Category Archives: architecture

Code level 6 too easy ? – go to level 7 or beyond

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Following on from earlier posts (whats wrong) on this site where I raised the question that Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable homes was seemingly too low a standard – as Barratts and Eddie Shah, and others, already claim they can achieve it , apparently without doing to much different, it is encouraging to see Bill Dunster pushing the goal posts further.

‘Anybody can build to Level Six,’ says Bill

Bill Dunster claims his RuralZED house, which will be shown at the Ecobuild exhibition (26-28 February at Earls Court), meets the unprecedented (and non-existent – he invented the term) Level Seven of the Code for Sustainable Homes, with a wind turbine producing energy to make up for the embodied energy in the materials and construction of the structure. more info at AJ

Level 6 and now Level 7 must remain stretch targets – targets to stretch our rethinking, our innovations and our urgency in addressing sustainability issues. To say we can achieve them today is plain greenwash. (Greenwash sin number 1, 2 3, or 6? )

And, on a similar issue will we see a higher level BREEAM assessment to continue to stretch our sector? After all if BREEAM Excellent doesn’t achieve the targets we need to reach nationally or globally then indeed we do need higher, tougher standards.

As Dr Jo Williams, in the latest edition of Journal of Environmental Planning and Management shows, the current government strategy is unlikely to drive the required increase in technological, infrastructural, service and knowledge capacity needed to deliver zero-carbon homes. If it is going to meet its carbon targets the government should make the current “code 6-star rating” (ie zero-carbon standard) mandatory for all new housing, and invest in the technology, infrastructure and knowledge needed to support its delivery… Without which we will head to an environmental disaster. (Guardian report – where are the green houses)

Or – the will (hearts and minds) and motivation to do so without legislation and standards – ie just getting on and doing it as in the spirit of Contraction and Convergence for example – but thats another post.

Face it – solve global warming – stop coal

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Face it – the on line web cast from Architecture 2030 is now available to watch on-line

Sub titled Turn it Around, Watch and start to understand the impact the built environment has on global warming, the impact the built environment has on demanding power from coal fired power station – and the proposed solution – stop and replace the demand on coal!

Also available for educational use is the 2007 Global Emergency Teach-in

a rash of carbuncles

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Good to see Charles back into the discussion …. raising again a key and essential element of sustainability – of communities, of heritage and of sky lines.

Prince Charles locked horns with Lord Rogers and the architects of Britain’s skyscraper boom yesterday, warning that historic cities are at risk of being wrecked by a “rash” of “carbuncles” in the form of office and apartment towers.

meeting tomorrows needs?

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Alex Steffen over at Worldchanging posts an interesting comment on the future usability, flexibility and appropriateness of facilities designed by ego -starchitects.   Alex calls for : An open architecture, an architecture which asks a question of the future — how does our inspiration today serve your needs tomorrow?

(This question of inspirations today meeting the needs of tomorrow is being raised on many public PFI facilities at the moment, withing education and health for example. (Are we really building schools for the future)

A global, and virtual, open source architecture movement is gathering momentum within second life (wikitecture) and the open architecture network amongst other places.

And of course this all comes back to real integrated and collaborative working across the whole facilities and project players, stakeholders and end users. (see studio wikitecture concept for a nice approach to integration and collaboration)

anatomy of a diaster – an analysis

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Mentioned a number of times on this blog the Clissold Leisure center has been analysed by on the Building online site. Architect Stephen Hodder tells Mark Leftly his side of the story.  A great lesson for all here.

“Anatomy of a disaster” to reopen

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I note that the Clissold Leisure Centre is to re-open next month .  It was described, when it closed in 2003, a year after it opened as a ‘landmark Millennium project’, as the wrong building in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The building became a case study in bad practice, in focusing on the building rather than the users needs, (on the 1, rather than the 5, or 200, if you follow the 1:5:200 concept), It has been used by many quality and technical managers across the country as a lessons learnt case study, and to reinforce the 1:5:200 thinking of relationships between design, construction, fm and (business) costs.

The project attracted a huge amount of industry,political and local – social – attention, including one of the early reports in the Guardian by Jonathan Clancy – Anatomy of Disaster:

Clissold leisure centre’s catalogue of problems is a frightening read. A local activist group, called Not the Clissold Leisure Centre, lists no fewer than 59 defects on its website. These include a “changing village”, which Orthodox Jews and Muslim women would be unable to use. The children’s changing areas, moreover, were located next to two-metre deep water. Shower drains have blocked. Dirty water from showers flowed into the pools. Tiles around these were slippery.

Yet these are relatively minor complaints compared with defects number 32, “roof leaking across whole centre”, 33, “roof sweating with condensation”, 34, “glass walls around pools retain fetid water”, 40, “inadequate ventilation to both pool areas”, 56, “significant cracking in squash-court walls” and, last and by no means least, 59, “water damage to sports-hall floor causing warping and lifting at less than 12 months, with injuries sustained by users.”

And, now ….

It reopens with a new toddler pool, improved disability access, reception area and new office space. Contractor Wates has installed a new roof, with a vapour control layer to prevent condensation, and new pool floors. The total cost of the centre, originally budgeted at £21 million, has risen to £45 million. bd online website

Ouch.

MIT, Gehry and more questions

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Blogs and the Media are awash with news and comments of MIT sueing Gehry for an ‘unbuildable design’ at the MIT Stata Center in Cambridge, Boston. (The Guardian, Building etc)
I find this fascinating and a reminder of the failures and flaws in the more traditional (or historical – traditional sounds too craft, and heritage-like), un-collaborative,  approach to construction.  The best reporting is in the Boston Globe,  which provides the contractors (Skanksa) view as well.  (Boston being an old home of mine, I try to keep informed through the Globe)  And its very illuminating.

“This is not a construction issue, never has been,” said Paul Hewins, executive vice president and area general manager of Skanska USA. He said Gehry rejected Skanska’s formal request to create a design that included soft joints and a drainage system in the amphitheater, and “we were told to proceed with the original design.”

After the amphitheater began cracking and flooding, Skanska spent “a few hundred thousand dollars” trying to resolve the problems, but, he said, “it was difficult to make the original design work.”

It also delves deeper, citing  former Boston University president John Silber, who said “It really is a disaster,” and sharply criticizes the Stata Center’s design in a new book, “Architecture of the Absurd: How ‘Genius’ Disfigured a Practical Art.”  A book that questions why the Guggenheim is always covered in scaffolding? Why the random slashes on the exterior of Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum, supposed to represent Berlin locations where pre-war Jews flourished, reappear, for no apparent reason, on his Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto? Or why Frank Gehry’s Strata Center, designed for MIT’s top-secret Cryptography Unit, has transparent glass walls? Not to mention why, for $442 per square foot, it doesn’t keep out the rain?

Ouch.

He goes on … and asks all the questions that critics dare not. He challenges architects to derive creative satisfaction from meeting their clients’ practical needs. He appeals to the reasonable public to stop supporting overpriced architecture. And most of all, he calls for responsible clients to tell the emperors of our skylines that their pretensions cannot hide the naked absurdity of their designs

Time to order a copy !

New Preston landmark office building revealed…

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 From the BD website,  (the Architects Website)

Moxon Architects has won an RIBA competition to design a £6 million landmark office building in Preston, Lancashire.

The firm beat CJ Lim’s Studio 8 Architects, Maxwan, Piercy Conner, New York-based Stephen Yablon Architects, and Hamburg’s LH Architekten in the contest.

The winning scheme, Moxon’s biggest win to date, will be four storeys high with a two-storey atrium, and will provide around 4,000sq m of office space.

Director Ben Addy said the unnamed client did not want to release design details until it had gone through pre-planning consultation, but added: “It’s quite bold, it’s got a pronounced expression to it. It’s got unusual cladding and we’re looking to use a material that retains colour as it weathers.

The contest had 50 entrants and was judged by a panel including Urban Splash’s Nick Johnson and architect Ian Simpson.

A quick surf of Moxon Architects website revealed very little about the organisation other than a hard to view portfolio. In fact the news / press section was more than a year out of date.  Something about form and function?

Now thats got Prestonians guessing who, where, what, when ?

Green Schools

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green school /grEn skül / n. a school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money

To help educate and encourage construction firms and others about the benefits of sustainable schools the US Green Building Council have recently launched a site dedicated to Green Schools  According to the site, green schools, on average, save $100,000 a year, use 33% less energy, and reduce solid waste by 74%. They also increase learning potential, reduce teacher absenteeism and turnover, and provide opportunities for hands-on learning.

The site contains a number of resources, but listening to the 9min video of students talking about environmnetal stewardship as a result of their green building is very strong.  “the new building had no new smells – which is good because those smells are only chemicals” 

With criticism of the green aspects of our Building Schools for the Future it would be good to hear of similar ‘awareness‘ resources in the UK.

Second Life: will code really be the new bricks and mortar?

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Second Life: will code really be the new bricks and mortar, or ‘clicks’ and mortar? ….

Saturdays Telegraph carried an article looking at a new lifestyle magazine aimed at homeowners – Prim Perfect is a virtual magazine to give virtual people advice on virtual furniture to put in a virtual homes and expects to make real money.

And yet it is probably going to be – if it is not already – the best-read magazine on the subject of bricks and mortar on the planet. Prim Perfect has a potential global readership in the hundreds of thousands.   Pauline Woolley is Prim Perfect founder and editor.  

Read more in Daily Telegraph

Also New York Times

(Fairsnape has a presence within Second Life .  For more information on Second Life and Built Environment issues, or a guided tour in SL, contact through Fairslife)