Building Design articles from January 2007

Building Design archives from January 2007

Rem demands boycott.
January 5, 2007... Koolhaas campaigns to overhaul star-studded design competitions after Gazprom HQ controversy Ellen Bennett Rem Koolhaas has called on architecture's superstars to join him in a campaign to overhaul the competition system, which he has...

Brown will be biggest influence this year.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Chancellor Gordon Brown has topped BD's list of the 50 public figures who will wield the greatest influence over architecture in 2007. Brown pipped contenders including Ken Livingstone and Richard Rogers to the accolade, because not only is...

China bright.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... These designs by SMC Alsop are for a unique power station proposed at Dongtan in China - the world's largest eco-city. The conceptual scheme, for client the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation, would use a range of low-carbon fuels...

IN BRIEF: Plans to upgrade and extend St Enoch's shopping centre.
January 5, 2007... Glasgow City Council has approved plans by Cooper Cromar Architects for a #100 million redevelopment to upgrade and extend St Enoch's shopping centre. The project entails refurbishing the mall area, and redeveloping St Enoch's Square to create...

IN BRIEF: Caruso St John appointed.
January 5, 2007... Tate Britain has appointed Caruso St John to take forward a number of projects as part of its masterplan to modernise the gallery's facilities. The practice beat dRMM, DSDHA, MUMA and HOK International to the job. It will work on a possible new...

IN BRIEF: Four practices shortlisted for Jewish Community Centre.
January 5, 2007... Four practices have been shortlisted to design the new Jewish Community Centre in London (News December 8): Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Rafael Vinoly Architects, Foreign Office Architects, and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. Copyright:...

IN BRIEF: Property companies turned into REITs.
January 5, 2007... Property companies including Land Securities and British Land have turned into tax-free Real Estate Investment Trusts under new legislation that came into effect on January 1. Slough Estates Land, Great Portland Estates, Hammerson, the Big...

IN BRIEF: Charity cycle ride to Mipim 2007.
January 5, 2007... This year's charity cycle ride to Mipim has a few places left. The Calais to Cannes ride, led by Wordsearch's Peter Murray, takes place over four days in March and covers 100 miles a day. Email peter.murray@ wordsearch.co.uk Copyright: CMP...

IN BRIEF: Four architects appointed by Southwark Council.
January 5, 2007... Four architects have been appointed by Southwark council for the Elephant & Castle redevelopment. AOC, Haworth Tompkins, Panter Hudspith and Metaphorm Architecture & Design will design a sresidential buildings to rehouse residents of the...

Hpod set to radically change hospital design.
January 5, 2007... Will Hurst Nightingale Associates is to put a decades' worth of research into the healing aspects of design to the test, under a unique project also involving the Building Centre, Arup and electronics giant Philips. Together they have...

Barajas bomb blast hits Rogers' terminal.
January 5, 2007... Richard Rogers' Stirling Prize-winning Terminal 4 at Madrid Barajas airport sustained superficial damage in the terrorist bombing last Saturday, which authorities believe killed two men. However, most of the building was open to passengers the...

IN BRIEF: Sheldon Fox dies.
January 5, 2007... Sheldon Fox, one of the founding members of Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects, has died of cancer aged 76. Fox, who was born in New York and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953, retired from KPF 10 years ago. KPF's buildings...

IN BRIEF: Japanese architect sentenced to five years in prison.
January 5, 2007... Japanese architect Hidetsugu Aneha, 49, has been sentenced to five years in prison for his part in a scheme to falsify earthquake resistance data which left dozens of residential blocks and hotels vulnerable to moderate quakes. Aneha, who had...

IN BRIEF: English Partnerships chief executive seconded to DCLG.(Department of Communities & Local Government)(appointment)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... English Partnerships' chief executive John Calcutt has been seconded to the Department of Communities & Local Government to head a review of housebuilding delivery ahead of the body's widely anticipated merger with the Housing Corporation. The...

Canterbury's green wings.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Architects Design Partnership has submitted this design for a flagship building for Canterbury Christ Church University to planners. The #30 million development will provide an integrated library, learning resource centre and student...

Chipperfield's `car park' flats rejected.
January 5, 2007... David Chipperfield has been sent back to the drawing board to revise designs for his largest commission in the UK to date. A decision on planning for the scheme - the conversion of two hotels into luxury apartments overlooking Kensington...

Haringey council axes its architects.
January 5, 2007... Switch to design-and-build blamed for architect redundancies James Rose Haringey council has made all its in-house architects redundant, prompting dismay from a local architects society and highlighting the long-term decline of public...

The decline of local authority architecture.
January 5, 2007... Local authorities once employed 63% of British architects, but this began to slip in the late 1980s as a result of Margaret Thatcher's privatisation agenda and distrust of local government. The Greater London Council, whose forerunner the...

The heart of the matter.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... English Partnerships has appointed Elliot Lipton's First Base to create the Heart of East Greenwich project in south-east London, with designs by Make. The scheme will regenerate the site of the former Greenwich District Hospital by...

IN BRIEF: Ken says no.
January 5, 2007... London mayor Ken Livingstone has refused Genesis Housing Group permission to redevelop the Prestolite Factory site in East Acton with 450 homes including just 92 units of social rented housing. The mayor called Hammersmith & Fulham's support...

IN BRIEF: Home work.
January 5, 2007... Construction consultancy Avebury has been appointed to manage the building of 90 of Ikea's and Skanska's BoKlok homes in Gateshead. It is the first UK development of the functional, timber-framed homes, which are aimed at first-time buyers...

IN BRIEF: Fine array.
January 5, 2007... The DTI and Defra have granted licenses for two large wind farms in the Thames Estuary. The London Array, developed by a consortium made up of E.ON UK, Shell WindEnergy and Core, and Thanet Council, developed by Warwick Energy, would together...

Portsmouth John Lewis revised after protests.
January 5, 2007... Will Hurst Designs for a flagship John Lewis department store in the centre of Portsmouth have been substantially revised after earlier efforts were slammed by local architecture and civic groups. Planning chiefs at Portsmouth City...

Fluid thinking builds Shenzhen tower.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Farrells has revealed its plans for a massive mixed-use development in Shenzhen, China, after winning an international competition. Standing at 439m high, with 97 storeys, the Kingkey Financial Tower will be the city's tallest building. ...

BSF gathers speed as schools contracts are let.
January 5, 2007... Aedas with Balfour Beatty has been appointed to design seven new schools for Knowsley Council's #150 million Building Schools for the Future programme. The appointment came as schools minister Jim Knight named 50 local authorities involved...

IN BRIEF: World views.
January 5, 2007... Speakers for the RIBA Trust's International Dialogues lecture series will include Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathia, Africa's leading environmentalist; the UK's chief scientist David King; and historian Mike Davis. Maathia will begin the...

IN BRIEF: London living.
January 5, 2007... First Base has entered into a joint venture with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and the Bank of Scotland to create four residential projects in London for English Partnerships. The 900-home deal is for nearly #250 million of development....

IN BRIEF: Welcome to Manchester.
January 5, 2007... Ten housebuilders have joined urban regeneration company New East Manchester to provide an information pack for homebuyers. Bellway, Lovell, Countryside, Gleeson, Lowry, New City Vision, Taylor Woodrow, Redrow, ID/Seddons and Persimmon Homes,...

Assembly point.(contracts)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Cardiff and Swansea-based architect Powell Dobson has won the design contract for new offices for the Welsh Assembly Government in Aberystwyth, west Wales. The contract also includes a 7,200sq m new office building for Ceredigion County...

Richard Murphy receives OBE in New Year's list.
January 5, 2007... Marguerite Lazell Leading Scottish architect Richard Murphy has made a surprise appearance on the New Year's honours list having won an OBE for services to architecture. Murphy, whose numerous commissions include the redevelopment of...

Gonged, not forgotten.(awards)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Other figures in the built environment to be honoured include: * Haig Gulvanessian, former director of the construction division, Building Research Establishment, awarded a CBE. * Richard Bailey, former the chair of the Heritage Lottery...

Gehry's Brighton scheme awaits approval as rival design emerges.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Frank Gehry's scheme for the King Alfred site in Brighton has begun the new year with more controversy as the council's decision date for the planning application - December 21 - was over-run and a rival proposal emerged. Agent Hepher...

Letter: Unmask the megalomaniacs.(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2007... Christopher Maguire, Cambridge Your article "Barker planning advice offers work windfall" (News December 8) perpetuates two myths. 1: Householders who object to proposed development are nimbys and should be ignored. 2: Designs...

Letter: Flying the flag.(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2007... Judit Kimpian, sustainability co-ordinator, Aedas Architects Thank you for your article "The cost of going global" (News December 15). I am delighted that BD is publicly championing sustainable architectural practice; a concern that Aedas...

Letter: Shaky ground.(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2007... John Easton, Glasgow Your front page headline "The cost of going global" is a lame attempt by your publication to take the green moral high ground, which I would suggest is too poorly defined to allow you to take such a sanctimonious...

Letter: Minority issue.(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2007... Timothy Brittain-Catlin, Architectural Association, London WC1 Why the gratuitous reference to the fact that Sunand Prasad was elected "the first RIBA president from an ethnic minority" (2006 Review December 15)? And anyway, surely Eric...

Letter: All for debate.(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2007... Alison Carr, registrar and chief executive, Arb In response to Steve Wolstenholme (Letters December 15), following the case of Peter White (who was in fact registered by Arb's predecessor Arcuk) and his clients Jean and Christopher Shaw, I...

Letter: Premature point.(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2007... Valerie Paynter, Save Hove Your round-up of the year (December 15) although calling it a bad year for Frank Gehry, claims he got planning permission for his King Alfred development in November. Not true. A month ago an article in The...

Letter: On the waterfront.(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2007... Oliver Tyler, project director, Wilkinson Eyre Architects, London EC1 Your report (News December 15) implies that responsibility for the budget increase on the arena and conference centre scheme at Kings Waterfront, Liverpool, belongs to...

Substance will drive PM Brown's agenda.
January 5, 2007... Editorial Amanda Baillieu New Year is supposedly about resolutions and looking forward. It's also about marking anniversaries and looking back to see what's been achieved. Ten years ago New Labour came to power with a list of promises -...

Make a resolution to listen, learn and win.
January 5, 2007... Soapbox Santa Raymond The best New Year's resolution architects can make for 2007 is to learn to communicate. This may not be the first time - and it surely won't be the last - where a case is made for more and better communication at all...

Top 50: Who's got the power?
January 5, 2007... Who are the most powerful figures in British architecture? In our six- page special, we offer our definitive list of the 50 people you need in your contacts book this year, as chosen by our expert jury 1 Gordon Brown Job Chancellor of...

Solutions: How we cracked it.(Personal account)
January 5, 2007... The challenge: To create a column-free contemporary basement gallery in the heart of LondonThe solution: Hanging the basement's ceiling structure and the ground floor from the building's columns Client: Jay Jopling Architect: MRJ...

In search of a zero footprint.
January 5, 2007... Elaine Knutt looks at the stiff challenges in meeting the target of all carbon-neutral new housing by 2016 The London Development Agency is about to select a developer for Gallions Park in the Thames Gateway as London's largest "zero...

Culture: Soane's global picture.
January 5, 2007... Drawings made by John Soane to illustrate his Royal Academy lectures from 1809-1820 form the exhibition Visions of World Architecture. From January 12 till April 28, Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. Tel: 0207 405 2107....

Culture: Far out faculty.
January 5, 2007... Avant-garde images by students and teachers are on show in the exhibition Experimental Photography from the Bauhaus Sculpture Workshop, until February, Henry Moore Institute, 74 The Headrow, Leeds. Tel: 0113 234 3158. Copyright: CMP...

Culture: Shelf-life.
January 5, 2007... An exhibition of designs by furniture maker Guy Martin includes the social, cultural, and economic costings of his work. Guy Martin - Whole Life Cost, January 13-February 24, Bluecoat Display Centre Two, 54 Hanover Street, Liverpool. Tel: 0151...

Culture: Designing from head to toe.
January 5, 2007... Emma Dent Coad reviews a new monograph on architect Eliot Noyes, a man who bought a tangible glamour to the profession as well as creating a complete corporate image for IBM Eliot Noyes is probably best known not as an architect but as the...

Culture vulture: Stephen Monger.(Interview)(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... How would you spend the day indulging in cultural pursuits? Home cooked English breakfast, good coffee, train to London, the Photographers Gallery, but I'd probably spend longer looking round the bookshop. On the way home stop off at The...

Culture: The Swiss connection.(Brief article)
January 5, 2007... Helene Binet is not a blue-sky architectural photographer. Instead, she has built a reputation for images that explore their subject by highlighting the materials and the interplay of shadows and light on the surfaces and details. Her...

Culture: Utopia dashed.
January 5, 2007... This book of elegant essays studies the role of artists in `the New Gorbals' and beyond, says Peter Wilson Spence's Queen Elizabeth Square in 1964 during construction, as seen from Camden Street, Gorbals. Some places have names that...

Jenkins: apologise for 1960s estates.(Royal Institute of British Architects)(Simon Jenkins)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... One of Britain's most influential journalists has demanded that the RIBA establish a South African-style reconciliation commission to allow architects to investigate their responsibility for sixties and seventies housing estates, which he...

RIBA snubs housing summit.
January 12, 2007... Architects want campaigning institute, says biggest survey ever Ellen Bennett Architects want the RIBA to become more campaigning and to have a higher profile with government and policy makers, a members' survey has shown. The results...

Watch this space.(Penoyre & Prasad's Richard Desmond Children's Eye Centre)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Penoyre & Prasad's new Richard Desmond Children's Eye Centre at Moorfield Eye Hospital in central London has reached practical completion. The building, for Moorfield Eye Hospital Foundation Trust and part- funded by a donation from the...

In Brief-Gross max award.(Gross Max Landscape Architects)(European Landscape Architecture Award)
January 12, 2007... Topos, the International Review of Landscape Architecture & Urban Design, has given its third annual European Landscape Architecture Award to Edinburgh practice Gross Max. The judges said Gross Max, founded in 1995 by Bridget Baines and Eelco...

IN BRIEF - RMJM design.
January 12, 2007... RMJM has designed a six-storey HQ for the international investment and financial services group the Alliance Trust in Dundee, using a #1.95 million Regional Selective Assistance grant from the Scottish Executive. Planning permission is granted...

IN BRIEF - Planning approval granted for residential scheme in Rochdale.
January 12, 2007... Planning approval has been granted for the first phase of a residential scheme in Rochdale designed by Manchester practice OMI for BASE, a joint venture between developers Barratt and Artisan. It will be the first Housing Market Renewal project...

IN BRIEF - #39 million project.
January 12, 2007... Skanska, in partnership with GrantRail, has won a #39 million project from Transport for London to carry out major civil engineering works for the new Docklands Light Railway extension to Stratford International. Copyright: CMP Information...

Key report puts design at heart of education.(Teaching & Learning in 2020 Review Group)(Building Schools for the Future programme)
January 12, 2007... Ellen Bennett Teachers are set to lead the way in the design of new schools as an influential panel of government advisers places architecture at the heart of sweeping changes proposed for the UK education system. The report of the...

How schools will look in 2020.
January 12, 2007... * Changes to the traditional school day and greater access via the internet to interactive learning opportunities will enable 24-hour access to learning. * Schools will be "learning centres" incorporating other organisations. * "Stage...

IN BRIEF - Atkins appointment.(appointment of Martin Pease at Atkins Architects)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Atkins has appointed Martin Pease as managing director of its Design Solutions division in Wales and the South-west. Pease was a director at Stride Treglown, and worked for Michael Hopkins Architects on the new Glyndebourne Opera House in...

IN BRIEF - Three internal promotions.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Llewelyn Davies Yeang has announced three internal promotions: Coenraad Botha, who is working on the Great Ormond Street Hospital Phase 2 project, has been made a practice director, while Charles Addison and Paul Barnes are made associates....

Stratford City moves to planning.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Developer Westfield has submitted a full planning application for Stratford City, designed by Arup, Fletcher Priest and landscape architect West 8, to the Olympic Delivery Authority. The 73ha development will consist of 1.25 million sq m of...

IN BRIEF - Sustainable Communities Bill.
January 12, 2007... The Sustainable Communities Bill - which calls for a devolvement of power to local authorities to tackle social exclusion, economic regeneration, and local environmental issues - will have its second reading in the House of Commons on January...

Last Rykwert building in danger.
January 12, 2007... Campaigners rally to save 1970s Chelsea housing from Foster & Partners' luxury apartment scheme Will Hurst Joseph Rykwert's only surviving UK building could be razed to the ground and replaced with a luxury residential development by...

The modern man.(Joseph Rykwert)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... * Polish-born Joseph Rykwert, 80, is an eminent architect and architectural historian who lives in London and is best known for his seminal critical work on architecture and planning, The Idea of a Town, published in 1963. * His more...

Array of large-scale projects in the Southwark pipeline.
January 12, 2007... Southwark Borough Council has staked an early claim to be the architectural client of 2007 by revealing an incredible array of pioneering developments in the pipeline. The full extent of large-scale schemes yet to be built, by architects...

Learning tower.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Carey Jones Architects has secured planning permission for an #80 million student flat development in central Leeds, set to become the tallest in the UK at 37 storeys. The Plaza, for student accommodation company Unite, creates one- to...

EP/Housing Corp merger imminent.(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... The government is set to announce the merger of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships into a "super quango" called Communities England. BD understands the Treasury signed off the plans, which have been on the table for several...

IN BRIEF: Still learning.
January 12, 2007... The Royal Town Planning Institute has launched its Learning Partner initiative. Learning Partner status will be given to employers who support planning staff in their professional development. To find out more about the scheme contact Jacqui...

IN BRIEF: Grist to the mill.
January 12, 2007... Montague Architects' The Millhouse in Brook Street has won the inaugural Derby City Design Award. The judging panel was particularly impressed with the way the design of the apartments complemented the local identity - echoing the city centre's...

IN BRIEF: Renewable advice.
January 12, 2007... A website to help planners and local councillors working on renewable energy planning applications has launched a new resource bank containing articles, reports, research papers and policy documents relating to sustainable resources. Go to...

Plea to end loophole on listing.
January 12, 2007... Buildings damaged while awaiting assessment, says Victorian Society James Rose The Victorian Society has appealed to architecture minister David Lammy to close a loophole in the listing system because it fears that historic buildings...

Colour and light create Kaleidoscope.
January 12, 2007... Following a year of planning and 18 months construction, architect van Heyningen & Haward has completed work on Kaleidoscope, its new children's health centre for Lewisham Primary Care Trust. The #8.5 million, five-storey building in...

Glen Howells to masterplan 21ha Birmingham scheme.(contracts of Glenn Howells Architects and Isis Waterside Regeneration)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Glenn Howells Architects has been appointed by Isis Waterside Regeneration to masterplan the regeneration of a huge site in north west Birmingham. The Icknield Port Loop site covers a 21ha area just over a mile from the city centre and...

Draft business plan for Birmingham library.
January 12, 2007... Project manager Capita Symonds aims to produce a draft business plan for Birmingham library in March. The company was brought in after the council abandoned plans involving RRP, Glenn Howells Architects, Adjaye Associates and Make. ...

IN BRIEF: Open house.(Theatre Royal will be opened after restoration)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... The Theatre Royal at Bury St Edmunds will reopen on September 11 after a #5.1 million restoration. The project, designed by Levitt Bernstein Associates with theatre staff and the National Trust, aims to restore the Regency building to its...

IN BRIEF: Big business.
January 12, 2007... Planning has been granted for the first phase of the Kingsway Business Park, a #350 million development by Wilson Bowden in Rochdale. When complete it will include 285,000sq m of industrial space, 27,500sq m of office space and 182,500sq m of...

IN BRIEF: Learning curve.(SMC Parr, Scottish Borders Council )(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... SMC Parr has been appointed to design three new primary schools for Borders Council. The #19.4 million project also includes refurbishment of the Grade-B listed Halyrude Primary in Peebles. The first is due to go on site in October this year,...

Study will probe `the possible' for Lambeth Palace.
January 12, 2007... James Rose Church of England managers have commissioned a new study to explore possible alterations to the "charmingly chaotic" Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The feasibility study, by conservation firm Richard...

Banged up with Alsop.(Will Alsop, Creative Prisons exhibition)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Will Alsop's Creative Prisons exhibition opens at the Architecture Foundation's Yard Gallery on Old Street, London, on January 19. The design of concept prison HMP Paterson is the result of a collaboration, first revealed in BD last year (News...

Cabe backs crossroads for Sloane Square.(Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Cabe has endorsed Stanton Williams's plans to transform Sloane Square in Knightsbridge by replacing the gyratory with a staggered crossroads. Kensington & Chelsea council will embark on its third and final round of consultation for the...

Competition boycott call met with silence.(Rem Koolhaas)(Brief article)
January 12, 2007... Rem Koolhaas's call for architects to boycott the competition system (News January 5) has met with deafening silence from his fellow star practitioners, but sparked a fierce debate on the archinect.com discussion board. Many contributors...

IN BRIEF: Plans scuppered.
January 12, 2007... Plans for an "Olympic FriendShip" - a full-sized, ocean-going clipper crewed by young people, philosophers and artists and forming part of the 2012 cultural programme - could be shelved, raising fears that other social and environmental...