| 11.07.14 East enders more homes better homes Pitman Tozer in Bethnal Green and RMJM ’s Athletes’ Village for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games £5.99 THE ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL THEAJ.CO.UK |
| cover photography by nick kane Front page Row erupts as Michael Gove appoints BDP for Old Admiralty job p07 News Pickles throws out McAslan’s ‘extremely harmful’ Smithfield plans p08 News ‘Massive’ UK brick shortages threaten to delay projects p10 News Pascall+Watson takes over Crossrail stations from Bennetts Associates p14 Competitions & wins Goldsmiths College’s shortlist for new art gallery p24 Building study Ellis Woodman reviews Pitman Tozer’s Mint Street housing for Peabody in Bethnal Green p30 Building study Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village by RMJM p38 More Homes Better Homes Roger Zogolovitch on using volume to maximise floorspace at Stapleton Hall Road p44 Culture A century of London housing p49 This week online All the coverage from the More Homes Better Homes conference www.architectsjournal.co.uk sam jacob Contents xxxxxxxx Kilian O’Sullivan paul raftery The Architects’ Journal 18 30 49 activate your full subscription at THEAJ.co.uk/activate aj aj spec 11.07.14 the aj.co.uk ajbl ipad iphone awards events alerts 03 |
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| From the news editor Market forces alone will not lift the design quality of the national housing stock, says Richard Waite e germ of an idea for a where accomplished architects like Maccreanor housing campaign began, Lavington, Alison Brooks and Karakusevic Carson are as most campaigns do, with working for the more enlightened clients – the likes of frustration. Two years ago Peabody, Berkeley and Barratt, who are upping their my train got stuck opposite a stalled, beyond-bland game. But across the board, certainly outside London, development near Grantham. Even if the money design excellence in new housing is not considered re-emerged to finish it, I thought, the completed scheme central to solving the housing crisis. In West Yorkshire would be a dreadful, lifeless, boxy, anywhere-estate. my sister is choosing to move out of her barely three- In late 2012 the AJ launched its More Homes Better year-old, off-the-peg Bellway Home for something Homes campaign. Since then the world has changed. older, something with more soul and thicker walls. The country still faces a huge challenge to make up the In one respect, the problem starts with an architect’s 1 million shortfall in homes estimated by the Home education. As Alan Dunlop points out: ‘Too many Builders Federation, but things are on the move. With architecture schools no longer consider housing a the economy recovering and the government’s opinion- worthwhile or challenging enough program for students. splitting Help to Buy scheme bolstering new-build They focus instead on cyborg cities, labyrinthine construction, the ‘more homes’ element of the pleasure palaces, water museums, dystopian AJ’s campaign is slowly being tackled, if not yet futures and other meaningless fantasy projects, fully resolved. Making those new homes better MORE HOMES when housing should be a fundamental part – larger, better-lit, less flimsy, more energy- BETTER HOMES of all architectural education.’ This focus on efficient and generally ‘homelier’ – is a much the imaginative and fantastical enforces the tougher challenge. perception to those on the outside that housing The national minimum space standards in is not a cause architects are really interested in the government’s Housing Standards Review were a any more. And when architects do get involved, there start – even though many greeted them with caution. is the danger of a continued ‘re-invention of the wheel’, Challenge Panel architect Andy von Bradsky warned as Sam Jacob points out this week in his thought- there was little to prevent developers sidestepping the provoking tour of housing spanning a century in east rules, by marketing box rooms as bedrooms, for instance. London (page 52). But to tackle design, you need designers. Architects Above all else, there is a lack of connection between have to be at the heart of this new wave of homes. the architecture profession and government, the real Future homes must be resilient, flexible and cherished driver of change. As Tony Fretton, who presented his by their residents. Building something with a 10-year practice’s Molenplein housing scheme in Holland at lifespan is pointless. Tomorrow’s housing needs long- this week’s More Homes Better Homes conference, term custodianship and that requires quality to be laments: ‘At each change of [UK] government policy all designed in at the outset. expertise is thrown away. The experience of my practice To a degree this is happening in places – for instance in Belgium and The Netherlands is that developers’ housing is promoted by public bodies and situated in coherent plans, while in the UK there is an unwarranted Above all else, there is a lack of connection belief in the market.’ between the architecture profession and As long as demand outstrips supply, the market has government, the real driver of change no real incentive to champion good design. It needs intervention from government. richard.waite@emap.com . . Th |
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| diliff Front page Row erupts after Michael Gove picks BDP for DfE headquarters Critics slam ‘double standards’ of education secretary after Department for Education appoints architect to create spacious new offices in Whitehall government Education secretary Michael Gove (right) has provoked a barrage of criticism after his department selected a leading architect to refurbish its historic new headquarters building which it sued three years ago for alleged negligence. It emerged this week that the Department for Education (DfE) has chosen BDP to redevelop Whitehall’s 18th-century Old Admiralty Building (above), the former home of the Royal Navy overlooking Horse Guards Parade, as offices for the department. In July 2011, Gove and the DfE lodged a £3 million High Court claim accusing BDP – in its role as structural and service engineer on the Stirling Prize-nominated Westminster Academy – of ‘negligent breach of duty’ connected to ventilation faults and problems with the building’s sports hall. The claim was later settled out of court but shadow schools minister Kevin Brennan said Gove 11.07.14 was guilty of ‘double standards’. ‘Michael Gove reduced building standards for schoolchildren, including allowing office buildings to be used for new schools and attacking architects as a waste of money,’ said Brennan. ‘The fact that he is using an architect he previously sued to create swanky offices for himself in palatial surroundings in Whitehall illustrates his double standards and skewed priorities.’ John O’Connell, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will find it utterly bizarre that the department has awarded this costly contract to a company they have previously sued for negligence, and we hope to see a far smoother and less expensive relationship this time around.’ BDP’s appointment also comes three years after Gove told a Free Schools conference: ‘We won’t be getting any award-winning architects to design [schools] because no one in this room is here to make architects richer.’ Relations between Gove and the profession deteriorated further after it later emerged that new standardised schools would be 15 per cent smaller and £6 million cheaper than previous designs under Labour’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Peter Morris of Peter Morris Architects said: ‘Giving yourself an 18th-century palace in Whitehall, refurbished by leading UK designers and condemning school children to learn in prefabricated classrooms is hypocrisy that belongs to George Orwell’s Animal Farm.’ About 1,600 DfE civil servants will occupy the Grade II-listed Old Admiralty complex when the 18,000m² overhaul completes in 2017. Each worker will have about 11.25m² of workspace, compared with 6m² per pupil or 8m² per teacher in a typical new school. Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers said: ‘It is quite right that the DfE believes its staff need sufficient space and a pleasant environment to work in. It is a great pity, however, that they do not believe schools should have the same entitlement. ‘The academies and free school programme is seeing many schools open in inappropriately small premises and with little or no additional space for rooms such as school halls or playgrounds.’ BDP won the Old Admiralty job, part of the government’s ongoing consolidation of its estate, as part of a team led by Mace. The construction cost has yet to be announced but the design contract is worth up to £5 million. A DfE spokesman denied the charge of hypocrisy. ‘Whether we are building new schools or moving offices, our absolute priority is to cut costs and maximise value for money,’ he said. ‘Under BSF, millions of pounds were squandered on exorbitant design fees. That was an unacceptable use of taxpayers’ money. It’s why we have cut construction costs in school building programmes by 40 per cent and introduced standardised designs for school buildings. However, no architects have been barred from building new schools, even if we have minimised the scope for lucrative contracts. ‘Our office move will save more than £19 million a year for the taxpayer including more than £8.5 million for the DfE. ‘The architects were appointed following a process designed to maximise value for money.’ Will Hurst and Merlin Fulcher 07 |
| UK news Pickles rejects McAslan Smithfield revamp plan Victory for heritage campaigners as secretary of state throws out ‘extremely harmful’ proposal to overhaul London’s historic General Market planning Campaigners have hailed communities secretary Eric Pickles’ decision to reject John McAslan + Partners’ £160 million plan to overhaul Smithfield Market as an ‘overwhelming victory for common sense’. On Tuesday (8 July) Pickles agreed with the planning inspector that McAslan’s scheme to drop 5,700m² of shops and 21,220m² of office space into the building would have ‘an extremely harmful effect on the significance of the General Market as an important non- designated heritage asset’. The news was welcomed by SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the Victorian Society, which had fought a vigorous battle against the controversial plans by Henderson Global Investors, claiming it would have ‘gutted almost all of the market interiors’ within the historic landmark. It is the second time SAVE has been successful in fighting ‘destructive’ redevelopment plans for the site, having helped scupper KPF’s monster scheme for the market in 2008. As part of the conservation groups’ campaign, the objectors 08 theaj.co.uk came up with a rival scheme drawn up by Burrell Foley Fischer, which retained the existing buildings. SAVE director Clem Cecil said: ‘Both the secretary of state and the inspector accept the high importance of the market buildings and their interiors.’ ‘[Both agreed] that the SAVE proposals are viable. They describe the heritage assets as “irreplaceable”. They also conclude that the harm done by the Henderson proposals is so substantial that any benefits do not outweigh the damage done.’ But Geoff Harris, head of development at Henderson Real Estate, which is understood to have spent £5 million on McAslan’s plans, said he was ‘surprised and extremely disappointed’ by the news. He said: ‘The decision taken by the secretary of state, in our view, has been influenced by a disingenuous campaign employed by a small minority of objectors. Our scheme was supported by English Heritage, CABE, the City of London, the Mayor of London and the Smithfield Market Tenants’ Association; our scheme would have saved and brought back to life these Victorian market buildings that have lain empty for decades and this decision will condemn these disused historic buildings to continued decay and yet further uncertainty.’ Richard Waite Farshid Moussavi Architects unveils proposal for new Fenchurch Street office block Farshid Moussavi Architects has submitted plans for this new office block at 130 Fenchurch Street. The scheme for Aviva Investors will replace the existing Fountain House building close to Rafael Viñoly’s ‘Walkie-Talkie’. A planning decision is expected in September and work is due to start on site in 2016. The developer is also working with dRMM on another new-build office at 54 Fenchurch Street to be decided upon on 17 July. Richard Waite 11.07.14 |
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| News M Architects voice alarm over ‘worsening’ UK brick shortage Prices rise by 7.2 per cent year-on-year and lead-in times of more than 60 weeks reported as British suppliers struggle to keep up with demand A ‘massive’ shortage of bricks and lead-in times of more than a year threaten to cause delays to projects, architects have warned. Waiting times for bricks have soared, with architects reporting lead-in times, in some cases, of more than 60 weeks as suppliers struggle to keep up with demand. Leading housing architects have said the delays have become an ‘enormous issue’. Gerard Maccreanor, of Stirling Prize- winning practice Maccreanor Lavington, said: ‘You just can’t get bricks in the UK. ‘We are seeing rising prices due to this shortage and also the specification of cheaper bricks. The quality of brick buildings going forward could suffer.’ Project Orange director James Soane agreed. He said: ‘There is a massive shortage. We had [German brick manufacturer] Wienerberger in this week and it is saying 60 weeks.’ Many architects have had to re-specify, or face delays to schemes as a result of the shortages. DSDHA architect Tom Greenall, who is working on the Link Primary School project in Croydon, said the practice was having ‘lots of problems’ with brick supply on the school. He said: ‘We are having to re-specify facing bricks because of excessive lead times. Apparently many suppliers have stopped taking new orders until 2015.’ Meanwhile, Michelmersh, the UK’s largest brick manufacturer, . . Hawkins\Brown’s recently approved 103-home scheme in Rotherhithe will be clad in Belgian bricks has warned of unprecedented low great, because [their bricks] are stocks. Speaking to the Telegraph generally much nicer.’ on Sunday, Michelmersh chief But, Maccreanor said, this executive Martin Warner said: ‘I solution might come unstuck am seeing the lowest brick stocks as European supplies begin in living memory across the UK.’ to struggle with the uplift in The shortage has been blamed demand. He said: ‘A lot of on the housing boom, the factories in Belgium and Holland mothballing of brickworks during have gone bankrupt, or have the recession and the current downsized during the recession, trend for brick cladding, and I fear they will soon dubbed the ‘new have full order books London vernacular’. as well.’ According to the But Noble Francis ORE HOMES Office for National BETTER HOMES of the Construction Statistics, brick prices Products Association were up 7.2 per cent played down the in the year to March fears. He said: ‘Pre- and, as bricks become harder recession, housebuilders to obtain and prices increase, were used to planning weeks architects have begun to look to in advance for materials and the continent for supplies. there was little issue. After the Alex Ely of Mae Architects recession hit, housebuilders got said: ‘We are specifying bricks used to ordering materials days from Germany and Belgium. The in advance. The rise in demand forecast is that UK brick prices in the housing market and will go up 15 per cent next year consequent rise in house building and European bricks by only means that prices have risen and around 5 per cent with much housebuilders have to plan in shorter delivery times – which is advance again.’ Laura Mark Neil Deely, founding director, Metropolitan Workshop ‘There is a perfect storm of brickworks having been shut down in the recession and the rise of the “new London vernacular”. The shortage is – in a way – a good thing because it forces architects to think harder. We were recently cited 64-week lead-in times on bricks. There is a good supply from Europe, but contractors are reluctant to pay the premium to import.’ David Cross, managing director, Coda Studios ‘We ran out on our Dunfields project and had to go to builders’ merchants across the UK to source the last 10,000. It is a nightmare. I have already looked to choose and order bricks on a job before we have even submitted the planning application. Lots of developers are angry at the big housebuilders who have put covers on brick stocks across the UK.’ Steve Turner, head of communications, Home Builders Federation ‘In the past year, we have seen a significant increase in house building activity and there has inevitably been pressure on the industry’s supply chain – including brick supplies. ‘But the industry has responded, with many suppliers running production through winter and Christmas last year for the first time since 2007, while we have also seen a number of new or mothballed factories open in recent months.’ . . |
| Global giant Aedas splits after 12 years to form two new practices Aedas, the fifth-largest AJ100 practice, has split – with its hugely profitable Asian business parting from its UK-led arm. The company’s 13 offices in China, South-East Asia, the Middle East and the USA will continue to operate under the Aedas name. But the eight UK studios and outposts in Russia, Poland and Kazakhstan will be rebranded AHR – a return to the firm’s roots as Abbey Holford Rowe, the name it bore before the merger with Hong Kong- based LPT Architects in 2002 brought about the Aedas brand. The 450-strong new AHR ANDREW J LOITERTON ‘No change for our clients nor our 450 staff,’ says chairman of UK-led division Brian Johnson as it parts company from AJ100 practice outfit (see page 20) will have offices in London, Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Shrewsbury and Glasgow and remains an equity partnership, ‘focusing on its core activities of architecture and building consultancy’. Brian Johnson, chairman of the new UK practice, said: ‘This is a very natural evolution based on how the practice has been operating in recent years and to all intents and purposes there will be no change for our clients or our 450 staff.’ According to a joint statement from the two firms, the demerger will ‘allow both companies to focus on their respective strengths and will enable them to grow the businesses in different directions’. Insiders said the ‘divorce’ had not come as a surprise and that there had been a ‘polarisation on a range of key issues’ between the two business bases. Over the past couple of years Aedas’s London office has lost key staff, including Home plans winning ‘on appeal’ Housing developers are deliberately seeking out local authorities with no local plan to stand a better chance of winning applications on appeal More than two-thirds of major housing developments currently going to appeal are being approved, new figures have revealed. Statistics released by planning consultancy Turley show successful appeals at public inquiry have leapt by 50 per cent since the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in 2012. Comparing the number of applications made in the two years before the introduction of the NPPF with those two years after, the consultancy discovered . . that the approval rate at public inquiry had risen from 38 per cent to 57 per cent for appeals. The number of appeals upheld at inquiry for major housing developments – schemes with more than 10 homes – had also risen from 58 per cent to 67 per cent. A spokesman for Turley said: ‘Our research suggests that the NPPF and the principles upon which it is based have not had the impact on local authority decision-making anticipated by the government.’ Robert Adam, director of Adam Architecture, said: ‘People are putting in applications knowing they are getting a refusal simply as a means of getting their proposal in front of an inspectorate.’ ‘We are dealing with developers who are simply hiring researchers to find out which councils do not have a local plan and applying for a development, as the [threshold] for winning an appeal against these councils has become quite low,’ he adds. He added: ‘Local authorities that have not got their local plans fixed are in trouble.’ long-standing UK deputy chairman Peter Oborn, director Sarah Williams and design director Yasser el-Gabry, who recently joined Capita ESA. The new Aedas, which has a large Chinese order book, boasts 1,400 staff and has announced it has opened a ‘relocated London studio’ at 65 Chandos Place in the city’s West End. It will be headed by chairman Keith Griffiths (pictured, third from left), who will work alongside (l-r) Ken Wai (design director for China), ‘signature designer’ Andrew Bromberg and airport design specialist Max Connop. Griffiths said Aedas would target mega-projects in London, where it hoped its Chinese connections would help as a conduit to new work. He said: ‘We are already working with [clients] Vanke, Greenland and Asian Business Ports, which are all building in China and which are coming to London.’ Richard Waite Leigh Brooks, director of BWP Architects, agreed. He said: ‘We tell our clients never to withdraw an application for a development as, until a council refuses it, it isn’t in writing and so you cannot appeal against it. Even if a council tell us it is likely to refuse an application, we will still go ahead. ’ Ruth Reed, RIBA past president and chairwoman of the RIBA Planning Group, said the NPPF had placed a burden on local authorities that they cannot deliver on. She said: ‘With only one in seven local authorities having an adopted local plan in accordance with the NPPF, there is a gap in local policy. Planning by appeal cannot be good for anyone.’ Tim Clark |
| News feature What is wrong with UK housing? Four leading architects discuss what needs to change in the way we build homes in Britain in order to relieve the current crisis and provide functional, well-designed, affordable housing for the 21st century Tony Fretton Principal, Tony Fretton Architects ‘The architectural community has always been central to the development of forms and ideas in housing. Post-war public housing depended on the work of CIAM and its local development by architects such as Neave Brown, Neylan & Ungless and others. When that program was negated, architects such as Levitt Bernstein, CGHP and others developed different approaches for housing associations. In recent times practices such as Maccreanor Lavington, Alison Brooks and Mae have provided the intelligence for developer housing. At each change of government policy all expertise is thrown away. The experience of my practice in Belgium and The Netherlands is that developers’ housing is promoted by public bodies and situated in coherent plans, while in the UK there is an unwarranted belief in the market. Political actors in London will disagree and point to the Olympics and its proposed legacy. But I am afraid this is a rhetoricised version of the same lack of intelligent planning.’ trying to control things with ‘design standards’, which determine the layout and size of homes, but the issues are much more fundamental. I would like to see the government intervene with legislation which would favour smaller, more creative developers, Peter Barber small local developers, housing Owner, Peter Barber associations, co-ops and Architects individual owner-occupation The housing crisis in over the vast absentee landlords, the UK is systemic. It is a corporate investors, pension consequence of laissez-faire funds and housebuilders who government and wishy-washy currently call the shots. policy made by successive I would also like to see governments, of both political the expansion of local complexions, which have government’s home allowed our land building programme economy to go haywire. Housing More homes and in particular a production has been Better homes massive investment in new council ‘left to the market’. housing, funded Design is driven by by direct taxation. profit instead of Housing produced in the ideology. public interest by democratically Homes are seen as a product, accountable organisations: what an asset, a commodity. could be better? Government pussyfoots around Michael Wilford Partner, Michael Wilford Architects ‘All parties involved, particularly the politicians who have the power and primary responsibility to address the housing crisis, regularly drone on like a jammed CD player with the same obvious message that the primary solution is to build more homes. But they are not able to articulate real vision, ideas and tangible proposals as to how this might be achieved – too 12 theaj.co.uk much talk, not enough action! In this vacuum architects should, by taking a more pro-active role, rise to the opportunity and contribute their entrepreneurial skills to identify potential and realise development projects themselves to provide attractive, economical and environmentally responsible architectural solutions. Politicians, financiers, developers and contractors have had ample opportunity to meet the demand but have failed miserably to do so. The architectural profession should now put its head clearly above the parapet and demonstrate, by example, its practical and social skills in positive meaningful ways to provide attractive, functional and affordable housing. Roger Stephenson Managing partner, Stephenson:ISA Studio ‘Politicians use housing to suit their political needs and have a history of completely misunderstanding the process. The Pathfinder Initiative being a wonderful example. Statements about needing to build 300,000 houses a year have been issued for as long as I can remember. If the process were understood and controlled, there would come a time when gentle, non-disruptive renewal would be a matter of course. The best architects could do is to help politicians to understand housing. Ownership patterns and state-generated social engineering play a far greater role than design. There are successful tower blocks, slab blocks, cul-de- sacs. Classically, back-to-back bye-law terraced housing with not a patch of green in sight has been home to wonderfully integrated communities. 11.07.14 |
| The 10 biggest housing schemes approved this year Graph showing which of the top 10 housing schemes in the UK (by unit numbers) that have received outline planning permission since January 2014 and have appointed architects. Key: In-house, no external architect to be appointed No known architect or architect yet to be appointed Known architect appointed or involved 5,150 homes project: The Wixams location: Dunstable, Bedfordshire developer: Gallagher UK, Taylor Wimpey 4,256 project: New Lubbesthorpe location: Leicestershire developer: David Wilson Homes East Midlands 3,850 project: Wellesley-Masterlead location: Aldershot Barracks, Urban Extension Project developer: Defence Infrastructure Organisation 2,012 project: Overstone location: Northampton developer: Barratt Developments 1,804 project: London Docks location: Wapping, London developer: St George Central London 1,500 project: Northstowe Phase 1 location: Longstanton, Cambridge developer: Gallagher UK 1,500 project: Northfleet West location: Kent developer: Redrow Homes UK architect: Masterplan by Barton Willmore; no known delivery architect architect: Masterplan by fpcr; no known delivery architect architect: Masterplan by Adam Architecture Barratt Homes expected to self deliver architect: Masterplan by Patel Taylor architect: Unknown, but design panel includes Graham Whitehouse of GWP Architects, Russell Brown of Hawkins\Brown and Simon Carne of Simon Carne Architects Redrow expected to self-deliver architect: Not appointed 1,007 source: glenigan 1,047 project: Higher Standen Farm location: Clitheroe, Lancashire developer: The Standen Estate project: TRL Site location: Wokingham, Berkshire development consultant : Quod architect: Masterplan by PLP 975 11.07.14 project: Land at Cotes location: Loughborough, Leicestershire developer: Davidsons Developments architect: Not appointed 13 |
| ews Six-strong shortlist for Science Museum job NORD Architecture, Muf and Grimshaw have been named among the finalists vying for the Science Museum’s contest for a new £4 million interactive gallery. They are joined on the six-strong shortlist by Farshid Moussavi, Universal Design Studio and David Kohn. www.theaj.co.uk/sciencemuseum Bennetts Associates retained as design review consultant for 14 stations in western section of £15 billion rail line, including Ealing Broadway Pascall+Watson is to take over from Bennetts Associates on stations in the western section of the £15 billion Crossrail scheme under a design and build contract, it has been announced. In a statement, Pascall+Watson said it would now deliver detailed design at 14 stations, including Ealing Broadway, which Bennetts recently reworked (visualisation above) after complaints were made last year regarding its initial scheme for the busy interchange. However, the statement added that Bennetts ‘will be retained by Network Rail and Crossrail in a design review role to ensure compliance with design intent and maintain dialogue with the local authorities’. A row over the design quality of the scheme’s stations has been simmering since last December, when it emerged that design review would not be used as N . . standard on the 27 surface stations and Richard Rogers warned that Crossrail – which opens in 2019 – would not live up to the country’s ‘great railway heritage’. RIBA president Stephen Hodder, who has also demanded higher design standards on Crossrail, called on project bosses to spell out Bennetts’ exact role. He said: ‘I would always want to see continuity so that integrity of [design] intent is maintained. But I don’t believe design and build automatically means you end up with an inferior design. ‘The positive thing is that Bennetts is being retained in a consultancy role. They must be positively engaged. Their role must be defined and have teeth.’ Bennetts co-founder Rab Bennetts said his practice had been liaising with Pascall+Watson ‘to ensure they know what’s been happening on the planning front’. He added: ‘They’re a good practice that specialises in transport infrastructure and, while we would have liked to have been on the construction team ourselves, we’re sure they’ll do a good job. ‘The fact that we are being retained in a monitoring capacity is also good for the project.’ Pascall+Watson is working as part of a team led by contractor Taylor Woodrow. The 14 stations are being overhauled to accommodate the operation of the new, 205m-long Crossrail trains, requiring increased station facilities, longer platforms and revised canopies, footbridges, lift and stair arrangements. New station buildings will be constructed at Acton Main Line, West Ealing, Southall and Hayes & Harlington, while ‘significant modifications’ will be provided at Ealing Broadway and West Drayton. Will Hurst Director Andrew Barraclough has left HOK for the contractor Wates Group. Barraclough has become the contractor’s new group design director. His departure is the second recent big loss for HOK – last year development head Rob Firth also moved on. www.theaj.co.uk/barraclough City ‘minded to approve’ Holl’s Maggie’s Centre The City of London has said its planning officers are ‘minded to approve’ Steven Holl Architects’ proposed Maggie’s cancer care centre at Barts. A decision is set to be made on Holl’s reworked scheme – which has come under fire from campaigners – on 17 July. www.theaj.co.uk/maggies STEPHEN HOLL ARCHITECTS Pascall+Watson takes over Crossrail stations under design and build contract Barraclough leaves HOK for Wates Group . . |
| ompetitions & wins Goldsmiths art gallery shortlist revealed Designs by Assemble, 6a, HAT Projects, Jamie Fobert, Dow Jones Architects and Harry Gugger shortlisted for swimming baths conversion The AJ can reveal the six schemes shortlisted in the competition to design a new 400m² art gallery for Goldsmiths College in south-east London. Assemble, 6a, HAT Projects, Jamie Fobert Architects, Dow Jones Architects and former Herzog & de Meuron star Harry Gugger – the brains behind the Tate Modern revamp – are all competing for the Laurie Grove C . . Baths redevelopment project. An exhibition of their visions opened this week, along with the New Cross-based college’s MFA Art Show and closes on 25 July. The project, Goldsmiths says, will serve as a ‘symbol of creativity and excellence’ for the University of London college, which includes artists Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley and Sarah Lucas among its alumni. The regeneration of the former swimming baths will create a new 400m² gallery inside the building’s water tanks and adjacent spaces, and also create a new entrance hall in front of the tanks. Competition judges include David Chipperfield and philanthropist Candida Gertler. A winner will be announced on 21 July. Merlin Fulcher . . |
| CHENSIYUAN OMPETITIONS FILE An international design competition has been launched for a new £113 million museum of science in Guangzhou, China (pictured). Eight teams will receive around £56,000 each and be invited to submit proposals for the 80,000m² structure east of Lingnan Square following an open pre-qualification round. [Deadline for requests to participate 25 July] THE AJ DOES NOT ORGANISE, ENDORSE OR TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMPETITIONS . . Shettleston Housing Association is on the hunt for an architect for a £3.8 million residential scheme in Muiryfauld Drive, Glasgow. Planned to start on site in 2015, the project will create 42 new houses and flats on the former site of St Mark’s Primary School, which has now been demolished. [Deadline for requests to participate 8 August] Exeter City Council is seeking a design team for a new ‘state-of- the-art’ indoor pool and leisure centre. Scheduled to complete in 2018, the £20 million project will replace Exeter’s existing Pyramids Pool on Heavitree Road with a new facility next to the city’s bus and coach station [Deadline for requests to participate 10 September] Merlin Fulcher TheAJ.co.uk/competitions C |
| News £36,000 bill to repair Portcullis House glass london Whitehall has spent more than £36,000 in under five years repairing cracks in the glass ceiling of Portcullis House in Westminster. According to the Evening Standard, the Hopkins- designed building’s atrium has suffered persistent glass failures. www.theaj.co.uk/Portcullis paul raftery Group set up to guide design of HS2 assets RSHP completes landmark British Museum scheme Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has completed its World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre at the British Museum. The final phase of the 18,000m2 scheme includes state-of-the-art laboratories, studios and storage. Heneghan Peng ‘founded on competitions’ Female architects focus on design contests at Women in Architecture event women in architecture Róisín Heneghan, Laura Lee, and Julia King discussed what it takes to win awards and create competition-winning architecture at the AJ’s Women in Architecture talk last week. Speaking at the Zaha Hadid- designed ROCA London Gallery, Heneghan, co-founder of Heneghan Peng, shared insights into her practice, which she said was founded on victories in design contests. She said: ‘We launched our practice through competitions. Nobody will take a chance on an unknown architect but with an ideas competition you have more of a chance.’ Heneghan, who has twice been shortlisted for the AJ Woman 18 theaj.co.uk Architect of the Year Award, also described the experience of losing competitions in a discussion about the practice’s submission for the contest to design The London School of Economics’ new £90 million Global Centre for Social Sciences, which Heneghan Peng lost to Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in 2013. She said: ‘We enter a lot of competitions and we lose a lot, but what keeps us going is that we learn something each time.’ Sadie Morgan, director of dRMM, who chaired the event, said Heneghan Peng’s work was ‘inspirational’, adding: ‘She [Heneghan] is my Nemesis. I have never known a practice win so many competitions. I considered industrial espionage to find out what the secret was. But I saw the Giant’s Causeway and realised there was no secret. She is just a good architect.’ Maggie’s chief executive Laura Lee, who has judged the AJ Women in Architecture Awards since they launched in 2012, stressed the importance of having faith in the architect in order to create great buildings. She said: ‘We have developed hugely as a client over the years. But just because we have produced so many Maggie’s Centres doesn’t mean every one is the same. Stay with the architect. Be a critical friend. Inspire them to do the best building they have ever done.’ Laura Mark infrastructure Thomas Heatherwick is among designers invited to shape the HS2 rail project. Led by former Design Council chief David Kester, a 32-strong design group, which also includes structural engineer Jane Wernick, will look at all aspects of the £42.6 billion project, including stations, rolling stock and landscaping. www.theaj.co.uk/Heatherwick Queen’s barge centre opposed by residents richmond A Foster + Partners plan for a visitor centre (below) to house the barge built for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations has run into opposition from west London residents. A public consultation has begun on the scheme and, if approved, work could start on site in autumn 2015. www.theaj.co.uk/Fosters 11.07.14 |
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| People & practice abour: ‘architects are vital’ NEW PRACTICES Shadow communities and local government secretary Hilary Benn MP on role of architects in housebuilding and on protecting the green belt Does Labour have a comprehensive plan to alleviate the housing crisis? We are determined to reach a total of 200,000 homes a year by 2020. This will need more land coming forward, ‘use it or lose it’ powers for councils where land has permission but no building is taking place, better support for small and medium-sized L . . housebuilders, custom builders and strong local leadership. The RIBA has presented recommendations to build on the green belt, is it a viable option? We strongly support the green belt and will not change the protection it has at present. But councils do already have, in certain circumstances, the power to vary the boundaries of the green belt, and that should remain a matter for local decision – as it is now. Britain has some of the smallest homes in the EU, would Labour consider making minimum design and space standards for new homes a legal obligation? We need to make sure that homes are of a decent size and the principal responsibility for this rests with architects and developers. Local housing design guides can also help. Do you see a greater role for architects in government to help shape policies and places? What both the public and architects want are well-designed homes that are nice to live in, in neighbourhoods with good facilities. Part of winning public support for house building is building quality homes in places people want to live. Labour will match our determination to build more homes with a zeal for quality. Architects will therefore continue to have a vital role to play in helping the nation build the homes it needs. AHR What can be done to help local authorities boost their house building? Thanks to the changes in the housing revenue account put in place by the last Labour government, councils are now building council houses again – for example look at the programmes in Southwark and Leeds. Housing associations are also very important providers of affordable homes. Local authorities need to take responsibility for identifying housing need in their area, and we need to create a more level playing field with developers. We also want more housebuilders coming into the market; 40 years ago two-thirds of homes were built by small and medium-sized builders, but now it is just one third. There are builders who want to build, but lack land and finance. All of these issues are being looked at by Michael Lyons’ housing review, which was set up by Ed Miliband. AHR Brian Johnson (left), Martin Wright, Samantha Smith, Anthony Langan, Richard Blair London, Manchester, Leeds, Huddersfield, Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Bristol and Glasgow 7 July 2014 www.ahr-global.com Where have you come from? We’re not new in the normal sense; our partners all came from Aedas (see page 11). Before that, they worked at Holford Associates, Abbey Hanson Rowe and Temple Cox Nicholls. What are your ambitions? AHR is focused on increasing design presence. We hope to be known for producing cracking designs that are built to last – we want to build on our reputation as a ‘safe pair of hands’. What work do you have? We have experience across a range of sectors. Current projects include: 12 schools in the North-East for the Priority School Building Programme, two academies in Dubai, the Bath University School of Architecture and Engineering, new offi ces for Blackpool Council, the mixed- use Green Quarter in Kazakhstan (pictured) and the Saudi Arabia embassy in Astana. We will be looking to build our experience and develop more projects with end-user requirements. What are the biggest challenges facing you as a start-up? We have taken the decision to start AHR because it is the right time to enter the market to concentrate on quality, rather than just size. Which scheme of yours are you proudest of? Al Bahr Towers: its dynamic facade has been praised around the world. I am not aware of another building that accomplishes the kind of sustainability targets we have. . . |
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| Astragal Conscious uncoupling Happy ending vision for London The AJ/Observer Skyline campaign calls for better designed and better planned tall buildings in London. But can those worried about the low standard of skyscrapers emerging in the capital ever have imagined a vision as hellish as this (above)? Luckily these dark satanic towers are not a real representation of the future city, but a scene from the current sci-fi film The Anomaly. The mock up, created by visual effects studio LipSync Post, even manages to follow some of the current planning guidance by grouping the towers in a cluster! Brian Johnson, the chairman of the British-based former part of Aedas now known as AHR, certainly knows how to grab a headline. Speaking on Monday after the AJ exclusively revealed the split (page 11) between the global practice and its 450-strong UK arm, Johnson had seasoned hacks spluttering into their coffees by describing it as a ‘conscious uncoupling’ in a hilarious echo of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s eccentric description of their separation. So which firm represents the Coldplay frontman and which is the Hollywood actress-turned- food blogger? Johnson wasn’t telling, but he conceded that AHR and Martin have their Britishness in common. ’ Who would have imagined that a break-in at the CZWG-designed Maggie’s cancer care centre in Nottingham could have a happy ending? Last month burglars smashed through the glass front door and broke into the office, stealing a safe with the takings from the summer fair fundraiser and a number of computers. The losses were put at £6,000. However, in a soul-pleasing turn of events, the charity has managed to recoup more than the amount stolen after setting up a special JustGiving webpage. As the AJ went to press, Maggie’s had received over £17,000 in donations, including a sizeable gift from the British designer Paul Smith who did the building’s interiors. WWW.LOUISHELLMAN.CO.UK Holey smoke The Hellman Files #139 Factory-made houses rolling like cars off the conveyor belt has long been a Modernist dream. But volume housebuilders and banks have a vested interest in maintaining medieval-like A . . building techniques while claiming to know what customers want – pitched roofed, brick boxes with contemporary kitchens. This is a version of a cartoon which first appeared in 1995. Hundreds of people were evacuated as 50 firefighters rushed to Renzo Pianos’ Shard after smoke was discovered in the basement last month. Snaps from the scene went global as crowds gathered to see if London’s tallest skyscraper would burn down. Sadly for headline seekers, the extent of ‘the blaze’ was far less sensational than first thought. The London Fire Brigade’s subsequent investigation uncovered that a discarded cigarette caused debris outside of the building to smoulder, ‘resulting in smoke travelling through ducting into the basement area.’ A spokeswoman for The Shard said: ‘The aperture through which the smoke travelled was identified and has been sealed to prevent reoccurrence.’ . . |
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| Letter from London Building all over the green belt is indefensible when so much of London lies empty, writes Paul Finch read with increasing disbelief the claims being made about the impossibility of housing London’s growing population within its own borders. Anyone flying over the capital will have noticed vast areas, mainly on the east side of town, which await building of any description. There are thousands of hectares of land which could be brought into residential use to the advantage of everyone, so why are we pretending otherwise? The estimable Tony Travers and his London School of Economics researchers have interesting statistics on this point. Were available land to be built out to the densities currently prevailing in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, the capital could accommodate 18 million people. Were we to go the whole hog, and built out to Haussman densities (and we love old Paris, don’t we?), the figure rises to approaching 30 million. You will notice that Kensington & Chelsea doesn’t have too many tall buildings but does have plenty of green space, so we are not talking about creating a new, unrecognisable London, but something familiar and desirable. Ben Derbyshire at HTA has been banging the drum in an intelligent way about the virtues of densifying the suburbs, rather than resorting to point blocks or sprawling all over the home counties. More power to his elbow. Unfortunately the debate about the housing shortage in London and the South-East has been hijacked by ideologues who need to distort the truth of why we are in our current condition in order to suggest solutions which have nothing to do with housing, but quite a lot to do with their world view. Hence the drivel about how land shortage or the planning system are to blame for all our current woes, rather than the self-evident fact that we stopped a serious public sector building programme in the early 1980s and now have an acute shortage because of inward migration. I had to laugh at the Guardian’s shock, horror story last week about how Tesco is ‘sitting’ on sites that could . . I house 15,000 people across the UK. They call that a story? Try checking out how much land any government department is sitting on, or any local authority. That is the really big scandal, and it is not going away. Supermarkets can play their part in alleviating housing shortages by building above stores (which Tesco is already doing) and above car parks. That is a bigger game to be won – by co-operation, not accusation. As I have remarked in these pages before, it is extraordinary how we penalise the very people who are in the business of building homes with taxes, levies, ‘affordable’ home impositions and so on. It is a discouragement to small builders and others to enter the supply chain and ensures that the world of housebuilding remains a weird closed shop, playing by It is extraordinary how we penalise the very people who are in the business of building homes with taxes, levies and so on rules which actively encourage restriction of supply. So we end up with a world in which ‘getting tough’ over mortgage lending is supposed to be a sound policy, even though it will actively discourage the housebuilding sector from getting on with it. As for the public sector, with some honourable exceptions it is in no position to provide the quantum necessary – unless politicians use sticks and carrots to unlock sites and start generating bond-style income underwritten by the rent rolls all authorities have partly at their disposal. None of this militates against the provision of well-designed homes; it is about the context in which architects with an interest in housing find themselves. Squeaking about the green belt will do no real good. It is scratching at an itch, not dealing with the underlying condition. . . |
| IMAGE COURTESY OF FEATHERSTONE YOUNG speakers include Alsop Architects Arup Featherstone Young russ + henshaw SPARK LIVE JULY COLOUR &TEXTURE AJ Specification Live – a series of free monthly AJ events, in association with NLA, with afternoon talks providing in-depth information into the design and specification of building components and construction methods, followed by networking drinks NLA, The Building Centre 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT Wednesday 16 July. Talks: 4-6pm To find out more and register visit TheAJ.co.uk/ajspeclive #ajspeclive |
| Letters Last issue AJ 04.07.14 Established 1895 S . . erpentine Pavilion Smiljan Radic in Hyde Park Invisible Studio in the West Country woods Center Parcs Woburn Loch Lomond lookout £5.99 THE ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL THEAJ.CO.UK • Email the AJ letters@architectsjournal.co.uk • Comment at TheAJ.co.uk • Twitter: @ArchitectsJrnal • Facebook: TheArchitectsJournal • LinkedIn: Architects’ Journal • Post letters to address below The letter of the week’s author will receive an AJ mug. Letters should be received by 10am on the Monday before publication. The AJ reserves the right to edit letters. The Architects’ Journal Telephone House, - Paul Street, Th London eAJ.co.uk Firstname.Surname@emap.com plus extension . . Garden cities approach In your feature on Tom Holbrook’s entry to the Wolfson Economics Prize 2014 for a new garden city (AJ 27.06.14), he forwards the discussion on proactive planning and rightly raises debate about the public good. However, his contention that government should somehow instil delight in the making of a city misses a fundamental point on urbanism. In his argument that a garden city should be publicly funded and infrastructure-led, Holbrook argues for an expanded role of government, and in so doing swims idealistically against the tide of austerity. To be sure, the Wolfson brief does not downplay the role of infrastructure (or the state) in any plan-making, but it rather simply means that there has to be a realistic approach to funding and delivery, which combines private and public effort. Were Holbrook making a mere argument for an enlarged government, we could let it go, but his argument goes further. LETTER OF K THE WEE Acting editor Rory Olcayto Editor Christine Murray (on leave) Acting deputy editor Will Hurst ( ) Editorial assistant Rakesh Ramchurn ( ) News editor Richard Waite ( ) Competitions editor and international news Merlin Fulcher ( ) Technical editor Felix Mara ( ) Technical reporter Laura Mark ( ) Acting special projects editor Ann-Marie Corvin Special projects editor Emily Booth (on leave) Sustainability editor Hattie Hartman ( ) Publications editor Sarah Townsend ( ) AJ Buildings Library editor Tom Ravenscroft ( ) Critic-at-large Ellis Woodman Art editor Brad Yendle ( ) Graphic designer Ella Mackinnon ( ) Production editor (features) Mary Douglas ( ) Production editor (news) Alan Gordon ( ) Content producer Isabelle Priest ( ) The greater error comes with the basic contention that ‘the state uses the massive investment in infrastructure in multiple ways to create delight’. The city I live in I chose not because it was delightful or joyous. Like billions of others, I sought its opportunity, its diversity, its danger and refuge, its confrontation and comfort. Should the city be planned to be ‘delightful’, or should infrastructure investment be spent on … well, infrastructure? In any event, such qualities cannot be mandated – certainly not through architectural collage. 5th Studio borrows heavily from Hubert de Cronin Hastings et al’s Civilia, and suffers from the same tail-wagging logic where the aesthetic features of townscape absurdly drive a city’s development. However much I love the retro Brutalism of those collages, a state-sponsored architectural character by decree is not a believable antidote to a lack of urban dynamism. Certainly one woman’s vision of a city will not be everyone’s. Holbrook’s assertion that the market by itself leads to homogeneity is a truism – yet ignores the surprising, sometimes grotesque, but nonetheless rich environments that a good interaction between the state and markets can make. Good interactions breed compelling urban conditions – like the streets of Hong Kong, the urban grain of the City of London, and the dynamism of Manhattan. Holbrook’s proposal is a knee-jerk statism that would make any good Keynesian blush. A government-run rural architectural complex breeds, at best, a Singapore-like patriarchy, at worst, a control- freakish totalitarianism. What role the state has as a critical agent in making cities is a worthy debate to have, but rather than choose sides on the caricatured poles of the left and right, a growing vanguard of urbanists are exploring a fertile area between where market dynamics are deployed, regulated and subverted to yield outcomes for greater public benefit. That is the kind of proposition that acknowledges and accommodates the complexity of the contemporary city, not the alluring architectural vignette. Darryl Chen, partner, Hawkins\Brown Editorial director Paul Finch Chief executive offi cer Natasha Christie-Miller Managing director architecture Richard Breeden Commercial director James MacLeod ( ) Business development managers Nick Roberts ( ), Ceri Evans ( ) Account managers Hannah Buckley ( ), Jonathan Snowden ( ) Senior sales executive Stephen Beszant ( ) Recruitment sales Lindsey Wigham ( ) Classified sales Richard Spanton ( ) Production manager David Evans ( ) AJ subscription subscribe.architectsjournal.co.uk/ AJUM001 Back issues and subscriptions Email: Help@subscribe.architectsjournal.co.uk Telephone: & quote priority code ‘ ’ The Architects’ Journal is registered as a newspaper at the Post Offi ce. © . Part of the EMAP network. Printed in the by Headley Brothers Ltd. ( ) is published weekly except Christmas, Easter and August. Subscription price is . Periodicals postage paid at Rahway, and additional mailing offi ces. 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| The Mount Pleasant situation is about the wrong brief (AJ online, ‘Francis Terry launches rival design for Mount Pleasant’, 03.07.14). The site is complex, centred in London postcodes WC and EC, and it needs an urban response, not an invasion of clustered towers. Can the Greater London Authority and the mayor not see that? The current plans will be a catastrophe in civic terms. The Royal Mail Group needs to wake up to its responsibilities to London as a whole, and to us as the existing local population. Gillian Darley, independent writer, journalist and broadcaster, online Zaha’s design award The Design Museum’s ‘Design of the Year’ (AJ 04.07.14) is a great title and a fabulous marketing conceit, but what does it actually represent? Indeed, who judges this and against what criteria? Especially since it seems that apples and pears are compared before a final decision is reached. How exactly do you assess the success, or otherwise, of the design of a complex building against that of a piece of furniture? And what is the point of it anyway if the ‘Design of the Year’ cannot be reproduced in a form that can actually be obtained by metropolitan fashion victims? Personally, I am always suspicious of award schemes that trumpet themselves in the slow season for the press, and this one is presumably not unconnected to the blizzard of information being put out right now about the Design Museum moving to its new home. W . . I am looking forward to the inevitable Deyan Sudjic book on Zaha’s dream commissions though. Peter Wilson, LinkedIn De-signing away In response to Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Centre (pictured, see AJ 17.01.14) winning the Design of the Year Award from the Design Museum (AJ 04.07.14), I would be interested to know if it reflects the old KGB chief’s hand movements while signing away suspected spies to the gulags? Swoosh … gone. Peter Dew, director, Peter Dew and Associates, online Blown skirt/Smurf hat Zaha Hadid’s Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku is as ‘sexy as Marilyn’s blown skirt’? The first thing I thought of was a Smurf’s hat! Arnold Tarling, associate director, Hindwoods Chartered Surveyors, online Clearer distinctions The news story about Welsh architects missing out on RIBA Awards over the past two years (AJ 20.06.14) appears to be at odds with the AJ’s analysis of Wales’s architectural achievements as measured by your mapping of RIBA Awards over the last five years in the same issue. You demonstrate that Wales has received 5 per cent of the national award total since 2010 – ahead of four other regions and only 1 per cent behind the North West, an area which has IWAN BAAN rong brief at Pleasant more than twice the population of Wales. RIBA Awards have undergone massive changes in recent years, with new or existing regional awards schemes now forming the first round. The Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RSAW) believes what is urgently needed in the RIBA’s two-tier system is clearer guidance on the criteria that distinguish national and regional standards. This will allow regional and national juries to apply criteria with more consistency and confidence, and will help ensure practices get the recognition they deserve, wherever they happen to operate in the UK. Dan Benham, president, RSAW and architect, Loyn & Co Architects Clean up RIBA ‘mess’ The current turmoil over the functioning of the RIBA echoes an older endemic culture (AJ 04.07.14). Five years ago, as London Region Chair, I tried to develop initiatives for committee debate and then sought to implement them. It seemed to me that new matters were routinely ground to a halt by a combination of separate lobbying between a few committee members and the RIBA staff, and a bureaucratic inclination to protect the status quo of staff power. There was no support from the then president or chief executive to help release proposals and take them forward. Instead, a faction tabled a no confidence vote, and one of the first things the RIBA did was protectively to appoint a legal firm. I resigned, a confidential internal inquiry took place, and the RIBA machinery carried on much as before. John Assael and several others at the time called the situation ‘a mess’. It seems that what was going on five years ago is manifesting itself at the top tier of the institute now. In my letter earlier this year (‘Strong RIBA Leaders’, AJ 02.05.14), I said that the institute needs a top-down culture change. It is now high time for a wise and courageous president to force reform so we get our institute back to promoting architecture, rather than mimicking a corporation shackled by an opaque governance and administration, and apparently now – with regard to its involvement in the Israel saga – a diplomatic corps. Azar Djamali, director, Azar Djamali Architect |
| Place: Light First Six architecture practices team up with lighting designers to enhance a building or urban environment using light as the principal design tool Erect Architecture The third of the AJ/iGuzzini Place: Light First proposals resurrects Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens as a modern-day place for promenading ‘Promenading Light’ is a lighting proposal for Erect Architecture’s ‘Vauxhall Missing Link – Promenade of Curiosities’ scheme, a public realm project connecting London’s Battersea Nine Elms development to the South Bank. The promenade is inspired by curiosities collector John Tradescant and the original Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens of the mid-17th to the mid-19th century, the famous place of amusement where high and low life went to 28 theaj.co.uk see and be seen. The Promenade of Curiosities creates a more pedestrian- and cycle-friendly public realm in which locals and visitors can collect experiences of curiosities as they move through the site. Our proposal seeks to revivify Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens as a modern-day place for amusement and magic, promenading and socialising. Some accounts attribute the decline of the original pleasure gardens to the arrival of electric lighting, when the magic created by hundreds of oil lamps illuminating trees and bushes disappeared. We propose a sculptural ‘ribbon’ of light and dark above the park, which responds to the people below by illuminating their promenade and drawing attention to pockets of activity within the park. Varying density, brightness and speed of illumination define different character 11.07.14 |
| in association with Lighting designer’s notes by Colin Ball, associate lighting designer, BDP areas around the ribbon, with a nod to the original features of the pleasure garden walks – the Dark Walk, Lovers’ Walk and Grand Walk. Triggered by people’s activities, the lighting creates a perpetually changing atmosphere – a curious, ephemeral spectacle of wonder and delight, apparently hovering in the air like the pleasure gardens’ famous tightrope walker, Madame Saqui. n 11.07.14 Erect Architecture’s proposal seeks to recreate an image of London that has been lost over the past few decades of ‘over- engineering’ our night-time environment. This is a fairly recent phenomenon – don’t forget the Greenwich Observatory was still in operation until 1957. Our proposal is to use readily available, addressable LED screen technologies from stage shows that can treat each ‘oil lamp’ as an individual pixel. This system can be suspended from an elegant catenary cable system with slim matt black columns positioned within the tree groups. All junction boxes, cabling and connections can then be hidden within the column infrastructure. For years I have studied and written about JAM Whistler’s Nocturnes and Gustave Doré’s London etchings because they show a time when London was transformed; when the night-time economy became an important part of city life. Erect’s proposal brings that early ‘Nocturne’ condition back. London still has some gems of historic, listed gas-lit streets in operation. These function perfectly well at light levels as low as 1.5Lux, one-tenth of current recommendations. The oil-lit quality of low- level warm flickering can be maintained to provide actual lighting levels at least as high as the gas-lit streets currently in use. iGuzzini case study: Memorial Park, San Giuliano di Puglia, Italy On 31 October 2002 an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale struck the small town of San Giuliano di Puglia in southern Italy. The Jovine elementary school collapsed and 29 people perished, 26 of whom were children. Designed by architect Santo Marra, the common theme of this memorial park is the journey of life, the moment of tragedy and the path of mourning. iGuzzini designed a bespoke LED solution that is delicate and flexible, representing human frailty. This is in stark contrast to the immovable concrete floor that represents the force of nature. The park, which illuminates at night, is a permanent memorial and these rows of light are broken up by illuminated discs, recessed into the ground, each representing a fallen soul. Twitterview takes place at 1pm on 30 July #PlaceLightFirst #LightFirst @iGuzziniUK iGuzzini 29 |
| Building study |
| Right side of the tracks Pitman Tozer’s Mint Street housing for Peabody is an ingenious and handsome response to its noisy viaduct location, writes Ellis Woodman Opposite Looking north-east down Mint Street orientation. Exchanging the use of gallery access for a plan based on multiple stair cores would also allow more than half the 67 units a double aspect. Peabody was persuaded and, much to its credit, maintained the then relatively untested Pitman Tozer as the £11 million project’s architect after it purchased the land. Its faith in the practice has been rewarded with a building that not >> try ro coven uc t iad ra ilw ay v min t st r ee t( ab o ne w ve ro ad ) ad street The project was to be part-funded through the sale of an adjoining car park, and with that aim Workspace commissioned a feasibility study which addressed the land’s potential redevelopment as housing. That study identified the possibility of introducing a linear block, laid out parallel to the curve of the railway, but concluded that the best means of addressing the noise issues was the use of gallery access on the rail side. In consequence all apartments would suffer from a single and north-west facing aspect. Peabody entered negotiations to buy the site and commissioned a feasibility study of its own from Pitman Tozer Architects. Working with Max Fordham as environmental consultants, the practice advocated an alternative strategy. While acknowledging the attraction of a linear configuration, it argued that appropriate sound engineering could enable each of the building’s apartments to enjoy the better daylighting and more expansive views afforded by a south-easterly violet opposie: kilian o’sullivan T alking with me outside the apartment block that his practice has designed for the housing association, Peabody, Luke Tozer is making a valiant attempt to describe the project against the frequent interruption of passing trains. The building stands on Mint Street in east London, 12 metres from the viaduct that carries the railway from Liverpool Street Station out to Stansted Airport, and at precisely the point where the route begins to make its sharp curve north. The clattering is even louder here than where the trains run straight. When two pass simultaneously, you literally cannot hear yourself speak. The project occupies land that formerly formed part of the headquarters of the pharmaceutical manufacturer, Allen and Hanburys. Five years ago the developer, Workspace, bought the site with the intention of converting the factory building that occupies its north end into space for creative industries. three colts lane Site plan 0 10m 31 |
| Mint Street, London E2 Pitman Tozer Architects Section A-A 23 22 22 22 22 19 22 20 21 24 25 0 but Network Rail’s plan to install café and retail units promises to intensify its inhabitation. Pitman Tozer describes its building as lying in the tradition of London mansion blocks, 19th-century examples of which neighbour it to the west. It comprises a base of maisonettes interspersed by three stair cores that provide access to apartments ranged over five floors. Tenure is divided in approximately equal measure between affordable rent, shared ownership and full ownership, with the apartments on the upper two floors belonging to the latter category. The base – which approximates the height of the viaduct – is distinguished through its facing in green ceramic brick. A run of widely spaced circular hollow section columns extends in front, ultimately picking up the slightly projecting mass of the upper storeys, which are faced in a more sober Staffordshire blue brick. The entrances to the stair cores are signalled through the placement of a floor-to-ceiling glazed winter garden above each one. While the London mayor’s Housing Design Guide >> both: kilian o’sullivan only answers the site’s technical challenges, but offers an object lesson in @ the capacity of housing to define A2 the form and character of the city. The pedestrianised Mint Street represents a route through the site where none existed previously. All units are accessed off it but, lying midway between Bethnal Green’s overground and underground stations, Mint Street also represents a valuable resource for the community. It has been attractively hard landscaped to double as a children’s play space. The railway arches are currently occupied by light industry 32 theaj.co.uk 2m 1. Core A entrance 2. Core B entrance 3. Core C entrance 4. Core A 5. Core B 6. Core C 7. Bin store 8. Plant 9. 1-bed/2-person flat 10. 2-bed/3-person flat 11. 2-bed/3-person maisonette 12. 2-bed/4-person flat 13. 3-bed/4-person flat 14. 3-bed/5-person flat 15. 3-bed/5-person maisonette 16. 3-bed/6-person flat 17. Rooflight 18. Terrace 19. Railway 20. Mint Street 21. New polycarbonate and metal screen 22. Winter garden 23. Photovoltaics 24. Communal garden and playground 25. Bike store 11.07.14 |
| Sixth floor plan 4 6 14 9 18 10 5 14 14 14 18 9 9 Sixth Floor 1:250 @ A3 Second and third floor plan 17 4 6 12 12 5 12 9 12 9 13 10 9 9 9 Second & Third Floor 1:250 @ A3 First floor plan 11 4 6 13 5 14 15 15 15 15 9 15 15 15 12 15 Ground floor plan First Floor 1:250 @ A3 A 11 10 7 1 15 15 15 15 8 7 8 2 15 15 15 15 A Ground Floor 1:250 @ A3 11.07.14 7 16 3 0 2m 33 |
| would ordinarily require every unit to be provided with a private external amenity space, the noise levels are such as to make balconies effectively unusable. The maisonettes enjoy pocket-gardens on the north-west side but all other units have railway- facing winter gardens, enclosed by double glazing both externally and on the face opening on to the apartment. Projecting out from the body of the building, the ones above the stair-core entrances are the most emphatically expressed. On the upper storeys, they are subsumed into the plan, their glazing effectively indistinguishable The noise levels are such as to make balconies effectively unusable 34 theaj.co.uk Above View of the top of Mint Street from under the viaduct Opposite Looking east towards the viaduct from the disabled parking area For more on this project The AJ on iPad & iPhone AJ Buildings Library from the windows that give directly on to the interior. The result is a facade of regularly distributed openings of cinematic format, its horizontal emphasis confirmed by the recessing of every fourth brick course in the intervening solid areas. The dominant wall surface on the rear elevation is a cream-toned brick, chosen for reasons of cost and its capacity to reflect light into the intimate courtyard that it addresses. In further contrast to the front facade it has been given a strong vertical emphasis by teasing the stair cores out from the body of the plan. Of curving profile, these are faced in the Staffordshire blue brick but here laid in a vertical stack bond. The building’s curvaceous modelling becomes more expressive still at its two ends, where it has to negotiate challenging rights- to-light and overlooking restrictions. In each case, large expanses of blank wall are handled with great sculptural élan and constructed impeccably. The quality and diversity of the brickwork is one of the project’s chief pleasures. Peabody’s development director, Claire Bennie, has been a strong advocate for the use of the material – instituting a marked change of culture from the era that brought us such highly bespoke Peabody projects as Bill Dunster’s BedZED. The greater robustness of a brick wall over a polycarbonate cladding panel represents an obvious advantage for a client hoping to build homes with a lifespan of many decades. Each stair landing provides access to four apartments. Two are of a two- bed type, their bedrooms distributed against the rear facade with a kitchen and living area addressing the rail side across the winter garden. The acoustic strategy proves enormously >> 11.07.14 opposite: kilian o’sullivan nick kane Mint Street, London E2 Pitman Tozer Architects |
| Mint Street, London E2 Pitman Tozer Architects effective. When the glazed doors between the winter garden and the living area are open, the train noise is discernible but hardly intrusive. When closed, it is all but inaudible. The other apartments on each landing are of a one-bed type and of single aspect on to the railway. Here, the winter garden extends only in front of the bedroom so residents have to contend with a greater level of noise in their living space: not an ideal arrangement, but the best that could be realised within units of such compact dimension. The acoustic problem is also alleviated significantly by the provision of mechanical ventilation and heat recovery to all units. Cool fresh air is supplied to all rooms from vents on the building’s north side while warm air is extracted from bathrooms and kitchens. Residents can override the system if they choose, but they should be able to enjoy a ready supply of fresh air without recourse to opening a window. Most of us who live in a city accept a reduction in space, privacy and peace, and those costs are presented particularly starkly in this most intensely urban of sites. And yet if living on Mint Street represents a compromise, Pitman Tozer’s ingenious and handsome building offers a strong case that it is one still worth making. n start on site April 2012 completion March 2014 gross area 4,702m 2 (internal), 6,900m 2 (external) form of contract JCT Design & Build 2011, competitively tendered construction cost £10.94 million construction cost per square metre £1,750 client Peabody architect Pitman Tozer Architects project manager Calford Seaden structural engineer Clarke Nicholls Marcel services engineer Max Fordham m&e consultant Max Fordham quantity surveyor Calford Seaden acoustic consultant Max Fordham landscape architect Farrer Huxley Associates approved inspector Tower Hamlets Building Control cdm co-ordinator Scott White and Hookins main contractor Galliford Try Partnerships cad software used Vectorworks 36 theaj.co.uk kilian o’sullivan Project data 11.07.14 |
| killian o’sullivan nedko dimitrov 1. Facing brickwork: 50mm clear cavity with cavity wall ties, 80mm rigid foam insulation, 10mm cement board, Gypframe stud wall with 100mm mineral wool insulation, vapour barrier, 2 x 12.5mm plasterboard 2. Fire stop 3. Lintel 4. FastClad brick rod 5. Casement: 10mm laminated clear glass, 20mm argon-filled cavity, 8mm laminated Low ‘E’ clear glass 6. FastClad brick soffit panels: 40mm Thermoblok aerogel blanket infill, vapour barrier, in-situ concrete floor slab, 55mm depth timber battens, underfloor heating panel, 18mm tongue-and-groove flooring board, oak flooring 7. Oak flooring: 18mm tongue- and-groove flooring board, underfloor heating panel, 55mm depth timber battens, in-situ concrete floor slab, suspended ceiling 8. MVHR intake Detail section through second-floor living room 1 7 2 3 4 8 5 1 nedko dimitrov 7 11.07.14 Left top Ground-floor apartments have patios that back on to a communal courtyard Left middle Bedroom in a 2-bed/3-person flat Left bottom Living room looking on to a winter garden Opposite Looking north towards Mint Street 2 3 6 0 150mm Detail section through 2nd floor living room 37 |
| Building study Regeneration game RMJM’s Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village is a world-class housing project for Glasgow’s neglected East End, writes Jude Barbour 38 theaj.co.uk 11.07.14 |
| 11.07.14 all photos by Tom Manley G lasgow is scrubbing up in preparation for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Shop-fronts are being painted, banners erected and open spaces enhanced. However, the preparations are not purely cosmetic. The re-use and enhancement of existing venues such as Scotstoun Sports Centre and Cathkin Braes Country Park is based on a pragmatic sporting strategy that has already seen a significant increase in local access to facilities. Unfortunately, the city also hosts the mundanely bombastic Emirates Arena and hostile East End Regeneration Route. These projects scream of historic bad planning and development that fly in the face of current thinking and national design policy. Above The Commonwealth Games Athletes Village sits alongside the Clyde in Glasgow’s East End So, among the complexities and contradictions associated with delivering an international sporting event, it is heartening to see that the most ambitious and significant building project of the 2014 Commonwealth Games is a new residential neighbourhood in Glasgow’s East End. These properties will host 6,500 athletes during the games, before being >> 39 |
| Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village, Dalmarnock, Glasgow RMJM Typical apartments Typical three-storey detached house: 7 5 1. Entrance hall 2. Bin store 3. Water tank room 4. Bathroom/WC 5. Bedroom 6. Living/dining/ kitchen 7. Deck/balcony 8. Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome 9. Energy centre (CHP) 10. Care home 11. River Clyde 12. Site of future pedestrian bridge 13. Cuningar Loop Park 14. Sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) canal 15. SUDS basin Typical three-storey end-of-terrace house Second floor 7 First, second and fifth floors Second floor 5 4 6 6 4 4 5 4 5 5 5 5 7 5 4 4 First floor 4 First floor 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 4 5 5 5 7 7 5 5 Ground floor 5 5 Ground floor 7 Ground floor 6 6 4 4 4 4 1 6 6 5 1 2 1 5 4 4 3 4 7 4 6 5 For more on this project 5 0 1m reconfigured to form 700 new, mixed- tenure homes. Glasgow’s East End suffered dramatically from Scotland’s post-industrial decline and this, in turn, has led to extreme health inequality and unemployment. It was therefore a bold and opportunistic decision to site such a significant new development in this part of the city in a challenging 40 theaj.co.uk landscape adjacent to the river Clyde. The masterplan, developed by RMJM as part of the City Legacy consortium, is formed around a series of robust and legible street patterns that make strong links to the Clyde. A pedestrian bridge that will be built after the games will unlock access to the biodiverse landscape of the Cuningar Loop and the existing cycle path along the Clyde has been enhanced to link the site to the city. The development is currently set up as the Athletes’ Village, with areas of storage, pavilions dotted around and a security fence to its perimeter. Only time will tell how residents will actively engage with shared public areas. However, the site arrangement and >> The AJ on iPad & iPhone AJ Buildings Library 11.07.14 |
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| Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village, Dalmarnock, Glasgow RMJM permeable links suggest these will be well overlooked and well landscaped. A number of ingenious and adaptable housing typologies have been developed that include terraced housing, maisonettes, flatted blocks and a supported care home. The terraces and flats can be readily altered from temporary shared accommodation to family homes, and offer the opportunity for future adaptation of roof spaces. Walking around the site, it is immediately apparent that both the architectural language and spatial organisation of the housing seek to establish a bold alternative to typical low-rise suburban estates. The development is fresh and outward- looking in its articulation, and feels akin to developments such as Borneo in The Netherlands or Freiburg in Germany. Flanked by compact terraced housing, the water corridor near the centre of the site creates a strong axis that is inherently pedestrian-focused, and linked to a broader sustainable water-management design strategy. The positioning of flatted blocks to the water’s edge allows each generous balcony and roof terrace to connect the home with the surrounding landscape and Glasgow’s idiosyncratic skyline. It is an incredible achievement to have completed such significant infrastructural engineering works, and to have incorporated district heating and sustainable drainage features into the development without in any way compromising the architectural quality of the housing itself. The design and detail of the houses and flats is restrained, well built and clearly articulated. Only the feature gables stand out as a particularly unnecessary architectural flourish. Architects, engineers, developers and builders have evidently worked together to ensure that housing quality is maintained at every level in the development. Off-site fabrication combined with a well- managed construction process has no doubt gone a long way towards this. The Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village has received special attention 42 theaj.co.uk both locally and nationally to ensure it fully embraces Scottish government design policy. The project team has created an example of good practice which enlightened built environment professionals, clients, developers and authorities can bring to those who remain stuck in 1980s planning policy. Any sportsperson will tell you that the race to the finish line requires sacrifices to be made along the way. RMJM has much to answer for in the way it has treated its staff in recent years. Those who have worked tirelessly to deliver this project should be doubly applauded for their efforts in designing a temporary home for sporting excellence and creating a world-class housing project for Glasgow. n Jude Barbour is director of Collective Architecture Project data This spread The development includes a wide range of housing typologies, including detached houses (top), terraces (above) and flatted blocks (opposite) start on site Groundworks and substructure: October 2010, superstructure: January 2012 completion Stage 1 (games handover): January 2014, stage 2 (post-games retrofit): spring 2015 site area 32.5ha housing gross floor area 80,569m 2 , each dwelling ranging from 50 to 187m 2 procurement Glasgow City Council-run contractor-led competitive bid construction cost £150 million client/developer City Legacy (CCG, Cruden, Mactaggart & Mickel and WH Malcolm) architect/masterplanner RMJM (seven-storey apartment blocks designed in collaboration with Karakusevic Carson Architects) project manager/cost consultancy/ cdm co-ordinator AECOM civil/structural engineer WSP m&e consultants Vital Energi, WSP landscape architect Brindley Associates main contractor Housing: City Legacy, care home: City Building cad software used AutoCAD estimated annual co 2 emissions Site-wide average per dwelling: –0.15kg/m 2 /kWh 11.07.14 |
| More Homes Better Homes Max headroom By exploiting volume, we can build homes with 25 per cent extra floor space – and help tackle the housing crisis, writes Roger Zogolovitch |
| opposiTe: david grandorge 11.07.14 david grandorge french + tye T he world obsesses about 3D glasses and 3D printing in an attempt to emulate our own experience – we are 3D beings ourselves. With that in mind, at Solidspace we explore space in the home as volume, rather than area. Our homes provide us with shelter, protection and solace, and we all want more space. Our design typology aims to use volume to create a greater sense of space, light and character. We measure in volume – cubic metres rather than the standard square metres. With our volumetric approach to split- level living, we embrace the volumetric perception of space. In our projects we remove walls between the volumes and shift them in section. They are offset at half- levels. This gives just enough height to see from one to the other. We carefully position windows, lights, bannisters and different functions to enliven and enrich the full sense of the interior spaces. At Stapleton Hall Road, north London, we built two family houses with architect Stephen Taylor that explore the ingenuity of filling a gap site at the end of a terrace backing on to a railway: to many, an impossible site; to us, a challenge. The houses illustrate the way in which the Opposite Solidspace’s two- home development at Stapleton Hall Road fills a gap at the end of a terrace backing on to a railway Above left The project uses half- levels to create space on a tight site Above right Accommodation is arranged over seven levels At Solidspace we measure in cubic metres rather than square metres Solidspace split-level approach can drive the creation of engaging and special volumes. The houses each have an Eat/Live/ Work space, a ‘green zone’ on the upper floor with a roof terrace as the master bedroom, a ‘stoop’ that connects street level to the half-level and a stair that spirals up through the building with several half-level landings. We all >> 45 |
| Stapleton Hall Road, London N4 Stephen Taylor Architects Level 6 and 7 Axonometric diagram 12 11 13 12 11 2 2 Level 4 and 5 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 Level 2 and 3 10 10 6 8 7 9 4 9 4 5 7 5 8 6 2 14 14 15 Level 1 3 3 1 1 2 2 0 46 theaj.co.uk 2m 11.07.14 |
| 1. Kitchen 2. Terrace 3. Utility 4. Street entrance 5. Stoop entrance 6. Living 7. Work space 8. Void 9. WC 10. Porch 11. Bedroom 12. Bathroom 13. Study 14. Garden 15. Patio 11.07.14 david grandorge Right Levels 1, 2 and 3: the Eat/Live/ Work zones The London mayor’s space standards don’t acknowledge volume need cardiovascular exercise and climbing steps frequently throughout the day is perfect for the heart. It’s all part of the benefits of volume. In these days of intrusive regulations that govern how we live, the London mayor’s space standards don’t acknowledge the importance of volume for human enjoyment and appreciation of space. Our use of volume and void is the equivalent of around 25 per cent additional floor space. We love the void and the volume over our heads. We love the space and the sense of well-being we get from the interior. We benefit from views over our own interior split-level landscape which has been transformed by volume into topography. At another site, 100 Union Street in Southwark, we are awaiting planning consent for a 1:1 temporary installation of a 129m3 (40m2) urban living cell for one or two people. After construction in the autumn we will be inviting the public to view, stay and comment. We want to share the experience and understand the feedback of people of all ages. We will be investigating this project as a pilot for designing cellular multi-level homes for the private rental sector. The housing supply shortage must be tackled, and out of this challenge springs the opportunity to investigate new ways of living. We need radical and imaginative solutions. With housing costs running ever higher, we need to find ways of making space both generous and compact. We believe that our volumetric approach is a contribution to this ongoing enquiry. If space is the question, volume is the answer. n Roger Zogolovitch is creative director and founder of developer Solidspace 47 |
| Practice Planning portal Has the NPPF made planning any easier? asks Robert Adam 48 theaj.co.uk in the benefits of development. Delays are of no consequence and there can never be enough information. Once a new layer of reporting has been added, any attempt to take it away is presented as a backward step, reducing the ‘quality’ of decision-making. A major obstacle has been introduced to slow the whole process down without actually appearing to do so: pre-application consultations. These money-making procedures replace the old system when public servants provided advice to the people who paid their wages. Now, often for substantial sums, the near-equivalent of a full application can be requested so that a planner or group of planners can provide advice. There is no time limit and no restraint on what can be said. Once something negative is in the report, however opinionated Once a new layer of reporting has been added, any attempt to take it away is presented as a backward step hanna melin All those who have been ‘customers’ of planning for any time are painfully aware of the decades of creeping bureaucracy, increased documentation, extended timescales and a prevailing negativity. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was an excellent attempt to simplify the planning process and make it more positive. Two years later, has it worked? The NPPF is the rule book for a planning system that is populated by decent people who have to do a difficult job. But they are also part of a culture where individuals often wield considerable power over the property rights of landowners, and operate within an atmosphere of political and social hostility to development. For applicants this is perceived an overweening negativity. Can this be changed? There are two developments in the process that work against everything that the NPPF set out to achieve: increases in the documentary requirements and an added layer in the application process. There was a time when a planning application was a form and a set of drawings. These are a distant memory as more information requirements have been progressively added, such as the Design and Access Statement. These have become major publications, with reports, diagrams and statements often filled with totally meaningless phrases like ‘high-quality proposals’, ‘responding to the spirit of the place’ and so on. Add to this the full reporting required for any listed building or conservation area, prepared by report-writers to be read by other report writers who write another report. Most pernicious of all are the Parameter Plan and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for larger developments. An EIA has to have Parameter Plans which cover things like building heights, street layout and green infrastructure all before you have started to design anything in detail. And woe betides any later deviation as it will trigger another hugely expensive EIA and jeopardise the whole development. Many of the statutory recipients of these and many other reports are single-interest bureaucracies. If your remit is the protection of newts, you have no interest and far from the legal powers of the system, it is on the record. There are response waiting times of six months plus and we receive nothing more than photocopies of published planning policies. All the reports carry the caveat that this is only advice and the final decision may differ. Now the best pre-application consultation can be an application; at least there is a time limit and any reasons for refusal would have to stand up to an appeal. As time goes on, we can expect explanatory and guidance documents to be added to the simple statements in the NPPF. English Heritage has already started to try and ‘clarify’ aspects. Unless this creeping process is actively checked, we will end up with a more, not a less, complex system than the one the NPPF was intended to replace. Robert Adam, director, Adam Architecture 11.07.14 |
| Danko Stjepanovic Culture all around the houses Sam Jacob, the founder of the AA’s Night School, leads ‘a classroom’ of cyclists around London to experience and learn from a century of ideas about housing 11.07.14 49 |
| Culture Housing London: touring a century of ideas 50 theaj.co.uk Sam Jacob points out some of east London’s most intriguing, architect- designed social housing estates Danko Stjepanovic The AA Night School links up the often siloed worlds of education and practice. With so much focus now on housing, both within the profession and in wider society, including issues of affordability, new models of development, seemingly random calls for new so-called garden cities and new towns, it seemed a timely issue to explore. Where better to experience the reality of contemporary housing issues than out among it? Forget the lecture theatre, the essay, the symposium or presentation; the media that the educational and professional spheres usually conduct their dialogues. You cannot beat the visceral experience of the city itself as both socio- historical document and the site for conjecture. The city is, in other words, both the map and the territory. With this in mind, and to coincide with the exhibition I curated in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Night School teamed up with Andrea Klettner, who edits Love London Council Housing blog, to lead a bike tour through the history (and present) of social and affordable housing. A group of 26 architects, planners, residents and housing providers were brought together, with each asked to explain a particular scheme’s history, present and, in some cases, future. Despite the Night School name, we set off on our >> 11.07.14 |
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| bikes on a very gloomy Saturday last month at 10am. We plotted a 12-mile route – which would take five hours – from the Boundary Estate in Bethnal Green via Lubetkin’s Cranbrook Estate, through the Lansbury Estate, Robin Hood Gardens then out to Thamesmead. If you join the dots, you draw a line through a century of ideas about housing. It is a line also through the fluctuating fortunes and shifting politics of British housing. The journey inevitably juxtaposes this built history with the contemporary visions that are fast emerging across an east London bristling with cranes. Though they share the same ground, what is startlingly apparent is a broken narrative. From the early tenements of Model Dwellings Companies of the Victorian era, through the careful construction of community at the post-war Lansbury Estate, to the hyper expressive Modernism of the Balfron and to Thamesmead where expression, community and landscape were carefully layered by the Greater London Council architects in the early 1970s there is a clear development. Projects become more sophisticated, more ambitious. Sure, there was architectural hubris, but there was also intense thought about community, neighbourhood and place. Exactly the same kinds of things we now strive for, just using a new kind of language (social sustainability for example). This is the point: we have been here before. Of course, there is a generation gap severing this narrative. A gap during which professional confidence and political will collapsed. We have had to overcome this, to relearn planning, design and the politics of building housing. But the effort of reconstructing the ability to deliver housing has taken its toll. To put it bluntly, we have reinvented the wheel. This professional naivety, coupled with fear of failure, might be the inevitable response to the perceived failures on all sides (architects, planners and local authorities). The result, though, is we have essentially reinvented the tenement block (like the Victorian philanthropic projects we see at the origin of the story, updated by a neo-Modernist brick effect) with a rough approximation of ‘traditional’ street patterns as the single solution to contemporary housing. Equally, the politics and economics of housing have reverted to a neo- Victorian state; experiments in other models (land trusts and self-build) are only beginning to re-emerge. A century of experiment, of careful and detailed design, We have had to relearn planning, design and the politics of building housing 52 theaj.co.uk riba library & photographs collection / morley von sternberg Culture Housing London: touring a century of ideas Dorset Estate is a great example of a post-war estate that worked (above). Designed by Berthold Lubetkin, it includes a good mix of low, mid and high-rise housing alongside a park, pub and community centre. Next door is Sivill House – which I’m biased about because I live there – but it really is a great building. The flats are triple aspect, and unless they are being really loud, it is impossible to hear your neighbours. The concrete, Lego-esque facade looks great, and if I am being fussy, the worst thing about living there are the super-slow lifts. If only the same could be said about all developments now. andrea klettner 11.07.14 |
| Robin Hood Gardens, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972 Danko Stjepanovic riba library & photographs collection / christopher Hope-Fitch Keeling House was completed in 1957 (below). It is a case study in high-rise family living. Denys Lasdun’s focus on achieving good solar orientation for all flats led to its cluster form that breaks down its massing and avoids the repetitive characteristic of later council housing towers. Groups of four apartments are accessed off short galleries, successfully separating the communal and private areas, giving greater privacy and individual doorsteps. While innovative, the layout of the maisonettes are reminiscent of the two-storey terraced house they were built to replace, but with fresh air and views. paul karakusevic, director, karakusevic carson architects Thamesmead was conceived as ‘a town of the 21st century’ in the 1960s (below). The vision for Thamesmead was to create a thriving community of 60,000 Londoners, living and working in an area blessed with an abundance of natural open space, lakes and waterways. A futuristic city built in the style of the time, Thamesmead has never quite met the planners’ original aspirations. Poor connectivity, problematic housing policies, design and technical problems, combined with underinvestment, ineffective governance and a lack of amenities have all contributed to a poor reputation. But Thamesmead has the potential to help solve some of the most pressing issues for Londoners. Not just thousands of new homes and jobs, but a unique place and offer for future generations. dan hill, head of thamesmead strategy, peabody 11.07.14 Danko Stjepanovic and of lessons learned have been lost. You cannot help but feel that Bellway’s Festival Quarter – nicely designed as it is – is a step back from the design and ambition of the Lansbury Estate its branding obliquely references. This is not a call to repeat a Lansbury (or Balfron, Thamesmead, etc), but rather a plea for us as clients, planners and architects to re-engage with the rich history of Modern housing design, to learn from and be part of the same narrative thrust towards a better world. The living history of housing that surrounds us shows that the ambition of creating pleasant communities and great places is nothing new. Take the green mound at the centre of the Boundary Estate, the careful integration of housing, shops and market at Chrisp Street in Poplar, the ideas of a contemporary picturesque at Thamesmead. These are all not only evidence, but proof of possibilities, that still have meaning and use to us now. n Sam Jacob, founder, AA Night School and director, Sam Jacob Studio 53 |
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| Recruitment Directory For more information call 020 7391 4549 or email lindsey.wigham@emap.com Senior Interior Designer REVIT TECHNICIANS London – Competitive LONDON - £30,000 TO £35,000 PER ANNUM We are looking for creative Senior Interior Designers to join our successful retail and workplace teams. You will be exposed to the full scope of our award-winning London practice; helping to deliver the high standard of comprehensive and integrated building design services that has seen BDP become a major interdisciplinary practice of architects, designers and engineers. We are currently looking for experienced Revit Technicians to join a leader in residential design. Working alongside a team of experienced architects, you will be involved in the setup of Revit models for large and complex luxury apartment blocks in and around the city. GO TO ARCHITECTSJOURNALJOBS.COM AND SEARCH FOR ‘799601’ GO TO ARCHITECTSJOURNALJOBS.COM AND SEARCH FOR ‘805873’ Senior Architect HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS London - £35,000 - £50,000 LONDON – COMPETITIVE A well known London practice is seeing continued growth in their busy studio due to a vast increase of current and pipelined projects. They have many projects across medium and large residential and commercial projects and need to bring in strong broadly skilled architects. They are interested in Architects that have design through to delivery experience. It would be an advantage if you have had exposure to Revit software or the desire to learn. This is a senior and key role at RSHP and we are looking for a great communicator with exceptional knowledge of the architectural sector and its issues as well as signifi cant and wide ranging media contacts. The strong in-house communications team lead the practice’s website management, publications programme, new business, outreach, as well as managing its relationship with both the media and clients. GO TO ARCHITECTSJOURNALJOBS.COM AND SEARCH FOR ‘806283’ GO TO ARCHITECTSJOURNALJOBS.COM AND SEARCH FOR ‘804633’ PROJECT ARCHITECT Landscape ORFOLK - £30-40,000 per year We are looking to consolidate our successful growth over the past 5 years and have a requirement for a Project Architect to be based in our Norwich office. Ideally the Project Architect will have a minimum of 5 years’ experience to work on a range of mixed- use, commercial, education and residential projects. GO TO ARCHITECTSJOURNALJOBS.COM AND SEARCH FOR ‘804602’ Senior Interior Designer London - £45000 - £50000 per annum nited Arab Emirates - £8,000 to £10,000 per month • Responsible for overseeing the design direction of company’s portfolio of projects both during the pre and post contract stages of the project. • Coordinating all outputs of the design process with the relevant internal departments to evolve and then monitor a successful business plan for the project. • Managing the requirements of the project brief and the key milestone dates to deliver projects on time. GO TO ARCHITECTSJOURNALJOBS.COM AND SEARCH FOR ‘805561’ architectsjournaljobs.com We currently have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Designer to join a market leading Commercial Fit Out Design Studio in Central London on a permanent basis, working on one of London’s most prestigious Retail Banking projects. As a Senior Designer you will be expected to play a pivotal role within the business, assisting from concept stage through to completion and working closely with the client’s to ensure their briefs are met. This will give you great exposure to all stages of the project cycle. Display advertising 020 3033 2941 GO TO ARCHITECTSJOURNALJOBS.COM AND SEARCH FOR ‘806584’ Deadlines Bookings 5pm Monday Artwork 12pm Tuesday . N . U Careers advertising 020 7391 4549 |
| Ian Martin An Unbelievable House of None THURSDAY. Oh dear. My Contemporary Pavilion of Fleeting Relevance has collapsed overnight at the Antwerp Pop-Up Expo. No problem. I’ll just 3D print another one. monday. Voice message from my fixer, Rock Steady Eddie. Apparently there’s still no firm steer on ‘what a new Caliphate would bring in the way of business opportunities, they’re not even on LinkedIn mate’. I mentioned the Ottoman Empire once. He thought it was a cinema. When I pointed out that Ottoman wasn’t a place, he got shirty and said he knew it was a discount furniture retailers. In a former cinema. Idiot. FRIDAY. To Berlin, where I’m designing something called, preposterously, a ‘place of ourship’ for an atheist collective. House of None will be the world’s first ecumenically nuanced post-theological meeting place. It will draw together the entire rainbow of non-belief, from Agnostic Normcore, through Semi-Lutheran, to the people who describe themselves as ‘athiest’ on their Twitter bios. The idea is simple to the point of stupid. You know how airports and other areas of low faith-density have in recent years encouraged excruciatingly dull ‘houses of togetherness’ for Christians, Muslims and Jews to share? Voids of contemplation so thoroughly, ruthlessly drained of architectural interest that they become minimalist shrines to nothing? Yeah, well I’m doing exactly that for the sanctimonious other lot. A sort of spiritual Google headquarters. A place where the atheist corporate umma can feel smug about itself as a nebulous entity, but where individuals may also find fulfilment. The design ethic is ‘rented suburban office space with a leased sculpture in the gravel bed by reception, no smoking anywhere including car park’. Inside, all major religions will be gently and specifically mocked in a series of themed sneering rooms leading to a hangout hub, where the casual congregation may gather to discuss themselves with reference to one another, at length. It’s a project that’s much more about the sum of its parts than the whole. Which is why it’s being crowdsourced by a bunch of insufferable narcissists, each of whom gets a brick with their name on it for fifty quid, and the certain knowledge that they’ll get their spiritual reward on earth. TUESDAY. I’m struggling, frankly, with this government gig to redesign the North. The brief is terrible – an email from George Osborne. All caps, very ‘2am’ feel to it. ‘PROBLEM: WRONG ECONOMICS IN NORTH. NEED RIGHT ECONOMICS EG MARGOT’S PLACE IN PRIMROSE HILL UP 10K IN AN AFTERNOON! NORTH LIVING IN PAST. COALS TO NEWCASTLE? WAKE UP NORTH, LIKELY LADS NOW BOTH LIVING IN PRIMROSE HILL! ‘SOLUTION: SECOND TERM = VITAL TRANSPORT LINKS + RISING HOUSE PRICES. WRONG ECONOMIC UNITS (SKIVERS NOT STRIVERS) CAN FUCK OFF TO INDEPENDENT SCOTLAND, BLOODY GOOD RIDDANCE. SOMETHING SOMETHING NORTHERN POWERHOSE? URBAN SPLASH? FIRM ALL THIS SHIT UP IN TIME FOR CONFERENCE.’ 58 theaj.co.uk SATURDAY. Five-a-zeitgeist theoretical football. Excoriated Peculiar 0, Accessible Fancy 1, after extra minutes and a penalty upgrade. hanna melin WEDNESDAY. Aha. A quick call to Osbo and all becomes clear. Party HQ assumed ‘powerhose’ was a typo and started briefing the press about creating a ‘Northern Powerhouse’. He got angry, punched a couple of underlings, but it was too late to change the narrative. Now I’m redrafting everything so it make sense. An Urban Splash-style mass gentrification of the North, concentrated into a social, cultural and economic powerhose. Cleansing the region of doubt and malingering at last, for its own good. Splash. Hose. Wallop. Change you can believe in. I already have some ideas for the promotional campaign. Sean Bean looking butch in a pelt cloak and leather boots, climbing into a water cannon and hosing the whining, Labour-voting parts of the North off the map. Next, Wayne Hemingway arrives in a tank, barking orders about modular kit designs and ‘keeping it real yeah?’ Then there’s a whizzy montage of hope and aspiration and when the smoke clears the North looks a lot more like North London and BOSH, get Danny Boyle on the phone. SUNDAY. Horizontal thinking time disturbed by a call from Rock Steady Eddie. Someone’s nicked my House of None idea. Worse, someone’s barged in and had my Northern Powerhose masterplan. Worse, the thieving smartarse turns out to be my old adversary Bauhau, the architectural dachshund. Or whatever malevolent human force is now guiding him. 11.07.14 |
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