architecture news + design news in the uk
Manchester's Heaton Hall's £9m setback
Posted 22 Jun 2009, 07:06 by oube | Comments (0) | North West
Plans to restore one of Manchester's finest buildings to its former glory will still go ahead despite a Lotto funding blow, Manchester council bosses have pledged. The Lottery Heritage Fund has turned down an application for a grant of £9.4m to revamp Heaton Hall in Heaton Park. Full story...
acclaimed Rogers Slough library at risk of demolition
Posted 22 Jun 2009, 07:05 by oube | Comments (0) | London
Concerns are growing for the future of Richard Rogers’ award-winning Thames Valley University library building amid claims it is set to be demolished to make way for new development. The building, which was completed in 1996 and won an RIBA award and a Civic Trust award in 1997, is part of the university’s Slough campus, which is due for redevelopment as part of the £400 million Heart of Slough regeneration project. Full story...
Coventry's 'Flying-saucer' shaped market gets Grade II listing
Posted 22 Jun 2009, 07:03 by oube | Comments (0) | West Midlands
The modernist, covered Coventry Retail Market has been recognised as part of England’s cultural heritage and been listed at Grade II. Built in 1957, the market provided a much-needed shopping area for the city following the destruction of several commercial zones during World War Two. Full story...
100m tall plans mooted for Sunderland
Posted 22 Jun 2009, 07:02 by oube | Comments (0) | North East
There might be a recession on but that doesn't stop some companies. Thornfield Properties are the latest developer to sense they should get in just in time for the start of the next property cycle, and with this in mind they've been working on a long term plan that will involve a massive new residential and retail development in the middle of Sunderland's Holmeside. Full story...
Wilkinson joins Hadid in unique Cancer Centre design
Posted 19 Jun 2009, 17:06 by oube | Comments (0) | South East
The Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, which will serve the thousands of people affected by cancer across the region, has been granted planning permission. The Centre has been designed by architect Chris Wilkinson of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, bringing a unique and striking new building to the city of Oxford. Full story...
the fine art of offices
Posted 19 Jun 2009, 17:05 by oube | Comments (0) | London
London mayor Boris Johnson will open a Terry Farrell & Partners-designed office block on London’s Greenwich Peninsula next week. The plot, opposite the O2, has two elements: 14 Pier Walk, a split-level building providing 26,000sq m of space for Transport for London, and 6 Mitre Passage, set for practical completion by October to be let speculatively. Full story...
Corby Cube presses on
Posted 19 Jun 2009, 16:57 by oube | Comments (0) | East Midlands
Hawkins Brown’s £27 million landmark building for Corby town centre, Northampton-shire, has topped out. The 7,700sq m Corby Cube, won in competition in 2004, will contain the council chamber and one-stop-shop. Full story...
planning rules change will give projects more time to start
Posted 19 Jun 2009, 16:56 by oube | Comments (0)
Developers are being given more time to start building work on schemes that have already have planning permission under new measures introduced by the government. Currently, permissions that are not used on projects expire after a fixed period – usually three years. Full story...
King’s Cross Square contenders in the dark
Posted 19 Jun 2009, 16:55 by oube | Comments (0) | London
The architects shortlisted in the prestigious King’s Cross Square contest remain unbriefed about the project – six months after being selected. Despite being named as finalists for the 7,000m2 project outside the central London station in January, the six firms have yet to receive any further details of the scheme. Full story...
new homes focus for urban areas
Posted 18 Jun 2009, 13:57 by jware | Comments (0) | North West
A West Midlands Regional Assembly statement said developers were keen to see sites for new homes and businesses extended into the green belt. It argued new developments should instead be built in urban areas. The assembly is also looking at a government study which proposes 80,300 new homes across the county. 'Fragile state' The figure is much higher than the 66,300 new homes the assembly proposed. Policy director Mark Middleton said development should be in places such as Stoke-on-Trent as the city is in a "fragile state". "Its housing market has failed and needs to be regenerated," he said. Stafford has also been identified as a "growth point". "It is crucial to limit development in southern Staffordshire, particularly in the greenbelt, so that the regeneration of Birmingham and the Black Country is not undermined," he said. Full story...
HCA to focus on funds for green existing stock
Posted 18 Jun 2009, 13:54 by jware | Comments (0)
The Homes and Communities Agencies' new Housing Finance Group will partially concentrate on sourcing funding mechanisms to retrofit the existing stock, its chief executive, Sir Bob Kerslake, said yesterday morning. Speaking at an open session of the Chartered Institute of Housing’s (CIH’s) annual conference in Harrogate, Kerslake said he recognised that greening already built homes was of the utmost importance and that he wanted to find a way that private finance could achieve this. Full story...
HKR Replace Denton Corker Marshall in Manchester
Posted 18 Jun 2009, 13:52 by jware | Comments (0) | North West
Denton Corker Marshall's planned tower for Whitworth Street West in the heart of Manchester looks like it will be dropped in favour of a much smaller hotel building with more in common to the proposed Axis development than the previous proposals for the site. It's located in the centre of Manchester with Cameron Street bounding it to the immediate west and a railway line running past it to the south. Making it ideally placed, Manchesters G-Mex exhibition and conference centre is barely 150 metres to the north. Full story...
school-build plans spark scepticism
Posted 18 Jun 2009, 13:49 by jware | Comments (0)
Fears have been raised that up-and-coming practices could lose out on designing primary schools after it was announced the quango delivering BSF will take control of the school building programme. Full story...
first look: pathfinder pavilion
Posted 18 Jun 2009, 13:43 by jware | Comments (0) | North West
These are the first pictures of the shortlisted designs in the international contest to design a new ‘moveable’ canal-side pavilion for a Pathfinder area north of Liverpool. Among the finalists are London’s Duggan Morris Architects, NEX Architecture, Edinburgh’s The Antillia Collective, Bath-based newcomers Studio KAH and Italians Bianchini e Lusiardi Associati. Full story...
Architect Rogers angry at Prince
Posted 16 Jun 2009, 07:53 by patrick | Comments (0)
The architect Lord Rogers has said he believes Prince Charles has broken the "constitutional understanding" governing the role of the monarchy. Last week, Lord Rogers' plan to transform Chelsea Barracks in west London was dropped after the prince told developers it was "unsympathetic". Full story...
BDP sustainable school design rewarded for 'professionalism and flair'
Posted 15 Jun 2009, 08:28 by oube | Comments (0) | South East
BDP’s Leigh Technology Academy in Dartford was declared best outstanding new or refurbished secondary school in the country as the winners of the inaugural TES (Times Educational Supplement) Schools Awards were announced on 9 June at the London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane. These awards celebrate and reward the professionalism and flair of those teams making an outstanding contribution to primary and secondary schools in the maintained and independent sectors. Full story...
Prasad dismayed as Rogers' loses Chelsea Barracks job
Posted 15 Jun 2009, 08:25 by oube | Comments (0) | London
RIBA president Sunand Prasad has hit out at Prince Charles after developer Qatari Diar bowed to royal pressure and withdrew the planning application for Chelsea Barracks. Prasad, who had previously spoken out against the prince's interference on the £1 billion scheme, said: "I am dismayed by the withdrawal of the Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners designs for Chelsea Barracks, and the colossal waste of effort, goodwill and expense. Full story...
winner announced for Imperial War Museum North competition
Posted 15 Jun 2009, 08:23 by oube | Comments (0) | North West
The multi-award winning Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) has selected a preferred design team to develop the external spaces of the Museum following an RIBA international design competition and public consultation with visitors and key partners. The proposed scheme was the one which, in the opinion of the selection panel, best addressed a complex brief asking for zones of contemplation, creativity and play which would complement the Daniel Libeskind building. Full story...
McAslan's £16 million overhaul for Crouch End landmark
Posted 15 Jun 2009, 08:14 by oube | Comments (0) | London
The first images of John McAslan + Partners’s proposals to revamp and convert the Grade II*-listed 1930s Hornsey Town Hall into an arts complex have been revealed. The scheme for the ‘municipal style’ building Crouch End, north London includes a two-screen art house cinema in the remodelled gallery space as well as a new bar and 300-400 seat performance space in the former assembly hall. Full story...
hemp walls for campus home
Posted 12 Jun 2009, 07:49 by oube | Comments (0)
Archial Architects has designed a new low-carbon three-bedroom home for the BRE Innovation Campus in Watford. The £75,000 Renewable House, which will meet level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, has been built close to the Prince’s Foundation’s Natural House. Full story...
