It’s time to say goodbye to the itchy tashes at last as Movember has finally come to an end. We’ve managed to raise over £100 with more cash to follow and if you still would like to contribute the page is still up at: http://uk.movember.com/mospace/index/search/q/designerstubble

We are delighted to be able to announce that Adrian Evans, one of our senior Technologists and Associate of P+HS Architects has been awarded the CIAT 2011 Open Award for Technical Excellence in Architectural Technology for his work at Blaydon Leisure and Primary Care Centre for Gateshead PCT.

This prestigious annual award from the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists recognises technical achievement and has been running since 1994. It attracts international interest with previous winners including Benoy, Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, and Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, The Eden Project, Cornwall.

Commenting on his award, Adrian said:

‘I am delighted and immensely proud to receive the CIAT Open Award for Technical Excellence in Architectural Technology. The award recognizes the hard work, dedication and commitment of both the design and construction teams, who were instrumental in the successful delivery of this prestigious project, which has been extremely well received by the clients, building users and visitors.’

Yesterday I had the honour of being part of the team to receive the award from the BRE for the, now confirmed, Outstanding award under BREEAM Healthcare for Houghton Primary Care Centre. The Award was made to Steve Naylor from Sunderland PCT at the IHEEM conference in Manchester.
Being the first healthcare building in England to be awarded such an exemplary award it was with extreme pride that I was invited to speak briefly about the meaning of the award for P+HS. Pride, but also guilt, as I’m very aware that all of the hard work was done over two and a half years by Adrian Evans, Eamon Shutt and the entire technical team. Congratulations to you all, this is a great achievement for both you and the practice.

Developed for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust as part of their
strategy to improve facilities to support healthy communities, Houghton is an exemplar in sustainable design and provides high quality and accessible health, social care, sports and leisure facilities from one integrated site.

P+HS has worked closely with the PCT for over eight years and is responsible for the architectural design of several innovative and sustainable primary health care facilities across the North East. The client’s commitment and the very early introduction of a BREEAM Assessor added clear focus to the Houghton project in terms of sustainability targets and the development was also able to benefit from a highly experienced project team and lessons learned on earlier schemes.

Sustainable elements include thermal wall facilitating innovative low energy natural ventilation strategy, ground source heat pumps, water attenuation, wind turbine, underfloor heating, rain water reclamation, green roof, solar thermal panels and photovoltaic panels.

The team responsible for the successful delivery of Houghton le Spring Primary Care Centre are:

Client: Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust
Architect: P+HS Architects
Contractor: Willmott Dixon
Natural Ventilation Engineers: Breathing Buildings
Structural Engineer: Cundall
M&E Engineers: Mott MacDonald
BREEAM Assessor: WD Re-Thinking

Selected as a case study by BRE, you can read more about this project here

We made it to Paris with both the Grand Tourer and I in one piece despite one scuffed elbow and three punctures! We covered over 240 miles by the time I got back to Kings Cross (a loop round the Arc de Triomph and gardens of Versailles increased the distance a bit!).

We even managed to fit in a little bit of architectural sightseeing along the way, so I’ve attached some photos for your enjoyment. Altogether we’ve raised over £350 for Cancer Research so far (you can keep track here. So thanks to everyone for your help and support! It was a lot harder than we thought, as I don’t think any of us factored in the extra weight of spares and my ridiculously heavy duty U-lock!

P+HS attended a factory visit with Nottingham Critical care staff to assess the flexibility and performance of the Drager Movita ICU Medical Pendant. As a part of the proposed scheme for NUH Adult Critical Care unit, it is the design intent to deliver all critical services from specialized medical pendants in place of the current bed head panels. This will afford the Staff greater flexibility and working efficiencies.  In combination an additional Guldmann Hoist will be fitted to a 3rd arm of the pendant, this will allow any members of staff to easily move and physically manage patients in and out of the bed, catering for weights up to 350Kg / 55 stone.

Drager Movita brochure (pdf)     Guldman lifting modules

 

Adrian Evans and Paul McNeil attended their Professional Practice interview in London on Monday.  I’m delighted to report that both were successful in achieving their Membership of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists.  Congratulations to both!

Congratulations to Martin Anderson on achieving his Part III qualification to become another fully fledged Architect on the P+HS Team.

Artwork depicting local landmarks and colourful kites was celebrated at a tea party at Rivendale this month.

The glass art, running along the front elevation of the building, was created by Newcastle-based artist Gavin Marshall who worked with local school and college students as well as representatives from Broadacres, the Alzheimers Society and other stakeholders to develop the design.

Rivendale is an Extra Care facility in Northallerton developed for Broadacres Housing Association. Opened in 2010, the scheme provides high quality extra care accommodation and includes 51 individual 2 bedroom apartments plus bistro, hobby room, gardens, laundry, hair salon and bookable guest accommodation. The recently installed artwork was made possible with an Arts Council grant and is proving popular with residents and visitors.

It just goes to show that blood, sweat and tears do pay off in this industry.

I’m delighted to report that all of our Part III students have excelled themselves in their recent exams, and P+HS will have no less than FOUR new architects to add to the team.

Hearty congratulations to Anna Holden from our London office, and James Park, Ryan Meadows and Tom Potter from Leeds.

Joe Stenson from our Leeds office has been awarded a Merit in design for his Part II thesis. Joe says:
“heartiest of thanks to all staff for the help and support offered to me throughout the “hard fought slog” – (Geraldine) that was my Part II. The feedback and commentary received from colleagues throughout were invaluable to the general design process.”
Joe’s scheme is a Crematorium complex that amalgamates the existing facilities in the Leeds metropolitan area onto a secluded site bordered by the River Aire and the Leeds / Liverpool Canal. Key to the thesis was investigating the provision of bespoke buildings for semi-outdoor cremations, as required by those of Hindu, Sikh & Buddhist following. A few images of the scheme are shown here:

The Final boards Joe presented are available here: X:\Resources\Students\Presentations\JJS Thesis Boards if you are interested.
Congratulations Joe.

Congratulations to the team on the handover of Rivendale, a new Extra Care facility for Broadacres in Northallerton.

Photos courtesy of Doug Jackson

Wendy de Silva BSc (1st Class Hons) Dip Arch RIBA

Wendy was born in Sri Lanka, immigrated to England in the 70’s and studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, (University College) London.

She started her career as a trainee on a building site with John Laing Construction. Shortly after qualifying, she went back to Sri Lanka and worked with the RIBA gold medalist Geoffrey Bawa on the ‘Ruhunu University’ Project. Wendy is a RIBA Client Design Advisor and has spent most of her professional life in London where she has amassed a wealth of experience across a range of developments in Education, and Residential, but she has particular expertise in Healthcare design.

Housing minister John Healey said the fee freeze would save developers £23 million this year, money which can be reinvested into new projects that will sustain the UK construction sector through what is predicted to be a stale year for the economy.

Announcing the freeze, Healey said: ‘At a time when investing in new developments is difficult, and when access to funding is hard, it would be wrong to increase the costs of developers who will help drive economic recovery.

‘I recognise that as we start to work through economic recovery, we need to do what we can to keep builders on construction sites and keep plans on the table.

‘It is important that we react to the economic circumstances and listen to the needs of people, industry and developers and we have done just that.’

From the Architects Journal 21 January 2010.

Having established that the Regional Agricultural Centre is a much loved development within local circles, it seems that national experts agree. The building has won an EG Green Award for sustainability: declared a joint winner alongside Cabot Circus (a £500m development from Land Securities and Hammerson), the Centre was highly praised by the judges for its ‘thoughtful design’. Not bad for a ‘small’ development!

Washington Primary Healthcare Centre has scooped the LABC National award for Best Healthcare Building.  Developed for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust with Laing O’Rourke, the Washington building is also shortlisted for the Building Better Healthcare Awards next month.  Congratulations to the team!