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The world’s biggest offshore windfarm has officially opened in the Irish Sea, amid warnings that Brexit could increase costs for future projects.
Walney Extension, off the Cumbrian coast, spans an area the size of 20,000 football pitches and has a capacity of 659 megawatts, enough to power the equivalent of 590,000 homes.
The project is a sign of how dramatically wind technology has progressed in the past five years since the previous biggest, the London Array, was finished.
— The Guardian
The Walney Extension is made up of 87 turbines and has a total capacity of 659 MW, enough to power almost 600,000 homes in the UK. This makes it now the largest operational offshore wind farm, however with wind farm supersizing along the British coastline it may not hold the record for long. ... View full entry
JCDecaux has taken the wraps off a unique piece of out-of-home inventory in London designed by Zaha Hadid Design.
The agency briefed the agency to redefine 'the design language of billboards'. It ditched the conventional shapes and frames that have steered the industry to date. Dubbed 'The Kensington', and located on the road from London to Heathrow, the structure takes the shape of a curved double-ribbon.
— thedrum.com
Zaha Hadid Architects has created a new design for street advertising with JCDecaux Group, a multinational corporation known for its bus-stop advertising systems and billboards. Creating a sculptural advertising approach, the firm's design reinvents the classic billboard into public art. Brands... View full entry
The first building to win the RIBA Stirling Prize – Hodder Associates’ Centenary Building for the University of Salford – could be converted into a new primary school.
The plans for the currently empty 23-year-old building form part of 5plus Architects’ emerging 99ha development framework for the university’s existing campus and surrounding area.
— Architects' Journal
Hodder + Partners's Centenary Building for the University of Salford was the first to be awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize back in 1996. Originally designed to be the School of Electrical Engineering, during construction plans changed for the building to house the Faculty of Art and Design... View full entry
London is pure object in these images and likewise in those taken from the other aforementioned viewing points. Like visitors to a museum, we wander the corridors atop the Switch House and observe the artefacts curated for our all-consuming gaze: a shard, a walkie-talkie, a gherkin, etc. Like Tower Bridge, the new Museum of London, Battersea Power Station and the Tate Modern, the skyline of the city is presented as a display – complete with its own exhibition gift shop. — failedarchitecture.com
George Kafka argues that London's trend in preservation and commemoration in the built environment is directly related to the decline of small-scale spaces and small businesses centered around everyday life. Kafka cites recent developments in London's built environment over the past few years... View full entry
The first group of architectural apprentices will start at leading practices such as AHMM, Hawkins\Brown and PRP next month as a major new sector initiative gets underway.
Practices AtelierWest, GPA (Get Planning and Architecture), Ingleton Wood, and To-Do Design are also pioneering two types of apprenticeships as a route into the profession in collaboration with London South Bank University.
— Architects Journal
Following the architecture apprenticeship initiative led by Foster + Partners, the first group entering the ‘earn while you learn’ program will begin next month in the UK. This approach will offer both professional experience and tuition-free academic training, while also providing a salary to... View full entry
Microsoft has been experimenting with undersea data centers for years, and the current installation in the Orkney Islands will be deployed for around five years. There are 12 racks with 864 servers and 27.6 petabytes (27,600 terabytes) of storage [...] The data center is powered by a giant undersea cable that also connects it back to the internet, and the findings could mean the company will scale this project up to more powerful data centers in the future. — theverge.com
Microsoft has now installed a webcam by its undersea data center located off the shores of Scotland. The video stream is part of the company's efforts to observe environmental conditions of Project Natick, a research project aimed at determining the feasibility of subsea data centers powered by... View full entry
As one of three finalist candidates, Alan Jones has been elected as the next RIBA President, the highest elected position in UK architecture. As RIBA's current Vice President of Education, Jones will replace incumbent RIBA President Ben Derbyshire starting September 1, 2019 and will serve through... View full entry
The trustees of London’s garden bridge, including actor Joanna Lumley and the former Labour minister Lord Davies, could have breached their legal duties over the failed project, that cost taxpayers more than £40m, according to a leading lawyer.
The legal opinion comes as pressure mounts for a formal investigation into how the charity behind the abandoned scheme spent so much money without construction work even beginning.
— The Guardian
"The decision to press on with the construction contract led to public losses, initially capped at £16m, increasing to an estimated total of £46m by the time the scheme was cancelled in 2017," The Guardian reports. "The project, championed by then London mayor, Boris Johnson, was intended to be... View full entry
Southern England has been particularly parched, enjoying the driest June on record, but the hot weather has lead to an array of unlikely discoveries across the British Isles. Outlines of ancient and historic sites are being revealed – some of which haven’t been seen in living memory. — The Telegraph
"As the grass and crops dry out in the fields, the remains of wood and stone features are being spotted. The effect is caused by soil building up above the foreign material left in the ground over centuries in a way that makes the live material react to the conditions at a different rate to that... View full entry
A major new shopping district and public space in King’s Cross is set to open to the public on Friday 26 October 2018. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, his studio has overseen the transformation of two dilapidated heritage rail buildings into a lively retail precinct. King's Cross, a former... View full entry
Liverpool City Council (LCC) has announced a new partnership with a blockchain platform company to offset more than 110% of its carbon emissions, with the city announcing its bid to become the world's first climate-positive city by the end of 2020. LCC will conduct a year-long trial with the Poseidon Foundation to use a blockchain platform to offset the carbon impact of all products and services in the city by supporting global forest conversation projects. — edie.net
Liverpool's ambition to become the world's first climate-positive city by 2020 has been announced with the city's blockchain technology partnership. Committing to a year-long trial of this sustainable technology, Liverpool City Council strives to reduce its carbon impact by installing more than... View full entry
Facebook is doubling its presence in London by acquiring office space across two buildings in King's Cross.
The 600,000 square feet (56,000 square meters) of office space will be enough for more than 6,000 workstations. [...]
The expansion follows the 2017 opening of its site at Rathbone Place, which added 800 jobs and opened its first in-house incubator program for startup businesses. It also has a location on Brock Street.
— CNET
Considerably ramping up its workplace capacity by 611,000 sq ft in soon-to-be post-Brexit London, Facebook will be moving into new buildings at King's Cross: 11 and 21 Canal Reach, designed by Bennetts Associates, the ten and twelve-story-buildings already have detailed planning permission, as... View full entry
There is no single showstopper and it will be a difficult year for the judges, weighing up the varying shades of reticence on the list. Together, the buildings make a bit of a dull group, celebrating the mute and austere over the bold and expressive – repeating the tenor of last year’s list, which scandalously failed to include Herzog & de Meuron's Tate Switch House. — The Guardian
The Guardian architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, isn't particularly impressed with this year's selection of six projects for the coveted RIBA Stirling Prize, awarded annually for Britain's best new building. Calling it "a bit of a dull group" and questioning especially the inclusion of the... View full entry
A 56-storey tower called The Diamond is set to join the growing cluster of skyscrapers in the City of London and will be the financial district’s third-tallest building when completed.
The planned 263.4m tower at 100 Leadenhall Street will rank behind 1 Undershaft at 290m, nicknamed the Trellis, where work is yet to start, and 22 Bishopsgate, the reworked Pinnacle at 278m, which is under construction.
— The Guardian
Image: The Diamond.The City of London's third-tallest building has just received planning permission, and it will be somewhat of a déjà vu: the SOM-designed, wedge-shaped 56-story tower, officially called The Diamond, is going to sit right next to Richard Roger's Cheesegrater—London's OG wedge. View full entry
Tate St Ives has been announced as Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, the largest and most prestigious museum prize in the world. Anne Barlow, director of Tate St Ives, was presented with the £100,000 prize by artist Isaac Julien and the ‘world’s best teacher’ Andria Zafirakou at an award ceremony at the V&A, London. — Art Fund
"Tate St Ives tells the story of the artists who have lived and worked in Cornwall in an international context," said Stephen Deuchar, chair of the judges. "The new extension to the gallery is deeply intelligent and breathtakingly beautiful, providing the perfect stage for a curatorial programme... View full entry
