Archinect - News

London's Garden Bridge endangered by public funding shortfall

2015-09-25T04:34:00-04:00

The London garden bridge project has been placed in jeopardy after a London council withdrew its support because of public costs and the Labour mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan, said he would ditch the proposed horticultural Thames river crossing if he took office.

Thomas Heatherwick's proposed Garden Bridge, which recently inspired a satirical contest of unpalatable entries, may be doomed to remain a hotly contested rendering. The £30 million of public funds needed to fund the bridge has temporarily been withdrawn because Lambeth council leader Lib Peck said the cost is "unjustified." Both current Mayor Boris Johnson and chancellor George Osborne have pledged £30 million of his own to the project, but it will still need additional funding to bridge the gap.

London Mayor Boris Johnson pledges £285,000 to crowdfunding projects

2015-09-18T07:38:00-04:00

This week, he signed over £285,000 of his £9m High Street Fund, created in March, to projects which will "re-energise the capital's high streets"...the mayor's office is donating to these projects through Spacehive, a civic crowdfunding website through which campaigners can raise money from the public to fund their community schemes.

From a proposed revitalization project known as the "Peckham Coal Line" that, much like New York City's High Line, would transform abandoned coal sidings into a foliage-rich walkway for pedestrians and cyclists, to a public library in an alley known as a "Literalley," designers and dreamers alike are being encouraged to enter their high street improving projects into a bid to be awarded money from Mayor Johnson. His favorite projects will receive up to £20,000 each.

100 renderings of ideas to solve London's housing crisis released

2015-09-17T07:12:00-04:00

The international competition organized by think-tank New London Architecture and the Mayor of London has released 100 renderings of proposed solutions to London's housing crisis. Attracting over 200 entries from 16 countries around the world, the competition includes submissions from respected London-based architectural firms including dRMM, Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, and Grimshaw Architects.

The ideas cover a variety of conceptual ground, although the innovative use and repurposing/modification of existing spaces appears in numerous renderings, as shown in the entries of Akira Yamanaka and Hal Architects:

Several proposals make use of the Thames and other waterways to create floating housing, such as these renderings from Baca Architects and dRMM:

Starting on October 15th, the 100 shortlisted entries will be on public display for free at the NLA galleries in The Building Centre near Russell Square, and ten winners will be announced by the end of October. Those winners will be...

New website on the deep web encourages architects to leak neighborhood-disrupting building plans

2015-09-09T18:34:00-04:00

“There are a lot of people working in architecture who are very frustrated with what’s happening, but feel like they don’t have a voice to speak out,” said Sarah, another of Concrete Action’s co-founders, who also wished to remain anonymous. “We’re hoping that this is going to give them an avenue to do that without worrying about losing their jobs or getting into trouble.”

Architects who are dismayed by working on projects that tend to harm, not improve, the neighborhoods in which they are sited now have a secure whistleblowing option: U.K.-based Concrete Action allows architects to anonymously submit rent-inflating building plans to the public. The site, which started in response to a slew of development of high-rent projects in low income areas, also helps the concerned citizen crack the often arcane and jargon-heavy city planning process. Architects can use encrypted methods to submit copies of the plans and alert the public to just what developers are coveting, er, planning.