London: The Latest Architecture and News

For the past century or so, the key to turning around the fortunes of a community was thought to be simple: large scale, infrastructural overhaul was capable of rethinking a place from the ground up, fixing any problems. The deficiencies with this sort of thinking are now well known, and in recent years small, surgical interventions which preserve the existing qualities of a town have gained traction. But how do you create large-scale change with such small-scale proposals?

The town of Rainham, at the far Eastern reaches of London, might hold an answer. Having preserved its village-like atmosphere despite being part of London's industrial hinterlands, since the turn of the millennium Rainham has been the subject of a series of small developments that have made a big overall change. Projects by Alison Brooks Architects, Maccreanor Lavington, Peter Beard LANDROOM, Studio Weave, Civic, and East have improved key spaces within Rainham while connecting it to the Thames and the nearby marshes - all by being respectful of the town's existing qualities and responsive to each others' interventions.

On the 25th and 26th September The Gallery on the Corner in Battersea is opening its doors for the first solo exhibition of the Architectural Artist Minty Sainsbury.

Studying Architecture at Cambridge has not only influenced her choice of subject matter but has also taught her to draw with an eye for detail and a spatial understanding of composition.

Part of the exhibition will be a series of street views in which the building in focus is drawn in rich detail and the contextual surroundings are left as silhouettes. By concealing the focal building behind the faceless structures, Sainsbury references a visual experience that you would experience yourself walking in the city streets.

After winning the 6th annual Space for New Visions competition by FAKRO last month, James Furzer of Spatial Design Architects has begun a crowdfunding campaign on Indigogo for his project, “Homes for the Homeless”. The project proposes a series of modular pods which attach to existing buildings, providing a safe space for a night’s rest for the homeless. Extending beyond mere habitation, James Furzer hopes to change the way that the public sees the homeless – of which there are over 750 on any given night in London alone.

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Update: The competition deadline has been extended to September 11, 2015. 

London-based architects Aukett Swanke, in partnership with the Royal Exchange and Oxford Properties, has announced its new competition for recent graduates to design six new market barrows located at The Royal Exchange in London:

A twenty five metre long, ten storey high suspended swimming pool—dubbed the 'Sky Pool'—has been planned for the second phase of a new high-end residential development in the London district of Nine Elms, next to the new Embassy of the United States. The pool is part of two buildings, designed by London-based practice HAL and part of a complex of 2000 homes developed Ireland's Ballymore Group. The water will be held in suspension by just twenty centimetres of "structure free" transparent glass, and will connect two housing blocks together. Alongside a rooftop bar, orangery and spa, a second connection between the two is also planned in the form of a footbridge.

Head-spinning funfair rides are part of the attraction of Drawn To The Future, an exhibition of new approaches to architectural visualisations at The Building Centre in London.

“We explore how digital media is changing the way we create built forms,” says the show curator, Lewis Blackwell, executive director of strategy at The Building Centre.

The most popular exhibit looks likely to be the virtual rollercoaster developed at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Viewed on an Oculus Rift headset, it simulates a rollercoaster journey around the skyscrapers of a fantasy city.

Videos

Residents of a unique south London housing scheme are hosting a free event to celebrate the work of the architect who designed their street. Walter Segal, who died 30 years ago, will be remembered at a special Celebrating Segal day on Saturday 19th September 2015, 11am-3pm.

The day of talks, films, art and tours will take place in Walters Way, South London, which was designed by Segal, built by residents, and is one of two streets named after him (the other being Segal close). The event, which is part of Open House London, will highlight Segal’s achievements and his relevance to today’s housing situation. The Berlin-born modernist invented the Segal self-build method that enabled ordinary people to build their own homes. His most famous houses were built in partnership with the London Borough of Lewisham.

The day will include
John Segal - Segal son
John McKean – Segal’s biographer
Jon Broome – architect who worked with Segal
Dave Dayes - self-builder
BBC Documentary film; “The House That Mum and Dad Built (1982)
Segal-inspired art
Tour of Walters Way - see inside a self-build home

SimpsonHaugh and Partners has announced the construction of its new premier residential tower, called Dollar Bay, at the East India Dock overlooking Canary Wharf in London.

Named for the site’s World War Two heritage—“when dockworkers would tow American naval ships to their moorings for the cost of one dollar”—the building will provide unparalleled views of the River Thames from where it sits across from the O2 Arena.

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In recent years, DIY approaches to building houses have become increasingly popular, as increasing cost and decreasing availability have caused some prospective house-buyers to embrace simple methods of fabrication and the sweat of their own brow, as discussed in this recent article. However, this trend has much earlier precedents: in 1979, self-build pioneer Walter Segal had already embraced these progressive concepts in a development known as "Walter's Way," an enclave of self-built social housing in southeast London. According to Dave Dayes, a Walter's Way resident and an original builder on the project, Segal believed that "anybody can build a house. All you need to do is cut a straight line and drill a straight hole." The houses were built entirely of standard wood units assembled onsite in Lewisham.

In this video, London based non-profit The Architecture Foundation steps into the utopia of Walter's Way, a micro-neighborhood founded on principals of communal living for people of all backgrounds. The film has been released in connection with Doughnut: The Outer London Festival taking place September 5th, which will bring together writers, historians, architects and economists for "an adventurous celebration of all things Outer London and a critical reflection on the rapid transformation that the city's periphery is currently experiencing." The Architecture Foundation aims to introduce central Londoners (and the world) to the radically functional housing concepts in practice at Walter's way.

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In the latest episode of 99% Invisible, Hard to Love a Brute, Roman Mars and Avery Trufelman take a look at the potted history of the "hulking concrete brutes" of post-war Europe, centring on the UK, and the US east coast. Exploring Ernö Goldfinger's Balfron and Trellick towers, while making a pitstop in Boston, MA, this twenty minute podcast examines why people "love to hate" Brutalism and why, "as harsh as it looks, concrete is an utterly optimistic building material."

British writer and curator Justin McGuirk has joined London's Design Museum as their new chief curator. The former editor of Icon, design critic of The Guardian and director of Strelka Press was also named head of Design Curating & Writing at Design Academy Eindhoven earlier this year. As you may remember, McGuirk was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Biennale for an exhibition he curated with Urban Think Tank. He is also the author of Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture.

McGuirk will be responsible for coordinating the museum's new program after its relocation to Kensington in 2016.

The announcement in 2012 that London's Robin Hood Gardens — Alison and Peter Smithson's world-famous Brutalist housing estate — was set to be demolished was, on the whole, met with outrage among the architectural community. Since that time, many called for the profession to act in order to protect "one of Britain’s most important post-war housing projects," which led to a fresh bid to save the scheme in March of this year. Richard Rogers, Simon Smithson (a partner at RSHP and son of Alison and Peter Smithson), and academic Dirk van den Heuvel recently called upon members of the public to voice their concerns to the UK Ministry for Culture, Media and Sport.

In spite of this, it has now been announced that the UK Heritage Minister, Tracey Crouch, "is minded to approve the Certificate of Immunity for Robin Hood Gardens" meaning that the decision not to list the residential complex in Tower Hamlets will be upheld, giving a "legal guarantee that the building or buildings named in the certificate will not be considered for listing for five years." This will be the second certificate of this type to have been issued for this complex. According to Historic England, "a period of 28 days [beginning on the 4th August 2015] is now allowed for review before the certificate is issued."

An exclusive architect-led, behind the scenes talk and tour of this RIBA London Award winning family home by Edgley Design. Discover the stories behind the building, what inspired the architect and what it means to have won this prize.

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