The Yorkshire Post Environment Awards 2010 took place last night at the Queens Hotel in Leeds. There were a total of 89 entries, and in our category of Built Environment for Projects over £1M there were three projects shortlisted;

Morrisons Halifax, designed by Bauman Lyons
Safety Central, Bramley, a pioneering £3.5m safety education centre.
The Regional Agricultural Centre, at The Great Yorkshire Showground.

Presented by Hilary Ben MP and Julia Bradbury (of Countryfile fame) the title gives away the winner.

Along with Nigel Pulling, (YAS, Managing Director) and Heather Parry (YAS, Deputy Chief Executive) I was delighted to accept the award on behalf of P+HS Architects.
Photographs to follow (of me being hugged by Julia!)

Thanks again to all those who work on the project, not least Eamon, Mike & Dave.

Part L is being amended and is due to come into force on 6th October 2010. Many of the changes aim to more clearly distinguish “Requirements” from “Guidance”.

There are also a number of changes, the main ones being:
Design Submissions to be a requirement (in the Regulations) as well as As Built Submissions
No change to the methodology for calculating the TER beyond the 25% reduction in the target.
The guidance proposes a “strategic sequence” for meeting the TER target
Builders to be able to get lower DERs if they adopt procedures that provide more quality assurance e.g. Air Permeability (more pressure testing), Thermal Bridges.
Design Limits for Building Fabric – no changes.
Design Limits for Building Services - expanded to cover micro-generation of heat and electricity.
Clearer rules for air permeability assessment at the As Built stage, involving more pressure testing.
Thermal bridging – 25% to be added on to calculated values if accredited details not used
Party Walls – no longer assumed to have a U value of 0.0 W/m2K; value depends upon construction.
Conservatories – exemption for conservatories of less than 30 m2 to be removed.

We’ll get some seminars organised when they are available.

Approved Document G (Hygiene)

The new Part G (Hygiene) finally comes into force on the 6th April 2010 after being delayed from an original introduction on 1st October 2009.

The main points are; Changes to cold water supply requirements, hot water safety and the introduction of a new provision relating to water efficiency in new dwellings. See link here.

The BBC recently had a days filming at the new ‘Fodder’ farm shop and cafe building we designed for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society on The Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate.
Apparently, they filmed for 12 hours and somehow this has been condensed into 3 full minutes! and this will be aired this Friday 21st August on the BBC1 One Show (7pm start).

For those of you who have not been, here’s a chance to see it.

I attended the York Design Awards 2009, last Monday evening, which were held in the new £60M York College campus.

There was a strong field of entries this year and there were categories for new build, conservation, open space/public realm and mixed (those that do not fit elsewhere).

In the new build category there were 20 schemes which ranged from simple house extensions to our development at Heworth Green, a real mixed bag. 3 prizes were given out in this category and the winner for the large development was the recently completed York Eco Business Centre.

Whilst we did not bag a prize the Chairman of the panel of judges (Mr. Ken Powell,MA,Hon.RIBA) said of our building ‘it is a slick well finished building rarely seen in the city with a feeling of international architecture’

The Lord Mayor’s Prize went to York St. John University, De Grey Court (which is also a Yorkshire RIBA 2009 winner) if you have not seen the building follow this link.

I’m sure you all know we subscribe to IHS to provide us with access to the latest British Standards, Building Regulations, Health Technical Memoranda etc. If you have not looked follow this link http://uk.ihs.com/

Our user Log in is phsa and I’m sure a team member will give you the password!

Having just renewed our subscription we have been given the data on just how often it has been used.
Back in April of this year for example The Construction Information Service was accessed 66 times which as expected our far biggest use of the portal. Specify-it being the next highest accessed at 7 times last December.

Overall we have accessed it 589 times in the year, and viewed 1113 documents.

BONFIRE OF THE OLD FIRE REGULATIONS
Fire certificates became history this week as new fire safety law came into force from 1 October 2006. The legislation, which replaces over 70 pieces of legislation with a single reform, has been well signalled though many businesses will remain unaware of their responsibilities.

The key reform is that tasking of a ‘responsible person’ within each business premises to be accountable for fire safety, including checks on fire protection equipment and facilities.

Specific guidance documents, which can be purchased or freely downloaded, has been replaced for a whole range of business premises - such as residential care homes, factories, healthcare and educational facilities - and can be found at http://www.firesafetyguides.communities.gov.uk

Practice principals are also responsible for their own practice premises, of course, as employers. Your own procedures can be quickly put to the test by using the self-assessment routine at the new Fire Gateway website at http://www.fire.gov.uk