Concrete Boots)
January 9, 2004... And we thought wind turbines were just for generating energy. Reports in the Village Voice newspaper in New York suggest that Manhattanites think otherwise. An engineer working on the turbines for the top of the David Childs/Daniel Libeskind...

Starck's Trek.(Concrete Boots)
January 9, 2004... A small corner of north London should brace itself for some weird and wonderful happenings--Phillipe Starck has come to town. The celebrated French architect and all-round design impresario moved to London from Paris recently, although...

Close to the bone.(Concrete Boots)
January 9, 2004... Thinking of a new website for the new year? Space Hijackers, author of "spoof anarchist trouble-making" websites, has some ideas on how not to do it that you cannot do without. Its architectural site opens with the now standard series of...

Masterplan masquerade: 2004 will see the masterplanning of the Communities Plan and work will start on the UK's largest city centre plan at King's Cross. But Cabe's Jon Rouse warns that too many clients are being short-changed by architects and planners.(Comment & Analysis)
January 9, 2004... More than 1,000 documents purporting to be masterplans have landed at Cabe's door since our creation five years ago. They have come from planners, surveyors, architects and urban designers and have ranged from small sets of conceptual drawings...

An easy magic: new schools catch the eye, but adaptation, such as Cullinan & Buck's transformation of a seventies primary school in Chingford, are key to Labour's 3.8 billion [pounds sterling] spending on schools this year.(Building Study)
January 9, 2004... School-building may prove something of a staple of these pages over the coming year. With the lottery bonanza at an end, the office market in the doldrums and house building as sluggish as it has been since the war, the education sector is one...

On the radar.(Culture)
January 9, 2004... BOOKS I mostly read biographies and autobiographies, from the more serious to Alan Clark and Murray Walker. The Anatomy of Britain (1962) and the Changing Anatomy of Britain (1981) by Anthony Sampson help you to understand how the country is...

Big Ban theory: a monograph of Shigeru Ban fortuitously coincides with his competition win for the new Pompidou in Metz, but Richard Weston is disappointed with a lack of depth in its discussion.(Culture)
January 9, 2004... Shigeru Ban is on a roll. Shortly after he is announced as part of the winning team for the "New Pompidou" in Metz, along comes this handsomely produced, large-format monograph. Ban is, as Matilda McQuaid remarks in her brief introduction, a...

Erosion of the physical: William J Mitchell's new book predicts that technology may bring about a 'defunctionalised city'.(Culture)
January 9, 2004... William J Mitchell's new book, Me++ The Cyborg Self and the Networked City, is an exhaustive description of the current state of digital technology and electronic networking. It forecasts possible future scenarios and predicts the impact that...

Diary.(Calendar)
January 9, 2004... LECTURES TUESDAY Architecture to Educate--Nicola Lithgow, Cabe's education programme officer. Venue Droit House, Margate Harbour, Kent, 6pm. Free. Details 01843 280261 or www.turnercentre.org WEDNESDAY Scape, Space...

2004 awaits ... cultural highlights for the year ahead.(Culture)
January 9, 2004... EXHIBITIONS Archigram, April 3-July 4, Design Museum, Shad Thames, London 0670 909 9009. Long overdue major London show on the highly influential avant garde group, curated with original members of Archigram, founded in 1960 ...

Books.
January 9, 2004... The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture, Phaidon, 100 [pounds sterling], April Huge global survey of more than 1,000 examples of the best architecture built since 1998, drawn from 75 countries. Large format with more than...

Television.
January 9, 2004... Wren, BBC One Drama documentary presented by Michael Burke on the life and achievements of the "ambitious and cunning" Sir Christopher Wren. Includes his exploitation of the Great Fire of 1666 to advance himself and his scheming to replace...

Lord of the simple life.(Back Space)
January 9, 2004... JRR Tolkien wanted to undo the consequences of the Industrial Revolution and inspire people to live on the land with only simple machinery. The descriptive background to The Lord of the Rings includes technological changes as would have been...

Ian Martin.
January 9, 2004... Monday A new year, a new start. I have inaugurated the International Architects Network. From now on this will be the voice of the profession throughout the world. I'll be caretaker president until membership reaches critical mass, when...

London-based practices Fat and Ash Sakula have scooped first prizes in an RIBA competition to revamp two high-rise housing blocks on Brooks Estate in Plaistow, east London.
January 16, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: London-based practices Fat and Ash Sakula have scooped first prizes in an RIBA competition to revamp two high-rise housing blocks on Brooks Estate in Plaistow, east London. Ash Sakula's 12-13 million [pounds...

Laban dancers in a whirl.
January 16, 2004... Dancers at the Laban Centre spoke out this week against the Stirling Prize-winning building, claiming its design made it difficult to dance. Students and professional dancers at the Herzog & de Meuron-designed dance centre in south-east...

New power for Prince's Foundation.
January 16, 2004... The Prince's Foundation is extending its influence on government housing policy, consulting on large-scale projects for the Ministry of Defence and NHS Estates. The foundation has been consulted on transforming barracks, hospitals,...

Carey Jones Architects has won planning permission for a 12-year plan to expand Leeds city centre.(News)
January 16, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Carey Jones Architects has won planning permission for a 12-year plan to expand Leeds city centre. The 235,000sq m Wellington Place project includes offices, hotels, residential and retail spaces.

Hodder still in Clissold frame.(News)(Brief Article)
January 16, 2004... Pressure on Hodder Associates over the legal claim for cost over-runs on the Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington, north London, mounted this week after it emerged that client Hackney Council had dropped its proceedings against project...

Arb rebel warned: shut up or I'll sue.(News: Architect's Registration Board )
January 16, 2004... Architecture's regulator was this week rocked by a row between board members that threatens to reach the courts, and by news of an RIBA inquiry into its powers Arb rebel Ian Salisbury has been warned by a fellow hoard member to tone down...

Planning bill amended to appease county councils.(News)
January 16, 2004... Planning minister Keith Hill has moved to head off a Lords revolt on the forthcoming Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill by offering county councils a role in the reformed system. Regional Planning Bodies (RPBs) will now be required to...

Green light for Minerva.(News)
January 16, 2004... Grimshaw has overcome objections from conservationists and received the go-ahead from the Corporation of London for his 217m-high Minerva Tower in London's Aldgate. The 500 million [pounds sterling] tower will be the first in the Square Mile to...

South-east spending.(News)
January 16, 2004... The government this week gave details of a 63 million [pounds sterling] spend on building projects in the Southeast, including 35 million [pounds sterling] infrastructure around Bedford and Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, to serve 6,500 new...

Cabe panel changes.(News)
January 16, 2004... Cabe has announced eight new members of its design review committee. The new recruits, who will serve a three-year term, are: Simon Allford (AHMM), Julia Barfield (Marks Barfield), Margaret Jackson (HMRA), Taryn Nixon (Museum of London),...

PRP Hackney project.(News)
January 16, 2004... PRP is to mastermind a redevelopment of the Haggerston West and Kingsland estates in the London borough of Hackney. Under the scheme, the two estates would be demolished and replaced with 700 mixed-tenure homes, comprising low-rise apartments....

City Green go-ahead.(News)
January 16, 2004... Broadway Malyan has won planning permission for City Green, a park and city square in Spa Gardens, Bermondsey, south-east London. The City Green scheme includes play areas, sporting facilities and a community building.

Sprunt Lift win.(News)
January 16, 2004... Architect Sprunt has been given the go-ahead for an N H S Primary Care Centre Lift scheme in Islington, north London. A two-storey disused building on Hanley Road will be converted into clinical spaces and a multipurpose room for childcare. The...

School building cash in jeopardy; RIBA hits out at government go-ahead to raid capital budgets.(News)
January 16, 2004... The RIBA has slammed education secretary Charles Clarke after he announced schools could use money set aside for capital building projects on education technology. The RIBA's government relations co-ordinator Steven Harding, said the...

Shuttleworth plots 250-strong team.(News)
January 16, 2004... Ken Shuttleworth has launched his new practice and is willing to to take on up to 250 architects in an ambitious assault on markets in London, Manchester and Birmingham. Unveiling Iris strategy exclusively to BD this week, Shuttleworth...

Belsize Architects has completed a new-build house in Hampstead, north London.(News)
January 16, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Belsize Architects has completed a new-build house in Hampstead, north London. The seven-bedroom home features a stepping arrangement in section, which creates a succession of tiered levels. A basement...

Talent hunt for 15,000 homes; English Partnerships seeks innovative housing for seven sites.(News)
January 16, 2004... Britain's most talented and outlandish architects are to be invited to come up with ideas for a new generation of affordable housing. With the help of an expert panel of developers and property professionals, the government's regeneration...

The winning schemes from the RIBA's Ecohouse Student Design Competition went on show at Portland Place this week.(News)
January 16, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: The winning schemes from the RIBA's Ecohouse Student Design Competition went on show at Portland Place this week. Entries ranged from desert houses to a Russian house designed for temperatures...

Welsh splash 750k [pounds sterling] to stop assembly blight.(News)
January 16, 2004... The Welsh Assembly is to splash out 750,000 [pounds sterling] to prevent its 55 million [pounds sterling] Richard Rogers-designed debating chamber from being blighted by an unsuitable six-storey office block on the adjacent plot. The new...

RIBA introduces new global award.(News)
January 16, 2004... The RIBA has revamped its awards programme to include international projects and is considering changes to the make-up of the jury so it is more representative of the profession. A new category, called the RIBA Worldwide Awards, will he...

Coventry scheme savaged.(News)
January 16, 2004... MacCormac Jamieson Prichard's newly opened 50 million [pounds sterling] regeneration of Coventry city centre was this week savaged by local architects and heritage campaigners as "appalling", "disjointed" and "crude". Two 40-tonne arches...

Greenside owner says demolition had permission.(News special: heritage under threat)
January 16, 2004... The man who bulldozed the celebrated Connell Ward Lucas-designed Greenside house has hit back at "biased" claims from conservationists that he acted unlawfully. An unrepentant David Beadle, who faces a criminal prosecution for allegedly...

A threat to our heritage: the razing of Greenside threatens the system for securing historic buildings, says Simon Thurley of English Heritage.(News special: heritage under threat)
January 16, 2004... The much publicised and illegal demolition of the iconic grade II listed Greenside house is a significant historical and architectural loss to the whole nation. It represents more than the loss of an innovative example of 20th century...

Outcry over ABK Oxford bar.(News special: heritage under threat)
January 16, 2004... A grade II* listed Oxford University bar, designed by ABK, is at the centre of a row between Oxford City Council and the Twentieth Century Society. The heritage group claimed the council should have consulted it before granting planning...

Last-ditch campaign for college.(News special: heritage under threat)
January 16, 2004... Controversial plans to redevelop the site of the grade II listed Oaklands College in St Albans, Hertfordshire, are set to move forward next month. Fairview New Homes, which has started to buy up the site, will meet representatives from...

C20 Society weighs in over Tricorn.(News special: heritage under threat)
January 16, 2004... The Twentieth Century Society has thrown its weight behind a bid to save the brutalist 1960s Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth from imminent demolition. The concrete building is slated for demolition in early spring by developer Centros Miller...

Take the risk, young architects.(Comment & Analysis)
January 16, 2004... There is, in architecture, a well-worn career path which can take you from tea-making skivvy to associate or partner in 12 years and three sharp moves. For the unimaginative, here it is: between 24 and 32 move practice every three years,...