After being saved from a major renovation that would have eliminated its iconic Postmodern facade, James Stirling’s No 1 Poultry building is now receiving a gentler retrofit that will upgrade its spaces to house 110,000-square-feet of contemporary office space.
Fitting right in with the update, coworking giant WeWork has now been announced as the building’s first tenant, and the company has revealed some details of how the building will work for its users.
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This short essay was written by Elizabeth Darling and Lynne Walker, the curators of AA XX 100 – a multi-media project celebrating the centenary of women in London's Architectural Association (1917-2017).
Zaha Hadid, Amanda Levete, Patty Hopkins, Denise Scott Brown, and Minnette de Silva are familiar names of women who were products of the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA). Less familiar are the women who paved the way for the global careers of these architecture superstars.
Established in 2013, the AA XX 100 project was initiated to tell the story of women at the AA, with the aim of commemorating the centenary (this year) of their admission to the school with an exhibition, book, and international conference. When the project began we didn't know the names of the first students but, four years on, we do, and in telling their story—and that of the generations of women who followed them—we see that their history is at once a history of the AA and architectural education, as well as a history of British and world architecture across the 20th and 21st Centuries.
In this essay British architect and academic Dr. Timothy Brittain-Catlin presents the work of Space Popular, an emerging practice exploring the meaning of and methods behind deploying virtual reality techniques in the architectural design process.
Architectural practice, especially in the UK, is moving fast into a realm where history plays as much a part as medium. But the ways in which architects work have been transformed entirely from those of the past, generating a fundamental conflict: how in practice does design through virtual reality use history? In the earliest days of fly-throughs we all realised that we could show our work to clients in a way that even the least plan-literate could understand. We could develop details three-dimensionally and from different angles, even representing different times of day. But what next? How do we engage historical knowledge and experience of buildings?
London’s V&A Museum has announced that they will be acquiring a section of Alison and Peter Smithson’s Brutalist housing development Robin Hood Gardens, sparing it from destruction as the complex is currently being demolished.
The three-story section will consist of both the exterior facades and interiors of a maisonette flat, one of the signature typologies of the development and a defining example of the Brutalist movement in architecture.
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London's Royal College of Art (RCA) have submitted proposals by Herzog & de Meuron to Wandsworth Council for a new £108 million ($141 million) building in Battersea. The "flagship" project will form part of the RCA's ongoing transformation into a 'STEAM' (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) postgraduate university, facilitating the provision of ten new programmes focusing on computer and materials science, the impact of the digital economy, advanced manufacturing, and intelligent mobility.
London-based architects dRMM have been announced as the winners of the 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize for their renovation of Hastings Pier, beating out a shortlist including projects by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Baynes and Mitchell Architects; Reiach & Hall Architects and Michael Laird Architects; Groupwork + Amin Taha; and 6a architects.
"Hastings Pier is a masterpiece in regeneration and inspiration. The architects and local community have transformed a neglected wreck into a stunning, flexible new pier to delight and inspire visitors and local people alike," said RIBA President and Stirling Prize jury chair Ben Derbyshire.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan proposed the challenge -- how does London become a designated National Park City-- and WATG, London-based landscape team, headed by Demet Karaoglu, accepted the challenge. In addressing the Mayor’s challenge, the team worked with Daniel Raven-Ellison, Guerrilla Geographer and Creative Explorer leading London’s campaign to become the world’s first National Park City.
A proposal by Adjaye Associates and Ron Arad Architects, with Gustafson Porter + Bowman, has been announced as the successful design for the UK's new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Center. The landmark will be located on the banks of the River Thames and adjacent to the Palace of Westminster, and will honor the six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered in the Holocaust, and all other victims of Nazi persecution, including Roma, gay, and disabled people.
Two honorable mentions were awarded to heneghan peng architects with Sven Anderson, and Diamond Schmitt Architects.
London's Architectural Association (AA) have announced that they are seeking a new Director, to be appointed by March 2018. The call comes following the departure of former Director Brett Steele, who has since taken up the Deanship of UCLA.
Candidates will be able to demonstrate the ability to foster creativity and innovation and to think beyond the conventional means of education.
As part of Paris School of Architecture's 2017/18 research theme, which is discussing the infrastructural implications of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, the institute has launched an international architecture competition seeking Brexit Monuments.
The following is an extract from A Place for All People, a new semi-autobiographical manifesto by Lord Rogers. It is a mosaic of life, projects and ideas for a better society, ranging backwards and forwards over a long and creative life, integrating relationships, projects, stories, collaborations and polemics, with case studies, drawings and photographs.
Tristram Hunt—director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)—has expressed concern about one of the city's most successful semi-pedestrianized zones: Exhibition Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. As reported by The Art Newspaper, Hunt has argued that the traffic arrangements are “confusing, dangerous and unsatisfactory”. His answer, following a traffic collision on October 7, 2017, which injured 11 people, is to fully pedestrianize the area.
Bloomberg’s new European HQ, which is located in the heart of the City of London, has been rated the world’s most sustainable office building. Designed by Foster + Partners, the office complex has been awarded an Outstanding BREEAM rating, attaining a 98.5% score – the highest design-stage score ever achieved by any major office development.
David Marks, architect of iconic British structures including the London Eye and the British Airways i360 tower, has passed away at the age of 64 following a long illness.
Co-founder of the London-based practice Marks Barfield Architects with his wife Julia Barfield, Marks was known for his visionary designs for the public realm and entrepreneurial spirit. In proposing both the Eye and the i360 tower, the husband-wife team took considerable financial responsibility for the project’s success. This forward-thinking lead to the replication of the firm’s ideas in cities around the globe.
Earlier today, the UK Prime Minister Theresa May made her closing speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. In a speech which focused on the fallout of Brexit and the economy, May devoted considerable attention to the issue of the UK housing market, announcing a plan to add £2 billion to the government's existing £7 billion affordable housing fund—a fund which local governments, private housebuilders, and housing associations can apply to for grants to subsidize construction of affordable housing.
However, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has strongly criticized the government's proposal, arguing that £2 billion will not be nearly enough to address the scale of the problem—by most estimates, the country is falling short of housing demand by hundreds of thousands of units annually, and house prices are increasingly out of reach for the young and the poor. In response, the RIBA argues for a much greater investment in social housing, highlighting its recent decision to award its Gold Medal to 20th Century social housing architect Neave Brown and stating that "we need a concerted program of public investment in new social housing across the country and that means spending a lot more than was announced today." Read on for RIBA President Ben Derbyshire's full statement:
A Hall for Hull with "Trois Points de Vue" by Chilean practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Swiss artist Felice Varini has been unveiled in the British city of Hull. Jointly commissioned by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Hull UK City of Culture 2017, the "monumental" outdoor installation has "transformed" Trinity Square [Hull] with sixteen galvanized-steel columns, arranged in a grid formation in front of Hull Minster, to form a new civic room for the city.
The British Council have revealed Island as the theme of the British Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. In the exhibition, Adam Caruso, Peter St. John (Caruso St. John), and Marcus Taylor will engage "with current political themes," and was submitted by means of an open call with reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest:
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises; Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
