Archinect - News

Brighton passes planning condition requiring new buildings to feature bee bricks

2022-01-24T15:56:00-05:00

An initiative in Brighton aimed at helping protect the bee population could do more harm than good, scientists have warned. The council in Brighton has passed a planning condition that means any new building more than five metres high will have to include swift boxes and special bricks with holes known as bee bricks. They will provide nesting and hibernating space for solitary bees.

The mandate was first proposed in 2019 and then attached to all planning permissions after April 1, 2020. As reported by The Guardian, scientists warn that this move may not result in a notable difference for biodiversity, with some arguing that it could actually harm bees if the holes aren’t properly maintained or if they attract mites.

Others have asserted that the bricks don’t need to be cleaned because there will be beneficial microbes in the holes and bees possess natural hygienic behavior. It is clear that further research is required in order to better understand the costs and benefits to implementing these bee bricks. One professor believes Brighton’s planning condition will provide a good opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of the bricks on a wide enough scale over an extended period of time before thinking of employing it elsewhere.

OMA / Ellen van Loon fuses science and sports in new Brighton College school building

2020-01-16T09:29:00-05:00

When OMA won the 2013 competition to design Brighton College's new School of Science and Sport in England, the Dutch firm had to create a scheme where two contrasting academic disciplines were interwoven into the same building, and in a way that encourages interaction among students. The building was officially inaugurated on January 9.

Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA.

Photograph by Killian O’Sullivan, © OMA

“We wanted to give Brighton College a building that continues to deliver more than strictly required, expanding the traditional definition of educational architecture,” OMA Partner Ellen van Loon said.

Reflective of the fact that learning takes place outside as much as it does inside a classroom, the new building merges the department of Science and the department of Sports into one linear volume. Athletic spaces are level with the adjacent outdoor playing field, while Science classrooms, labs, and a greenhouse span over the athletic spaces.

Photograph by Laurian...

A "great throbbing shaft": Oliver Wainwright on Brighton's British Airways i360 tower

2016-08-04T14:23:00-04:00

To some it’s the Brighton Pole, to others it is Sussex’s supersized lollipop. Naughtier minds have dubbed it “the cock and ring”. Before it has even opened, the south coast’s new observation tower has gathered a gaggle of nicknames – and you can see why, when its creators insist on calling it the British Airways i360. To opponents, it may still be the iSore, a Chernobyl chimney despoiling the beach. It could have been designed to feel less like a corporate entertainment lounge on a stick.

But by night, when it glows like a sword plunging down from the heavens, it is hard to resist. Come the Pride festival this weekend, when the i360’s programmable LED lights will form a dazzling rainbow, there might prove to be no better symbol for the city than this great throbbing shaft.

For more news from Brighton, check out these links:

Designers of the London Eye create new landmark for Brighton

2016-07-11T14:22:00-04:00

Marks Barfield Architects have, quite literally, reinvented the wheel and have created the i360, a vertical cable car with a sculpted viewing pod, perching lightly upon Brighton’s seafront... It takes the form of a slender mast that will be 568ft high (when the spire is added), which supports a sculpted, doughnut-shaped pod, with glass windows and a reflective mirrored underside. The pod takes up to 200 people at a time skyward over a flight time of 20 (daytime) or 30 minutes (evening).

Due to open this summer, the British Airways i360 is a new futuristic landmark for Brighton’s seafront designed by architects David Marks and Julia Barfield. It is hoped that the BA i360 will herald a new touristic golden age for Brighton, replicating the success of the London eye on Brighton’s seafront. The i360 will be possibly be advertised on British Airways flights to the UK, in an international revival of Brighton's ambitions. Inclusive of the immediate community, there will be half price tickets for Brighton residents and free entry for state school children in Brighton and Hove once in their school career. There is also to be a restaurant at the base of the tower, and the restoration of a pair of original building on the West Pier.

The BA i360 June 2016 - Image courtesy of British Airways i360/Kevin Meredith

In juxtaposition to the i360 tower, the Grade I listed West Pier is situated adjacent. The condemned structure is a skeleton from the golden age of domestic holidaying. Th...

Brighton's Embassy Court by Wells Coates featured in new film

2016-05-05T11:27:00-04:00

Earlier this year, photographer Baker took us on an odyssey through two icons of Modernism in the UK by Wells Coates: London’s Isokon building and Brighton’s Embassy Court. Now he’s teamed up with director Alex Simpson to create a mini-documentary, The Legacy of Wells Coates. The Isokon was once home to Soviet spies, Agatha Christie and Modernist émigrés including the founder of Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius.

Find more tales of form following function here: