Building Design articles from July 2006

Building Design archives from July 2006

Controversy over Welsh Assembly's nomination.(Wales. National Assembly building)
July 7, 2006... Red-faced bosses at Richard Rogers' Welsh Assembly in Cardiff admitted they will spend the summer tackling ongoing snagging problems just as the building has been nominated for the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award. Built-in...

Behind you ...
July 7, 2006... The 2006 Serpentine Gallery pavilion, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond, is open for business. The spectacular ovoid canopy was inflated on Tuesday, ready for the opening party on Thursday night. The walled enclosure beneath...

Manser cries foul over hotel.
July 7, 2006... A leading architecture practice has accused a hotel developer of using its designs without copy-right in a case that highlights the confusion and waste surrounding major building projects. The Manser Practice alleges that Arora Developments...

Barker may call for end to householder consent.(News)
July 7, 2006... Planning experts have called on economist Kate Barker to recommend that householder consents, which account for 55% of planning applications, are taken out of the planning system. The Royal Town Planning Institute and Town & Country...

Majority of architects face harsh retirement.(News)
July 7, 2006... Three-quarters of architects do not believe they will have enough pension provision to secure a decent standard of living, according to research carried out by the BD4jobs website. Of almost 200 architects surveyed, 48% anticipate having to...

Six shortlisted for new Birmingham city park.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Six practices have been short-listed in the competition to design the new City Park in the Eastside area of Birmingham. They are Broadway Malyan, Camlin Lonsdale, Gillespies, Gross Max, Gustafson Porter and Patel Taylor The teams now have...

Live and let Dyer.(News)(Dyer Group plans to develop Gloucester)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Just weeks after the break-up of mega healthcare practice Anshen Dyer, its parent company the Dyer Group has received government approval for its Gloucester Quays masterplan. Planning was initially granted in 2004, and a public inquiry was...

Wood Bagot has been given the go-ahead for its 160 million [pounds sterling] Liverpool Central Village development.(Hit and miss)
July 7, 2006... * Wood Bagot has been given the go-ahead for its 160 million [pounds sterling] Liverpool Central Village development. Its main tower will be less than 30 storeys high, after original plans for a 38-floor building were criticised by English...

Research by Arup shows that timber homes could be less energy efficient than modern masonry homes over their respective lifetimes.(Hit and miss)
July 7, 2006... * Research by Arup shows that timber homes could be less energy efficient than modern masonry homes over their respective lifetimes. It has calculated that over a 60-year lifecycle a timber-framed home would need more energy to cool it in...

Architecture minister David Lammy will make a keynote speech at the 2006 Junior Open House Awards, next Wednesday at the British Museum.(Hit and miss)
July 7, 2006... * Architecture minister David Lammy will make a keynote speech at the 2006 Junior Open House Awards, next Wednesday at the British Museum. It celebrates London children's designs for bike sheds, outdoor classrooms, playground theatres and other...

The RIBA is to travel to Venice for its 2006 conference Social City: Architecture and Change.(Hit and miss)
July 7, 2006... * The RIBA is to travel to Venice for its 2006 conference Social City: Architecture and Change. Over two days in October Norman Foster, Jon Snow, Trevor Phillips, Mark Lawson, Jack Pringle and others will discuss the social benefits of good...

The Department for Communities & Local Government's has announced new building control performance indicators and standards.(Hit and miss)
July 7, 2006... * The Department for Communities & Local Government's has announced new building control performance indicators and standards, which have been welcomed by the industry.

Researchers at Greenwich University are interviewing survivors of the September 11 attacks in New York to gain a better understanding of how people evacuate buildings.(Hit and miss)
July 7, 2006... * Researchers at Greenwich University are interviewing survivors of the September 11 attacks in New York to gain a better understanding of how people evacuate buildings. Project leader Ed Galea says that the information will help architects...

Connell Architects.(People)
July 7, 2006... * Swanke Hayden Connell Architects has appointed Helen Ibbotson (pictured) as director of practice at its Sheffield office. SHCA, which has 10 offices across Europe and the US, says Ibbotson has been appointed to help its efforts to expand in...

MoreySmith.(appointment of George Kahler in MoreySmith)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... * George Kahler has been appointed senior designer at MoreySmith. Kahler, who graduated from Middlesex University with an interior design degree, has previously worked at Tilney Shane in London, and for Designfocus Resource in Sydney,...

Power play.(News)
July 7, 2006... * In a further blow to the government's academies programme, parent Rob Macdonald has been given permission to legally challenge plans for his son's school to be converted into an academy. Macdonald is seeking a judicial review of the decision...

Rogers proteges miss out on Lloyd's redesign: unknown practice replaces Flacq in cost-cutting move at insurance firm.
July 7, 2006... An unknown practice from east London has been appointed to redesign the interior of Richard Rogers' iconic Lloyd's building, replacing Rogers' protege Flacq. Architecture Technology Interiors, which is not registered with the RIBA, has...

Boost for Farrell's Gateway park plan.(News)(Thames Gateway national park)
July 7, 2006... Terry Farrell's vision of a Thames Gateway national park was given substance this week when he presented a "manifesto" from a multi-disciplinary study group outlining its potential. Farrell has worked with an expert voluntary group to...

Rem's blimp proves to be a pearly king.(News)
July 7, 2006... "A non-pavilion" was what Rem Koolhaas promised and if you walked past the Serpentine Gallery only a fortnight ago that seemed to be exactly what we were getting. Save for a steel platform projecting from the gallery like a giant catwalk,...

Religious conversion.(News)
July 7, 2006... Foster & Partners has secured its first church commission, a refurbishment of the grade II listed St Paul's in Onslow Square, London. The 19th century building, used as an administrative centre for the Holy Trinity Brompton church, will be...

Blazing saddles.
July 7, 2006... * Blazing saddles BBC London radio presenter Robert Elms will cycle the 140-mile fifth stage of this year's Tour de France from Beauvais to Caen with the aim of raising 10,000 [pounds sterling] for the charity Architects for Aid, which pays to...

Eastern promise.
July 7, 2006... * Eastern promise Norfolk practice LSI Architects has won three awards for the East of England from a business charity. Among their hat-trick of Business in The Community achievements was one for neighbourhood renewal.

Darlington darlings.
July 7, 2006... * Darlington darlings The Kier Group, Persimmon Homes, SKY Consortium and St Modwen have been shortlisted for the 170 million [pounds sterling] Central Park development at Darlington by Tees Valley Regeneration. The development will have...

Olympics' pledge to new blood: young designers given a boost.(News)
July 7, 2006... Young architects' hopes of winning work on the London 2012 Olympics received a huge boost this week as a new set of construction principles for clients included a commitment to involve "emerging designers". The Construction Commitments...

Murphy upset over best coming second.(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Leading Edinburgh architect Richard Murphy has criticised the rules of a competition for a 7.5 million [pounds sterling] music and cinema venue on Shetland, after coming second despite scoring highest marks for design. Murphywas pipped to...

HLM gives civic pride to Woolwich.(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... This arresting 45 million [pounds sterling] building by HLM Architects is the proposed new civic offices for Woolwich in south-east London. The project, which has been submitted for planning with Greenwich Borough Council, is part of an...

Baa-baa Biennale.
July 7, 2006... * Baa-baa Biennale After 10,000 people joined Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers in launching the London Architecture Biennale with a sheep drive across Millennium Bridge, 75,000 attended the 200 Biennale events over 10 days. More than 400...

Elementary application.
July 7, 2006... * Elementary application The Victorian Society has applied to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport to have Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle's former home Undershaw upgraded from grade II to grade I listing on historical grounds.

Big Deal.
July 7, 2006... * Big Deal Architecture firm Fluid, Buro Happold and Price WaterhouseCoopers have been commissioned by the East of England Development Agency and Norwich City Council to consult on and prepare a masterplan for the regeneration of the Deal...

White-collar campus.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... This 29 million [pounds sterling] office development by RyderHKS architects for London & Regional Properties has begun on site at Park Royal, West London. It is the second office building at FirstCentral, a 120,000sq m office campus with a...

New Alsop building set for green retrofit.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... The mayor of London's advisers on climate change have revealed ambitious plans to retrofit Will Alsop's Palestra office building to make it the most environmentally advanced in the country. Allan Jones, head of the London Climate Change...

Cabe audit criticises new secondary school designs.(News)
July 7, 2006... Cabe has branded half of all secondary schools built in the last five years "poor" or "mediocre". In an audit of 52 of the 124 schools completed since 2001, the watchdog said the buildings were functional and safe but almost all failed to...

Expanding Globe.
July 7, 2006... * Expanding Globe The Shakespeare Globe Trust has won permission to extend its facilities in Southwark, London, with a new education and rehearsal centre designed by architect NPS. It will convert a complex of historic industrial warehouses in...

Save the co-op.
July 7, 2006... * Save the co-op The Twentieth Century Society has objected to the proposed demolition of a thirties former Co-op building in Huddersfield. The 1936 building, which is in a conservation area, is not listed, but is by architect WA Johnson, who...

On the board.
July 7, 2006... * On the board Multidisciplinary firm Chapman Taylor has appointed a new board director. Tim Partington, who joined the practice 20 years ago and was responsible for opening and developing the company's Manchester office, was promoted at the...

Six vie to transform Swindon.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Architects including Make, Marks Barfield and Fletcher Priest are bidding this week for a 300 million [pounds sterling] development to transform Swindon. Six developer-led teams were interviewed on Monday for the Exchange project, a...

Croydon facelift.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Architect AWW has revealed this new residential development, part of a 35 million [pounds sterling] mixed-use regeneration scheme in Croydon. Bridge House, which is now on site, provides 27 private and 48 affordable apartments, along with...

Beamish founder hits out at visitor centre plans.(News)
July 7, 2006... The founder of the Beamish open air museum in County Durham has attacked the decision to commission a modern visitor centre next to the museum's reconstructed 19th and 20th century buildings. Frank Atkinson, the driving force behind the...

Farrell's Edinburgh 'evolution': 'Iconic' conference centre altered.
July 7, 2006... Proposals by Edinburgh design champion Terry Farrell for an extension to his "iconic" International Conference Centre in the city have been substantially altered following criticism by heritage and design groups. Ian Spence, development...

Truman Show designer comes to the Highlands.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... The American architect famous for creating "Seaside", the new urbanist town that provided the setting for the film The Truman Show, is to design a new development in the Scottish Highlands. Andres Duany, an associate of Leon Krier, is...

Sticking their oar in Planning has been granted for JDDK Architects' new club and boathouse for Durham Rowing Club.(The North-east)
July 7, 2006... * Sticking their oar in Planning has been granted for JDDK Architects' new club and boathouse for Durham Rowing Club. The single-storey building will extend the existing boathouse by 30%, and create a club area opening on to a south-facing...

Curtain up.(The North-east)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... * Curtain up Work on the grade I listed Theatre Royal in Newcastle upon Tyne has started on site. The phased remodelling, designed by Napper Architects, involves extending the stage of the 1,200-seat auditorium by 76m and adding theatrical...

On track.(The North-east)
July 7, 2006... * On track Waring & Netts has handed over Pelaw Metro Station to its client, Nexus. The station is a key interchange and one of the busiest on the Tyne & Wear Metro. During the 1.2 million [pounds sterling] project, Waring & Netts remodelled...

Morpeth makeover.(The North-east)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... * Morpeth makeover Castle Morpeth Council has granted planning for a 30 million [pounds sterling] town centre redevelopment. WCEC Architects' scheme will completely redevelop the 16,000sq m Sandersons Arcade and Back Riggs site, creating an...

Up the 'boro.(The North-east)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... * Up the 'boro Xsite Architecture has won a competition for a feasibility study for a Middlesbrough office building that could become a hub for digital media businesses. Digital City, One North East and Middlesborough Council have given Xsite a...

Life's a beach.(The North-east)
July 7, 2006... * Life's a beach More than 1,000 junior school children will descend on Sandhaven Beach in South Shields today for the 11th RIBA and Children North East Sandcastle Challenge. Around 160 teams, from 40 schools, have paired up with local...

Aedas beats RRP in bid for Welsh Assembly offices.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Richard Rogers' bid to design a second building for the Welsh Assembly has been foiled by Aedas Architects. Rogers had hoped to design one of two new regional offices for the Welsh Assembly, in Llandudno, following his completion of the...

Fears for Middlesex Guildhall.(News)
July 7, 2006... The Victorian Society has slammed architect Feilden & Mawson's refurbishment plans for the grade II* listed Middlesex Guildhall on Parliament Square. Architectural adviser at the society Kathryn Ferry claimed the Feilden & Mawson scheme,...

EP to revise Northstowe plans.(News)
July 7, 2006... English Partnerships and developer Gallagher Estates are revising their masterplan for Northstowe, a key new town in Cambridgeshire. Speaking at the RTPI's annual conference in London last week, Peter Studdert, chief executive of...

Big plans for MK's city future.(Milton Keynes Partnership)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... The Milton Keynes Partnership has submitted massive growth proposals that would see the new town become a city with a population of more than 300,000 by 2031. The proposals, which were presented to a panel of government inspectors, include...

Bracing sea Eyre.(News)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Wilkinson Eyre's reworked scheme for Brighton marina, incorporating a 40-storey tower with public viewing gallery and a swing bridge, has received planning permission subject to a section 106 agreement. The plans are 25% less dense than...

I was there at non-riot meeting.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2006... I read your article "Phillips-induced riot fails to materialise" (News June 30) with interest. Far from being absent from the council meeting, I attended all the business items and presented three finance papers, including the 2005 annual...

Rural elitists.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2006... Our policy director, Nicholas Boles, finds the CPRE's attack on Policy Exchange (News June 30) unwarranted. As its report shows, just 11% of England is urbanised, our houses are old, expensive and small, and people are increasingly being made...

Sheffield fledgling.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2006... I was disappointed to learn that the head of architecture at Sheffield University believes that "... there is no real connection between architecture and rock music" (Soapbox June 23). I studied at Sheffield from 1983 to 1990 and can recall no...

Dublin rats.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2006... While studying architectural technology in Bolton Street (now Dublin School of Architecture at DIT) in the early seventies, two of my classmates, Gerry Cott and Pete Cusask, teamed up with Sir Bob to form the Boomtown Rats. I never knew what...

Arbexam unfair.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2006... Further to George Oldham's letter about the "pointless exam" (June 16), I must say that I concur with his comments and the efforts of the Arb reform group. As an illustration of the absurdity, I am working with a German designer (nice...

Quality cast.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the editor)
July 7, 2006... Michael Hickey's letter (June 30) about a legitimate name for high-quality aggregate precast concrete has got the generic name wrong. "Cast masonry" is a name I invented in the mid-nineties and have been spreading through the industry ever...

Welsh win would send wrong message.(Editorial)(prime minister's better public building award)
July 7, 2006... There will be several eyebrows raised this week over the inclusion, for the third year running, of a road on the shortlist for the prime minister's better public building award. The project to widen a section of the M25 serving Heathrow is one...

So what are we going to do now?(Soapbox)
July 7, 2006... Architects are middle-class people who build for middle-class people. The notion of architecture as a fully independent endeavor mirrors the rise of the middle class, becoming a way in which this rising class could represent itself, make itself...

Green elephant.(Concrete Boots)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... The news that Palestra, Will Alsop's new office building, will become an environmental exemplar for London has done much to boost the green credentials of the developer behind the project, Blackfriars Investments. Which, as luck would have it,...

Turf wars.(Concrete Boots)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Still with the London Borough of Southwark, word reaches Boots of more ructions between the Tate Modern and nearby developments. Conflicts arose some time ago when the Tate and local residents clashed with developers over the proposed Hopton...

Planning gain.(Concrete Boots)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Baroness Andrews, the DCLG's representative in the House of Lords, had some encouraging words for planners at their annual conference in London last week. "It takes other people to tell us just how well we are planning and how professional...

First mate.(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Sunand Prasad had to step in for RIBA president Jack Pringle to chair an RIBA symposium on delivering major sports facilities last week. Prasad explained that Pringle was engaged in an "Olympian feat of his own"--skippering his IMX40 class...

Canape mountain.(Concrete Boots)
July 7, 2006... It is to be hoped the ODA's management of Olympic construction is a little tighter than that of the food provision at the launch of the 2012 Construction Commitments at the DTI conference centre on Monday. Boots are for England, but after a...

Steady on.(Concrete Boots)
July 7, 2006... Kate Barker is an economist to the bone. At this week's press conference on her new report on the planning system, she told the assembled hacks that its impact on the economy was "noticeable but not significant". That will really get Gordon...

Jocks away.(Concrete Boots)(Brief article)
July 7, 2006... Scottish architects are certainly a house-proud bunch. Hot on the heels of Glasgow architect Charlie Sutherland, who had his house profiled in Scotland on Sunday earlier this year, is Edinburgh architect Richard Murphy, whose mews house was the...

Invention or discovery? Before his talk this week at the Royal Academy, Kester Rattenbury met Peter Zumthor, the architect's architect, to discover how he mixes reputation, integrity and theory at his 15-strong studio in Switzerland.(Profile)(Interview)
July 7, 2006... The San Gottardo tunnel through the Alps is closed. Therefore, explains Peter Zumthor, there's more traffic on the main road through Haldenstein and more traffic noise mixed with the usual "body of sound"--the whinnying of horses, the wind in...

Gold standard: in London's Hatton Garden, almost unknown territory for large office developments, AHMM's Johnson Building mixes radicalism with sophistication.(Works)
July 7, 2006... Hatton Garden is one of the capital's most distinctive enclaves. Sited at the southern tip of the London Borough of Camden, it lies midway between the City and Westminster. Since medieval times, the area has been the centre of London's...

The Johnson Building, Clerkenwell, London architect: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris structural engineer: Price&Myers.(In detail)
July 7, 2006... A dramatic atrium unites a refurbished forties building with a new concrete framed structure bringing natural daylight right down to the ground through a seven-storey office development in central London. Daylight has been maximised by...

Gimme shelters: a West Midlands scheme shows how building youth shelters can benefit both young people and architects.(Solutions)
July 7, 2006... Youth shelters are architecture for the in-between generation. Younger children have play parks and children's areas, and older teenagers can graduate to bars, cafes and the college campus. But for 12 to 16 year olds who want to explore the...

Design an international oasis for a desert.(LINE OF SITE)(designing waters embassy at Namibia)
July 7, 2006... Of all the potentially disastrous effects of climate change, "water wars" would be the most bloody and brutal. According to a United Nations development programme report, access to water could become a major catalyst for conflict in Africa and...

Eastern promise.(SELECTOR)
July 7, 2006... Past, present and future visions of the Thames Gateway are explored in the exhibition Turning the Tide: Regenerating London's Thames Gateway, until September 2, New London Architecture, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London....

AA on show.(SELECTOR)
July 7, 2006... Gauge the quality of current student work at the Architectural Association at the school's annual Projects Review show opening this weekend. Projects Review 05/06, until July 28, 36 Bedford Square, London. Tel: 020 7887 4000, or visit...

Out of the shadows: a new book on underappreciated Victorian ornamentalist Owen Jones should win him some new fans.(Culture: Books Exhibition Events)(Book review)
July 7, 2006... History, like architecture, can be fickle. While John Ruskin's name has been appended to buildings and institutions around the country, very few people today would recognise the name of Owen Jones, still less his importance to mid-19th century...

Mac sets course for a new era: Peter Wilson reviews the student show at Glasgow's Mackintosh School.
July 7, 2006... School Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow Pros Standard of undergraduate course augurs well for the Mac's future Cons Transformation of student output to digital production is still too focused on traditional methods of...

Viennese whirl.(SELECTOR)
July 7, 2006... Four major buildings by Dominique Perrault including the Mariinsky II Theater in St Petersburg feature in the new Viennese exhibition Meta-Buildings: Dominique Perrault Architecture, until October 23, Architekturzentrum Wien, Museumsplatz 1,...

Yona Friedman.(Culture vulture)(Interview)
July 7, 2006... How would you spend a day indulging in cultural pursuits? My cultural pursuits consist of strolling in the city. Anything I meet, I see, are manifestations of culture: people, shop windows, urban mobilier, even weather, can be looked on as...

Dulce et decorum est: on the anniversary of the Somme, Gavin Stamp's study of Lutyens's Thiepval memorial is a provocative but fitting tribute.(Culture)(Book review)
July 7, 2006... The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval, designed by Lutyens, is "not an arch, but a tower of arches" according to Gavin Stamp. It is a memorial to 73,000 men whose bodies were never found, or if found were so comprehensively...

Tub Haagendas.(Calendar)
July 7, 2006... Monday My week will be defined by events and activities. For this week, I am proposing a time period that facilitates the inclusion of individuals in communal dialogue and shared experience. The stage, then, is set for a dialectic between...

Architest: this week: wind turbines.
July 7, 2006... 1) Which seaside town recently announced plans to shake off its candyfloss and donkey ride reputation with a redevelopment that includes holographic wind turbines? A Blackpool B Brighton C Bournemouth D Bognor 2) Tory...

Rem spurns archive offer: OMA says 900,000 [pounds sterling] deal proposed by Netherlands Architecture Institute is too low.
July 14, 2006... Fears are growing over the future of one of the world's largest and most significant architectural archives after the collapse of a proposed 900,000 [pounds sterling] deal between Rem Koolhaas's practice OMA and the Netherlands Architecture...

Edge of eden.(Brief article)
July 14, 2006... Grimshaw Architects has celebrated an exceptional week after it emerged that its third dome for Cornwall's Eden Project could finally be built. It was also announced that the practice's long-awaited Bath Spa complex will open on August 7. ...

Livingstone given power to green light schemes.(Ken Livingstone)(Brief article)
July 14, 2006... Mayor of London Ken Livingstone will be given sweeping new planning powers, Department for Communities & Local Government secretary Ruth Kelly was set to announce yesterday, after BD went to press. The extra powers, believed to include the...

Architects back RIBA in anti-nuclear stance.(News)
July 14, 2006... Leading architects have joined the RIBA in condemning the government's lurch towards a new generation of nuclear power stations, set out in this week's energy review. RIBA president Jack Pringle's criticism of the new policy direction was...