View of mezzanine office to rear of atrium at first floor.
Client happy with extra meeting room space.

View from ground floor looking up at glass bridge and skylight beyond

Internal view from Atrium. Above, new glass bridge link from existing building into new extension.
Main feature of scheme, works well both visually and functionally

Glass canopy and level threshold on entrance

Existing office building to the left, with new main entrance and 2 storey offices to the right.Client and Planners keen to mirror the existing building – Atrium acts as a modern intervention between the two buildings.

Constructional progress drawings during development phase

Preliminary sketch following discussions with Client regarding the quality of the main entrance.
To function as a threshold between public and private realms.

Completed site Layout early 2005, showing new 2 storey office extension with glazed atrium link (blue)

 After a few months of delay Middlesbrough’s new institute of modern art is due to open on Saturday 27 January 2007. 

MIMA’s inaugural exhibition, Draw: Conversations Around the Legacy of Drawing, features a selection of sketches and drawings from some of the most influential and revolutionary artists of the 20th Century.

With pieces from Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, there is something to grab both seasoned art connoisseurs and those that don’t know their Monet from their Manet.

A spectacular opening piece from abstract artist DJ Simpson and rare sketches from Damien Hirst and Pablo Picasso are without doubt the highlights of the MIMA experience, but it wouldn’t be right to reveal anymore and ruin the surprise – you’ll just have to go along to the sneak preview exhibition on Saturday 27th January between 5.30pm and 9pm to find out for yourself.

The finalists in the competition to design a new ‘prototype’ landscape which could be built throughout Middlesbrough have been unveiled.

Among the five designers shortlisted in the RIBA-organised A66 Gateway contest is AJ/Corus 40 Under 40 starlet Ian McChesney.

He is joined by Paris-based Arkenspaces, North East environmental consultant Anthony Walker and Partners, the Halsall Lloyd Partnerships and London fledgling Newbetter.

The teams were initially asked to come up with innovative proposals to revamp the public realm around the town’s Cargo Fleet transport interchange. However, if the winning scheme is successful it is believed Middlesbrough Council could roll out the ‘prototype treatment’ throughout the ‘A66 roadscape’.

Rosi Lister, director of Tees Valley Arts, the organisation project-managing the scheme, said: ‘The shortlisting panel was pleased by the response to the competition, which elicited 28 expressions of interest from across the world, and five companies have been shortlisted by a panel including representatives from Middlesbrough Council, Tees Valley Regeneration, Halcrow, RIBA and the project managers Tees Valley Arts.’

Each of these five finalists has been handed a £3,000 honorarium to help them develop a full design to be presented before the judges in mid-March.

From AJ Daily News Wednesday 23 January 2007

• Vision of Redcar + Cleveland Council to regenerate Redcar by creating new Leisure and shopping hub in the Links area
• Development with Persimmon  won in competition
• Masterplan based around creation of a link Axis from Church to Waterfront
• Apartments to waterfront
• Housing behind apartments
• Public zone on eastern edge of the site, to include Extreme Sports, Bingo, Visitor Centre, Leisure Centre, Pub, Shops, Medical Centre, Parking, etc
• Previous schemes by Carey Jones (visitor centre)  and Limbrick (leisure centre) have been abandoned. New schemes developed by P+HS Architects
• Planning Application submitted mid 2006
• Early schemes involved the development of the Brief, which had been basic and incomplete
• Early elevation design created issues with Planning Authority and a number of issues were explored further and refined.
• Concepts for revised elevations follow Marine theme
• Curving roof
• Fin walls omitted
• Local material – brick and render
• Durable materials at ground floor to limit effects of vandalism
• Sporting Consultants involved to confirm brief and functional requirements.
• No views into sporting areas from outside impact on elevations
• P+HS keen to maintain high quality of design for when the scheme reaches Construciton phase, e.g carry out early detail design as part of pre-tender works.
• AT future review on maintaining design integrity through detailing will be useful

The writings of James Joyce, the scribblings of Kate Bush and the design work of my ex-employer, Nightingales. Who’d have thought they could be so intertwined? Probably just me. Below, is the text from an as yet unreleased press report by journalist Will Hurst regarding research into alternative therapy and it’s possible impact on healthcare design. I hope you find it of interest, especially as it shows some insight into the work of a potential competitor in the health sector, particularly where both P+HS and NA’s spheres overlap across South Yorks and the Midlands. 

Nightingale Associates is to put a decades’ worth of research into the healing aspects of design to the test, under a unique project also involving the Building Centre, Arup and electronics giant Philips. By Will Hurst  Together they have devised the Hpod, designed to demonstrate how manipulating the five senses can affect wellbeing and healing.  The Hpod will form the centrepiece of a public exhibition at the Building Centre next autumn, and is set to influence government policy on hospitals and could even revolutionise building design in general by focusing architects on the benefits of lighting and sound rather than the fabric of buildings.  

The pod — which individuals sit in to receive a tailor-made cocktail of sensations according to an individual “prescription” — is designed to show how single rooms in hospitals can respond to a patient’s needs through smart card technology.  Richard Mazuch, a respected figure in healthcare design and director of Nightingale’s, who has been working on the prototype device explained: “We have been collecting data on sense-sensitive design from around the world for 10 years, and I can actually give you a prescription to get better based on colour, views lighting, touch and so on.  

“Studies have shown, for instance, that visions of snow and ice can reduce the pain of burns victims. We know that the colour orange helps mothers lactate and the smell of vanilla helps babies to feed.  “We are going to build these pods in the Building Centre. They will have flatscreen monitors inside and some will be heated, some will be oscillating, some will have air pumped in… it all relates to research. We are trying to bring all the evidence-based knowledge we have to create the optimum healing environment.”  

Chief architect at the Department of Health’s estates and facilities department Chris Farrah called the Hpod an “exciting and innovative” development.  “This is the first time anyone has tried to grab hold of all of the information [on sense-sensitive design] and make… tangible modifications to the healthcare environment in this way,” he said. “I will be very interested to see it in action and would like to be able to use it to inform the department’s work.”  

The partners also hope the device can be modified for use in the education sector by using lighting and acoustics to influence the ability to learn.

It’s official – the Housing Corporation and regeneration agency English Partnerships are engaged and will tie the knot as soon as possible. Announcing the news yesterday, Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly said that the new super-agency can expect to have a budget of over £4 billion to spend.The merger of the two heavyweight agencies was widely anticipated, following the government’s announcement of a Housing and Regeneration Review last April. In the event, Communities England, as the new agency will be known, is also set to take over some of the functions currently carried out by Kelly’s DCLG, including the decent homes strategy, housing market renewal and housing PFI.

‘With the expectation of over £4 billion of public spending at its disposal, Communities England will pioneer innovative and more efficient ways of working with our key partners in the public, private and voluntary sector to get better outcomes from public investment in places,’ said Kelly.

‘Central to meeting its challenge the agency will not only ensure greater value for money but also guarantee the very highest standards of quality, design, energy efficiency and sustainability.’

Both agencies were stressing that it will be business as usual over the coming months, with continuity of existing programmes, at least for the time being. However it is clear that the government wants to effect the merger and have a fully operational organisation up and running as soon as possible. Baroness Ford, chairman of English Partnerships, has been appointed to head up the transition team that will undertake the planning for the new organisation.

[RIBA Practice Bulletin No. 381]

[Image taken from Building Design Issue 1753]

Can you guess what it is yet? 

Walkergate Hospital in Newcastle, designed by P+HS Architects, is nearing completion and this is an image of the Art installation within the main entrance. The sculpture ‘Aurora’ was designed by International Artist Kisa Kawakami and consists of a series of coloured hanging rods with reflective disks attached. The ‘floating colours’ are designed to merge into more complex shades and densities and Kisa describes it as ’a wonder of lights in abstract form’. The sculpture was manufactured by Clifford Chapman in Washington, Tyne and Wear.