Competition time: if anyone’s interested, there’s a competition to submit a (speculative) design for none other than the White House, Washington DC. Whilst the topic may be slightly imaginary, there’s a very real $5000 first prize. Registrations and submissions by 20th April.
See the competition website here
shedkm’s website is devoid of supporting text, but stacked full of colourful little images. You can’t go wrong with a big red box.
Urban Splash are coming to Leeds with their Saxton scheme. Visit the website, it’s good to see a developer with a sense of humour.
The website doesn’t give much information yet, but following the trail could be a once-in-a-lifetime excuse to trawl through Leeds bars in pursuit of research and CPD…
[Image taken from the website linked above]
Designing out risk in public spaces is in danger of going too far, argues the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, with a rash of bland and standardised spaces being the inevitable result. The agency that has done so much to restore the importance of quality space alongside quality buildings, now wants designers and their clients to start challenging the risk-averse culture that is becoming entrenched.
In its latest report, Living with risk: promoting better public space, CABE suggests that compensation culture fears may have been overstated; while fear of litigation clearly lies behind the risk-free design response, the reality is that the level of personal injury claims in the UK has been falling. And CABE has attracted some unexpected allies to its new campaign, including the Health and Safety Executive and Zurich Municipal, the largest insurer of local authorities.
Basing its conclusions on case studies and a survey of key organisations, the report suggests there is significant agreement among the key organisations involved that the situation needs to change and that too much professional effort is being devoted to designing out risk, to over-design and to ad hoc design interventions.
The way forward, of course, is for a sensible and proportionate approach to design based on normal behaviour, rather than freak accidents. The report offers a number of principles that can be applied, including the early involvement of all of the main user groups in any risk assessment process.
CABE is preparing a briefing on humanising streets that will look at the balance that can be achieved in shared and civic spaces.
The CABE report even dares to suggest that risk can be celebrated, as long as there is a clear design vision to manage it and any opportunities for positive risk taking are clearly communicated – hope CABE has got its relevant cover in place.
Living with risk: promoting better public space is available as a briefing or in full if you follow this link.
[RIBA PRACTICE BULLETIN - No. 400 - Ref: 32]
Steve Elwen has finally cracked the problem of blank areas when PDFing A1 drawings: do not use the polygonal viewports that are standard in our templates! Create a rectangular viewport instead, and your problems will be sorted. No more blank areas.
But if you don’t know what I’m talking about and you’ve never had the problem, don’t worry. It doesn’t apply to all computers, and we’re still not quite sure why…
Can I just remind everyone that there is a Links section to this site, which does exactly as it says on the tab. There are links to the websites of many companies that we work with and other interesting little websites. Please have a look, click on some and add any sites you feel we are missing. Are you working with a company that isn’t on here? Add it in! But what’s that I hear? How do I add a link Mr Blog Administrator? Well I’m glad you asked, because it’s easy.
And there you go, easy. Go crazy, give it a whirl.
RIBA Yorkshire are asking for projects for possible inclusion in the “popular and influential” RIBA Architecture Review Yorkshire 2007, due for publication in May. If anyone has worked on anything suitable (and some of you must have) then speak to Claire Bedford and get it submitted. Read on for more details…
“As in previous years, the book will include a comprehensive Directory of RIBA Registered Practices in the RIBA Yorkshire region; topical editorial supplied by RIBA Yorkshire covering various subjects of relevance to clients and end users; and a major full colour section reviewing and exhibiting examples of projects, large and small, carried out by members throughout the region.
“We attach a letter giving further information on the book and a copy of a Project Submission Form, to fill in and return to publishers Excel. An electronic version of the form is also available to download here. We are not asking to be sent photographs of the projects at this stage, but a brief description ( 150/180 words or so) is of great interest and is a considerable help. As a practice, you are not restricted as to how many projects you may put forward so, if you have produced projects within the Residential, Industrial and/or Commercial, Education, Housing, Sport and/or Leisure, Retail, Health/Medical, Public/Community/Government or Religious Buildings sectors, then please fill in your forms and submit your projects now, in order to make the publication as comprehensive as possible and representative of the best work being carried out in the region.
“We are interested in receiving details of projects completed since September 2005 and due to complete by end March/early April 2007. The book is not sector specific and projects from all the sectors mentioned above, both large and small, are welcome.”
[Sally Smith, Excel Publishing, on behalf of the RIBA]
Here’s a handy little tip for people who suddenly notice that the z-coordinates in their drawing aren’t quite as close to 0 as they should be.
There is a file called flattenez.lsp, which I have put on both servers, that will pretty much obliterate all the z-coordinates in a drawing. To run the file you need full AutoCAD (not LT). Type ‘appload’ as a command then browse to the ACAD Settings folder on the server and double-click on flattenez.lsp. Now you can type ‘flatten’ in the drawing and your worries will be over.
Veterens of the ‘other’ flattn.lsp will notice that this one isn’t quite so polite – it doesn’t ask what you want flattening, and it doesn’t ask twice… use with caution. On the other hand, it does work very effectively. Combine this with explode and smash (another .lsp) and 3D topographical surveys will weep 2-dimensional tears at your feet.
Any problems. just email me.
A ‘living draft’ of new planning guidance on managing flood risk has been published as a support document to PPS 25 (Development and Flood Risk), which was released in December. The new document is presented as both interim guidance and a consultation on the final guidance note.
The Communities Department says it is planning a series of regional workshops in partnership with the RTPI to help planners understand how PPS25 should work in practice. It seems that the government’s decision to produce PPS statements in a much slimmer format then the old PPGs is creating a need for additional explanation. The Practice Guide, which is mainly concerned with flood risk assessment, is here.
The Welsh Assembly has dramatically upped the sustainability stakes by setting a zero carbon target for all new buildings by 2011 – five years ahead of the UK government’s recently-announced target for zero carbon homes.
Despite reports of scepticism from some quarters, failure would prove a major embarrassment for the assembly, which has made high performance buildings the headlining policy of its emerging climate change strategy.
First of all, the assembly needs to take responsibility for its own Building Regulations, currently set by Whitehall. Environment minister Carwyn Jones says the assembly is in the process of opening discussions with the UK government over devolution of the regulatory framework.
‘Once these regulations are devolved, it will allow us to move further and faster on achieving zero carbon on all new buildings in Wales,’ Jones said.
Architects working in Wales will see the effect of the new policy stance immediately, however. As a first step, the assembly has decided that all new buildings funded by the devolved government must be built to the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standard, the highest benchmark currently available. This is set to become a core condition of all new projects within six months.
The assembly’s zero carbon ambition is all the more challenging because it applies to all new buildings, not just new homes. The UK government has so far committed to a series of Part L revisions for housing – starting with a 25% improvement in 2010 – but has not given any parallel commitments to offices and workplaces.
[RIBA Practice Bulletin No. 386]
An unexpected alliance between house builders and the Prince Charles-sponsored Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment was announced this week that sees most of the industry’s big names queuing up to have their developments officially ‘recognised’ by the foundation as meeting its traditional design principles.
The Home Builders Federation said it had entered into a joint commitment with the foundation to promote design principles pioneered at the Prince’s Poundbury development and would be working to promote these principles among mainstream house builders.
Most of the biggest names in housing – Barratt, Bovis, Bellway, Redrow, Persimmon, Bryant, Berkeley and others – featured on the first recognised list of 11 schemes this week, with locations as varied as London’s Swiss Cottage and a retirement scheme in Cupar in Fife.
Hank Dittmar, chief executive of the foundation, explained that the recognition of these schemes amounted to the setting of a benchmark for the best of UK housing design. A statement from the Foundation added that this benchmark would form the basis of an industry-wide programme of design education to be delivered through the Home Builders Federation – you have been warned.
[RIBA Practice Bulletin No. 383]
Is the tide finally beginning to turn in favour of design quality considerations in public sector procurement? Recent events suggest that design is moving up the agenda: new Treasury guidelines for clients are on the way that will put a far stronger emphasis on design appraisal, and this week the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee threw its weight behind a greater weighting for design in PFI projects – very much in line with the RIBA’s Smart PFI model.
The Public Accounts Committee’s report was concerned with the debacle of the Paddington Health Campus and concluded that the inadequate business case for the PFI project should never have been approved until sufficient design work had been completed.
RIBA President Jack Pringle addressed the committee last year, explaining how Smart PFI could have avoided many of the problems that dogged the project. Speaking this week, he said he was delighted with the committee’s support for the RIBA position and for the positive response that the proposals have now received from Treasury and the Office of Government Commerce.
Meanwhile RIBA Vice President for Practice Richard Saxon reports that a new supplement to the Treasury’s Green Book, effectively the rulebook for public sector procurement, will be published in the spring that will require projects to justify themselves in terms of operating costs – minimum ten years – as well as headline capital costs. Environmental impact, in terms of carbon emissions and water use, will also have to be taken into consideration.
Inevitably these demands can only be met through appraisals of more advanced design submissions.
Saxon, who sat on the working group that looked at the whole life cost approach to project value for the Public Sector Construction Clients Forum, says the supplement will reinforce the design aspects of the Gateway Review stages that must be completed during procurement.
The new Gateway Review scenario readily falls into line with Smart PFI in terms of ensuring that the client has an affordable and acceptable design concept before going to the market for a contractor.
[RIBA Practice Bulletin No. 383]
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]
