New Approach at LMU Bears Fruit
Tom Potter's Monastery - External
29 Jun 2009
Richard Waite, AJ News Editor, has noticed that Leeds Met has changed its approach to teaching architecture and the shift is bearing fruit. At the recent select exhibition for the school’s end-of-year show, Richard said “the projects closest to the door, drawn up by post-graduate students, are impressive…Tom Potter has created a sweet, colonnaded Chipperfield-esque model for a micro brewery in Leeds.” Nice one Tom
26 Jun 2009
Planning Permission granted - NUH New Radiotherapy Centre
In a follow up to our initial post some months ago, Nottingham City Council has recently granted full planning permission for a new radiotherapy centre at Nottingham University Hospital.
Due to start on site mid July this year, P+HS Architects have been working closely with Medicinq Simons under a ProCure 21 contract.
Breeam target - Excellent
Contract value - approx £12 million
Completion date - October 2010
25 Jun 2009
Blaydon Primary Care & Leisure Centre
Work has started on the new Blaydon Primary Care / Leisure Centre.
P+HS Architects are responsible for the design of the Primary Care Centre, while S&P Architects are responsible for the Leisure Centre.
The Primary Care Centre concrete driven piles and pile caps are now complete and erection of the steel frame is underway [approx 20% complete], the Leisure Centre steel frame is due for erection on 24th August, Week 22.
These photographs were taken from the raised viewing platform between the Willmott Dixon site offices.
The project is being delivered under the scape procurement method.
Contractor: Willmott Dixon Limited
Contract Value: £17.5m approx [AMP]
Completion Date: September 2010
Week 6 of 78
Week 8 of 78
Week 13 of 78
23 Jun 2009
Seaham Health Centre receives Planning Approval
Seaham Health Centre has received Planning Approval from County Durham.
Procured through LIFT with Accent and CP25 the new health centre will provide “state of the art” primary care in Seaham. It’s been designed as part of a new Public Realm for St John’s Square, which will include a new park, Library and office space. The project is due to start on site in early 2010.
22 Jun 2009
Government performs ‘pathetic’ u-turn on Part L
The construction industry is ‘shocked’ at the ‘pathetic’ decision to scrap Building Regulations Part L2A’s ‘consequential improvements’ clause. The Building Regulations Part L2A’s ‘consequential improvements’ clause - which would require homeowners to upgrade the energy efficiency of their homes when undertaking significant refurbishment - was dropped from the consultation document which was released yesterday by John Healy, the housing minister.
Read the rest of Hattie Hartman’s article here.
22 Jun 2009
Planning consent extended to six years
The Housing and Planning Minister John Healey has announced that planning permission consents can be doubled from the current three years to six years, in a move to encourage building. The move echoes that of Steve Quartermain, chief planner at Communities and Local Government, who in May wrote to all planning authorities to extend the consent period to five years.
See the rest of Christopher Sell’s AJ article here.
18 Jun 2009
Fodder Open for Business
Stacks of local produce
View of Fodder
Inside the café
The new development at The Yorkshire Showground was officially opened last night: it includes superb office accommodation and meeting rooms for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, along with office space for start up businessses with agricultural links from the region. The really tasty bit though is the farm shop and cafe, where trading is brisk. ’Fodder’ as it is aptly named, opened its doors to the public earlier this month, and it really is worth a visit: not only is it located in a great building with lots of eco friendly features, the shop is stacked full of locally sourced fresh and speciality foods. So if you’re looking for something to do this weekend, take a trip to Harrogate..and fill your baskets (made from recycled plastic of course).
10 Jun 2009
LMU Arts Festival 2009
If anyone is interested, Leeds Met University is holding its annual Arts Festival at the moment, with the architecture section opening this weekend. The exhibition is split over three sites (all in and around Leeds city centre) and includes selections of work from a whole range of creative disciplines, including graphic design, art, architecture, landscape, film making and performing arts. More information can be found on the LMU website.
9 Jun 2009
P+HS Scoops Best Healthcare Building at LABC Awards
Once again, P+HS have excelled themselves at the LABC Northern Region Building Excellence Awards. In a glittering ceremony, P+HS received two commendations for Eaglescliffe Health Centre (with Tolent Construction) and Wrekenton Health Centre (with Laing O’Rourke), and won the Best Healthcare Building overall for Washington Primary Care Centre (also with Laing O’Rourke). Washington will now go through to the National LABC Awards later in the year. Congratulations to all involved. The results were as follows:
Washington Primary Care Centre for Sunderland Teaching PCT- Best Healthcare Building - Overall Winner
Wrekenton Health Centre for Sunderland Teaching PCT - Commended
Eaglescliffe Health Centre for Abstract Integrated Healthcare - Commended
8 Jun 2009
Adding to the P+HS Talent Pool
P+HS have increased the size of their talent pool. Two of our students, Ryan Meadows and Tom Potter, have passed Part 2 of the RIBA Qualification with merit: they will be joined at P+HS by another successful student, James Park, who starts work with us on June 15th. All of their Project work is showcased here, and P+HS congratulate them all for their hard work and outstanding results.
Ryan’s Project:
Urban Scout Centre
“The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the traditional scout movement is relevant in contemporary society - specifically in an urban environment? And if a new model is required what effect will it have on the facilities required and upon their design?”
Tom’s Project:
Trappist Monastery/Brewery
“By transposing this normally secluded building type into an urban, overlooked location this project will explore the modern monastic lifestyle requirements. In particular, this project will draw on the apparent paradox of isolation versus integration to reinterpreted the traditional monastic brief into a new and more viable alternative.”
James’ Project:
Foyer
“This thesis is creating awareness of the issues facing young people who are homeless, unemployed or feel excluded from society. My aim is to create a place where they can live and learn independently. I intend to design a Foyer that can be of benefit to young people and appreciated by the wider community, that will hopefully spur on other, similar projects.”
4 Jun 2009
Common of Houses
Here’s a novel response to the ongoing MPs expenses fiasco: An architectural design competition to find a housing solution for MPs in Westminster and in their constituencies.
Download the brief here: http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/J…ion%20Pack.pdf
Additional information here: http://commonofhouses.blogspot.com/
7 May 2009
Eaglescliffe Medical Centre Opens
Eaglescliffe Medical Centre was officially opened on Tuesday 5th May. Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson was the guest of honour at a well attended ceremony with representatives from all the building’s stakeholders. The Centre was developed by Abstract Integrated Healthcare and constructed by Tolent. One of the senior GP’s, Krysia Ellenger, described her feelings about the new building designed by the P+HS team.
” Just what the doctor ordered ! A building that so intimately reflects our vision and our ethos . A place of light, of healing, of comfort. A building that exudes quality, calmness and soothes pain. A building that is ambitious, that reflects the modernity of medicine, of ever expanding knowledge and yet it embraces the human side. A building that encourages wisdom, is kind to the soul and has context . ”
I think that sums it up! It’s a great example of team working delivering clients’ aspirations. Well done to everyone involved.
Photography by Doug Jackson
22 Apr 2009
Submitting planning applications and buying plans all in one place
Please see below information received from the Planning Portal.
I have noticed that you’ve previously used the Planning Portal to submit your planning applications, but were you also aware that you can purchase your site location plans through our mapping service?
Even with online applications steadily increasing over the past few years, still many mapping suppliers are producing maps in paper format. The scanning of these paper maps is against Ordnance Survey copyright rules and can lead to applications being rejected.
To help you avoid this we have developed a new service that enables you to buy your maps electronically, benefits of the service include:
- Ability to view your map before you purchase it
- Assurance your map is up to date with the correct licensing for your application
- Facility to highlight boundaries and annotate the map without the need for additional software
- No need to convert file formats - maps are ready to uploaded to your electronic application
To ensure this service is easy to use, we have partnered with four Planning Portal accredited, leading mapping suppliers - Streetwise, Stanfords, Getmapping and eMapSite.com. This will give you the choice to use the supplier that best suits your needs, whilst ensuring your map will be accepted but every Local Authority in England and Wales.
To start benefiting from this new service today or to just have a look please click here .
7 Apr 2009
Annotation Scale Crisis
I’ve had a few staff here complaining of very slow opening times for CAD drawings, and also huge delays when copying/pasting between drawings. In the worst cases this wait has grown to 10mins or more, which isn’t particularly productive.
It seems the problem caused by a huge annotation scale list that builds up exponentially in LT2008 when you start xrefing drawings. Overlaid xrefs cause the same damage, and detaching them doesn’t take away the annotation scales they brought in. You soon end up with thousands of scales and the drawings are near-impossible to work with.
This problem may be encountered by anyone, but it is only caused by 2008 versions of cad that haven’t been upgraded with service pack 1.
- To fix this, start off by installing Service Pack 1 - this will prevent the problem reoccurring once the drawings are sorted out. It’s on both our servers ready to install, and only takes 2 mins. Alternatively download it here.
- Clear out the redundant scales in each drawing by entering the “-SCALELISTEDIT” command. Choose ‘Reset’ and ‘Yes’. Or
- For batch clearing of entire affected jobs, use Autodesk’s ‘Scale List Clean-up Utility’ to reset the whole lot back to match our template. See Andy (Stokesley) or myself (Leeds) for a hand doing this.
Once everyone is upgraded with the service pack we will never have the problem again. Hopefully.
3 Apr 2009
Site Waste Management
The Site Waste Management Regulations 2008 came into effect 6th April 2008 in England and for those who have not yet been requested to provide designers information yet, don’t worry, you will.
Site Waste Management Plans are required for construction projects valued greater than £300k (excl VAT) with more detailed reporting required to Plans developed for projects over £500k (excl VAT).
The Client is responsible for ensuring a Plan is prepared before construction work begins, and I suggest that an advisory note is forwarded (similar to CDM Regs) advising the Client at the time of our appointment. Some Clients may not be aware of their obligations.
As designers, we need to provide information for the plan, advising of decisions taken to minimise waste production.
The principle Contractor develops, updates and implements the Site Waste Management Plan and both the Client and the Principal Contractor are responsible for reviewing, refining and revising the plan as necessary.
Note: Work cannot commence until the Site Waste Management Plan is signed by the Client and Principal Contractor.
Useful Guidance`
Industry Guidance.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/pdf/uksi_20080314_en.pdf
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/construction/pdf/swmp-guidance.pdf
http://www.netregs-swmp.co.uk/simple-guide-20080406.pdf
Information Resources
http://www.breeam.org/ (BRE Environmental Assessment Method)
http://www.wrap.org.uk/construction/
http://www.bre.co.uk ( Green Guide to Specification)
http://www.ciria.org.uk/ (Design for Deconstruction: Principles of Design to Facilitate Reuse & Recycle )
http://www.dh.gov.uk/ ( NHS Environmental Tool)