news in united kingdom
Stirling ideas
This year’s Stirling shortlist is of buildings most modest. The Guardian calls it “austerity architecture”. I have read here and there that the GFC has apparently made exclamatory buildings a little bitter on the palate up on the topside, though Zaha did get a listing for the speedlining Evelyn Grace academy in Lambeth, which the Guardian calls, “one of the most expensive city academy schools ever built”. Two of the shortlisted buildings are extensive renovations to existing buildings, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Angel Centre in Islington, London. The Angel Centre was not even 30 years old when it was considered outmoded. Rather than a bowl’n‘build, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris stripped the building, threw out the mirror glass, and gave it a jolly good £72m white-washing. That’s 15% less than a complete rebuild, with 30% less carbon dioxide emitted.
21.07.11 in sustainability
Grand Huf
As a preface to an upcoming article on prefab housing, which may not be ready for a while… here is a Grand Designs repeat about the construction of a german Huf Haus , demonstrating how ridiculously quickly they can be erected, and also how weirdly it sits in its English suburban context. It expires VERY soon though – May 23. iView here .
21.05.11 in buildings
Sharing it around
Richard Rogers on Rogers Stirk Harbour:
29.05.10 in practice
Architect / protaganist: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Tall in timber
PHOTO BY WAUGH THISTLETON
21.10.09 in sustainability timber
Architect / protaganist: Waugh Thistleton Architects
Comment [1]
The unmemorable Stonehenge centre
17.10.09 in buildings
Architect / protaganist: Denton Corker Marshall [DCM]
Comment [9]
Will lies
He didn’t leave his own firm to become a painter, because the planners were horrible to him. He was secretly going corporate. Comments at AJ are not on his side. This one is very British:
“What a trumped up little fart.”
02.10.09 in architects
Comment [3]
Architecture terribly exclusive, except for the pay
Flying around twitter… “Architecture is the most socially exclusive profession in the UK, ahead of law, medicine and accountancy, according to research by the Cabinet Office… Documents released by the Cabinet Office’s panel for Fair Access to the Professions show it costs more to qualify as an architect — over £60,000 — than any other profession. The panel also found newly qualified architects earned just over £20,000 a year, one of the lowest starting salaries in the professions.” BD Online
30.06.09 in practice education
Comment [1]
Wallpapertube
Wallpaper* Magazine opened its video channel last month. After a few weeks it has a number of vids for your viewing pleasure, including one of a house on wheels in Suffolk (by DRMM). So much easier than walking inside, instead you command the inside to come to you.
09.03.09 in video-portals
planning a shed
I was just sent the link to this hilarious but rather old article from last May – about an architect who seems to have snapped while writing a planning report for a farm shed somewhere in the UK.
22.02.09 in weird-wonderful planning
Comment [1]
DCM back at stonehenge
After a false start or two, DCM has been reappointed as architects for the Stonehenge Visitor’s Centre in the U.K.
Building Design 13.01.09
17.02.09 in architects
Demall, remall
Poor old Jonathan Glancey at the Guardian UK isn’t terribly happy about “Australia-owned” Westfield’s new megacentre at London’s White City. Comparing it to an ’80s airline terminal, he thinks it, “is just a tiny step towards our collective desire to undermine the life and culture of the traditional city”. Westfield, no doubt delighted by the opening day surge of consumers into its new palace, suggest that, “once you’re here, you’ll never want to leave…”
05.11.08 in urban-design
Unlovely memories
The New Zealand and Australian war memorials in Westminster, London, have been criticised as ugly, bristlingly unlovely, and in the case of the Australian one by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer and Janet Laurence, ‘a urinal’. It seems conservative Londoners have had quite enough of looking at depressing antipodean memorials. The New Zealand memorial was the work of Athfield Architects and sculptor Paul Dibble.
14.02.08 in architects
Robert Hughes on Modernism
The UK Guardian had a large feature section on Modernism in 2006, on the occasion of a major exhibition opeing at the V&A. It included this article by Robert Hughes.
13.09.06 in theory
micro compact home
Horden Cherry Lee has developed the “Micro Compact Home” which come in small pods that can be clipped together. Elements of the design are based on the Japanese tea house.
07.08.05 in architects
Architect / protaganist: Horden Cherry Lee Architects
The Shape Of Things To Come
A Business Week interview with Jan Kaplicky of Future Systems in 2005.
02.08.05 in profiles
Architect / protaganist: Future Systems