Circle are the U.K.’s largest Partnership of healthcare professionals who have come together to provide accessible, 21st century healthcare to all patients. Circle has appointed design teams of international reputation to design a new generation of “compact” hospitals and clinics.

They are: Foster + Partners, Hopkins Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. These firms have produced some of the most iconic buildings in Europe, including the Swiss Re Tower (the “Gherkin”), Lord’s Cricket Ground Mound Stand and Terminal Five at Heathrow Airport. Together with Circle, these three distinguished design firms will share knowledge and best practice around the better design of hospitals in the U.K.

The location, architecture and design of the Circle hospitals constitute a central part of our commitment to providing the highest quality patient experience. Circle will provide clinicians, associates and patients with an attractive working and visiting environment. The hospitals will be in accessible locations, provide sufficient car parking and will be set in landscaped surroundings.

Foster + Partners, Hopkins Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners will create designs that draw upon the healing properties of natural light, promote the soothing effects of colour, supply the stimulation of art and provide the reassurance offered by accessible, uncluttered internal spaces. According to Circle:

“We promote an environmentally sustainable approach to the design and construction of our buildings. Our commitment will be expressed through efficient uses of energy, the adoption of environmentally-friendly materials and the implementation of day-to-day policies of corporate social responsibility in Circle hospitals. All Circle facilities are subject to regulation by the Healthcare Commission.”

The government published its new Housing and Regeneration Bill today, which will facilitate the prime minister’s housing targets.

One of Gordon Brown’s key policies since coming into power has been his promise to deliver three million new homes by 2020. Today’s Bill will help make this possible, and aid the delivery of the required 240,000 new homes a year by 2016.

The Bill will also create the new Homes and Community Agency, which has seen the merger of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.

This new agency will deliver more affordable housing, both social and private, by bringing together the two separate land and housing agencies.

It will also facilitate the government’s plans to provide 10 new eco towns, the locations of which are expected to be unveiled in February.

Richard Vaughan Architects Journal 16 November 2007

If you want to rename multiple files eg, site photos etc, I have recently been using a nifty little piece of Freeware I found on the web called ‘1-4a Rename’. The executable file is stored in Computers and IT and can simply be copied onto your desktop.

Very easy to use, just use the inbuilt explorer to locate your files, fill in the ‘replace’ or ‘Insert/append’ fields as required and select ‘Start’. Job done.

You can also change case if you so desire.

Court Barton, Plot 2

Due for handover at the begining of  December. Each plot is fairly bespoke and each have had there own unique detailing requirements. One of , but not the only feature of this house is the 3m long one piece glass balustrade shown below. In this case the steel fixing plates have been concealed instead of expressed. The Main two storey screen shown in the image above is a collapsable wall system and can open along it’s entire length on to the garden area.

Wk 13 the Steel frame is nearly complete. The positioning and some aspects of the design have had to be carried over from the original planning application prior to our envolvment. The Rotunda shown below here will eventually house the IT learning facilities as a part of the main Library.

 If you’ve still not quite caught up with British Winter Time and feel it’s not worth the hassle when your days feel ‘off-centre’, then here’s more evidence to back our protest!

‘Turning the clocks back each winter is being blamed for boosting greenhouse gas emissions and adding millions of pounds to power bills, according to a new study!

Elizabeth Garnsey, one of the authors, and a Reader in engineering and business at Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing said, ‘Under GMT, around 35% of the population are asleep when the sun rises in winter and so make no use of the extra daylight and when we come home from school or work in cold and darkness, we cause a surge in demand’.

Darker evenings under GMT cause households to use 2% more electricity, generating millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, say researchers. ’Britain can only meet these daily surges by switching on less efficient back-up generating plants such as oil-fired powerstations.

The report calculates that, cumulatively, since the re-imposition of GMT (after a three year trial) in 1971, being on GMT+1 in winter could have supplied the population of Greater London with electricity for two years at current consumption rates!

For anyone who’s interested, the paper can be downloaded here

[Brendan Cronin and Elizabeth Garnsey, (19 October 2007), Daylight Saving in GB; Is there evidence in favour of clock time on GMT?]