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.

 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?]

The new Dalby Forest Visitor Centre. Mostly timber, with some glulam beams. Let down by inadequate detailing and workmanship, which means poor finish and lots of future maintenance.

Don’t bother with the food – it ranks as one of the worst meals ever.

Building Magazine’s Guide to the Top 50 Employers is published today. A survey of employee satisfaction across all 250 Top Consultants and 150 Top Contractors was revealed at a launch in London today, attended by Chris P and Geraldine. The survey looked at a range of criteria, including salary, pension, flexi-time and included non-objective criteria such as leadership, inspiration and feel-good factor. We’re delighted that we’ve made the Top 50 and look forward to working towards improving our staff conditions in the future. Any suggestions, just let us know…

Have a look at the Guide

David Hunter learning how to photograph tall buildings!

Planning permission was successfully achieved yesterday for the new 1,716m2 Regional Agricultural Centre on the site of the long established and recognised Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate. 

Plans submitted on behalf of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society were previously rejected by Harrogate Borough Council and subsequently revised by P+HS to address concerns over traffic flow and sustainability. New proposals include an innovative design strategy which incorporates sustainable principles, creating a showcase building with minimised impact on the environment.  The new building, on the south side of the 250 acre showground comprises a total of 865m2 of office space, a farm shop of 710m2 (of which 267m2 is retail space) plus an 80 seater café (141m2). There will also be 43 car parking spaces. 

CABE is to be named as the official affordable housing quality audit body for England and will begin a programme of assessing the design quality of an ‘extensive sample’ of homes funded by the Housing Corporation.

Corporation chief executive Steve Douglas was due to announce the news at the National Housing Federation Conference this week. The Corporation has entered into a service agreement with CABE to audit the National Affordable Housing Programme where homes are being developed through its partnership funding route.

The move is meant to bolster the Corporation’s new Design and Quality Strategy standards. The Corporation adds that the focus will be on the external environment, rather than internal design or environmental performance, using the Building for Life assessment process.

mima presents the most significant Bauhaus exhibition in the UK for 30 years, focusing on the ethos of the Bauhaus School between 1919 and 1933. The show includes works by Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Josef Albers, film works by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, architectural models, design, applied art, furniture and a specially commissioned wall drawing.

Language of Visionshowcases works by contemporary artists whose practice has a relationship to the legacy of the Bauhaus. Artists include Markus Amm, Camilla Low, Toby Paterson, Ryan Gander, Lothar Gotz and Andrew Miller.

A series of photographs by Hans Engels, presents the original Bauhaus architecture, constructed by the masters and students of the Bauhaus between 1919 and 1933, in its present condition.

Bauhaus Reviewed 1919-1933, is presented in mima’s Sound Space on the Third Floor Roof Terrace. The selection of recordings from the early 20th century goes deep into the myths surrounding the Bauhaus school and the artists it gave birth to.

The exhibition is part of NorthEast England’s programme of world-class festival and events for 2007, managed by culture10 based at NewcastleGateshead Initiative.

For dates, check MIMA

Sponsored by Barker & Stonehouse.

Mater Dei Hospital is a new acute hospital on Malta. When completed the new hospital project will have a total floor area of 232,000m² and approximately 8,000 rooms. The hospital will also be used as a teaching facility by the neighbouring University of Malta.

Resources in Malta have always been scarce, which is why environmental considerations have played a key role in the development of the Mater Dei Hospital.

In keeping with the environmental considerations, which have played such a role in the hospital’s development, this will be the first building in Malta with insulated external walls and with high performance glass in the windows. These will reduce cooling costs between April and November and heating costs during the other months.

Rainwater will be collected, stored and used for irrigation. Low flush toilets and environmentally adapted refrigerants will be used as well as polypropylene (PP) piping. In addition, there will be an effort to reduce electromagnetic fields at the hospital by various means.

Construction waste will be separated at source so the Maltese authorities can arrange further recycling. Preparations will be made for the recycling of topsoil from excavation work, as well as stones from the demolition of stone walls.

During the construction, trees that would have normally been cut down have instead been moved and re-planted at other sites. Rubble walls and buildings of cultural heritage value have been moved and rebuilt in a safe environment. As many as ten different kinds of waste are being sorted and recycled. Excavated material is partly used on site as road base and surplus material is used to refill an excavated quarry, which will later be used as an orange plantation.

The Mater Dei hospital is set to have air conditioning in every room and that is what will take the biggest toll on Malta’s energy bill. A spokesperson for the Foundation for Medical Service confirmed that, “each and every room of the hospital will be air conditioned as well as certain plant areas. Other areas such as corridors and service areas will be air-conditioned indirectly or not at all.”

It also seems that while those who planned and approved the hospital development did consider energy saving, renewable sources of energy were not considered, although solar power could apparently cut the emissions and energy bill considerably.

The Foundation’s spokesperson said: “No solar or renewable power use is envisaged but the design includes energy saving features such as: double glazing and UV blocks on windows; use of variable speed drives; heat recovery from chillers and air handling units; use of condensation from air-handling units; electronic ballasts on fluorescent lighting fixtures; a building automation system and other features.”

Help from the UK

The senior planning team from James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough has been helping with the migration plan [arranged by the Department of Health’s International Consultancy Division], moving all the staff, patients, equipment and furniture from the old St Luke’s Hospital across to Mater Dei. JCUH is a similar size and has recently been the subject of a similar move, so the expertise is really valuable. Middlesbrough is also a similar size in population terms to Malta at around 400,000; the climate is not similar!

P+HS opportunities

Chris P has been out in Malta at the invitation of the Maltese Government’s Foundation for Medical Service to look at the new hospital and discuss the possibility of working together on a new 200 bed rehabilitation hospital, and the redevelopment of their primary care estate.

The ‘draft’ guidance for LPAs represents a coherent approach. It demonstrates how the info required to process an application has ballooned over recent years and the concomitant need for a host of specialist inputs. 

It introduces another delay in the introduction of the national application form which will be obligatory for online and written applications from 6 April 2008 (delayed this time from 1st October 2007). The new form is to be used for any of the following: 

Householder consents 

• Outline and full planning permission and approval of reserved matters 
• Listed Building consent 
• Conservation Area consent 
• Advertisement consent 
• Consent under Tree Preservation Orders 
• Lawful Development Certificates 
• Applications for Prior Notification under the General Permitted 

Development Order 1995 

• Removal or variation of conditions. 

The Guidance provides a different selection of items for each type of application covered by the national form. For a planning application this is the list: 

• Affordable housing statement 
• Air quality 
• Biodiversity survey and report 
• Conservation Area appraisal 
• Daylight/sunlight assessment 
• Environmental Impact Assessment 
• Evidence to accompany applications for town centre uses 
• Existing and proposed car parking and access arrangements 
• Flood risk assessment 
• Foul sewerage assessment 
• Heritage Statement (including historical, archaeological features and 
• Scheduled Ancient Monuments) 
• Impact assessment 
• Land contamination assessment 
• Landfill statement 
• Lighting assessment 
• Noise impact assessment 
• Open space assessment 
• Other plans (3 copies to be supplied unless the application is submitted electronically. All plans and drawings should include: paper size, key dimensions and scale bar indicating a minimum of 0-10 metres) 
• Photographs/photomontages 
• Planning obligations/draft Head(s) of Terms 
• Planning Statement 
• Regeneration statement 
• Statement of Community Involvement 
• Structural Survey 
• Transport assessment 
• (Draft) travel plan 
• Tree survey/Arboricultural implications 
• Utilities statement 
• Ventilation/extraction statement 
• Site waste management plan (including relevant refuse disposal details). 

See www.communities.gov.uk

The above is taken from a circulated letter from the ACA on validation of planning applications. It pays to check with the LPA but the requirements are becoming more onerous.

Pre-application consultation with planning officers which aim at agreement as to what is required to validate the proposed application will be essential in most cases. If the authority insists on charging a fee for these, such fee should be deductible from the [imminently to be further increased] application fee and not be in addition to it. This is a point to be emphasised in responding to local consultations on the proposed local requirements.

‘Flood prevention is better than flood resilience’ according to the philosophy of the innovative Dutch floating house. A new daring development of 46 houses built on a Government-designated flood-overflow plane offers a new solution for the UK. Each two storey home is built upon a 70 ton watertight-hollow concrete box (acting as the ‘hull’), that floats secured laterally by two 5.5m horizontal mooring posts that connect to the neighboring house and six iron posts sunk into the bottom. When the river swells the house will float up to as much as 5.5m. Flexible pipes house the building services and utilities, and when the floodwaters subside, so the houses return to their original position! Developed by Dura Vermeer builders and designed by Factor Architecten (design firm based in Amsterdam), the floating houses look as if they will catch on! But at a starting price of 260,000 euros (£180,000 or $310,000), the houses are not a cheap option.

A better description…!!