Building Design articles from September 2008

Building Design archives from September 2008

BD CAMPAIGN: DCMS will look again at listing.(Building Design and Twentieth Century Society try to save Robin Hood Gardens)(Twentieth Century Society )
September 5, 2008... Possible errors in ruling on estate Will Hurst The government has agreed to review its decision not to list Robin Hood Gardens in the light of significant new evidence put forward by the Twentieth Century Society. In July,...

Wexford Opera House makes its debut.(Wexford Opera House )(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... Keith Williams Architects' new Wexford Opera House officially opens today. The E33 million (#27 million), 7,500sq m project in south-east Ireland boasts two theatres: a 780-seat auditorium and a 175-seat space that can be used in a variety of...

LEADER: Please ditch the mudslinging.(Le Corbusier and Andrea Palladio)
September 5, 2008... AMANDA BAILLIEU Don't let this autumn's Le Corbusier and Palladio shows be used to settle old scores Architecture's two blockbuster shows this autumn, on Palladio and Le Corbusier, are the cue to reopen the tiresomely polarised debate...

LEADER: This time EH must do its homework.(English Heritage)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... It's too early to open the champagne but the news the government has agreed to review its decision not to list Robin Hood Gardens gives BD real hope the decision will be reversed. But at the same time you can't help wondering why it has taken...

IN BRIEF: Hugill quits Olympic Village firm.(Lend Lease Europe's Nigel Hugill)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... Athletes' Village developer Nigel Hugill is to resign from his post as chairman of Lend Lease Europe in order to "pursue other opportunities". The surprise announcement, made on Wednesday, comes just days after the Australian company...

IN BRIEF: Solar power plan to green deserts.
September 5, 2008... Exploration Architecture has announced plans for an innovative scheme combining greenhouses with solar power to provide food, fresh water and energy in desert environments. Designed by ex-Grimshaw architect Michael Pawlyn, who worked on the...

IN BRIEF: Lunts will `advocate good design'.(David Lunts)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... The new London director of the Homes & Communities Agency, David Lunts, has vowed to be a "passionate advocate" for good design. Lunts, formerly policy and partnerships director at the Greater London Authority, will be responsible for...

IN BRIEF: Specialist award shortlist named.(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... The shortlist for RIBA's special awards, to be awarded alongside the Stirling Prize, was revealed this week. Judged by specialists, the nominees are drawn from winners of the main RIBA awards. The buildings nominated for the Manser...

OBITUARY: Historian Paul Overy dies aged 68.(Obituary)
September 5, 2008... Art and architecture historian Paul Overy has died aged 68 from pancreatic cancer. Born in Dorchester, Dorset, Overy studied English and philosophy at King's College, Cambridge, before becoming an art critic for the Listener, New Society,...

Foster loses #15m on record revenue.
September 5, 2008... Foster & Partners suffered a #15 million loss last year despite experiencing a record-breaking boost in revenue. The firm said the loss was a short-term result of interest payments, depreciation, and a goodwill payment to shareholders,...

Adam hails start of a classical revolution.
September 5, 2008... Traditional architecture prospers as New Palladians exhibition launches Will Hurst Traditional architecture is on the brink of a full-scale resurgence at the expense of modernist design due to sweeping changes taking place in British...

Big names lined up for biennale talks.
September 5, 2008... International landscape architects Neil Porter and Eelco Hooftman are set to take part in Making Space in the European City, a debate hosted by BD in the Gareth Hoskins-designed Scottish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The pair join the...

Architecture Week in limbo.
September 5, 2008... Arts Council England has delayed making a decision on the future of Architecture Week so it can hold another round of consultation on the event's future. Following an evaluation of the event by Leeds Metropolitan University, ACE has put...

Planning submission reveals new Olympic images.(Olympic Delivery Authority)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... HOK's design for the 2012 Olympic stadium has passed a fresh hurdle after being granted second stage reserved matters planning permission last week. Documents submitted to the ODA's planning decision team included images showing the...

Architecture degrees leap in popularity.
September 5, 2008... Helen Pow The annual number of students applying to study architecture has jumped by almost 10,000 in the past four years, making architecture degrees more popular than ever. According to the latest figures from Ucas, 27,681 students...

FIRST LOOK: K2's cladding for five-bed home set to become `cloud atlas'.
September 5, 2008... Liverpool-based practice K2 Architects has unveiled images of its first major commission, a bespoke zinc-clad "cloud house" in a rural part of Merseyside. In a modern interpretation of the traditional barn, the five-bed, 371sq m building...

ACA publishes its rival client contract.(Association of Consultant Architects, Royal Institute of British Architects)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... The Association of Consultant Architects has published its new client contract, in direct competition with the RIBA's new standard form of agreement. Following a long-standing row between the two organisations, ACA president Brian Waters...

Metal pair for Moscow.(McAdam Architects )(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... Anglo-Russian firm McAdam Architects has unveiled images of a #14.6 million apartment complex for central Moscow. The 12,000sq m complex, for Russian developer Sistema-Hals, comprises 40 high-specification apartments spread over two blocks,...

Cost-cutting fears over Glasgow museum.
September 5, 2008... Marguerite Lazell Zaha Hadid's flagship transport museum in Glasgow is undergoing a further round of value-engineering, a report to the city council's finance committee has revealed. The council insisted the move was not only about...

HOK Sport splits from parent under buyout.
September 5, 2008... HOK Sport, the architect behind London's Wembley and Olympics stadiums, is to split from parent group HOK under a management buyout. The deal, led by senior principal Rod Sheard and other senior executives, will see HOK Sport Venue Event...

RSHP in good health.
September 5, 2008... Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners has won planning for its #30 million White City scheme in west London. The mixed-used scheme, for developer Building Better Health, will have a 3,400sq m care centre at its heart, and will also house an...

John Lewis expansion put on hold.
September 5, 2008... Stores by O'Donnell & Tuomey and Acme mothballed amid slowdown Will Henley Plans for two flagship John Lewis stores in Yorkshire - by O'Donnell & Tuomey and Acme - have been placed on hold amid a wider slowdown in the retail giant's...

Accountant to test `value' of 2012 venues.
September 5, 2008... The London 2012 basketball arena to be designed by Wilkinson Eyre and KSS Design Group could be scrapped as a result of a review into whether it would provide "value for money". Olympic minister Tessa Jowell has called in accountant KPMG to...

EDUCATION: BSF school sees high grades leap.(Bristol Brunel Academy, General Certificate of Secondary Education)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... Bristol Brunel Academy, by Wilkinson Eyre, one of 13 BSF schools now open, has seen 34% of students awarded five or more GCSEs at grades A to C including English and Maths, up from 19% last year. Tim Byles, chief executive of Partnerships...

THEATRE: RSC stages new appeal for funds.(Royal Shakespeare Company)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... The Royal Shakespeare Company has launched its Transforming our Theatres appeal, to raise #1 million towards its Bennetts Associates- designed theatre development in Stratford-upon-Avon. Speaking at the RSC's annual open day on Sunday,...

LIVERPOOL: Regional funds to boost waterfront.
September 5, 2008... The Northwest Regional Development Agency has granted #1.9 million to the second phase of Liverpool city centre's Waterfront Connections project. The scheme includes infrastructure, environmental and public realm improvements to areas such...

SCHOOLS: Site work starts on Swanke Hayden Connell academy.(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... Work has begun on site on Swanke Hayden Connell Architects' City of London Academy in Islington, north London. The #25 million project's sports hall is using prefabricated timber panels and a timber frame to speed construction - the hall is...

Cabe slams two major housing schemes.
September 5, 2008... Helen Pow Cabe has slammed two residential schemes designed by Barton Willmore comprising more than 7,000 homes between them. Following reviews earlier this summer, Cabe's design review panel said the firm's 3,000-home proposed...

LETTER: Wholly Trinity.(Letter to the editor)
September 5, 2008... I enjoyed your piece on Rodney Gordon (News August 29). As a new student of architecture, I attended a premier of Get Carter in Newcastle hours after visiting the Trinity Centre. One memorable scene is where the senior architect partner...

LETTER: Great Lakes.(Letter to the editor)
September 5, 2008... The Wordsworth Trust Centre may be the only modern building in Cumbria to grace your pages, (Works August 29) but it isn't unique. I was quite proud of the Lakeland headquarters and shop in Windermere. It might not be perfect, but it's hard...

LETTER: Takes the biscuit.(Letter to the editor)
September 5, 2008... Do you have a Pedants' Corner? The red double-decker bus in the Olympics closing ceremony was not a "trusty Routemaster" (Leader August 29) - if only! It was one of that latter-day variety classifiable as "biscuit tin". But there was some...

LETTER: Planning bypass.(Letter to the editor)
September 5, 2008... The planning process has become so lengthy, complicated and bureaucratic that unscrupulous developers have found an effective method of obtaining planning permissions. They simply ignore the planning system. They commence development...

LETTER: Much to learn.(Letter to the editor)
September 5, 2008... Both Robert McGinnes (Letters August 8) and A Marsden (Letters 29) are slightly missing the point. It's not a choice of design flair versus technical competence, it's both. But McGinnes is closer to the truth. Design flair without...

LETTER: Unesco is right to be worried.(Letter to the editor)
September 5, 2008... I am delighted that Koichiro Matsuura has visited Edinburgh and put brakes on the Caltongate project (News August 29). How like Scottish architects, trained to be rather arrogant, to jump on their high horse when a visitor -...

OPINION - The real truth is: you are where you eat.
September 5, 2008... CAROLYN STEEL Last week's `fat map' of Britain set a challenge for architects and planners Publication last week of a "fat map" showing the growing obesity hot spots in Britain raises an ethical dilemma for architects. With political...

DEBATE: Are architecture schools turning into factory farms?
September 5, 2008... YES Tim Ronalds Director, Tim Ronalds Architects Working as an external examiner at schools of architecture in recent years, I have been struck by the scale and uniformity of many of the teaching programmes. One sees year groups of 100...

WORKS: CF MOLLER ARCHITECTS - Cocoon phase.
September 5, 2008... The second phase of the Natural History Museum's Darwin Centre takes a startling approach to the storage of the insect specimen collection, writes Tony McIntyre It doesn't make much of an impression just now, but when the site huts and...

WORKS: DAVID KOHN ARCHITECTS - Seeing the whole picture.
September 5, 2008... In a former London fashion showroom, Stuart Shave's new gallery by David Kohn Architects demonstrates close attention to detail, says Ellis Woodman For the past decade, the unlikely focus of London's primary art market has been Vyner...

`Our hotel will breach the skyline, and a jolly good thing too'.(Richard Murphy Architects' Haymarket )(Interview)
September 5, 2008... Richard Murphy Architects, which is masterplanning Edinburgh's Haymarket site, is also responsible for its most controversial aspect, the 17-storey hotel which last week provoked Unesco to call for a halt to its construction. Here its director...

From EDI to Murphy.
September 5, 2008... * GOODS YARD HISTORY The Haymarket site in the west of Edinburgh, previously pasture land, is developed in 1855 as what comes to be known as the Morrison Street Goods Yard. Haymarket Station is built in 1840, with two tunnels later added...

PRACTICE: What do the revised site safety regulations mean for me?
September 5, 2008... ASK US A QUESTION Richard Brindley Executive director, RIBA Professional Services Patrick Perry Partner with London law firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert I have seen a lot written about the changes to the CDM Regulations in the press. As...

ROLL ON FRIDAY.(Alan Camp Architects)(Brief article)
September 5, 2008... `The office fills with wonderful smells that happily distract us' Practice: Alan Camp Architects Location: Southwark, London Size: 40 people Each Wednesday, one person in the practice volunteers to cook, normally for about 20...

DEAR IRENA: Should I try to tackle sexism?(Irena Bauman)
September 5, 2008... Irena Bauman, author of How to be a Happy Architect, tackles your ethical dilemmas In a heated site meeting, the developer made a sexist remark about the project architect. Should I bite my tongue or give him hell? My first realisation...

CULTURE: A rich harvest.(Calendar)
September 5, 2008... Autumn is always the busiest time of year for cultural events, so Liz Bury has picked out the best. From Cold War propaganda to high-wire daring, it's time to find a window in your diary 1 Made Up Liverpool Biennial International ...

JONATHAN GLANCEY: A brief for the unthinkable.
September 5, 2008... I was intrigued to hear Boris Johnson talk of creating an artificial island, like Renzo Piano's Kansai airport in Osaka Bay, between Canvey and the Kent coast for use as a new London airport. This, the mayor believes, would end the apparent...

THIS WEEK: CASH WINDFALL.
September 5, 2008... German energy giant RWE, which owns npower, has acquired a #6 million minority stake in UK turbine maker Quiet Revolution. RWE's cash will help move the firm's flagship QR5 wind turbine into mass production. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd....

THIS WEEK: BURJEONING.
September 5, 2008... Emaar Properties, the developer behind Burj Dubai, says the skyscraper, at 688m, is already the world's tallest building. Work on its 160-plus storey exterior is almost done, but Emaar won't reveal the final height until the project is...

THIS WEEK: TOWN KRIER.
September 5, 2008... Prince Charles's Dorset village of Poundbury is to act as a model for a 6,000-home eco-town near Stratford-upon-Avon. Middle Quinton will be built using local building materials to produce a traditional Cotswold village. Copyright: CMP...

THIS WEEK: GIVING IT THE BIRD.
September 5, 2008... Pigeons have struck at Bernard Tschumi's acclaimed new museum in Athens for the Parthenon marbles. Not open until November, it has been stained by birds roosting on the facade's multiple ledges. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

THIS WEEK: MUST TRY HARDER.
September 5, 2008... Exam performance at AHMM's Westminster Academy has been criticised by Ofsted. GCSE results at the #27 million school rose just marginally this year, with 19% of pupils achieving five grade Cs. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

THIS WEEK: HIGH POWERED.
September 5, 2008... Greenpeace activists were in court this week after scaling a 200m-high chimney at Kent's Kingsnorth power station. They had tried to paint "Gordon, bin it" on the side, but only got as far as the first word. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd....

Anger as visitor centre list chosen in six hours.
September 12, 2008... RIBA and RIAS join architects calling on National Trust to explain Hadrian's Wall decision Will Hurst A shortlist for a competition that attracted some of the best architects in Britain was announced just six hours after the deadline...

First steps in Venice.(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Scotland's first Venice Biennale pavilion, by Gareth Hoskins, is a 7m- high timber structure inspired by public steps. A Gathering Space echoes the steps that form part of the social fabric of city life - such as the Spanish Steps in Rome...

LEADER: There's no big bang at Venice.
September 12, 2008... AMANDA BAILLIEU The Venice Biennale has become a sad reflection ofthe state architecture is in It may be unfair to compare the most important and expensive scientific experiment the world has ever known with a two-month-long...

LEADER: How long does shortlisting take?
September 12, 2008... Competitions are important for architects. If you win, they are a wayof jumping the queue waiting for that dream commission; if you don't, they can still be a way of getting noticed. BD supports competitions, and we wish that more clients used...

IN BRIEF: Design Share award for UK school.(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Gordon Murray & Alan Dunlop Architects' Hazelwood School in Glasgow for pupils with sensory impairment has become the first UK schoolto win the top honour at the Design Share awards. The international awards programme, run by a US...

IN BRIEF: Zero-carbon plans for Chichester.(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... John Thompson & Partners has submitted an outline planning application for a huge zero-carbon project on the former Graylingwell hospital site in Chichester. The scheme comprises 750 new homes including 40% affordable housing, and the...

IN BRIEF: Fretton completes London terrace.
September 12, 2008... Tony Fretton Architects has completed a hybrid development in the London Borough of Lambeth commissioned by Future Living Spaces, a joint venture from private developers Baylight Properties and Servite Housing Association. The 1,490sq m...

IN BRIEF: Lancaster scheme `heavy handed'.
September 12, 2008... Plans by architect 3D Reid for a 4ha redevelopment in central Lancaster have been slammed by the Victorian Society. It says the development plans, including 32,500sq m of shops and 150 town houses and apartments, involve demolition of...

IN BRIEF: Thomas to run Edaw Cardiff office.(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Keith Thomas has joined Edaw as a senior directorwith the job of establishinga Cardiff office to serve Wales and the South-west. Thomas, a chartered planner and surveyor with 25 years of experience, has worked with every local authority in...

Wapping HQ goes to Future Systems.
September 12, 2008... Future Systems is set to design a new corporate campus for News International at the global media organisation's site in Wapping, east London. News Corporation, the parent company of News International, had been considering moving its...

Hiring foreign architects set to become harder.
September 12, 2008... Will Henley The RIBA and the Association of Consultant Architects have vowed to continue their campaign to ease restrictions on hiring foreign architects, despite a decision to snub architecture on a list of the UK's most wanted...

KEY FINDINGS OF THE RIBA SURVEY.(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... * ONE FIFTH of large practices' workload is now based overseas. The Middle East and Western and Eastern Europe are the foreign markets providing the most work. * TWO FIFTHS of large firms believe turnover will shrink in the next year,...

Rykwert building to become school.
September 12, 2008... The sole surviving UK building designed by architect and academic Joseph Rykwert is to be converted into a special needs school by Foster & Partners. A new planning application submitted to Kensington & Chelsea council reveals that Foster...

Coventry job for Arup.
September 12, 2008... Arup Associates' design fora #30 million engineering and computing building has beaten designs by Foster & Partners, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Wilkinson Eyre in a contest by client Coventry University. The double L-shaped block...

Walker church listed.(Holy Family Church)(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... A modernist church designed by Derek Walker - the former chief architect of Milton Keynes - has become the first 20th century building to be listed this year. The grade II listing of the 1964 Holy Family Church in Pontefract, West...

Listing threat to Chelsea Barracks development.
September 12, 2008... Helen Pow English Heritage has dealt a new blow to Rogers Stirk Harbour's controversial Chelsea Barracks scheme by recommending a Victorian chapel on the site be listed at grade II. The 1857 chapel, designed by George Morgan in an...

Wilkinson Eyre looks to geology for earth sciences department.
September 12, 2008... Oxford City Council has granted planning permission for Oxford University's new department of earth sciences, designed by Wilkinson Eyre. The #29 million project will accommodate almost 400 students and staff in two wings on the site of...

London Met team wins Korean city competition.(London Metropolitan University)(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... A British-based team is one of three winners in a competition to design the concept for a huge new city in South Korea. The Architecture Research Unit at the London Metropolitan University, led by Florian Beigel and Philip Christou and...

Bennetts' design data.(Bennetts Associates)(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Edinburgh University last week opened its new Schoolof Informatics research department, designed by Bennetts Associates. The building, on the city's George Square, aims to promote informal interaction among academics through features such...

Fresh blow to Olympic village.(Caruso St John declines project )
September 12, 2008... Caruso St John is latest firm to quit Will Henley Another firm has pulled out of work on the troubled 2012 Athletes' Village, it has emerged. Caruso St John, who had been named along with six other firms in May as the latest group...

Hopkins reveals its steel-roof velodrome.
September 12, 2008... Hopkins Architects has unveiled a largely steel roof in its final designs for the 2012 velodrome. Launching the designs on Monday alongside British cyclist Chris Hoy, a triple gold medallist in Beijing who has been involved in the design...

Art takes an ad break.(public sculpture)(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Plans for a new piece of public art funded through advertising revenue have been unveiled in the West Midlands. The 85m-high structure, by sculptor Colin Rose and architect Crouch Butler Savage, will be made of eight steel tubes, and...

Towers will aid growth, says BDF.
September 12, 2008... Will Henley Skyscrapers bring dramatic economic benefits which should be considered alongside aesthetic and heritage considerations in making planning decisions, says a new report from the British Property Federation. The 44-page...

New innings for SMC Alsop.(Carnegie Pavilion)(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... A #17 million cricket pavilion at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground in Leeds by SMC Alsop has won planning. The 4,000sq m project, for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Leeds Metropolitan University, combines new cricket, media and...

AWARDS: International entrants sought.
September 12, 2008... Next year's US and European-run International Architecture Awards are open for submissions. Any architect or architectural firm is eligible to enter new corporate, institutional, commercial, residential architecture, interiors and urban...

UNIVERSITY: CPMG chosen for sports building.
September 12, 2008... CPMG Architects has been appointed to design the University of Teesside's #9.9 million sport and health sciences building. The four-storey development, on the Teesside campus in Middlesbrough, will connect to the existing Centuria building,...

LEISURE: New lease of life for Soho baths.
September 12, 2008... The historic Marshall Street Baths in London's Soho are to be renovated by Finch Forman Architects as part of a #25 million redevelopment plan backed by Westminster City Council. Building work has begun on the baths, which have been closed...

PERFORMANCE: Office wins top energy rating.(Solais House)(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Cooper Cromar's 1,828sq m Solais House has been awarded an energy performance certificate A. The office scheme, at Strathclyde Business Park, is thought to be Scotland's first commercial building to be awarded the highest EPC rating. It...

Developer exits Bauman Lyons' Leeds eco-scheme.
September 12, 2008... Marguerite Lazell Bauman Lyons Architects' biggest-ever project, a flagship #45 million eco-scheme in Leeds, has suffered a blow from the credit crunch after its developer withdrew from the scheme. Isis, the developer behind the Tower...

RESTORATION: Canterbury gets #500,000 repair.
September 12, 2008... The Save Canterbury Cathedral Appeal has announced a 20-week, #500,000 project to repair the lead roof on the historic building's south-east transept. Repairs will involve recycling and sand-casting about 20 tonnes of lead to restore the...

SCOTLAND: Keppie submits brownfield plan.(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Keppie Design has submitted a masterplan for a 687ha site in North Ayrshire. The #500 million development of Ardeer Peninsula on the Ayrshire coastline, formerly the world's largest explosives plant, will be Scotland's largest ever brownfield...

DEVON: Kensington Taylor's community hub.(Brief article)
September 12, 2008... Architect Kensington Taylor has won planning consent for this #5.7million community library and hub project in Paignton, south Devon. The project, to be funded by a Big Lottery grant and the local council, will occupy a former railway goods...

VENICE BIENNALE: BRITISH PAVILION - Home service.
September 12, 2008... Housing is the theme of the British Pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale. Its curator, BD's Ellis Woodman, finds that while the UK market may be in turmoil, British housing architects are much in demand all over Europe At the beginning...