Planning minister John Healey has announced that 270 stalled development projects across the country have been shortlisted for a share of £925m which could help get building work on 22,400 homes back on track and create 20,000 jobs.

Every region has shortlisted projects and will benefit from this major cash injection, part of the Prime Minister’s housing pledge announced last month, that will help build the homes the country needs, help it through the recession and help people into jobs. The projects have been identified by the Homes and Communities Agency through the Kickstart programme.

Read the HCA press release.

The above was taken from the Planning Portal news round-up 30 July 2009.

The Regional Agricultural Centre has been short listed for the 2009 EG Green Awards in the category Retail/Leisure Development of the Year.

This is a fantastic achievement for the team (Yorkshire Agricultural Society, P+HS, Houseman & Falshaw, and DKP) who all worked so hard to make this highly sustainable building a reality. Other short listed finalists in this category are Land Securities,Tesco, and Hammerson – all £multimillion/billion operations with national and international presence: so I reckon our team from Yorkshire have done pretty well!

The building was conceived as a green development from the start and it’s about sustainability right through from its timber frame upwards; using local teams, skills and materials wherever we could, and incorporating more special sustainable features than you could shake a stick at, making it one of the most sustainable buildings in Yorkshire.

It’s now down to the public vote, so here’s the link for you to show your support for what small, regional alliances can achieve with vision, creativity and honest hard graft.
Vote Here.

We are delighted to share more news of our students. We first met Shoaib Mahmood when he spent a year with P+HS during his year out from University. Shoaib is now back in our Leeds office having completed his degree, and has just received his results: a First Class Honours Degree and the C.I.A.T. Award for Outstanding Achievement with the highest class mark this year! Congratulations to Shoaib and welcome back to the P+HS team.

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.

Richard Waite, AJ News Editor, has noticed that Leeds Met has changed its approach to teaching architecture and the shift is bearing fruit. At the recent select exhibition for the school’s end-of-year show, Richard said “the projects closest to the door, drawn up by post-graduate students, are impressive…Tom Potter has created a sweet, colonnaded Chipperfield-esque model for a micro brewery in Leeds.” Nice one Tom

In a follow up to our initial post some months ago, Nottingham City Council has recently granted full planning permission for a new radiotherapy centre at Nottingham University Hospital.
Due to start on site mid July this year, P+HS Architects have been working closely with Medicinq Simons under a ProCure 21 contract.

Breeam target – Excellent
Contract value – approx £12 million
Completion date – October 2010

If anyone is interested, Leeds Met University is holding its annual Arts Festival at the moment, with the architecture section opening this weekend. The exhibition is split over three sites (all in and around Leeds city centre) and includes selections of work from a whole range of creative disciplines, including graphic design, art, architecture, landscape, film making and performing arts. More information can be found on the LMU website.

Once again, P+HS have excelled themselves at the LABC Northern Region Building Excellence Awards.  In a glittering ceremony, P+HS  received two commendations for Eaglescliffe Health Centre (with Tolent Construction) and Wrekenton Health Centre (with Laing O’Rourke), and won the Best Healthcare Building overall for Washington Primary Care Centre (also with Laing O’Rourke).   Washington will now go through to the National LABC Awards later in the year.  Congratulations to all involved.  The results were as follows:

Washington Primary Care Centre for Sunderland Teaching PCT- Best Healthcare Building – Overall Winner

Wrekenton Health Centre for Sunderland Teaching PCT - Commended

Eaglescliffe Health Centre for Abstract Integrated Healthcare - Commended

P+HS have increased the size of their talent pool. Two of our students, Ryan Meadows and Tom Potter, have passed Part 2  of the RIBA Qualification with merit:  they will be joined at P+HS by another successful student, James Park, who starts work with us on June 15th.  All of their Project work is showcased here, and P+HS congratulate them all for their hard work and outstanding results.

The Site Waste Management Regulations 2008 came into effect 6th April 2008 in England and for those who have not yet been requested to provide designers information yet, don’t worry, you will.

Site Waste Management Plans are required for construction projects valued greater than £300k (excl VAT) with more detailed reporting required to Plans developed for projects over £500k (excl VAT).

The Client is responsible for ensuring a Plan is prepared before construction work begins, and I suggest that an advisory note is forwarded (similar to CDM Regs) advising the Client at the time of our appointment.  Some Clients may not be aware of their obligations.

As designers, we need to provide information for the plan, advising of decisions taken to minimise waste production.

The principle Contractor develops, updates and implements the Site Waste Management Plan and both the Client and the Principal Contractor are responsible for reviewing, refining and revising the plan as necessary.

Note:  Work cannot commence until the Site Waste Management Plan is signed by the Client and Principal Contractor.

Useful Guidance`

Industry Guidance.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/pdf/uksi_20080314_en.pdf

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/topics/construction/pdf/swmp-guidance.pdf

http://www.netregs-swmp.co.uk/simple-guide-20080406.pdf

Information Resources

http://www.breeam.org/    (BRE Environmental Assessment Method)

http://www.wrap.org.uk/construction/

http://www.smartwaste.co.uk/

http://www.bre.co.uk  ( Green Guide to Specification)

http://www.ciria.org.uk/   (Design for Deconstruction: Principles of Design to Facilitate Reuse & Recycle )

http://www.dh.gov.uk/  ( NHS Environmental Tool)

 

 

Following approximately ten weeks of consultation with the client, P+HS have recently submitted a full planning application for a new two storey linac facility (radiotherapy treatment) within the existing city centre site. The new facility will replace the existing linacs with three new bunkers and associated patient change / treatment check. A central atrium next to a courtyard garden will function as the main feature, providing pleasant views out for waiting patients and visitors whilst encouraging natural light and ventilation into these areas. Additional accommodation includes two new CT scanners with associated control areas, patient wait wc’s, mould fitting and a main reception upon entrance. The first floor will be for staff only, consisting of consultant offices, seminar, staffroom etc.

As part of the design process, sketch plans were tabled and discussed regularly at weekly workshops with the end users. This provided a framework for establishing critical aspects such as main entrance, clinical adjacencies, staff accommodation etc. at an early stage. Below are some snap-shots of some of the proposed external images, together with plans discussed prior to sign-off. All we need to do now is achieve Excellent for Breeam!

This afternoon Adrian Evans collected the award for Best Healthcare Building in the Building Excellence Awards held at The Stadium of Light. This follows a similar award for Grindon Lane Primary Care Centre and, we understand, awards for Wrekenton and Eaglescliffe Health Centres.

While doing some research on BREEAM I came across a website that had an interesting article on “How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air” Here, it is a very interesting idea and one that its worth thinking about, even if it’s not applicable to any of our projects it is an interesting idea nonetheless.

Far more interesting is where this article came from. TED

What is TED?

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. As part of an annual event the annual conference brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

The information found in this site is by far some of the best that I have ever seen; aside from some very interesting Architecture talks there are some other great talks by inspiring people (in their own right) like Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawkins, Sir Norman Foster and many more.
Below are some links to interesting talks:

Frank Gehry

Norman Foster: Building on the green agenda

Thom Mayne: Architecture is a new way to connect to the world

There are many more but I would leave up to you to find those of most interests to you.

I hope you find this site as interesting as I do.

Just a few images of the First floor Administration desk at Nuffield Warwickshire Hospital Designed in house and constructed by the contractor.

Whilst waiting for a meeting to start at a well known Contractor’s offices, I notices a little ditty they had lying around…

Did you know your photo driving licence expires after 10years and needs to be renewed? Driving with an expired licence could attract a fine of up to £1000!

Just under the driver name and next to the photo is number 4b – this is the date of expiry. Check it – the first photo licences were issued in July 1998 so yours may be about to expire.

Boring, but consider yourselves warned.