..
Into Orbit
Inside the Olympic Park’s eccentric observation tower John Pardey’s college-to-homes conversion
£4.95 THE ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL THEAJ.CO.UK
Follow us
The Architects’ Journal
09 06 09 10 12 16 24 32 42 50
42
LEFT TOP: RSHP. RIGHT: ANDY MATTHEWS
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: SIMON KENNEDY
06
Week in pictures V&A outpost in Dundee; RSHP skyscraper Front page Planning minister goes on the defence over NPPF Online £400 million Battersea deal nears completion UK news BCI Awards shortlist revealed Competitions & wins 3XN and HKS win £120m arena job People & practice Claire Bennie of Peabody Building study The eccentric ArcelorMittal Orbit Technical study Oaklands housing by John Pardey Architects Culture Spectres of ruins raised in recent theory and practice This week online Sign up for the AJ daily email: the latest news, building studies and competitions arrive at 8.30am TheAJ.co.uk
..
A sound choice for any floor finish Knauf Brio WF - Instant acoustic upgrade Knauf Brio WF is our unique interlocking gypsum fibre dry floor screed that quickly creates a stable and robust base for almost any floor finish. With its high density and wood-fibre resilient layer, Knauf Brio WF instantly reduces impact and airborne noise in intermediate and separating floors. Adding as little as 28mm to floor heights, Knauf Brio WF gives an instant acoustic upgrade in refurbishments and new build alike. To find out how Knauf Brio can help your next project, see the video and download more information online at www.knaufdrywall.co.uk/brio
Build for the world we live in
Brio WF - AJ - 0612.indd 1
12/06/2012 11:42:15
From the editor
When AJ reporter Merlin Fulcher asked planning minister Greg Clark this week whether England should have a policy for architecture, he said the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was England’s architecture policy. Clark said that by culling hundreds of pages of guidance and embedding an emphasis on design, the NPPF puts architecture at the heart of planning. ‘This is the feature of the NPPF which is most innovative and most radical,’ said Clark. ‘Clearly it’s a clarion call to high quality and innovative architecture.’ ‘What we have actually done with the NPPF is to make it absolutely unambiguously clear that high quality architecture is encouraged in the planning process,’ added Clark. But Clark’s comments struck with some irony, because while it may be too early to judge the full impact of the NPPF, architects working at the coalface of planning have said there is nothing clear or unambiguous about it. Indeed, by inviting so many community groups and stakeholders to judge a project’s architectural merit, planning is becoming more arduous and even more vulnerable to the vagaries of taste. It seems architects no longer simply have to win over the planning authority, but every local husband, mother and child. Greg Lomas, director of Foster Lomas, describes the policy as ‘vague and full of statements that are open to interpretation. The claim is that it should simplify planning policy, but it’s just confusing.’ Lomas feels this ‘lack of clarity’ might be the reason why applications are taking three to four weeks to be validated, whereas a year ago two weeks was the norm. ‘There is also far less dialogue with planning officers than there used to be, although this could be the result of cuts to staff and budgets.’ And while Dominic Eaton, director of Stride Treglown, agrees that it may be too early to judge the NPPF effect, he is nevertheless concerned ‘that the ..
MERLIN FULCHER
Greg Clark says he’s simplified planning, but the view from the coalface is different, writes Christine Murray
Under the NPPF architects no longer simply have to win over the planning authority, but NIMBYs everywhere planning process has become very complex with a wide range of stakeholders involved in decision-making.’ ‘I was involved in a start-up meeting for a large housing scheme recently won in competition, and there were 23 people around the table,’ says Eaton. ‘There has always been collaboration and consultation with local design review panels and third-party stakeholders, however the amount of time and effort this takes is considerably more than, say, five years ago.’ Which raises another concern for Eaton: the amount of work now required to prepare a detailed planning application: ‘I believe that much of this work is actually moving into RIBA Stage E, while our fees for a detailed planning application are still calculated up to Stage D.’ Clark said he remembers the AJ voicing concern back in March 2011 that the PPS7 country house clause would be rescinded: ‘Far from repealing it, my intention was to mainstream it, to apply it not just to the countryside but to the whole country.’ Perhaps that’s exactly what we’ve got. As anyone who’s ever tried to win planning under PPS7 knows, it’s exceptionally difficult to make the case with the planning authority for a project on the basis of design alone. Under the NPPF, architects will also need to win the hearts and minds of NIMBYs everywhere. christine.murray@emap.com
Week in pictures
1
Work has finished on this 290m2 extension to a grade II-listed house on Richmond Hill, west London by Alan Higgs Architects. The new iroko-clad wing houses living spaces and an indoor swimming pool with an openable roof and rising floor that transforms it into a cinema TheAJ.co.uk/alanhiggs 1
..
This is Metropolitan Workshop with O’Mahony Pike Architects competitionwinning replacement scheme chosen by developer Neptune Consultants earlier this year for its West Quay site in Poole. HKR’s doomed design for the problematic waterfront plot was refused planning last November 2
Simon Sturgis Associates has revealed plans to replace Reading’s 1974 Thames Tower with a 25-storey mixed-use skyscraper. Planned to complete by 2015, the 27,900m² project supersedes an earlier redevelopment attempt by Gaunt Francis and is aiming for a BREEAM Excellent rating 3
Kengo Kuma and Associates has submitted plans for a £45 million outpost for the Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee. Working with Scotland’s Cre8architecture and Arup, the Japanese practice won the contest to design the landmark two years ago (AJ 03.11.10) TheAJ.co.uk/dundee 4
..
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has submitted a planning application to redevelop Eastbury House on the Albert Embankment in south London. The mixed-use project for St James Developments replaces Ian Fraser’s 1958 building with three skyscrapers of 14, 21 and 28 storeys each 5
..
PICTURE CREDITS: 01 PETER COOK / VIEW PICTURES 02 O’MAHONY PIKE ARCHITECTS 03 SIMON STURGIS ASSOCIATES 04 KENGO KUMA AND ASSOCIATES 05 RSHP
2
3
4
5
JB Shingles
- Up to 50% quicker to install* Just because there’s a solution, doesn’t mean you can’t strive to improve it...
If it ain’t broke,
IMPROVE IT...
John Brash have teamed up with Paslode to produce a unique fixing staple, exclusively designed to reduce the installation time of cedar shingles. In independent time trial tests witnessed by the NFRC, the use of JB ShingleFix over traditional fixing methods has shown up to 50% reduction in installation time - making it a practical, sustainable & competitive alternative to other tiling and cladding solutions. On top of this, JB Shingles offer the additional benefits of increased thermal insulation, less weight and a lighter carbon footprint. JB Shingles really are a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative. * Based on independent time trial tests witnessed by the NFRC
www.jbshinglefix.co.uk
Final deadline 22nd June 2012
Building reputations in wood Rothschild Foundation Stephen Marshall Architects Gold Award winner 2011
The Wood Awards 2012 - Call for Entries extended
Main sponsors
The Wood Awards is the UK’s premier architecture and furniture competition celebrating excellence in design in the world’s most sustainable material. Entries are now invited in 6 main categories: Commercial & Public Access, Private, Structural, Repair & Adaptive Reuse, Small Project **new category** and Furniture: Bespoke and Production Made. Enter online at www.woodawards.com/enter t 01494 569642 e woodawards@trada.co.uk wood awards ad - 186x110mm.indd 1
31/05/2012 15:40:02
Front page
End of the Red Road for housing estate
The demolition of Glasgow’s infamous Red Road housing estate began last weekend with the controlled explosion of a 25-storey block. Designed by Glasgow Corporation architect Sam Bunton, the estate is being cleared as part of site owner Glasgow Housing Association’s plans to regenerate the area. Seven other multistorey buildings on the estate – all completed between 1964 and 1969 – are planned for demolition by 2017. Merlin Fulcher
Clark defends NPPF in face of new figures showing a drop in approvals Glenigan data shows planning approvals fell by over a third in the month after the introduction of the government’s policy shake-up Planning minister Greg Clark has rejected claims that the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is failing to boost development. His remarks came three months after the shake-up of the planning system with the streamlined policy designed to speed up applications. They also coincided with the release of fresh data from industry monitor Glenigan showing there was a 37 per cent
..
for policy for architecture and drop in the number of planning innovation in architecture.’ approvals in April compared But Anthony Hoete of What with March – the month of Architecture said the the NPPF’s publication. policy – which features Asked to respond to a presumption in claims the NPPF had Drop in the number favour of sustainable stifled development, of planning approvals development and an Clark said: ‘I don’t in April compared emphasis on highrecognise that. If you with March quality architectural look at the reaction design – was yet to of industry, the RIBA, deliver ‘tangible changes’. the Design Council CABE, He said: ‘We have an everyone recognises that this is eight-storey development in a the most supportive framework
conservation area and the local authority doesn’t appear to be taking any note of the NPPF. The government should be forcing local authorities to act.’ Foster Lomas director Greg Lomas added that the 60-page document ‘lacked clarity’ and reported a doubling in time taken to validate planning applications. He said: ‘The claim is that it should simplify planning policy but my view is it is just confusing.’ But Broadway Malyan planning director Adam Ross said it was ‘early days’ and praised the policy for creating a ‘stick to hit local authorities with if they don’t do things’. He said: ‘Local authorities are starting to realise you can’t just sit back and obstruct development.’ Merlin Fulcher
News on TheAJ.co.uk
£400m Battersea deal near completion
THIS WEEK ONLINE
A Malaysian consortium is finalising a £400 million deal to buy Battersea Power Station in south London. Last week, SP Setia and Sime Darby beat Almacantar’s rival bid on behalf of Chelsea Football Club and entered an exclusivity agreement to buy the highprofile 15-hectare riverside site. The winning team now has three weeks of ‘due diligence’ before completing the purchase of the decaying Grade II*listed power station. In a joint statement, the Malaysian developers said they intend to preserve the building’s faade and ‘iconic chimney stacks’ and were committed to extending the Northern Line. There is no
mention of an architectural team on the bid, however the existing consent for the site has been drawn by Rafael Viñoly (pictured). ‘SP Setia and Sime Darby Property’s plans involve the development of a sustainable multi-use real estate regeneration project that will provide economic impetus for the creation of a new vibrant centre for south-west central London,’ the statement said. Terry Farrell and Partners – which has proposed demolishing all apart from two walls and the famous towers – is already pitching for a role in the project to parties close to the iconic building’s prospective new owners.
Walters & Cohen in running for Oxford job
Redevelopment mooted for Hyde Park Barracks
Walters & Basil Spence’s Cohen has been named on a 1970s Hyde Park Barracks four-strong shortlist to complete in Knightsbridge could be the West Quadrangle of St redeveloped after the government Cross College in Oxford. asked developers to identify a The practice, which is potential new home for headed by the joint the Household Cavalry winners of the AJ’s Mounted Regiment. Woman of the The barracks feature Storeys in Basil Year award Cindy a 33-storey tower, Spence’s Hyde Park Walters and Michál which was once Barracks Cohen, are lined named among the up against Niall UK’s ‘top 10 eyesores’. McLaughlin Architects, The Defence Pringle Richards Sharratt Infrastructure Organisation Architects and Wilkinson has ordered market testing that Eyre Architects in the invited could lead to the relocation contest organised by Malcolm of the HCMR to a new base Reading Consultants. within 4km of Horse Guards Parade. TheAJ.co.uk/hydepark TheAJ.co.uk/oxford
..
RAFAEL VIÑOLY ARCHITECTS
Malaysian consortium SP Setia and Sime Darby is poised to buy the south London site, in a move that would scupper Almacantar’s Chelsea FC bid
specification
05.12 TIMBER
Preview New Designers 2012 Burwell Deakins Architects Murray O’Laoire and A&D Wejchert
The AJ understands Almacantar’s bid for a 60,000seat stadium by KPF and Viñoly remains an alternative if the Malaysian deal falls through. In a statement, Chelsea Football Club said it would ‘speak with more confidence’ once the exclusivity period was over. Merlin Fulcher TheAJ.co.uk/battersea
Chipperfield narrowly misses Menil contest David Chipperfield Architects has lost out to Los Angeles practice Johnston Marklee in the contest to design the first new building at Renzo Piano’s Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. The practice, which has already drawn up the masterplan for the redevelopment of the campus (AJ 28.01.09), had been shortlisted alongside Japan’s SANAA and Mexico City’s Tatiana Bilbao in the competition for the prized Menil Drawing Institute project. Johnston Marklee proposed a ‘singlestorey, metal-roofed structure’ to house exhibitions, study space and storage for the drawing collection. TheAJ.co.uk/menil
& Partners Aukett Fitzroy Robinson Product matrix Timber casement windows CPD Building Regulations Part L 2A 2010
See photographs and read highlights from Tuesday’s NLA panel discussion with AJ Woman Architect of the Year joint winners Cindy Walters and Michál Cohen plus Gabrielle Omar from the BBC’s The Apprentice. TheAJ.co.uk/WIA 1
BCIS costs Product directory
Benchmark your fees: see what AJ100 practices are charging clients with the AJ Fees Calculator. TheAJ.co.uk/fees 2
Catch up with the latest developments in sustainability with our daily round-up of environmental design from the newspapers, blogs and Twitter, every day at noon. AJFootprint.com 3
Read digital editions of every AJ and AJ Specification of 2012: your library of page-turning PDF back issues. The AJ.co.uk/AJdigital 4
Attend the Open House Worldwide Conference: ‘Smarter cities, smarter thinking’ on 21 and 22 June in London. Speakers include Victoria Thornton, Léan Doody of Arup, Professor Andy Pratt and Nick Raynsford MP. To register your place at the conference contact admin@ openhouseworldwide.org 5
..
3141.12 Spectral-Iris-Ad-AJ 18/05/2012 09:45 Page 1
In the Bürogebäude S & C, Tübingen lighting consultants Haiterbach have used Iris to create atmosphere.
product code SP10000008
Lamps
Ballast
T5 55W
EVG DIM
The Westminster Hub, London where Iris features strongly in the Architecture 00:/ design.
product code SP10000007
Lamps
Ballast
T5 55W
EVG
Iris It’s what we all see through. Seemingly hanging in space, Iris intrigues and fascinates with its rings of shimmering light and creative use of colour. Primarily used suspended, on near-invisible three-way split power cables, Iris can also be wall or ceiling mounted.
Circular construction draws the eye through, making Iris less obtrusive than more expected designs. So exposed ceilings are enhanced not hidden by the lighting. Super purity aluminisation and a microprism reflector achieve all this with an unusually high light output ratio.
Spectral Lighting 8/9 The Marshgate Centre, Parkway, Harlow Business Park, Harlow, Essex CM 19 5QP United Kingdom Tel. +44 (0)1279 450882 Email. info@spectral-lighting.co.uk Visit. www.spectral-lighting.co.uk
Bend the rules.
UK news
BCI Awards shortlist revealed Top UK and international projects vie for industry recognition, with judges to include the AJ’s Paul Finch and Rory Olcayto
..
NIGEL YOUNG
, +
‘ . ’
DENNIS GILBERT
Building projects £3m-£50m The Hub, Coventry University, Warwickshire – Hawkins/Brown Dagenham Park Church of England School – AHMM Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama, Cardiff – BFLS Dundee House, Scotland – Reiach And Hall BFI Master Film Store, Gaydon, Warwickshire – Edward Cullinan Architects Brockholes Visitor Village, Salmesbury, Lancashire – Adam Khan Architects National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh – Gareth Hoskins McLaren Production Centre, Woking, Surrey – Foster + Partners Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, – Keith Williams Architects
,
,
TIM SOAR
Building projects up to £3m Maggie’s, Nottingham – CZWG Garsington Opera Pavilion, Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire – Snell Associates Barcombe Village Hall, East Sussex – Satellite Architects Simon Smith Building, Brighton College – Allies & Morrison Performing Arts Studios, University of Winchester – Design Engine Architects
TIM SOAR
A pop-up opera house, a refrigerated film store and a museum dedicated to the Titanic have all been shortlisted for this year’s British Construction Industry Awards. 38 UK and six international projects were chosen from more than 100 entries to mark the BCI’s 25th anniversary awards. Winners will be announced in October.
,
Building projects over £50m Central St Martins King’s Cross campus, University of the Arts London – Stanton Williams UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre, London – Hopkins Cannon Place, London – Foggo Associates Quadrant 3, Air 1 offices, London – Dixon Jones King’s Cross redevelopment, London – John McAslan + Partners Titanic Belfast – Todd Architects in association with Civic Arts Civil engineering projects up to £3m Navvies bridge replacement, Workington, Cumbria – Capita Symonds Reading West Curve bridge replacement, Berkshire – Ramboll Romney ‘A’ Weir, urgent works, Windsor, Berkshire – Atkins Alcester flood alleviation scheme, Warwickshire – Grontmij Jarrold bridge, Norwich – Ramboll Taunton Third Way bridge, Somerset – Moxon with Flint & Neil Civil engineering projects £3m-£50m White Cart Water flood prevention scheme, Glasgow – Halcrow
..
Peace bridge, Londonderry – McAdam Design in association with Wilkinson Eyre Stratford Town Centre Link, London – Buro Happold in association with Knight Architects Bradford City Park, West Yorkshire – Arup in association with Gillespies Brighton goods bridge no.6, Battersea, London – Mott MacDonald Heathrow Terminal 2B foundations and basement – Mott MacDonald Paddington station span 4 renewal, London – WSP with Oxford Architects
’ , ,
International projects La Tour CMA CGM, Marseille, France – Zaha Hadid Architects The Iron Market, PortAu-Prince, Haiti – John McAslan + Partners West Gate Bridge strengthening, Victoria, Australia – Flint & Neil St Petersburg flood protection barrier, Russia – Halcrow Delhi Metro phase II, India – Mott MacDonald Villaggio II, Ghana – AHMM with AKT
HUFTON + CROW
FOGGO ASSOCIATES
,
Civil engineering projects over £50m A3 Hindhead improvement scheme, Surrey – Mott MacDonald Blackfriars station and Bridge Redevelopment, London – Jacobs M53 Bidston Moss Viaduct strengthening, Wallasey, Cheshire – Amey New Tyne crossing, Newcastle – High-Point Rendel Blackwall Tunnel Northbound refurbishment, London – Mott MacDonald in association with VVB Engineering Services
..
leisure from thrislington. It works out beautifully.
Matching lockers can be specified to suit the various designs of cubicles.
3113.12 ThrisLeisureAd-AJ.indd 1
Seating in a choice of unlimited styles and seating options to complete the facilities.
10/05/2012 15:44
thrislington cubicles Product : leisure Scale :
nts
Contact : t +44 (0)1244 520 677
w www.thrislingtonleisure.com e info@thrislingtonleisure.com
Changing rooms not only have to withstand the rigours of heavy use in humid conditions. They also need to look good. Thrislington’s new leisure range, in glass or solid grade laminate, is perfect for both wet and dry areas. Our unique anchoring system produces a robust multi-functional island unit, optimising the use of floor area and offering greater utility. Options from our Oasis, Icon and Polo ranges ensure that, whatever your budget, it all works out beautifully.
All ranges have self-closing, anti-fingertrap doors. Oasis also comes with silent closing.
3113.12 ThrisLeisureAd-AJ.indd 2
Unique anchoring system and full aluminium frames for exceptionally robust island units.
10/05/2012 15:44
Competitions & wins
COMPETITIONS FILE
3XN and HKS scoop arena victory SIMON AND ALISON DOWNHAM
Danish big-hitter with HKS Architects, Arup and Planit-IE sees off Foster + Partners and Grimshaw to take £120m Copenhagen arena job
WINNER
RUNNE R UP
RUNNER UP
Danish practice 3XN, working with a team of British architects, landscape specialists and engineers, has won the international competition to design a £120 million indoor arena in Copenhagen. The Danish practice, best known in the UK for its Museum of Liverpool project, collaborated on its bid with the London office of ..
HKS Architects, the Manchester and Leeds studios of Arup and emerging Altrincham-based landscape practice Planit-IE. The collaboration saw off Foster + Partners with architects A78 and Grimshaw with CF Møller to land the scheme for a 15,000-seat indoor venue in the emerging Ørestad neighbourhood of the Danish capital.
More than 40 multi-disciplinary outfits responded to the competition tender when it was launched last autumn. Shortlisted teams led by Hopkins Architects and Populous (AJ 01.03.12) failed to make the cut when the field was narrowed down in March. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2013. Richard Waite
THE AJ DOES NOT ORGANISE, ENDORSE OR TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMPETITIONS
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (pictured) has launched a competition to design a new cancer treatment centre in Basingstoke. Expressions of interest are sought from architect-led multidisciplinary teams. A building of ‘outstanding architectural merit’ is called for. [Expressions of interest to be returned by 29 June] South Korea’s Daegu Architectural Culture Confederation and the International Union of Architects have opened an ideas contest to design a £4.3 million library in Daegu City. The contest focuses on a 3,100m² site. The winner will receive a slice of a £29,000 prize fund and be invited to further develop the scheme. [Registration to be completed by 30 July] University College Dublin is on the hunt for an architect-led design team for its Newman Joyce Precinct and other campus facilities. Expressions of interest are called for to provide concept development, masterplanning, approvals with respect to planning and detailed design. [Requests to participate to be returned by 2 July] Sean Kitchen TheAJ.co.uk/competitions ..
First look
Park pavilion is reborn Bryant Priest Newman’s new Dartmouth Park project houses a ranger’s office and events room Work has finally completed on Bryant Priest Newman Architects’ £900,000 pavilion for Dartmouth Park in West Bromwich. Working with artist David Patten, the practice landed the scheme back in July 2007. The 475m2 green oak-clad structure, which replaces burned down Victorian refreshment rooms, houses a snack bar, events room, park ranger’s office and public toilets on the ground floor. A walkway wraps ‘around and through’ the steel-frame
building, leading to an observation platform at the top of a central four-storey tower. The practice said the pavilion will host exhibitions and shows about the history of the park, adding: ‘Permanent displays could be carved into the timber walls of the woodland walk, reminiscent of the lovers’ pledges carved on to tree trunks within the park.’ The scheme was commissioned by Sandwell Council and was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the BIG Lottery fund. Richard Waite
8
SVP DS
DS
DS
6
5
HD
t
7
t
t
SVP
t
t
9
6 161.200
4
W05
Tower 1. Events room 2. Snack bar 3. Office 4. Foyer 5. Staff room 6. Store 7. Toilets 8. Bins/storage/ plant 9. Disabled toilet
..
3
2
0
5m
N
ALL IMAGES: RICHARD SOUTHALL
1
Clockwise from bottom left Ground floor plan; Void within the main tower viewed from the stairs; The pavilion sits at the end of Park Avenue on the site of Victorian refreshment rooms that burned down in 1983; View from the internal ramp next to the events room on the southern edge of the scheme
..
..
Statistics
Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index
55.8
54.4
April 2012
May 2012
housebuilding More than half of housebuilders expect residential construction to grow this year, according to new data. The Knight Frank 2012 Housebuilding Report claimed 55 per cent of housebuilders and developers expect the volume of residential starts to rise in 2012, with more than half predicting a rise in site acquisition activity. The annual survey reported an increase in respondents experiencing ‘moderate or high demand’ in the sales market for four- and five-bedroom houses. Gráinne Gilmore, head of Knight Frank UK residential research, said: ‘The green shoots can clearly be seen in our survey.’
ONS
20%
Young adults living with parents in the UK
26
met housing p’ship
Knight Frank points to housebuilding increase
dclg
construction Construction growth has slowed for the third consecutive month, according to new data. The Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index for May was 54.4, down from 55.8 in April and 56.7 in March. Any figure above 50 signifies growth. New business growth and confidence about the 12-month outlook were less positive than in April. According to Markit senior economist Tim Moore, the month-on-month fall in business confidence was the greatest since June 2010, when the government announced plans for its autumn comprehensive spending review.
He said: ‘This reassessment represents worries within the sector that weakening economic conditions could leave firms running on empty once existing projects have come to completion.’
Source: Markit/CIPS
Sector growth slows for the third month in a row
Green shoots? Despite an 11 per cent fall in English housing starts (AJ 24.05.12), residential planning permissions were up 33 per cent compared with the previous quarter, with a total 36,761 units approved primelocation.com
10,000
36,761 27,732
29,059
25,171
33,450
29,387
31,553
32,750
40,453
33,510
40,143 21,832
30,525
32,086
20,000
35,923
42,106
58,444
53,994
51,653
51,354
30,000
20 theaj.co.uk
2012 Q1
2011 Q4
2011 Q3
2011 Q2
2011 Q1
2010 Q4
2010 Q3
2010 Q2
2010 Q1
2009 Q4
2009 Q3
2009 Q2
2009 Q1
2008 Q4
2008 Q3
2008 Q2
2008 Q1
2007 Q4
2007 Q3
0 2007 Q2
0 2007 Q1
Number of units
55,466
60,000
48.5%
Homes worth more than £1 million in Virginia Water, Surrey
12.4%
eurostat
70,000
40,000
£60m Empty homes funding awarded to 20 councils
Residential planning approvals in Great Britain Source: Home Builders Federation housing pipeline, Q1 2012 report
50,000
Homes destroyed by fire in last summer’s riots to be rebuilt above Tottenham’s Carpetright building
Increase in Eurozone construction sector activity in March
14.06.12
International
AFR: French money to bolster London
Housing approvals fall down under
Following the announcement that Aukett Fitzroy Robinson has reversed losses of £761k, CEO Nicholas Thompson says he expects a surge of investment in the capital as French millionaires flee new tax hikes The chief executive of AIM-listed Aukett Fitzroy Robinson (AFR) has predicted a surge of investment in London from French tycoons fleeing the country’s proposed millionaire tax. Nicholas Thompson spoke to the AJ following the announcement that his company was back in the black after posting a half-yearly pre-tax profit of £173,000 – reversing a £761,000 loss for the same period in 2011. The head of the top-ranked AJ100 practice said: ‘The London market is being buoyed by continuous overseas investment. ‘The 75 per cent tax rate on millionaires in France will result a new [investment] push into London, forcing up prices. He added: ‘That’s important because a lot of offices are being converted into residential units, effectively reducing office supply,
particularly in the West End, and this will also force up rents.’ Although the practice returned to profit, its turnover fell during the six months to the end of March, compared to the previous half-year ending September 2011. Revenue dropped from £9.2 million to £5.4 million while the UK market showed the biggest decline, with income falling by almost half to £2.7 million. Thompson added: ‘The UK market is quite subdued. In the AJ100 you’ll see a large proportion of practices with a similar turnover, meaning the marketplace is very crowded. ‘However, euro-land is not the place to go. That market is very patchy and there is competition from local practices.’ Thompson said the company was looking at markets in Brazil and India. AFR also has had an
office in Russia since 1989 and the country continues to be a strong market for the firm. ‘There was a quasi-freeze on development work in Moscow about a year and a half ago. But we have lots of work as a result of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and our next focus in the country is the 2018 World Cup.’ As for the Middle East, he said: ‘We decided to hold our position in the UAE, but we only made £8,000 there in the year ending September 2011. We were down to just an outpost, but we are back to about half a dozen and will be up to 10 after Ramadan. ‘The priority for Abu Dhabi, which was funding Dubai, wasn’t building projects. Now, money is being released again – especially for infrastructure – and engineers seem to be doing well. Richard Waite. TheAJ.co.uk/AFR
The number of monthly housing approvals in Australia has dropped by a quarter compared to this time last year, official data has revealed. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a seasonally adjusted figure of 10,330 homes were approved in April 2012, 24 per cent lower than in April 2011. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors economist Matthew Edmonds said last month’s decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut the cash rate by 50 basis points to 3.75 per cent could provide respite. ‘Housing finance commitments rose for the first time this year in March. ‘If demand continues to rise, this should positively affect prices, which are currently 4.5 per cent below year ago levels.’Greg Pitcher TheAJ.co.uk/Australia
RSHP says ‘Grand Paris’ plan likely under Hollande Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) believes the change of government in France will boost its chances of working on the overhaul of Paris. The practice unveiled its ‘Grand Paris’ vision for 2030 to then French president Nicolas Sarkozy three years ago and has since begun work on the BercyCharenton masterplan for the city (AJ 01.07.10). RSHP associate Stephen Barrett told the AJ this week he was confident that the election of ..
François Hollande would reinvigorate the original plan. ‘There is an overwhelming political consensus in Paris that the Grand Paris exercise was essential,’ he said. ‘But it was perceived by some as a political Trojan horse to allow greater state involvement in urban politics. ‘Now the region, city and state governments are all of the same political persuasion that is likely to facilitate the project.’ With just two million of Paris’ nine million inhabitants living in
the city’s centre, RSHP proposed dramatic measures to integrate the suburbs. Its Grand Paris vision included building over the railway lines that split up the city (AJ 19.03.09). Barrett said Grand Paris had been ‘boiled down to a transport project for the Metro system’, but that more schemes were now likely to flow from it. ‘The information we have points to an acceleration of infrastructure work, either as Grand Paris or under another name.’ Greg Pitcher
..
There is much wisdom in using TermoDeck. TermoDeck is a proven system that captures and reuses energy, with the building’s thermal mass acting as a store. It circulates cooled air using hollowcore slabs to maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the day, cutting emissions, costs and construction time. That’s why buildings built with TermoDeck can achieve exceptional BREEAM ratings.
“The university’s commitment to sustainability meant air conditioning was simply not an option. The energy savings delivered by TermoDeck played a crucial part in the sustainability strategy of the design.” Nick Keightley - Director, Maber Architects
Contact us now for more pearls of wisdom. www.termodeck.co.uk | termodeck@tarmac.co.uk | 0115 823 2744 Featured building: The Nottingham Geospatial Building, The University of Nottingham | Maber Architects | D3 Mechanical & Electrical Consultants
039220 Tarmac_Termodeck_265x210.indd 1
heats, cools and ventilates 19/09/2011 17:00
People & practice
‘We like to try new talent’
NEW PRACTICES
What schemes are you working on? We’ve got about 25 schemes on the go, ranging from small terraces in gaps on our existing estates, to a 500-home regeneration project in Clapham Junction. How have the last few years been and how do you see the future? Peabody spent about £150 million on its existing stock during the latter half of the noughties. This was an important and necessary phase for us. We have spent the last two years building up our development pipeline to over 1600 homes and we’re just deciding what our future programme will be beyond 2015, which will be announced in early autumn. Has the recession affected you? We are extremely fortunate not to have been affected by the recession due to our underlying financial strength and our large asset base in London. Our ability to borrow funds for development is key to what we do and that ability is undiminished. What do you want from architects? The architects we use are a pivotal part of our history and our future. We want them to design buildings that embody long-term value and quality. We want them to communicate well with Peabody, authorities and residents alike. We want them to understand what design choices work in terms of
..
estate management and to keep coming back to their buildings for years after handover to see what has succeeded and what hasn’t. Architecture does not hold all the ingredients to successful communities but acoustic privacy, careful open space design and mixed-use, if it works, all help. How do you find your architects? We procured our small panel of architects via OJEU, with design quality, resident engagement and drawing ability high on our list of requirements. We also recently ran a competition that allowed us to go outside the framework and see what others could offer. If a project is small enough, we can use it to try out new talent: Pitman Tozer [in Bethnal Green] was one such commission. Will social housing completions in London surpass pre-recession levels in the coming decade? It depends what the next spending round brings. Genuinely affordable housing will become harder to fund, but more intermediate products may emerge. Which is your favourite project? At Silchester Estate in west London we are working with Haworth Tompkins and Land Use Consultants on 112 homes. The brief includes re-housing residents, reinvigorating railway arches, building a shop and community facilities, as well as working with an artist on a permanent work. All the participants are a pleasure to work with.
INTER URBAN STUDIOS
Claire Bennie of Peabody explains how small schemes are ideal for allowing less experienced practices show what they can offer
Inter Urban Studios Micah Sarut,(left) Micaela Martinez, Kenneth Okafor London January 2011 interurbanstudios.com Where have you come from? After 18 months of travel to 13 countries, I started Inter Urban Studios in earnest. I previously worked at Space Craft Architects, Alan Camp Architects and ttsp. They were all good practices and I gained invaluable experience. What work do you have? We work a lot with Architecture for Humanity, currently on a community centre, dormitories and clinics, and a model farm for a football co-op in a former port town in Ghana to create a sorely needed community outlet and promote sustainable farming (pictured). We do some competitions, most recently a house for people living with HIV/AIDS in Haiti and an upcycled shop for Hackney City Farm. Our
commercial work has included a country house in Bedfordshire, a near-zero carbon house in Richmond, a self-sufficient farmhouse in Cuba and a LEED Platinum house in California. What are your ambitions? I’d like to do more international and varied work and grow the team to 20. You can maintain quality and client satisfaction but undertake large projects. I’d like to be the first sustainable starchitect. How optimistic are you? The competition is fierce. The preface of the RIBA Good Practice Guide: Starting a Practice says you should not even think about it, so what does that tell you? You have to be a dreamer. ..
Astragal
Dramatic twist ‘The question is: will they pull it off?’ asks Kevin McCloud, as another over-ambitious, underfunded Grand Designs gets stuck in the minefield of construction. The answer, after a couple of shots showing flooded foundations and a few ad breaks, is usually yes. Now, in a karmic bout of dramatic revenge, the television presenter’s own project in Swindon finds itself hanging precariously on the edge of a very real cliff before work has even started. The proposed new 241home scheme by Glenn Howells Architects at Pickards Field – the second development by Howells
and McCloud’s Haboakus team in the town (AJ 10.11.11) – is officially on hold. This is because the council wants to consult ‘more widely with local residents’ on the planning application. There is also the matter of a perfect-fortelly niggle over a small strip of land needed to access the homes, which campaigners claim has a restrictive covenant attached to it. Cue worried shots of Kev. This is going to be a tense 59 minutes.
Recipe for design Fancy a slice of soggy cake? The heroic participants of the weather-battered ‘cake in the clouds’ competition in Battersea Park fought driving rain to mark
the Diamond Jubilee. Braving the wintry temperatures, the four competing teams – Arup (see their 4.3m Gherkin before and after rain-related collapse, above), Buro Happold, young members of the Institute of Structural Engineers, and Expedition Engineering with Sebastian Conran Associates and Thomas
Matthews – delighted crowds gathered to watch the Queen’s river pageant with their baking efforts. Those willing and weather-proofed enough to hang around for the judging had the pleasure of finding out ... that there was no outright winner. Lemon drizzle anyone?
Cosmic commission
WWW.LOUISHELLMAN.CO.UK
Lovers of Dan Dare, Neil Armstrong and Laika the Cosmodog get your pencils (or laser-tipped holowands) ready. A new spaceport is set to be launched (ho ho) in Abu Dhabi. As readers of the AJ will know, Norman Foster’s first building for Virgin Galactic in New Mexico has been completed for some months with the first powered flights from the American base expected to puncture the stratosphere later this year. No architect has yet been chosen for the Middle East Astrocampus – in fact, neither has the site. The team is, however, looking at the potential of remodelling one of Abu Dhabi’s 17 airfields or building from scratch on a completely fresh greenfield plot. We can also reveal that Virgin Galactic is looking to hold an international competition for the new facilities next year. Cue ‘out of this world’, ‘starchitect’, ‘Uranus’ gags. ..
Letter from London
Mayoral campaigns are ideal opportunities to put retrofit and architecture on the political agenda, says Paul Finch Architects rarely become directly involved in politics in Britain. For decades, the only architect MP was Sydney Chapman, who achieved fame for organising the ‘Plant A Tree In ’73’ campaign, serving as a backbench MP first in Birmingham and subsequently taking over Reginald Maudling’s former sinecure in Chipping Barnet, which he held for 26 years (until 2005). For political influence, there has been no one to compare with the ultimate architect politician, Albert Speer, whose sinister influence still looms large in German architectural history, and whose name lives on because his distinguished architect son bears the same name. Speer’s life was an extraordinary one and, if you haven’t read Gitta Sereny’s biography, it is worth it, not least because of the ambiguities she explores in relation to good and evil, guilt and looking the other way. In Britain, the most significant political architect of our times is Richard Rogers, partly because he has fought battles in public over his beliefs about public space and the importance of architecture expressing our contemporary condition. His chief contribution, however, was to persuade London’s first mayor, Ken Livingstone, that architecture and planning were not side-issues for political administrations, but fundamental to the success of that most important political entity in most countries these days: cities. Livingstone acknowledged the importance of Rogers’ ideas, developed and promoted when he chaired the Architecture Foundation, when the then Mayor spoke at Rogers’ Pritzker Prize presentation in the Banqueting House on Whitehall in 2007. He had based his election manifesto on the urban ideas espoused by Rogers and was happy to say so. Indeed many of the ideas in that manifesto, in relation to everything from public space to energy and waste, are still extant in the current London Plan, Mayor Johnson having wisely retained many of Livingstone’s policies. One important effect of architectural ideas being promoted in an election is that, once on the agenda, ..
all candidates have to engage with what is being said, not least because the public is always interested in buildings and the future of their street, area and city. So congratulations are due to George Ferguson, who has thrown his hat in the ring in the forthcoming mayoral election in his home town of Bristol (that city having voted in a referendum to go for a mayoral administration). As a prominent local architect, and campaigner for both new architecture and the saving of much-loved elements of the city in the face of dumb development proposals, George has no problem with public recognition. Moreover, he was an elected councillor for the Liberals back in the 1970s, so knows his political onions. George spoke at the city’s Architecture Centre last week, where Rob Gregory
George Ferguson has thrown his hat in the ring in the forthcoming mayoral election in his home town of Bristol has organised a good exhibition called Bristol: Retrofit City. I had the pleasure of chairing a discussion about initiatives currently under consideration in the city, covering everything from energy improvements in homes to propositions about how the city might look in 2050, including partly flooding the Avon Gorge. On the community front, the determined Redcliffe Neighbourhood Planning Forum (which has just become a recognised body under the Localism Act), is working on its own local plan to do something useful with waste land on either side of 1960s highways engineering which all but ruined the area. Whether Ferguson wins or loses, it is clear the political battlegrounds in Bristol are being drawn with architecture and retrofit firmly on the agenda – as they most certainly should be. ..
“I specified Versa Tecbor for what it saved”
When it comes to fire protection, don’t take any chances - ‘good enough’ just isn’t good enough. Which is why we insisted Versa Tecbor fire protection building board was tested to EN standards.
EN testing is generally considered to be more onerous than BS,
for example, EN-tested products are
subjected to higher thermal exposure and more challenging pressure
conditions compared to BS-tested products.
What’s more, Versa Tecbor can be
used across a variety of applications, such as steel and timber partitions,
suspended ceilings, ventilation ducts and curtain and parapet walls and is:
Tested in accordance with EN 1364-1, EN 1364-2 for partitions and ceilings and EN ISO 1182:2002, EN ISO 1716:2002 for A1 non combustibility.
•
Rot proof
•
Impact resistant
•
Vermin resistant
•
Non-toxic under fire
•
CE marked
•
Up to 200˚c working temperature
Save time, money and most importantly lives by specifying Versa Tecbor. Find out more by calling us on 01925 860999 or emailing info@euroform.co.uk
www.versatecbor.co.uk
The EN compliant fire protection board AJ full page.indd 1
24/01/2012 09:41
Black box
The Theory of the 436 Bus Route explains why Peckham is an emerging epicentre, writes Rory Olcayto Face explains to Gabelmann, the 436 is a bus route that passes many of London’s key art colleges: Chelsea, the London College of Communication, Camberwell and Goldsmiths. The only affordable area surrounding the route is Peckham. The East London rail link that joins Dalston with New Cross and Peckham Rye in December, unmentioned by Sleek, is surely another. The article mentions the Bussey building, too (where Food Face ‘a studio by day and, with the aid of folding walls, a gallery by night’ is based). It’s a Grade II listed former cricket bat factory that now houses galleries, clubs, churches and theatres on an industrial site off the nearby high street, Rye Lane. It was the development site for AJ’s Peckham Charrette (AJ 29.03.12): Konishi Gaffney extended it upwards, adding a two-storey glass box to the giant brick base. The proposed charrette scheme in fact, was not so different from the one I saw in Zurich that day, an old brick brewery topped with a gleaming white cube that, Tetris-like, wraps around and through the existing structure. The older building had provided an informal home to a number of art groups in Switzerland’s biggest city for 16 years. Now it has been formalised, part-owned by the artists, the city and a private developer, which is building a residential tower (with Gigon/Guyer the architect). It’s a great model for the Bussey and for Peckham, which, according to Gabelmann, is ‘an epicentre of off-piste art’, if anyone with a few spare million happens to be reading.
DETAH BY DESIGN
Peckham is my number 23. I see it every where I go. Don’t you find it lies at the heart of all things? I don’t believe its just me. In Zurich last week to see the Kunsthalle renovation by Gigon/Guyer and Atelier WW and, on the way back, bored and scanning the magazines in an airport kiosk, Sleek, a Berlin arts quarterly catches my eye. On the cover, the word ‘Peckham’. Grab. Flick open. Flip through pages and glossy adverts: Chanel. Boss. Swatch. A Jeff Koons show in Basel. On page 20, finally, Contents. It reads: ‘Pages 136-139: Why everybody is talking about Peckham.’ The article by Grashina Gabelmann is more than a good read: it’s well researched. It talks to venues like the Hannah Barry Gallery, whose Bold Tendencies annual sculpture show begins 30 June, as well as The Sunday Painter and local boho boozer Bar Story. It makes smart observations, like Dalston and Peckham being mirrors of each other (with Peckham a tad less try-hard). And it reminds us all of a vital back story: years of innovation at the South London Gallery, and the YBA heritage of nearby Goldsmiths mean Peckham’s trending profile today is hardly surprising. Nevertheless, Sleek finds the breadth of the Peckham scene surprising enough to delve deeper into reasons why. The Theory of the 436 is the best of them. As Gareth Owen Lloyd of local studio and gallery Food
..
Inbox This is the Ceiling, a trendy new nightclub designed by Kem Roomhaus. Billed as the world most glamorous dancefloor, Roomhaus describes it as introducing a brand new school of architecture he calls Mini-maximalism. And it’s in… Gotham City. It’s one of the venues in new Batman graphic novel Death by Design, which centres on a battle to save Central Station (built by Batman alter ego Bruce Wayne’s
father) from demolition. It even features an anti-hero-cumarchitecture critic called Exacto, who has the ability to detect structural weakness within buildings. Bruce Wayne comes across as a typical developer, however, when he explains to an activist that restoring the station – loosely modelled on New York’s Pennsylvania Station, demolished in 1963, would cost twice as much as ripping it down and building afresh. ..
Knowledge you can build on.
Subscribe today Visit: subscription.co.uk/aj/alia Call: 0844 848 885 quoting ALIA
AJ107 FP Subs ad 1.indd 1
AJ107FP1
Stay informed and remain competitive with insider access to detailed building studies and technical advice you can apply in your own practice - helping you to save time and money.
12/04/2011 17:08
Letters
Last issue AJ 07.06.12 Established 1895
..
Re-touched
O’Donnell +Tuomey’s Photographers’ Gallery Wiener Library, Barbara Weiss Architects
£4.95 THE ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL THEAJ.CO.UK
Letters should be received by 10am on the Monday before publication. The AJ reserves the right to edit letters. The letter of the week’s author will receive a bone china AJ mug. Post to the address below or email letters@architectsjournal. co.uk
The Architects’ Journal Greater London House Hampstead Road London
TheAJ.co.uk E Firstname.Surname@EMAP.com T plus extension
..
Pushchair problems I visited Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester yesterday (Friday 8 June) for the first time since Buttress Fuller Alsop Williams’ redevelopment and my experience in the main building was horrendous. As a mother of four and a pushchairuser, I encouraged a friend with three small children and a pushchair to make the trip with me, confident we would be able to travel easily around the site based on previous visits. Stairs to a lift? This is what we encountered when trying to enter the main building from the train courtyard area (we had exited the building in confusion having found that the other lift was broken). We then had to wait in a confined space to use the lift, along with other irritated families who were struggling to queue through the fire doors, when in the past we would all have been able to make our way in a relaxed fashion through the building, safe in the knowledge that we could leave easily in the event of an emergency.
LETTER OFK THE WEE
Editor Christine Murray Deputy editor Rory Olcayto () Acting administrator Rakesh Ramchurn () Digital editor Simon Hogg () News editor Richard Waite ( ) Reporter Merlin Fulcher () Editorial intern Alvaro Menendez Technical editor Felix Mara () Senior editor James Pallister () Group special projects editor Emily Booth Sustainability editor Hattie Hartman () Sustainability intern Michelle Price AJ Buildings Library editor Tom Ravenscroft () Art editor Brad Yendle () Designers Tom Carpenter, Ella Mackinnon Production editor Mary Douglas (on leave) Acting production editor Abigail Gliddon () Acting sub-editor Alan Gordon Asia correspondent Hyunjoo Lee Contributing editor Ian Martin Editorial director Paul Finch Chief executive officer Natasha Christie-Miller
The failure to provide a picnic area led to confusion about where we could eat food we’d brought with us, since a designated area in the gallery of the aeroplane building was not reachable with pushchairs. We bought cups of tea and sat at a table in the first floor café of the main building while our kids ate food we had brought with us. Two members of staff shouted at us and told us to move. The toilets throughout the building have washing facilities that even six and seven-yearolds can’t reach and those that serve the ground floor café are in the basement; a bizarre decision, seeing as the removal of the ramp has created extra space on the ground floor. We had to abandon all our belongings outside the café while my friend used the babychanging room and I traipsed down (four flights of?) stairs to the toilets with the other six. There seems to have been a complete lack of thought for adults with pushchairs when this redesign was finalised... and this group forms a large part of the visitor base. We were made to feel that our needs and requirements were
Managing director of architecture and media Conor Dignam () Group commercial director Alison Pitchford () Commercial director James MacLeod () Business development managers Nick Roberts (), Ceri Evans () Group advertising manager Amanda Pryde () Account managers Hannah Buckley (), Simon Collingwood (), Steph Atha () Classified and recruitment sales Mark Malone ()
unreasonable, when in fact they should have been core considerations. Ian Simpson’s design had a much better grasp of our needs. How sad that his ramps were removed instead of being recognised as great, practical, child-friendly design. Ursula Ackah, Whalley Range, Manchester
Sharing tips The LinkedIn thread on new practices is a goldmine of information! I set up 21 months ago following my second redundancy. (I have been made redundant twice while on maternity leave). My advice would be marketing, marketing, marketing. Other tips would be: 1. Establish yourself online, and constantly point to your presence 2. Network – The Business Network International has been fantastic at generating referrals and sharing business skills 3. Watch out for marketing opportunities, such as the RIBA ‘An Architect in the House’ Shelter scheme; a no-brainer Lisa Raynes, chairman of the Solo Practitioners Group RIBA NW, via LinkedIn
AJ subscription Overseas Back issues and subscriptions Visit subscription.co.uk /aj/akus or call & quote priority code ‘’ Social media Twitter @ArchitectsJrnal Facebook/TheArchitectsJournal LinkedIn Architects’ Journal group
The Architects’ Journal is registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. © . 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 offices. Postmaster send address corrections to: , c/o Mercury International Ltd, Blair Road, Avenel, New Jersey . Distributed in the by Mercury International Ltd, Blair Road, Avenel, .
..
ODA
AJBuildingsLibrary.co.uk
Project of the Week Olympic Water Polo Arena David Morley Architects London, 2012 This temporary 5,000-seat water polo venue is housed under a sloping roof made of inflated recyclable plastic cushions and is one of 12 Olympic buildings in the library. Search for ‘water polo’ to see six photographs and six drawings on AJBuildingsLibrary.co.uk ..
AJBuildingsLibrary.co.uk Browse thousands of projects in the AJ Buildings Library, a digital archive of built work, part of your AJ subscription
Building study
Findlay’s way
Now that the ArcelorMittal Orbit is up, its most outstanding architectural feature is the long walk down, finds Rory Olcayto
..
Below The spiral stairway winds like a corkscrew through the tangled arms of the tower Opposite Interior view of the stairway
corners, especially crafted like all the architectural elements to fit the Orbit’s frozen form. (‘We had “clash of the week” meetings,’ laughs Findlay, as she explains the challenges that arise when an immoveable red object meets a lift, a bit of staircase, secondary steelwork and electrical and plumbing services.)
ALL IMAGES THIS SPREAD SIMON KENNEDY
G
reat views of London are fairly easy to come by – try the rooftop of Peckham’s Rye Lane multi-storey car park for one of the city’s finest – so what you can see from the ArcelorMittal Orbit’s observation deck in the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, is no big deal. But providing ever shifting perspectives across the most controversial and daringly engineered sculpture in the world is a big deal. And that makes Ushida Findlay’s staircase, a spiral weave through Anish Kapoor’s and Cecil Balmond’s tangled mass of steel, the most interesting new architectural space in the world right now. Ushida Findlay is the project’s official delivery architect. That has meant designing the entry pavilion and plant room on the ground floor as well as the lift and the two-storey observation deck. ‘Weaving, threading, co-ordinating’, says Kathryn Findlay, who, together with her small team of architects, has transformed Kapoor and Balmond’s 114m-high sculpture into something inhabitable. There are some interesting details in the room at the top, the most obvious habitable space created by the architect: the square hole cut through the middle, for example, allowing views down through the twisted frame below. Or in the lift, another room of sorts, whose shaft has chamfered
But the staircase, which visitors will descend after taking in the views, is where all the action is, where all the architecture is, and where you will experience the art and engineering of the Orbit at its very best, too. ‘It’s our most important contribution,’ says Findlay, who, like Balmond, has a reputation for what the former Arup engineering supremo terms ‘non-linear’ design. ‘The journey down is quite a surprise. It’s all about the descent. You see these unimaginable views of Anish and Cecil’s three-dimensional sculpture. It integrates the experience, the performance. It shows that the Orbit is so much more than what it looks like on the skyline.’ That, however, has been what Findlay’s fellow architects and the critics have chiefly been interested in. Most have had little good to say about it. Sunday Times critic Hugh Pearman called it ‘the worst piece of public art I have ever seen’ and was banned from the launch last month, suggesting the men behind it at least, have rather fragile egos. Yet Findlay, until now the Orbit’s ‘silent midwife’ defends Kapoor and Balmond’s vision. ‘I think it’s valid as a new piece of spatial investigation,’ she says. ‘Whether such architecture, or sculpture, is appropriate in other situations is open to question, but what you have here is an integrated, coherent design.’ With a name like Kapoor behind the Orbit it has been difficult enough for co-creator Balmond, let alone Findlay, to garner any credit. But, for creating one of London’s greatest ‘rooms’ – for that will be how the mesh-enclosed spiral stairway must surely come to be seen in time – she deserves a great deal. ■ ..
..
Building study
Awkward, bizarre, sublime
Felix Mara experiences the eccentric ArcelorMittal Orbit tower and sculpture at close quarters. Photography by Simon Kennedy
..
..
..
ArcelorMittal Orbit, London 2012 Olympic Park Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond with Ushida Findlay Architects and Arup
I’
ll always remember the day two years ago when I first set eyes on a new project, the like of which I’d never seen before. The fact that its designers, artist Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond, were inspirational figures was auspicious. I was determined to like it, as it would obviously be controversial and I happen to believe that, as far as the appearance of their work is concerned, artists and architects should have licence to do whatever they want. There is no shortage of people intent on standing in their way. The building looked like a red tower crane twisted into an elaborate knot, intertwined with a corkscrew of perforated grey metal, which spiralled outwards towards its base to enwrap a skewed, inverted Cor-ten steel cone, slung from the structure like an enormous bell. Its diagrid appeared to be in motion, like a dust storm, and flared out to form a cornucopia, offering up a stack of cylinders, as the top of the corkscrew tilted and uncoiled. It stooped and looked awkward, as though in agony, and I half expected it to bellow like a baleful Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was the ArcelorMittal Orbit. The project is now completed and, at a height of 114m, looms over the London 2012 Olympic Park.
..
It is Britain’s tallest sculpture and a landmark for the Games and their legacy, crowned by a vantage point from which visitors can look down on the Olympic Stadium (AJ 07.04.11) and the undulating roof of the Aquatics Centre (AJ 18.08.11). With his legacy in mind, and looking to create a stir, London mayor Boris Johnson buttonholed Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel manufacturer, who spontaneously said yes, he would be delighted to fund the venture. As it turned out, the London Development Agency paid 14 per cent and Mittal
the balance. After Kapoor and Balmond won the competition to design the Orbit, architect Ushida Findlay and Arup joined the project team, bringing expertise in design and engineering. Balmond assumed the role of co-designer, rather than structural engineer. The project’s reception was a poker game played out by those who genuinely didn’t know what to make of it, fence-sitters fearful nobody would question the emperor’s new clothes and those who thought scepticism the safest reaction. Others just spoke their mind. If you suggested you liked it, you could be sure of a strong reaction. There was also confusion surrounding the brief. It was clear to Johnson and Mittal that the structure would be steel, and it is indeed a showcase for this material, using components from the 60 countries where ArcelorMittal manufactures, with a recycled quota of 60 per cent. But Kapoor and Balmond say they considered building the structure in concrete instead. Taken literally, the Orbit’s structural design does not quite add up. Balmond, former deputy chairman of Arup and founder of the now defunct Advanced Geometry Unit, which developed the Orbit’s design, left Arup in 2010 to found the researchfocused practice Balmond Studio >>
Above The observation deck gives clear views across London’s skyline Below left Atrium cut through the two-storey observation deck
AJBuildingsLibrary.co.uk Search ‘Orbit’ for more drawings and data
..
Level 2 plan of the observation deck (toilets and kitchen below)
..
GAUTIER DEBLONDE
ArcelorMittal Orbit, London 2012 Olympic Park Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond with Ushida Findlay Architects and Arup
and to pursue interests in architecture, product design and art. Although the Orbit’s design is informed by Balmond’s fascination with numerology, articulated with clarity and charm in his book Number 9: The Search for the Sigma Code, the tower’s number-crunching was done by others, namely Arup and steel fabricator Watsons. ‘I found that other people too in ancient times and in other lands, understood numbers as secret and special and alive, and not as mere counters, not just fodder for tiring calculations,’ he writes in Number 9. Whatever the Orbit is, it is not a highly efficient structure. Arup structural dynamics expert Dan Powell singles out the tower’s 40-tonne tuned mass damper, which counteracts its lively response to wind forces, as its most efficient feature, although it was never central to the design. Nevertheless, the construction logic of the Orbit, which Balmond designed to be built without scaffolding, and in particular its structural concept, are extraordinarily imaginative. Balmond, taking Kapoor with him, ..
Above Underside of the observation deck as seen from ground level Right Concept sketches Opposite Ushida Findlay’s staircase is woven through the red steel superstructure
wanted to challenge a number of orthodoxies. The first of these concerns the extent to which towers have to be pyramidal. He conceded that they have to be pyramidal, but proposed using the Orbit’s diagrid loops, which he calls ‘intestines’, to add stability. However, it does not follow that all the components of the diagrid are necessary. There may well be a high degree of structural redundancy, for example in the Orbit’s topmost loop, and this may explain its inelegance. According to Powell, most of its stiffness comes from the central diagrid column surrounding the lift shafts. Balmond explains that the orbital diagrids were the result of the designers’ search for a metaphor embracing ‘the contemporary idea of flux’. They also challenged the notion that towers should be symmetrical. There are, of course, historical exceptions, such as Tatlin’s Tower or the minaret at Cairo’s Ibn Tulun mosque, which both involve helices. This connects to the idea of an orbit and the designers’ interest in what Balmond’s calls ‘nonlinearity’, >> ..
..
ALL IMAGES THIS SPREAD GAUTIER DEBLONDE
ArcelorMittal Orbit, London 2012 Olympic Park Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond with Ushida Findlay Architects and Arup
Project data
start on site November 2010 contract duration 17 months form of contract NEC3 Construction Management total cost £22.7 million client ArcelorMittal designers Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond architect Ushida Findlay Architects structural engineer Arup and Advanced Geometry Unit/Arup m&e consultant Arup quantity surveyor Davis Langdon project manager Davis Langdon main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine estimated annual co2 emissions 34.3kg/m2
..
a theme explored in Number 9, which involves combining unstable elements to form a stable structure. There is an element of polemic in this exploration and also a certain degree of purity. The Orbit is more convincing as art and, evaluated as such, it works on many different levels. It is rich in metaphor, although some of the sporting analogies suggested are rather forced and simplistic, and its forms are expressive rather than elegant. ‘It’s awkward,’ says Kapoor. ‘Its elbows stick out and it refuses to be an emblem. It keeps unsettling.’ This helps to distinguish it from an exercise in pure design and branding. The visitor’s experience of the Orbit is skilfully handled, from Kapoor’s ‘moment of darkness’ as you pass below the sublime bell with its rim just two metres above ground, to the ascent through the tower, with glimpses of
Above View of the lift shaft and Cor-ten steel ‘bell’ Opposite The ‘bell’ serves as an awning for visitors awaiting the lift to the top
the ruby-red diagrid through the lift portholes, to the views across the park from the lantern, developed by Findlay to include walls lined with concave distorting mirrors. The diagrid modules devised by Kapoor and Balmond set up elaborate and asymmetrical flowing landscapes of red steelwork and juxtapositions where it meets the walkways and the helical stair, which descends to ground level, with the perforations in its cladding forming a subtle gradation. ‘It isn’t an image you can grasp all in one go,’ says Kapoor. Balmond emphasises a similar opacity in the Orbit’s construction: ‘Ultimately it has to be designed, calculated, built and constructed, but you should not notice the effort.’ Nevertheless, the Orbit is more satisfying when explored at close quarters. The Orbit is very different to Kapoor and Balmond’s previous collaborations, for example their 2002 installation in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and, especially in its skeletal form, to anything that Kapoor has done before. Kapoor found inspiration in the way Victorian structures are bolted together and the potential that modern technology offers to combine them in asymmetrical arrangements. The processional nature of the Tower of Babel was another reference. Like Balmond and others involved in the project, he mentions the negative reactions to now-popular structures such as St Paul’s Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and the Eiffel Tower when they were first built, perhaps to ward off criticism, or perhaps in the hope or expectation that its reception will follow the same pattern. This is like saying that if a coin is tossed and lands heads-up it is more likely to be tails-up next time. It might seem far-fetched to say that for this reason, as in Mel Brooks’ film The Producers, Kapoor and Balmond deliberately set out to design something which people would hate, but they could be forgiven for being a little surprised by the beauty of the completed project. ■ See AJ 23.06.11 for a technical study ..
..
Technical study
School house
John Pardey’s residential retrofit of the former Oaklands College points the way for similar buildings ripe for conversion, writes Felix Mara Photography by Andy Matthews
H
promised free secondary education in England and Wales. This programme was notable for its rigorous and intelligent use of technology to tackle this challenge in an era of post-war scarcity of steel and other resources: a genuinely Modernist project, which was also distinguished by its stylish output, as recorded in contemporary monochrome photography (below). Oaklands College in St Albans, which in response to today’s demands has been retrofitted as flats by John Pardey Architects, belongs to the late, mature, period of this programme and benefits from the years of research which preceded it. >>
AJBuildingsLibrary.co.uk Search ‘Oaklands’ for more drawings and data
RIBA JOURNAL
ertfordshire is the thinking man’s home county. With no coastal resorts and little rolling countryside to distract, a high population density and en route to indisputably real destinations in the Midlands and further north, it appeals to temperaments more given to work and reflection than to leisure. There’s something in the air. To architects it evokes new towns and the work of Hertfordshire County Council Architects’ Department, with its ambitious programme to deliver an estimated 176 schools in response to demand generated by the 1944 Education Act, which
..
Left Archive photograph showing original administration block with assembly hall on left and bridge connecting to classroom block shortly after completion in 1960 Right The former admin block today
..
..
Oaklands housing development, St Albans John Pardey Architects
The concept involves pods containing all services, kitchens and bathrooms When the campus was completed in 1960 it comprised St Albans College of Further Education, which provided general education for 15 to 18-year-olds and leisure and vocational courses for a wider age range, and the Hertfordshire College of Building. Its construction is characteristic of the programme, with extensive off-site fabrication and dry construction, demountable partitioning and a dimensionally co-ordinated light gauge steel structural frame, which could be quickly bolted together on site, with stanchions fabricated from angles and welded lattice beams. Its floors are precast, pre-stressed planks and the decks supporting its roofs are trapezoidal asbestos cement. But, whereas earlier Hertfordshire schools had precast concrete cladding, by this stage the department was experimenting with aluminium curtain walling, plastic spandrels, cedar weatherboarding and facing brickwork. The campus is also distinguished by its informal site layout, with pavilions of various heights connected by bridges and landscaped interstices, planted with more than 200 trees, nearly all of which have been retained. When Oaklands College relocated, the client saw the campus’ potential for its redevelopment as housing and John Pardey Architects made proposals for retrofitting the seven original buildings, all Grade II listed, and adding 15 new blocks, laid out in a similar Mondrianesque rectilinear pattern, creating a total of 329 flats. The central concept for the retrofit involves pods containing all services, kitchens and bathrooms, which separate living and sleeping areas, avoiding the need for walls for this purpose. ‘You couldn’t get away with >> ..
Location plan
2
1. St Peter’s Road 2. Manor Road 3. Lemsford Road 4. Hatfield Road 1
0
Bin St
20m
N
3
4
Below New block balconies and hundreds of mature trees provide solar shading
..
Block A (1 bed)
Block A (2 bed)
Block B (2 bed)
Block C (2 bed maisonette)
Block F (2 bed)
E-block (2 bed)
Block F (1 bed)
Typical services/kitchen/bathroom pods Legend 1. Entrance 2. Bedroom 3. Kitchen 4. Bathroom 5. Hall 6. En suite 7. Dining 8. Living 9. Bridge link
0
1m
Right and left New blocks have floor-to-ceiling glazing and set-back penthouses
N
2
2
3
2
2
6
6
4
4 5
1
1
3
5
7
7
8
Existing plan
..
Pod insertion plan, Block B
8
9
Oaklands housing development, St Albans John Pardey Architects
Site section A-A
CAD-O
CAD-O
MANOR ROAD
BLOCK 4
CAD-O
1
building it now,’ says John Pardey Architects associate Hugh Richardson. ‘The challenge was to make the envelope work by today’s standards.’ Asbestos in the original building was a health risk, so the spandrels were removed but the roof deck was retained, with the proviso that no fixings should penetrate it. Another concern was insulation standards. Double glazed units were installed and, in order to retain the profile of the original spandrels and cladding by reducing the build-up in these areas, as required by the conservation officer, the roofs were heavily
2
3
insulated. To avoid heavy fascias, the thickest build-up of the roof is set inboard, forming up-stand kerbs. The finish, originally bitumen, is single-ply membrane. Rather than re-anodise the original aluminium cladding, the client chose to brush clean it and apply a new finish. ‘It was a typical balancing act between the requirements of the Building Regulations and the planners and, in a way, we were pleased there were so many planning constraints,’ says Richardson. ‘That’s the reason why it looks the way it does – commercial factors would
4
Legend 1. Block 3 2. Block F 3. Block B 4. Block E 5. Block D 0
4m
Below The language of the original staircase has been retained
5
CAD-O
have taken away its elegance.’ Concerns about the load-bearing capacity of the original floor slabs proved unfounded and tests on the party wall and floor construction, as completed, demonstrated compliance with Approved Document E. There were, however, compromises in the project’s environmental performance. Plans to adapt the college’s boiler system as a replacement for the original electric air-heating system were a victim of the recession and the flats have geo-condensing boilers. ‘The new blocks adopt a palette of natural materials that picks up on the grey, ordered and calm expression of the existing units, using aluminium-framed windows, pre-weathered zinc storey-height cladding panels and grey terracotta rainscreen tiles,’ says director John Pardey, who likens this strategy to Paul Smith’s ‘classics with a contemporary twist’ approach to tailoring. ‘One of the highlights of the project was our contact with the original architect, John Wakely,’ says Pardey. In the spirit of Modernism, he provided his expertise, helping Pardey to adapt the buildings for a new purpose. Just as Wakely et al ’s original building dispels the notion that architectural quality cannot be achieved with systems building, Pardey’s retrofit busts the myth that lightweight construction isn’t suitable for residential architecture in Britain. This project will help to free up similar buildings which are ripe for conversion. ■
This busts the myth that lightweight construction isn’t suitable for housing ..
CAD-O
HATFIELD ROAD
..
This page The ‘grey, ordered and calm expression’ (Wakely) of the original blocks was the inspiration for the elevational treatment of the new blocks
..
Working detail 1 2
19
9
26
27
28
Project data
3 4
20 21 22
10
6
5
11
25
12 15
17 23
18
24 33
13
32
19
29
7
30
8
20 21
16
14
31
17
0 100mm
Typical parapet, facade and intermediate floor detail sections
1. Two 75 x 225mm treated sw upstands 2. Single ply roof system dressed over new parapet 3. New anodised aluminium coping bottom edge to project 5mm over existing 4. Existing anodised aluminium coping 5. Existing trapezoidal profile asbestos cement roof deck 6. Vapour barrier 7. Breather membrane 8. Two layers 12.5mm
..
standard wall board 9. Tapered insulation from maximum perimeter height of 150mm over vapour barrier 10. Single ply membrane 11. Existing two-layer felt roof 12. Existing structure, shown indicatively 13. Two layers 12.5mm Gyproc Soundbloc skimmed and painted (first layer to be foil backed) 14. Acoustic separating board 15. Acoustic insulation
16. 15 x 100mm painted MDF skirting with max 6mm diameter pencil chamfer 17. Perimeter assembly trimmed as necessary 18. Refurbished curtain wall with new double glazing 19. Nylon packer 20. Sto Rendflex on Bluclad board 21. One layer 30mm Kingspan Kooltherm K5 EWB insulation bonded to Bluclad board with polymer
adhesive 22. Liquid vapour check ET-150 Idenden sprayable vapour barrier coating 23. Vapour barrier bonded to void side of plasterboard 24. Roller blind 25. Blind pelmet comprising two layers 12.5mm Gyproc Soundbloc 26. Valley gutter 27. Syphonic rainwater outlet 28. Existing roof finish thoroughly swept
and cleaned 29. Ventilation slot 30. Two layers 65mm Kingspan Kooltherm K12 framing board insulation 31. Coffered concrete slab 32. White trickle vent, face fixed at 1,200mm centres, concealed under sill projection 33. 25mm MDF window sill with 19mm overhang and 6mm pencil chamfer to exposed top edge
start on site April 2008 completion July 2011 gross internal area 17,297 m2 total cost £25.88 million cost per square metre £1,496 architect John Pardey Architects client Nicholas King Homes structural engineer Barton Engineers m&e consultant Hoare Lea approved building inspector Assent main contractor NK Homes conservation consultant Mervyn Miller facade consultant Cladtech landscape consultant Mark Cooper Associates arboricultural consultant CBA Trees ecology consultant Nature Matters sustainability consultant Faber Maunsell accessibility consultant Penton, Smart + Grimwade cdm coordinator Bridge Security timber weatherboarding T&G western red cedar with Cuprinol 5 star preservative treatment spandrel panel render StoRend Flex over Bluclad carrier board curtain walling Existing aluminum refurbished- brush cleaned with mill finish. New double glazed panels and seals roof covering Single ply membrane over tapered insulation over existing trapezoidal deck. Inboard upstand with thin roof edge made of anodised aluminium internal walls and partitions British Gypsum annual co 2 emissions Not disclosed procurement Design & Build masterplan Chris Rudolf (PRP) quantity surveyor NK Homes project manager NK Homes cad software Vectorworks
..
Practice
Legalese Clarify your specific obligations to comply with industry standards, writes Peter Stockill
..
contributory negligence by the claimant is the subject of an appeal. If the obligation is held to have been strict and the finding of contributory negligence overturned, the outcome will look different. As with contracts, there can be arguments about the meaning of industry standards. In McGlinn, the claimants alleged the design should have specified three coats of render instead of two. The court rejected the claimant’s interpretation of BS 5262 and found that a reasonably competent architect could have concluded that the site was not ‘severely exposed’ and so two coats sufficed. Conversely, compliance with a standard does not necessarily equate to discharging one’s obligations. In Messer UK Limited v Britvic Soft Drinks Limited (2002),
In most cases, the question is whether the architect has exercised reasonable skill and care
HANNA MELIN
Architects’ appointments often require them to comply with industry standards. This is sometimes seized upon to argue that non-compliance with the standard constitutes a breach of contract. Is that necessarily so? If an architect’s appointment requires compliance with an industry standard and that obligation is construed as a strict one, a failure to comply will equate to a breach of contract. This can have serious consequences, because many professional indemnity policies are written on the basis that they only apply to duties to exercise reasonable skill and care. Furthermore, a defence of contributory negligence (where the claimant is also at fault) is not available in respect of a breach of a strict obligation. But special circumstances or clear language are normally required to impose a strict obligation on a construction professional. In most cases, the question is whether the architect has exercised reasonable skill and care. In considering that question, the courts will look at relevant standards: ‘What matters are the requirements of good practice, and the British Standard is therefore a good place to start… It is always unattractive for a court to ignore the recommendations of a British Standard unless there is a good reason for doing so.’ McGlinn v Waltham Contractors Ltd (2007). Departures from standards can, however, be justified. In the McGlinn case, copings did not project a minimum of 40mm from the face of the walls, as required by BS 5628: Part 3: 1985. The court acknowledged a departure from the standard may be justified, albeit that ‘if there was to be a departure from a British Standard recommendation, there would have to be a good reason for it’. Similarly, in Trebor Bassett Holdings Ltd & Anor v ADT Fire and Security Plc (2011), an obligation to ‘comply generally with the requirements of British Standard 5306 Part 4’ in respect of a fire suppression system was held not to be a strict obligation and not to require the designer to comply with every part of the standard. It meant the standard’s recommendations were to apply generally and, if there was a good reason for departing from those, that would not be a breach. The conclusion that this was not a strict obligation and the finding of 75 per cent
Messer supplied Britvic with CO2 containing benzene, making it unsaleable. Britvic’s specification required the product to comply with BS 4105. The Court of Appeal found it did. Nevertheless, the CO2 was found not to be of satisfactory quality. What can architects do to protect their position? 1. Ensure that your duty to provide your services and any specific obligations to comply with standards are expressly stated to be reasonable skill and care obligations. 2. If you depart from a standard, document the reasons for it and involve someone suitably experienced in the decision-making process. 3. If a claim is threatened, look at the terms of your appointment to establish the nature of your obligations. 4. Look for insurance products offering wider cover, ie all civil liability, including breaches of strict obligations. Peter Stockill MSc FCIArb is a partner at Berrymans Lace Mawer, which operates the RIBA Legal Helpline
ARCHITECTURAL PRESS ARCHIVE / RIBA LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Culture
OBJECT FAILURE Douglas Murphy’s The Architecture of Failure raises spectres of abject ruins in recent practice and theory, writes Richard Weston ..
..
The triumph of Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace as a pre-eminent demonstration of a new means of iron and glass construction, and of a resulting new kind of space, is central to the narrative of Modernism. Less well known, save for the fire that consumed it in 1936, is the structure’s bizarre and ultimately degrading after-life at Sydenham. Re-appropriated into the eclectic culture of its time, the reconstructed – and significantly reconfigured – building was transformed into what Douglas Murphy ..
Main picture The spectacular Crystal Palace Top The transept of Albert Palace Above Isambard Kingdom Brunel Above right Crystal Palace after the fire
describes as an ‘immersive educational environment’. This was replete with ‘improving’ sculptures, two dozen courts modelled on historic architecture across the world, a chamber music space where many works by leading continental composers such as Schubert, Schumann and Brahms were performed in the UK for the first time, and finally, at the end of one transept, a performance space with a capacity for more than 20,000 that became famous for the Triennial Handel Festival, in >>
RIBA LIBRARY & PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Culture The Architecture of Failure
which choirs of up to 3,000 would perform Messiah. Recent parallels for this ‘multimedia environment’ are not hard to find: the retrofitting of rooms to tame the vast spaces of the Beaubourg and adaptation of the Millennium Dome to form the O2 Arena being the most obvious. Yet Murphy’s argument is more far-reaching and provocative. He sees the ‘heroic’ iron and glass structures of early Modern architecture as paradigms of a condition that pervades recent practice, from the reductive ‘Solutionism’ of Cedric Price and High-Tech – with their roots in the 19th-century idolisation of the engineer – to the ‘iconic’ structures of Frank Gehry; from the trivialisation of ‘theory’ by Peter Eisenman to the digital adventures of Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher. The skewer through the kebab of Murphy’s argument ..
book The Architecture of Failure, by Douglas Murphy, Zero Books, £11.99, March 2012
rests on the idea of ‘spectrality’, a term invoked by Jacques Derrida to describe ‘the inconsistent presence of objects and their mediated being’. Although conventionally thought of as solid, stable and long-lasting, all architecture is, in some sense, Murphy argues, ‘spectral’, endlessly fragmented by its partial transmission through different media. The ‘abstract ruins’ of early iron and glass buildings epitomise this condition, physically as well as metaphorically, not least because we know many of the most splendid – such as the Crystal Palace and Dutert’s Galérie des Machines – only through photographs and other descriptions. Similarly spectral was the related ‘lost’ aesthetic of girders and cables of the Festival of Britain – exemplified by Ralph Tubbs’ Dome of Discovery ..
JANET HALL / RIBA LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION RIBA LIBRARY & PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION
and the Skylon – that was to haunt a new generation of architects, including Archigram, Foster and Rogers. A consequence of eulogising this imagery and the reductive ‘Solutionist’ view of architecture it encourages is, Murphy argues, everywhere apparent: ‘The hightech spaces we walk through now are fit only for the smiling ghosts of computer visualisations, a purgatory of “aspirational but accessible” restaurants and bars, “media walls” and “public art” of unremitting dreariness.’ Murphy’s next targets are the apparent inverses of the ‘abstract ruins’ of iron and glass, the all-too-tangible bespoke sculptural icons of the credit-fuelled boom years that Jonathan Meades has aptly dubbed ‘sight-bites’. He addresses them under the heading ‘Iconism’ and begins with the ‘puerile nihilism’ of Eisenman, with his early efforts ..
Far left The 1951 Festival of Britain’s Dome of Discovery and Skylon Top The Millennium Dome, now reborn as the O2 Arena Left Archigram: The Walking City, Ron Herron, 1964 Right Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Foster + Partners, Norwich, 1978
The skewer of Murphy’s argument rests on the idea of spectrality to ‘de-centre’ architecture from its humanist traditions and later, risible determination to found a new architecture upon the improbable foundations of the deconstructive theories of Derrida. What opaque intellectualism had done in promoting Eisenman’s reputation within academic and cultural circles, ‘frightfully banal paintings’ did for Hadid, and both were celebrated in the Deconstructivist >>
LUIS MIGUEL BUGALLO SÁNCHEZ (LMBUGA)
PETER KENT / RIBA LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPHS COLLECTION
Culture The Architecture of Failure
Architecture show at MOMA alongside the leading master of sight-bite architecture, Frank Gehry. Concluding with thoughts about the ‘Virtualism’ of recent digital architecture Murphy neatly combines the two strands of his argument. Intellectually, we enter the world of flows, fluxes and animistic desire in which the writings of Deleuze and Guattari loom large, while operationally the
Intellectually, we enter the world of flows, fluxes and animistic desire ..
Top left Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, 1997 Bottom left Santiago de Compostela’s City of Culture, Eisenman Architects, 1999 Above Riverside Museum, Glasgow, Zaha Hadid Architects, 2011
same parametric software is rendering the unique generic as similar fluid, folding forms pour on to the screens of architects of otherwise very different lineages, generally supported by much the same spurious arguments about ‘emergent complexity’ as a reflection of the age, and ‘fluidity’ as an analogue for natural forms and processes. The fact that biomimicry is yielding extraordinary inventions at the micro-scale, or offering useful models for energy-efficiency, is no reason to suppose it has large-scale formal lessons for architecture. Similarly, it is far from self-evident, as Schumacher of Zaha Hadid’s office claims, that what he terms ‘Parametricism’ is the necessary expression of a ‘post-Fordist network economy, globalisation and… lifestyle diversification’ celebrated, ironically, in more ..
HUFTON + CROW
The world’s depleting oil reserves are a powerful talking point, writes James Pallister
or less the same spatial types as the original iron and glass structures with which Murphy’s book began. This is a neat convergence, but the attempt to shoehorn together two arguments, one born from detailed research into the cultural legacy of the architecture of iron and glass, the other a more sweeping and enjoyably trenchant critique of architecture’s recent past, feels uneasy. Both are provocative, and in places brilliant, and though I don’t find the thread Murphy weaves between them is as continuous as perhaps he would like, The Architecture of Failure can be recommended as a lively piece of critical history and a stimulus to constructing something more durable from the ruins of the present. ■ Richard Weston is professor of architecture at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University ..
‘In 1997 I had what I refer to as my oil epiphany. It occurred to me that the vast, human-altered landscapes that I pursued and photographed for over 20 years were only made possible by the discovery of oil,’ reflects Edward Burtynsky. The fruits of this road-to-Damascus moment are currently on show in Soho, London, where the 57-yearold Canadian photographer has the honour of being the newly renovated Photographers’ Gallery inaugural exhibitor. Burtynsky is tackling what will become one of the biggest topics of the 21st century, the point at which we will no longer be able to rely on inexhaustible amounts of oil to provide the stuff of our everyday lives, including the chemicals and paper on which the analogue version of his chosen artistic medium depends. A landscape photographer influenced by the German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher and the Düsseldorf school – Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, et al – Burtynsky has a simultaneously epic and deadpan style. In this exhibition, the detail which he obsessively captures ranges from freeways and refineries, tyre dumps and oil pumps, to the melancholic elephants’ graveyard of a Bangladeshi ship breakers yard for scrapping retired oil tankers. Attached to the exhibition is a series of events, which will include Professor Liz Wells’ talk on ‘Beyond Documentary – Currencies of the Post-industrial Sublime.’ One of the highlights of the evening lectures curated by Burtynsky will take place on 21 June, when clinical psychologist, Observer columnist and author of Affluenza Oliver James will discuss the idea of denial and climate change in his lecture ‘Our Mad World: Why it May Be About to Go Saner and Greener.’
visit Burtynsky: Oil, 19 May–1 July, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
Classified
The Architects’ Journal Emap Communications Greater London House Hampstead Road London nw1 7ej
3D COMPUTER VISUALISATION
Display advertising 020 7728 3762 Careers advertising 020 7728 4518 Advertising fax number 020 7728 3888
Deadlines Bookings/copy 5pm Monday Artwork 12pm Tuesday
LAND SURVEYORS
www.glass-canvas.co.uk info@glass-canvas.co.uk
020 3117 2580 “Glass Canvas creates 3D images, animations, short films and VR applications. We’re able to take the most complex of narratives and communicate them simply and clearly through a variety of mixed media” Andrew Goodeve, MD
3D Visualisation 020 7916 1111 FOR SALE
CONCRETE PRODUCTS To advertise in
the next issue of
Architects Journal, please contact
Mark Malone on 020 7728 3823
www.architectsjournal.co.uk 56 theaj.co.uk
To advertise in this section please contact Mark Malone on 020 7728 3823 or email mark.malone@emap.com 14.06.12
Careers
The Architects’ Journal Emap Communications Greater London House Hampstead Road London nw1 7ej
Display advertising 020 7728 3762 Careers advertising 020 7728 4518 Advertising fax number 020 7728 3888
Deadlines Bookings/copy 5pm Monday Artwork 12pm Tuesday
LECTURER: ARCHITECTURE
www.hud.ac.uk/jobs
£30,122 - £35,938 per annum Full-Time
Senior Lecturer in Architecture (Management, Practice and Law)
BA (Hons) Architecture is a new course within the Faculty of Arts and Design, which will have its first intake in September 2012. Following the appointment of a Course Leader and successful approval of the award we are now seeking a lecturer to join the academic team. The successful candidate will have experience of studio teaching in Architecture in the Higher Education environment. Understanding of teaching and learning strategies to enhance student learning is essential. Experience of teaching architectural software and/or an ability to engage students with the historical and contextual aspects of architectural practice are desirable. Closing date: 21st Thursday June 2012. Interview date: 10th Tuesday July 2012. Application packs and further details for the above posts are available at www.nuca.ac.uk/jobs email jobs@nuca.ac.uk or telephone 01603 756243.
School of Art, Design and Architecture £36,271 - £45,908 (pro-rata) Huddersfield 0.5 FTE
Ref: 6338
The School of Art, Design and Architecture offers a range of architectural courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. We are committed to providing excellence in design teaching and a high quality learning environment. We now seek to appoint a Senior Lecturer to contribute to delivery of all aspects of professional practice, management and law in architecture and architectural technology at all levels across the suite of courses. Experience of teaching at this level is essential along with broad experience of professional practice and current knowledge of the professional body criteria for courses in architecture and architectural technology. A masters degree (at RIBA part 3) or equivalent in architecture is essential with an understanding of course design and delivery in architectural education in the UK/EU, desirable. This challenging role calls for an adaptable and pragmatic organiser. You will be an architect with a record of research/scholarly activity through teaching or other relevant practice related experience, with specific expertise in one or more of the following areas: Design, Technology, Sustainability. This is a great opportunity to join a busy, enthusiastic team and play an important part in the development of the School. For further details and an application form visit www.hud.ac.uk/jobs Alternatively contact the Personnel Office on 01484 472845. Closing date: 18 June 2012. Interview date: 16 July 2012. Working for Equal Opportunities.
Committed to equality and valuing diversity
Innovative University. Inspiring Employer.
visit www.architectsjournal.co.uk the home of British architecture
To advertise in the next issue of Architects Journal, please contact
Mark Malone on 020 7728 3823 or email mark.malone@Emap.com
14.06.12
57
Ian Martin
Thinking outside the hub, conceptualising a new club reputation for world class delivery delivery. RIPBA president Molly Bismuth makes it clear that this blue sky thinkabout is not about ‘finding retrofit pop-up answers to questions nobody’s asking. Rather, we should ask about the pop-up questions being asked, so we may then ask what answers might pop up’. Nobody could argue with that. By lunchtime we’ve redefined the entire planet as ‘Client Earth’ and thought about a kind of non gender-specific hat that might be worn by Architects From The Four Corners Of The World. There’s a heated debate about the implicit conformity of corners, and hats. In the afternoon we sketch out ideas for increasing subscription income – correction – strengthening the international epic space community: 1. Redesign the RIPBA emblem to make it more globally readable. Rampant pandas instead of lions. And maybe instead of putting them either side of some enigmatic drivel, have them flanking an animated avatar of the Shard being built in three seconds. 2. Set up a Twitter account called @RIPBA_Earth then invite the global community to suggest inclusive hashtags. 3. Think beyond global. Think beyond galactic. Think universal. There is no evidence alien worlds are teeming with potential clients, or that these alien clients are seeking terrestrial consultants in non genderspecific hats. But the observable universe has a radius of about 46 billion light years, and that’s a lot of opportunity. 4. Raise awareness of the RIPBA brand in eg China, India and Brazil by relentlessly promoting it in local languages eg Chinese, Indian and Brazilian. 5. Introduce an affordable Global Basic Membership that lets you put the letters ‘RIPBA’ after your name to make you look a bit more important.
MONDAY. I am to curate an exhibition at Rotterdam’s Museum of The Self. It will challenge perceptions of what architecture is and how this affects the viewer, as well as looking at the notion of ‘viewer’ and examining how this might be affected by architecture. I will also explore the psychological overlap of ‘architecture’ and ‘viewer’. I had thought of blurring the boundaries between ‘curating’ and ‘simply filling the space’ but it got complicated trying to resolve two very different professional fee scales. TUESDAY. Design an innovative funding platform for community building projects. I’m only using local materials: a pontoon of local social collateral enmeshed in wishful local thinking. WEDNESDAY. I have been commissioned by a Midlands city council to masterplan the regeneration of its inhabitants. Many residents and visitors hark back to the 1980s and are beginning to look worn and outdated. This is having a ‘negative impact on the specialness of our public space’. I will of course retain any important historical characters, subject to reinterpretation with contemporary trousers and a wi-fi connection. And I’ll respect human mass, the grain of the majority of people who remain unlisted but NB many older members of the population are developing serious structural defects. ‘Vernacular with a twist’ is how I’m presenting it. Memo To Self: preserve local accents but encourage more Facebook slang, spoken emoticons and rising inflections?
..
FRIDAY. To a conference on the re-use of derelict docks – ‘The Jolly Green Challenge’. Summary: renewal is stimulated by ‘nodes’ of growth; we should think of ‘Harbour Greening’ not as a comic novel but more as a collection of wisecracking one-liners, ‘my dock’s got no nodes’ etc.
HANNA MELIN
THURSDAY. To the Royal Institute for the Pop-Uption of British Architects. It’s a closed session, as you’d expect. The only item on the agenda is ‘World Domination’. There are ambitious plans to turn the RIPBA into a ‘global pop-uppable hub’. Smartarse critics will say this sounds like a sinking ship. But I commend the internationalisation of pop-uption. You can’t stop the future from happening, and technically the future is NOW. Oh, you say, ‘technically’ it isn’t, but that’s already a sentence ago and we’ve moved on. Branding mavericks from across the industry are here, including Samantha HD Ready, the branding maverick’s branding maverick. There are luminaries from the world of cultural envisionment too – Butch Wakefield of Wakefield Gobber Marbles the strategy strategists and Shona Foursquare, whose consultancy has built an enviable
SATURDAY. Five-a-zeitgeist theoretical football. Historically Contextualised Reappraisal 0, Controlled Explosion 1. After extra time, clothes-swapping and the systematic erosion of local authority budgets. SUNDAY. Form a global hub in the recliner. ..
£75 UK £75 USA £102 ROW
CRITICAL THINKING FOR CRITICAL TIMES
AR115e
subscription.co.uk/ar/ajad AR115e black subs ad FP.indd 1
27/01/2012 15:40