Building Design articles from June 2008

Building Design archives from June 2008

Schools strike back at call to change curriculum.
June 13, 2008... Sustainability shouldn't be the only challenge for architecture schools, say educators Liz Bury & Rory Olcayto Heads of schools have hit back at claims by organisers of the Oxford Conference that their courses are out of touch with the...

Lifting our spirits.(London International Festival of Theatre)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... The Lift, a transportable, trapezoid-shaped theatre venue designed by AOC, will be among the main attractions of this year's London Festival of Architecture. The #400,000 mobile venue was originally designed for another festival - the London...

LEADER: The challenge for Oxford.
June 13, 2008... AMANDA BAILLIEU Next month's debate on architectural education must accept that professional boundaries are a thing of the past Architecture schools must change. How they do that and the direction they should move in will be debated...

LEADER: Will summer jobs lead somewhere?(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... It seems the summer of 2008 is set to be characterised by a flowering of structures that are as exotic as they are small. This week sees the opening of the AOC's Lift and Dominique Perrault's cafe at Reigate. In the next few weeks we can look...

IN BRIEF: Warehouses scheme approved.
June 13, 2008... Liverpool City Council has granted planning permission for a scheme by Thinking Space to turn a series of grade II and grade II* listed tobacco warehouses in Stanley Dock into a mixed-use development with 918 apartments, 11,000sq m of office...

IN BRIEF: Elephants pack their trunks.
June 13, 2008... Foster & Partners' new elephant house at Copenhagen Zoo was opened by the Danish Prince Consort on Tuesday. The zoo's eight Asian elephants have been moved to their new quarters from a 1914 brick building which isto be put to a new use. ...

IN BRIEF: River Don project in for planning.(Hopkins Architects )(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Hopkins Architects has submitted a new sustainable business and residential scheme for Sheffield's River Don Valley for outline planning. The project is part of a #300 million British Land masterplan to kick-start regeneration in the area. ...

IN BRIEF: Islington academy goes green.(London Borough of Islington)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Swanke Hayden Connell Architects is to design a new academy and a special needs school for the London Borough of Islington. The #39 million redevelopment of the Islington Green School site will be the first academy school to achieve 20%...

Mulgan: plan for ageing population.
June 13, 2008... Labour guru tells architects to lead Marguerite Lazell Tony Blair's former director of policy Geoff Mulgan has called on architects to take a lead in shaping the built environment to accommodate the UK's ageing population. ...

Commercial lease will fund RA refurb.
June 13, 2008... David Chipperfield is picked to give Royal Academy a modern approach Will Henley The Royal Academy of Arts has defended its decision to let the former Museum of Mankind to commercial art gallery Haunch of Venison. The arrangement...

Silver scheme gives Soho modern touch.(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... DSDHA has won consent for the first modern building in Westminster since Richard Rogers was granted planning for Broadwick Street in 1996. The five-storey silver tile-clad office and residential development in Beak Street, Soho, is the...

Causeway takes a giant step forward.(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Three years after winning an international competition to design a new visitor centre at Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, Heneghan Peng Architects' scheme was finally submitted for planning this week. The project has been beset by...

PM's Award shortlist out.
June 13, 2008... Denton Corker Marshall's Civil Justice Centre in Manchester, Allies & Morrison's Festival Hall revamp and Muma's Newlyn Art Gallery in Cornwall are on the 21-strong shortlist for the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award, the annual...

ODA in row over Aquatics Centre legacy provision.
June 13, 2008... Rory Olcayto A row has broken out between the Olympic Delivery Authority and Newham Council over leisure water facilities as part of the legacy provisions associated with Zaha Hadid's Aquatics Centre. The ODA has proposed that the...

Patel Taylor's park draws a thin green line through Birmingham.
June 13, 2008... Patel Taylor's #12.5 million scheme for Eastside City Park, a green, linear park planned for Birmingham, has been granted outline planning approval. At 800m long and just 40m wide, it extends east from Park Street, along the front of...

Poor designs kill off bus shelter contest.(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... A competition to redesign London's 12,000 bus shelters has been scrapped because the shortlisted schemes by firms including Conran & Partners, Ian Ritchie Architects and Arups were not considered good enough. The contest was launched by...

Street life on a new plane.
June 13, 2008... Yaya winner Carmody Groarke has designed a temporary 160m-long skywalk to launch the Bloomsbury Hub of the London Festival of Architecture. The walkway, commissioned by New London Architecture, will create a series of new public spaces...

Unesco ducks St Petersburg heritage issue.
June 13, 2008... Anger at `in danger' recommendation Will Henley Unesco has been dubbed "oblivious" to St Petersburg's future after a leaked report revealed it will fall short of recommending the city's world heritage status be revoked. The...

Unhappy planners move to private sector.
June 13, 2008... The Royal Town Planning Institute has slammed the "target culture" of local authority planning departments, saying it is driving employees to the private sector in search of job satisfaction. Public sector employees now make up 43% of RTPI...

Credit crunch starts to bite.
June 13, 2008... Argent admits that its King's Cross scheme will be pared back Will Henley Architects and developers have reacted gloomily to grim predictions for the credit-hit commercial property market. Roger Madelin, joint chief executive of...

VICTORIA SCHEME FEELS THE PINCH.(Land Securities Group PLC)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Land Securities has revealed changes to its Victoria Transport Interchange scheme involving a dramatic scaling back of commercial space and a new area for affordable housing. The regeneration scheme has been slashed from 5.4ha to 2.1ha. It...

Viewing at a stroke.(Ramboll Whitbybird's Riverside Bridge )(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Ramboll Whitbybird's Riverside Bridge in Cambridge opened last week. The practice worked with sculptor Gerry Judah on the footbridge, which crosses the River Cam, joining the city's Chesterton and Abbey areas. The 200m-long bridge...

Call to dump design tsar.(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Leading developers have rejected the idea of a London "design tsar", dismissing the post as "another bloody layer of bureaucracy". As mayor Boris Johnson ponders whether to retain or replace design adviser Richard Rogers, senior figures...

PLANNING POLICY: Partnering guide to speed planning.(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... A new guide to speed up planning partnerships between councils and developers has been published by planning minister Iain Wright. The voluntary step-by-step guides, Planning Performance Agreements, set out to local authorities and...

EDUCATIONl: Student village wins planning.(O'Connell East Architects)(University of Wolverhampton)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Planning permission has been granted for a #37 million student village for the University of Wolverhampton, designed by Manchester-based O'Connell East Architects. The Victoria Hall development will create around 750 units and includes a...

RIBA COMPETITION: Six shortlisted for university homes.
June 13, 2008... Six practices have been shortlisted from more than 100 entrants to an RIBA competition to design and build 400 student residences for Warwick University. Fraser Brown MacKenna Architects, David Morley Architects, Richard Murphy Architects,...

YORKSHIRE DALES: Environmental centre planned for former lime quarry.(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Halliday Clark Architects' scheme to build an environmental centre in a disused quarry has been submitted to Yorkshire Dales National Park for detailed planning. The project, for client Rural Solutions, is in a former lime quarry in...

ACA seizes on RIBA letter defending new contract.(Association of Consultant Architects)(Royal Institute of British Architects)
June 13, 2008... Marguerite Lazell The Association of Consultant Architects has branded the RIBA's review of its new standard contract as "extraordinary" after RIBA vice- president Jane Duncan wrote to all her members in an attempt to allay fears about the...

CHESTERFIELD: Edaw to design waterside site.
June 13, 2008... Chesterfield Borough Council has appointed Edaw to masterplan Chesterfield Waterside, a 16ha brownfield site adjacent to the town centre. It will head up developer Urbo's design team and provide landscape architecture services. Proposals...

EPR ARCHITECTS: Islington hotel scheme approved.
June 13, 2008... EPR Architects has won planning for a new hotel in Islington, north London, on one of the last sites in the capital to be redeveloped after being bombed in the second world war. A previous application for the site was turned down in October...

SHEPPARD ROBSON: Tropical medicine facility completed.(Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Sheppard Robson's Centre for Tropical & Infectious Diseases for the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been completed. The facility provides 7,000sq m of laboratory and office space over four floors. Sheppard Robson's Rod...

ANALYSIS: Questioning the Oxford agenda.
June 13, 2008... Heads of four architecture schools respond to to last week's setting- out of the issues for next month's Oxford Conference, and argue that sustainability is not the only game in town Jeremy Till Professor of architecture University of...

LETTER: Cabe's shame.(Letter to the editor)
June 13, 2008... Cabe's response to the proposed Tesco scheme for the historic - and delightful - market town of Hadleigh is deeply depressing and casts doubt on the quango's credibility. Your image of Lyons Sleeman Hoare's proposal suggests a fairly...

LETTER: Parametric guilt.(Letter to the editor)
June 13, 2008... With reference to Peter Eisenman and Neil Spiller in Have computers damaged architects' design quality? (Debate May 16) and the subsequent letters, it seems to me that the detractors of computer design are rather missing the point. The...

LETTER: Another view.(Letter to the editor)
June 13, 2008... Why should an Olympic visitor centre housed in Portakabins be a problem? The memory of Cedric Price is often venerated in your pages - did no one listen to what he said? Paul Shepheard London NW5 Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

LETTER: Left speechless.(Letter to the editor)
June 13, 2008... I have spent much time trying to persuade Scottish architects that the RIBA has the ear of government. Your leader (May 30) suggests this is no longer the case. Who can be surprised? The government dissolved the Architects Registration...

LETTER: Mixed messages.(Letter to the editor)
June 13, 2008... So George Ferguson thinks the election figures could equally show that regional architects are "happy with the situation" rather than being disaffected (May 30)? Then I get an email from RIBA NW telling me the presidential hustings are...

LETTER - Oxford: address education costs.
June 13, 2008... The Oxford Conference meets again on July 22-23 (News analysis June 6). Its title is 50 Years On - Resetting the Agenda for Architectural Education, but it completely overlooks the major issue facing education today: that of affordability. ...

CLARIFICATION: Eric Parry.(Correction notice)
June 13, 2008... In last week's interview with Eric Parry, we mistakenly referred to the refusal of the second planning application. It was, as made clear elsewhere on the page, the first application that was refused. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

OPINION: A design folly sent to test our mettle.(Viewpoint essay)
June 13, 2008... SAUL METZSTEIN The textureless, bland, context-immune metal panel threatens to define our age Everybody knows that computer renderings of buildings are becoming ever more realistic. Witness the particularly lifelike impression of a...

DEBATE: Is The Public arts centre a waste of public money?(Discussion)
June 13, 2008... YES Tony Ward, Leader of Sandwell Conservative Group This is not what West Bromwich needs. The area has no cinema, no swimming baths, no theatre - nothing. Particularly, there's nothing for young people. It lacks all sorts of basic...

WORKS: DESIGN FOR LONDON - London in the frame.
June 13, 2008... An exhibition of architects' ideas to improve London will go on public display this month, but will it change attitudes toward Design for London? Amanda Baillieu introduces a selection of the original 42 entries that took part in the DfL...

WORKS: MUNKENBECK & PARTNERS - Room at the top.(Jerwood Space )
June 13, 2008... PROJECT TEAM Architect: Munkenbeck & Partners, Structural engineer: Dewhurst Macfarlane, Acoustic consultant: Sandy Brown Associates, M & E: Atelier Ten, Quantity surveyor: Jackson Coles, Contractor: Harris Calnan Construction ...

SOLUTIONS: CLADDING - Designs at the cutting edge.
June 13, 2008... Advances in technology mean that cladding can take on increasingly elaborate decorative forms. Cathy Strongman looks at three of the latest projects to exploit this approach, taking their inspiration from tree branches, flowers and Polish...

RICH MAN, POOR MAN.
June 13, 2008... DOUBLE GLAZED CURTAIN WALLING MX TRAME HORIZONTALE Supplier: Technal Price: From #360 per sq m excluding VAT MX Trame Horizontale is part of the Technal MX family and a key feature of the system is that it allows specifiers to...

SOLUTIONS: CLADDING - It's alive!
June 13, 2008... Living walls are providing attractive and sustainable facades for a variety of buildings. Cathy Strongman reports on some of their uses, and on vertical garden creator Patrick Blanc DESIGN INDABA HOUSING PROJECT MARK DYTHAM AND RUBEN...

SOLUTIONS: CLADDING - Vertical challenge draws a Blanc.
June 13, 2008... Think of living walls, and it's most likely to be Patrick Blanc's vertical gardens that spring to mind - most recently the foliage- covered facades for Jean Nouvel's Musee du Quai Branly in Paris and Herzog & de Meuron's Caixa Forum in Madrid....

CULTURE: Look, laugh and learn.
June 13, 2008... Charles Jencks on why architect Bruce Goff is worth reassessing at a Tate Modern symposium this month EVENT BRUCE GOFF WEEKEND Tate Modern, London www.tate.org.uk June 21-22 It is impossible not to smile and laugh...

CULTURE: Garden of not-so-earthy delights.
June 13, 2008... Sudeley Castle's Artists' Playground is a great idea, but not as much fun as it sounds, says Tony McIntyre BOOK THE ARTISTS' PLAYGROUND Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire www.sudeleycastle.co.uk Until October 31...

HOT TIPS: Serving Berlin.(David Chipperfield Architects)(Neues Museum)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... For 11 years, David Chipperfield Architects has been working on the Neues Museum in Berlin - an extension of the 1859 building designed by Friedrich August Stueler. Its progress, and the issues of restoration and intervention it raises, are...

HOT TIPS: French lesson.(Dominique Perrault Architecture)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... French architect Dominique Perrault continues the annual series of architect-themed exhibitions at the Pompidou Centre with over 60 projects including the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in east Paris, two inclined hotel towers for the Milan...

HOT TIPS: Feels good.(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... Touch is the theme of this new Jerwood exhibition, the first of an annual event. Seven makers from a range of disciplines share a #30,000 bursary, including Gary Breeze's letterforms floorpiece and Lin Cheung's A hint of a domestic interior....

HOT TIPS: Homing instinct.(The House That Herman Built)(Brief article)
June 13, 2008... RCA students have curated The House That Herman Built, which explores the relationship between activism, art and architecture through artist Jackie Sumell and prisoner Herman Wallace. The show includes a replica of Wallace's prison cell, and an...

Jonathan Glancey: Dogs have their day at the LFA.(London Festival of Architecture)
June 13, 2008... The sheer number of events on offer at this year's London Festival of Architecture is enough to freeze anyone with a love of (a) London and (b) architecture like some urban fox caught in the headlamps of a bendy bus. One event, though, caught...

THIS WEEK: HOME WIN.
June 13, 2008... Knowsley Council's planning committee voted 20-1 to approve Broadway Malyan's #400 million scheme for the new Everton FC 50,000-seat stadium and Tesco-led retail development in Kirkby. The scheme has now been referred to the Government Office...

THIS WEEK: ON A HIGH.
June 13, 2008... Scotland's Stephen Tierney and Claire Tullan have become the first couple to wed on Sydney Harbour Bridge. The bride and groom wore climbing suits and safety harnesses. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

THIS WEEK: KISS N MAKE UP.
June 13, 2008... The Vatican is to attend the 2009 Venice Biennale, an event it once described as a "artistic debacle". Pope Benedict XVI hopes the move will improve relations between the Catholic church and contemporary art. Copyright: CMP Information...

THIS WEEK: BRIGHT SIDE I.
June 13, 2008... More than 30 1920s lamp posts in Bristol's St Andrews district have been replaced with brighter lights to deter street criminals, says the council, but cynics say the originals could be installed in more upmarket Clifton. Copyright: CMP...

THIS WEEK: BRIGHT SIDE II.
June 13, 2008... China's rulers have told journalists to cease "negative" reporting on Sichuan's earthquake. They want fewer stories about substandard buildings and more on heroic rescues. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

THIS WEEK: BITTER TASTE.
June 13, 2008... A Northants dentist has slammed planners for refusing a handrail at his grade II listed building. A 99-year-old patient received a check-up on the street when she was unableto enter the surgery. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

Letters reveal bitter tussle of MacCormac and BBC.(Letter to the editor)
June 20, 2008... Correspondence exposes how loss of the iconic newsroom proved final straw for MJP Will Hurst The full extent of the epic struggle between Richard MacCormac and the BBC over the design of its flagship new Broadcasting House building...

LEADER: How MacCormac went wrong.
June 20, 2008... AMANDA BAILLIEU Richard MacCormac put up a heroic fight against the BBC, but their correspondence hints that he lost the plot Richard MacCormac's impassioned defence of Broadcasting House makes for uncomfortable reading. The hurt is...

LEADER: Demolition isn't good enough.
June 20, 2008... Save's buildings at risk catalogue, published this week, is about as good an armchair read as you could hope to find. But as well as some extraordinary buildings - from the art deco Forum Cinema in Liverpool to an entire terrace in Ramsgate -...

IN BRIEF: Cutty Sark ready to start museum.
June 20, 2008... The Cutty Sark conservation project led by Grimshaw and Youmeheshe this week passed a major milestone on its path to full restoration with the removal of its final piece of planking. The historic tea clipper will now be lifted 3m above its...

IN BRIEF: Chipperfield house wins go-ahead.(Cherwell District Council )(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... David Chipperfield Architects has won planning permission for a private house in Oxfordshire under the rarely tested PPS7 planning policy for country houses. The practice revealed this week that the 2,000sq m project had received the...

IN BRIEF: RTPI urges greater scrutiny.(Royal Town Planning Institute)(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... The Royal Town Planning Institute is calling on the government to amend the planning bill to subject major infrastructure projects to much greater parliamentary scrutiny. It wants national policy statements to be approved by MPs and the House...

IN BRIEF: Deserving projects share #20,000.(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... Six people have received a total of #20,350 in this year's RIBA/ICE McAslan bursaries for environmental and community-focused projects in economically deprived areas of the UK and abroad. Heather Cruickshank received #2,000 for a community...

IN BRIEF: Locals head Yorkshire line-up.(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... The shortlist for this year's RIBA Yorkshire White Rose Awards has been announced, with local talent dominating. The awards celebrate buildings, public spaces and sustainable architecture, as well as landscape design. This year, only two...

New doubt cast on 2012 funding.
June 20, 2008... Advisers to London mayor Boris Johnson have cast renewed doubts over the funding of the 2012 Athletes Village. The project, by developer Lend Lease, already boasts an impressive roster of design talent including Caruso St John, dRMM, Eric...

Crossrail rejects calls for design champion.
June 20, 2008... Delivery agency is instead set to appoint expert architectural panel Rory Olcayto & Elaine Knutt Crossrail chiefs have rejected widespread calls for a design champion to oversee the #16 billion rail and infrastructure project, but...

Cabe cautious on Sheffield John Lewis.
June 20, 2008... O'Donnell & Tuomey's design for a new John Lewis store in Sheffield has been given a cautious welcome by Cabe. The watchdog's review panel praised the building - a key element of the Sevenstone development by Hammerson - but refused to back it...

Save's risk list hits record.
June 20, 2008... Save Britain's Heritage has issued a rallying cry to help rescue buildings across the country with the publication of its annual Buildings at Risk list. Compiled since 1989, the list highlights vacant listed and unlisted buildings whose...

Lightweight stadium floats into Portsmouth.
June 20, 2008... Herzog & de Meuron has revealed the first images of its redesigned 36,000-seat stadium for Portsmouth Football Club. The club's new waterfront home, by developer Sellar Properties, is planned for a site south of the city overlooking the...

Foster's set to prune Leaf tower.
June 20, 2008... Ealing scheme cut as new mayor plans halt to suburban high rise Marguerite Lazell Foster & Partners is set to "substantially" reduce the height of its landmark tower for the Arcadia scheme in Ealing, west London, amid a drive by the...

Benson & Forsyth's #80m City North scheme to tower over Finsbury Park.
June 20, 2008... Benson & Forsyth has revealed its #80 million City North project in London's Finsbury Park, a mixed-use development of apartments, retail and leisure facilities. The practice was selected for the 46,000sq m scheme in an RIBA competition...

Crunch pushes Aukett Fitzroy Robinson abroad.(Financial report)(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... The credit crunch has been blamed for an 11% fall in profits at Aukett Fitzroy Robinson, revealed in interim results released this week. Pre-tax profits at the listed practice dipped from #1.3 million to #1.2 million in the six months to...

Prasad warning over presidential campaign.
June 20, 2008... Will Henley RIBA president Sunand Prasad has delivered a stern warning to presidential candidates Andrew Hanson and Ruth Reed to steer clear of attacks on the organisation that risk damaging staff morale. At a hustings event at the...

Clutching at green straws.
June 20, 2008... Mark Hines Architects has received the go-ahead for its first project, a #1.5 million eco-friendly community centre at Ashton-under-Lyne in Lancashire. Former MJP director Hines claims the 600sq m structure, which is part- funded by the...

RIBA PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: THE POLICIES.
June 20, 2008... Ruth Reed * Focus the RIBA's agendaso it is clear what it does for its members. * Help create affordable, flexible architecture education. * Promote the value architects bring to projectsto clients and government. * Lobby...

Simpson housing set for appeal.
June 20, 2008... Rory Olcayto Developer challenges Manchester Council's Jackson Wharf rejection A major housing development in Manchester by Ian Simpson Architects is set to face a public inquiry after developer Peel Holdings lodged an appeal. ...

Artisan poised.(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... * Manchester developer Artisan is poised to take full control of a joint venture company it formed with Barratt Homes to deliver a number of residential projects. Artisan chairman Carol Ainscow confirmed she is in talks with the...

Barnstorming farm plan.(Forge Architects contracts with Surrey Docks Farm)(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... Forge Architects has beaten firms including Alan Camp Architects, Pitman Tozer and Anglo-German outfit 51.5 degrees in a contest to create a building for an urban farm. The scheme, including a riverside cafe, dairy, farm shop, warden's...

Rogers' latest award is Companion of Honour.(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... Richard Rogers joined an elite club of figures in the Queen's birthday honours list last weekend. The architect, whose best known work includes the Millennium Dome and the Pompidou Centre, as well as Heathrow Terminal 5, was the only...

HOUSING: Cambridge to get 350 new homes.(Hankinson Duckett Associates plans for homes and apartments )(Brief article)
June 20, 2008... Almost 350 new homes and apartments are to be built on Cambridge's southern fringe after outline planning approval was granted last week. The scheme, masterplanned and designed by architect Hankinson Duckett Associates, on the Bell School...