Building Design articles from June 2005

Building Design archives from June 2005

Made for Madrid.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... David Chipperfield Architects has completed a new social housing scheme in Madrid, Spain. The six-storey terracottaclad building is horseshoe-shaped in plan and includes 176 apartments ranged around seven stairwells and an underground car park....

Gateway offices scrapped: threat of 'suburban tedium' raised.
June 3, 2005... Offices designed by EPR, Michael Hopkins and David Prichard could be scrapped in favour of new homes because the mayor of London has abandoned plans to build offices in large areas of the Thames Gateway. The change of heart, outlined in a...

Give youth a chance: Swiss star architect insists UK needs more contests for younger talent.(News)
June 3, 2005... Herzog & de Meuron founder Pierre de Meuron and Tate director Nicholas Serota have called on private clients and the government to give younger architects more chances to build or see Britain's output of public buildings decline in quality. ...

Trouble at the top: even Herzog & de Meuron feels the squeeze.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... It has glamorous projects across the globe for clients desperate for its magic touch, but Herzog & de Meuron still endures the battles over cost and time that plague even the smallest practice. Pierre de Meuron this week admitted...

Future in doubt as restructuring puts BBC Music Box on pause.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Foreign Office Architects' Music Box project for the BBC was in doubt this week, as consultants on the scheme revealed it was on hold amid cuts and restructuring. The BBC picked Foreign Office Architects after it won a design contest for...

Richard Rogers Partnership's Convoys Wharf scheme in east London has won planning permission, despite widespread local opposition.(Hit and miss)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Richard Rogers Partnership's Convoys Wharf scheme in east London (pictured) has won planning permission, despite widespread local opposition. The development, for media mogul Rupert Murdoch, features three residential towers of 40, 32 and 26...

The Twentieth Century Society has been denied access to Giles Gilbert Scott's iconic brewery buildings in Park Royal.(Hit and miss)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... The Twentieth Century Society has been denied access to Giles Gilbert Scott's iconic brewery buildings in Park Royal. Guinness owner Diageo plans to redevelop the site and the society fears the buildings may be replaced with "cheaply built...

Cabe is moving into Richard Seifert's 1960s Civil Aviation Authority building in London.(Hit and miss)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Cabe is moving into Richard Seifert's 1960s Civil Aviation Authority building in London. The watchdog plans to move out of its offices above Waterloo Station into the iconic drum-shaped building in Holborn.

Southwark council has shortlisted five housing associations to build the first 1,000 homes for the regeneration of Elephant & Castle.(Hit and miss)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Southwark council has shortlisted five housing associations to build the first 1,000 homes for the regeneration of Elephant & Castle. They are Homes for Heygate, Southern HousingGroup, Urban Choice, Horizon Housing Group and a consortium of...

Canterbury School of Architecture.(People)(Canterbury School of Architecture appointed Oren Lieberman as the new head )(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Oren Lieberman has been appointed as the new head of the Canterbury School of Architecture. Lieberman, a lecturer at Strathclyde University, will replace Don Gray. Gray left KIAD earlier this year to head up a new rival school of architecture...

The RIBA is calling for nominations for next year's Royal Gold Medal and Honorary Fellows.(People)
June 3, 2005... The RIBA is calling for nominations for next year's Royal Gold Medal and Honorary Fellows. Recent winners of the Royal Gold Medal, a lifetime achievement award, include Archigram, Frei Otto (pictured) and Jean Nouvel. The honorary fellowships...

RIBA president George Ferguson was at an international architecture conference in Trieste, Italy, last week.(Power play)
June 3, 2005... RIBA president George Ferguson was at an international architecture conference in Trieste, Italy, last week. The conference, which was also attended by Richard Rogers, was convened to discuss universal recognition for architects working outside...

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has announced that the Live 8 concert, the follow-up to Live Aid organised to draw attention to Third World debt.(Power play)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has announced that the Live 8 concert, the follow-up to Live Aid organised to draw attention to Third World debt, will be able to use 50% more space in Hyde Park than previous gigs in the public space, bringing...

Wembley Stadium architect HOK Sport brushed off fears surrounding contractor Multiplex this week.(Power play)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Wembley Stadium architect HOK Sport brushed off fears surrounding contractor Multiplex this week. Shares in Multiplex fell 25% on Monday after the company announced it had made a 45 million [pounds sterling] loss on the project. But Rod Sheard,...

BD is online every week for free.(bd online)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Each week, from Friday, you can browse our web site for the news stories, analysis, special reports, building studies and all the comment that packs your regular weekly issue. Extras on the website include: * interactive web polls ...

A paler shade of green: changes to intended use mean eco-buildings might not be as environmentally friendly as architects claim.(News)
June 3, 2005... Famous eco-buildings such as Swiss Re and Portcullis House have allegedly failed to live up to their green credentials. Building Research Establishment managing director David Strong claimed that a series of last-minute changes to some new...

Overruns fail to derail Lift health scheme.(News)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... The government's spending watchdog has given its approval to the controversial 1.2 billion [pounds sterling] local improvement finance trust (Lift) healthcare programme, despite massive delays and cost overruns on the first projects. A...

Birmingham's rough diamond.(M3 Architects )(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... M3 Architects has revealed images of a dramatic new mixed-use scheme in Birmingham, dubbed a "rough diamond" in the city's Jewellery Quarter. The project, for an unnamed consortium which includes the site's landowner, is at pre-planning...

Ground work.(Children's Eye Centre)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Ground work Ground has been broken on a 13.5 million [pounds sterling] children's eye hospital designed by Penoyre & Prasad. The Moorfields international Children's Eye Centre (ICEC), next to the main Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, was...

Road views.(Islington Council )(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Road views Islington Council has launched an eight-week consultation on a multi-million-pound 10-year improvement programme for one of London's busiest roads, the A1. It wants to cut the number of car journeys taken on the road and make...

Bath conversion.(Brompton House)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Bath conversion Bath practice Nash Partnership has revealed plans to restore and convert the city's grade II listed Brompton House. The proposals, which have won planning permission, involve turning the 18th century Georgian rectory into a...

AA chair promises changes: Brett Steele: I'm no 'safe' candidate.(News)
June 3, 2005... The new chairman of the Architectural Association set out his vision for a once in a generation change at the world's leading architecture school this week. Brett Steele was elected last week, beating Foreign Office Architects partner...

Birmingham library options row rages.(News)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Political infighting over Richard Rogers' plans for a library in Birmingham continued this week, with opposition councillors calling on council leaders to publish a report into the viability of the scheme. Deputy leader of Birmingham City...

All-singing, all-dancing garden shed.(FIRST LOOK)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Young architectural practice AOC has revealed images of its first completed building--a folly for Billy Elliot film director Stephen Daldry. The structure, in Daldry's Hertfordshire garden, was completed at the end of last year by the...

Rotherham redesign.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Rotherham redesign Studio Egret West with Fielden Clegg Bradley are one of the five design teams shortlisted to redesign Rotherham town centre. They face competition from BDP; Cartwright Pickard; Glenn Howells Architects; and Red Box with...

Gypsum recovery.(Lafarge Plasterboard )(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Gypsum recovery Gypsum manufacturer Lafarge Plasterboard is to launch a waste reclamation service in response to a new EU directive requiring waste with a sulphate content of 10% or more, such as gypsum, to be disposed of in a "sulphate waste...

RICS shortlist.
June 3, 2005... RICS shortlist The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has announced a shortlist for its 2005 Building Awards. The 48 projects shortlisted range from a community-based project on the Scottish island of Benbecula to the British Museum in...

Boycott threat for Liverpool.(Liverpool City Council)
June 3, 2005... A group of high-profile property developers has slammed Liverpool City Council's "chaotic" planning department and threatened to build elsewhere if it doesn't improve. The pressure group Downtown Liverpool in Business (DLIB) issued the...

English Partnerships submits plans for first 60k [pounds sterling] homes.(News)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... English Partnerships has submitted plans for the prototype 60,000 [pounds sterling] house to be built at Allerton Bywater in Leeds. The quango is building 23 of the PRP-designed homes, showcased at the Sustainable Communities Summit last...

Access all areas.(News)(Graeme Massie Architects)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Glasgow-based practice Graeme Massie Architects has won an RIBA competition to redesign Bonn Square in Oxford. At the moment, inaccessible corners of the public square, created by a raised historical burial ground, have made it a popular...

Battle of Hastings: revised Hopkins scheme is a 'missed opportunity'.(News)
June 3, 2005... Hopkins Architects' major revisions to a controversial 72 million [pounds sterling] regeneration scheme in Hastings have been branded a "missed opportunity" by a local design watchdog. The Hastings & Rother Urban Design Group said it was...

Winchester planners 'failing in duty of care'.(Winchester City Council)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Winchester City Council's planning department is struggling with low morale and a funding shortage after the government halved its planning delivery grant because of poor performance. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister cut the...

Divine intervention.(News)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... EPR Architects has won planning permission for a new church, community facilities and affordable housing on the Isle of Dogs in east London. The new St Luke's church will replace a deteriorating church that was built on the site when its...

A dazzling display of detritus: Herzog & de Meuron has turned the Turbine Hall into a jumble sale of their most extraordinary ideas.(News)
June 3, 2005... The day before I was taken around Tate Modern's Herzog & de Meuron show, the gallery's first architecture exhibition, I asked an architect friend of mine what he thought of their work. "I'm almost bored of their incessant creativity," he...

Pathfinder takes a wrong turning.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... Malcolm Fraser rightly condemns the insensitive government Pathfinder housing programme for the ecological obscurity that it is (Soapbox May 27). Its Second World War tag threatens the dropping of flares for bombers to follow, where Luftwaffe...

No limits for Arb.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... Jack Pringle, in his open letter to the chairman of Arb, says: "In 1996, when Parliament determined the powers to be given to the newly created Arb, it was made clear that the act was not being passed to enable Arb to become actively involved...

It's good to talk.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... The normal practice when dealing with a planning application is for the planning officer to phone the architect if they have a problem with a part of the design. A five or 10 minute conversation can often resolve the problem or clear up a...

Signing in vein.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... I, too, have had a planning application spurned because the application was signed in black fountain pen and therefore apparently impossible to distinguish from the photocopy (Letters May 27). How they do enjoy a good laugh down at the planning...

Icons square off.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... How intriguing that, after Alsop and Allies & Morrison's much-reported "icon vs non-icon" spat, when they were given offices to design in Southwark (News Analysis, May 20) they both produce square glass boxes covered with coloured vertical...

Surely a typo.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... In response to the Adjaye Associates recruitment advert (Jobs May 27): Architecture studio based in inner London and expanding into Japanese market seeks architectural assistant... with excellent knowledge of Japanese regulations and...

Higher purpose.(Comment: Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... Has anyone noticed how architects are convinced that God is in the details, while the rest of the population insists that it is the Devil who's in the details. I am wondering what that says about architects? William Dawson, London

Correction.(Comment: Letters)(Correction Notice)
June 3, 2005... Last week's Culture section featured a photograph from Neil Bingham's book The New Boutique: Fashion and Design purporting to be the Prada Epicentre in Tokyo, designed by OMA. While OMA has designed several flagship stores for Prada, the Tokyo...

Taking inspiration from Swiss masters.(Editorial)
June 3, 2005... Architecture schools are brimming with nervous energy. The adversarial rite of passage of the end-of-year critique is leaving students across the country, shaken up. Night and day merge amid last-minute preparations for the final show, and...

Get a fair deal on the standard agreement.(British Property Federation consultancy agreement )
June 3, 2005... How much time and money do you spend each year negotiating terms of appointment and collateral warranties? More than you would like, I expect, particularly if you deal with commercial clients who put forward bespoke terms prepared by their...

Knit wits.(Concrete Boots)(knitted architecture)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Architecture Week later this month means galleries all over the country will race to find original ways to make the profession more accessible and fun. The Here Gallery in Bristol has raised the bar quite considerably, with an exhibition,...

Scouse invaders.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Talking of unusual ways to get your message across, the website for pressure group Downtown Liverpool in Business features a version of the classic Space Invaders game to make its political point. The buildings that players have to protect...

Show steeler.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Academic Brett Steele was so inundated with congratulatory emails when he won the election for AA chairman last week that his computer crashed. He was lecturing at Princeton University in the US when he heard the good news and has been on...

Phallic pride.(Concrete Boots)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Many feel the French are obsessed with sex, and Jean Nouvel did little to counter the stereotype last week. Discussing his Barcelona land mark, the Agbar Tower, as part of the Architecture Foundation's Real Architecture programme, the...

New career high.(Concrete Boots)
June 3, 2005... Sticking with the eccentric Monsieur Nouvel, the architect was also keen to stress the Agbar Tower's similarities with Gaudi's nearby cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, revealing yet more mocked-up images, this time of his building rising from...

Queen of the stone age: David Chipperfield's butch Madrid housing isn't quite what it seems, discovers Ellis Woodman.(Works)
June 3, 2005... Almodovar fans may be pained to learn that the periphery of Madrid rather fails to live up to the image of it that one might take from the maestro's films. I kept an eye open for Carmen Maura, dolled up in stilettos and leopard-skin prints,...

How we cracked it: 06: barking library.
June 3, 2005... Allford Hall Monaghan Morris has created a mosaic facade for Barking Library that maximises natural light and ventilation while meeting the requirements of part L and part F. Paul Monaghan explains how Step 1 The challenge The first...

A shock in a little black box: the war on carbon is recruiting business bosses.(Solutions)
June 3, 2005... It is a frequently observed fact that the UK's built environment creates half the country's total carbon emissions. This statistic appears in almost every official document about energy and the environment, and you don't have to be a...

Hue and cry: the crowd-pullers at the Barbican's After Klein show disappoint, but it is the less familiar that add the real colour.
June 3, 2005... Don't go by first impressions of the Barbican's new major show, Colour After Klein. Bizarrely, given its intensely visual nature, first appearances aren't particularly good--if you only peered into the first spaces of the gallery you might not...

Wider domain.(SELECTOR)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Artists Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell are staging their biggest exhibition of architecturally related work for a decade. Langlands & Bell: Domain, June 7 to July 24, Milton Keynes Gallery, 900 Midsummer Boulevard, Central Milton Keynes. Tel:...

Cooking up a show.(SELECTOR)
June 3, 2005... Peter Cook is the curator of the architecture room at this year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. From June 7 to August 15, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, London. Tel: 020 7300 8000.

Here's one I prepared earlier: a new book vents frustration at architects' lack of vision for prefabricated housing.(Culture: Books Exhibitions Events)(The Prefabricated Home)(Book Review)
June 3, 2005... Colin Davies's book is not a straight history of prefabricated house construction--it's much more polemical. In The Prefabricated Home, he argues that developments in on-demand production and computer-aided manufacturing, have quietly...

Smashing the system.(SELECTOR)
June 3, 2005... Gordon Matta-Clark and Donald Judd are among 25 artists featured in Open Systems: Rethinking Art c1970, an exhibition of work from the sixties and seventies that reacted against the idea of organised knowledge. Until September 18, Tare Modern,...

Jimi Hendrix and me.(Culture: Books Exhibitions Events)
June 3, 2005... It was either 1966 or 1967: In our uniform of army surplus great coats--the renegade troopers of the Bury St Edmunds counterculture--we folded ourselves into Roderick's mum's Hillman Imp and made our way through the market towns of mid-Suffolk,...

At Tryburn Hill, capital punishment will be brought into the 21st century via a live feed from Texas.
June 3, 2005... Monday After five years, the Millennium Maxi-Village near Leeds is still a radical experiment, but nobody lives there yet. The sponsoring quango now wants cheap housing in a hurry, with gardens and "a transport infrastructure arranged as...

High rise and handsome.(precast concrete cladding panels)
June 3, 2005... For decades, architectural precast concrete cladding panels have been supplied for a wide range of applications, more recently multi-storey residential buildings. Indeed, their track record of delivering essential client requirements is second...

Combined hand-set and stone-faced cladding solution.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Trent Concrete produced a combined hand-set and natural stone-faced cladding solution for a new office development on Arthur Street in London. This approach delivered a greater speed of construction, overcame site skills shortages and...

On to the next phase.(Marble Mosaic Co. balconies)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... With the practical completion of the first two blocks of the St George's Battersea Reach residential development by Wandsworth Bridge in London, The Marble Mosaic Co will have designed and provided 1080 precast concrete cladding panels and 360...

New public face.(Athlone civic centre design)
June 3, 2005... Keith Williams Architects won the competition for the new Athlone civic centre, Co. Westmeath, Ireland late in 2000. The brief was for a 'flagship of regeneration'; the new public face of Athlone, incorporating council chamber, meeting rooms...

Summer of Sorrell: John Sorrell talks to Robert Booth in his first major interview since taking over as Cabe chairman about designing the watchdog a new home, why he's going it for the people and the power of skateboarding.(Cabe)(Interview)
June 10, 2005... Fight the flab with Sorrell's archi diet Buildings and public spaces must be redesigned to help Britain fight obesity and avoid diseases caused by chronic inactivity, the government's top design adviser declared this week. Cabe...

Stars clash in gold rush: Gehry and Libeskind fight for their man as RIBA judging panel faces pressure over Royal Gold Medal.(Frank Gehry, David Libeskind and Richard MacCormac are in contest)
June 10, 2005... An extraordinary, war of words has broken out over the destiny of the next Royal Gold Medal. Campaign groups including Frank Gehry, David Libeskind and Richard MacCormac have made impassioned claims for the two leading candidates, British...

Siza's gridlock.(News)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2005 is 10 days away from completion. The annual summer pavilion, the first UK project by portuguese Pritzker prize winner Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura, has been built in collaboration with Cecil...

'In denial' on safety: architects singled out as Health & Safety Executive toughens up rules.(News)
June 10, 2005... Architects should brace themselves for a health and safety crackdown as the government prepares to get tough with the profession. The Health & Safety Executive believes that architects, who are held responsible for up to a third of...

Leicester City Council has pledged to press ahead with Rafael Vinoly's performing arts centre at a cost of 48 million [pounds sterling].(Hit and miss)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Leicester City Council has pledged to press ahead with Rafael Vinoly's performing arts centre at a cost of 48 million [pounds sterling], 4 million [pounds sterling] more than previous estimates and nearly double the original 26 million [pounds...

The sustainable headquarters for the Environment Agency, designed by Scott Brownrigg, was officially opened.(Hit and miss)
June 10, 2005... The sustainable headquarters for the Environment Agency (pictured), designed by Scott Brownrigg, was officially opened by Environment Agency chairman John Harman on Wednesday.

RIBA president George Ferguson has gained total support for a joint declaration of commitment to sustainability and climate change.(Hit and miss)
June 10, 2005... RIBA president George Ferguson has gained total support for a joint declaration of commitment to sustainability and climate change, which he presented to eight presidents of national architectural institutes participating in the American...

Kingston University.(People)(appoints Deyan Sudjic)
June 10, 2005... Deyan Sudjic, architecture critic for the Observer and former editor of Domus and Blueprint, has been appointed the new dean of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture at Kingston University.

Construction Industry Council.(People)(appoints Nick Raynsford )(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Former local government minister Nick Raynsford has been appointed as chairman of the Construction Industry Council from June 2006.

Frank Gehry's controversial scheme for the King Alfred site in Hove has won the backing of the Brighton & Hove council's policy and resources committee.(Power play)
June 10, 2005... Frank Gehry's controversial scheme for the King Alfred site in Hove has won the backing of the Brighton & Hove council's policy and resources committee, which acts as landlord for the site. Developer Karis will now prepare a planning...

London's planners must be well trained if they are to realise mayor Ken Livingstone's vision of a greener capital, the London Assembly has said.(Power play)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... London's planners must be well trained if they are to realise mayor Ken Livingstone's vision of a greener capital, the London Assembly has said. The assembly's environment committee, which met last Wednesday, also called on the mayor to develop...

The public inquiry into the Thames Gateway bridge opened this week.(Power play)
June 10, 2005... The public inquiry into the Thames Gateway bridge opened this week. Livingstone's architectural adviser Ricky Burdett presented evidence in support of the bridge to planning inspector Michael Ellison on Wednesday.

Schools for Future scrutiny scrapped: Mayhem predicted as design vetting is axed in civil service cuts.
June 10, 2005... The government has scrapped central design checks for its latest schools building programme, the 2.2 billion [pounds sterling] Building Schools for the Future. Civil service cuts mean that the Department for Education & Skills does not...

Shopping in St Paul's shadows.(News)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... A complex of shops and offices designed by French architect Jean Nouvel has been proposed for a hyper-sensitive site next to St Paul's Cathedral. The three-floor development, with 20,440sq m of covered retail space and 31,585sq m of...

Summer competitions special.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... 1: BD's Big Break * Are you a part II architecture graduate ready to battle for your first big job this summer? * Do you want to work for an award-winning practice in London and earn 22,000 [pounds sterling] PA? * Are you good...

Log cabin bid for 60k [pounds sterling] homes.(News)(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Richard Rogers Partnership is vying with a family-run supplier of Scandinavian log cabins in the race to build a 60,000 [pounds sterling] house. Rogers, working with volume housebuilder Wimpey, is one of the 33 consortiums that have been...

All new social housing must meet the toughest environmental standards.(News)
June 10, 2005... All new social housing must meet the toughest environmental standards, the Housing Corporation has announced. The corporation, which is funding 70,000 new homes over the next two years, wants them all to meet the Eco-Homes "very good"...

Crime talk.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Crime talk Design should be used to tackle anti-social behaviour, the Civic Trust will tell the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate next month. The trust will look at ways of designing out crime, with police and planners among...

Brighton gong.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Brighton gong Brighton Library scooped the award for best design at the public private finance awards held in London last month. The PFI library, designed by Bennetts Associates with local practice Lomax, Cassidy & Edwards, was praised by...

Edgbaston towers.(Brief Article)
June 10, 2005... Edgbaston towers Reid Architecture has won the commission to redesign Edgbaston shopping centre in Birmingham. The proposals include a series of towers descending from 16 storeys to seven, as well as 9,290sq m of leisure and retail space and...

Defections continue at Canterbury: legal action as tutors join Kent.(Canterbury School of Architecture)
June 10, 2005... The exodus of staff from the Canterbury School of Architecture has continued, with more than half of the staff following former head of school Don Gray to the nearby University of Kent, which has established its own school of architecture. ...