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The UK's Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove has approved the planned demolition of the Museum of London building and Bastion House near the Barbican. The go-ahead makes way for the revised Sheppard Robson and Diller Scofidio + Renfro-led scheme that would deliver a new office... View full entry
The UK’s Loughborough University has accepted Thomas Heatherwick's challenge to ‘humanize’ and create ‘joyful’ architecture with a new academic offering: A master's degree aiming to give students the opportunity to take part in a burgeoning movement created to solve a global “urban... View full entry
The revised Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Sheppard Robson-led scheme at the Barbican in Central London reportedly gained planning approvals from the City of London’s planning body. The news came last week (April 17th) after UK Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove remanded an Article... View full entry
Heatherwick Studio has offered a construction update on its design for the UCB Windlesham Surrey Science Research Hub in the United Kingdom. When completed, the building will serve as a hub for the Belgian biopharmaceutical company UCB. In new photos released by the firm, the project's... View full entry
The Barbican has debuted a new large-scale public art installation from Ghanaian-born artist Ibrahim Mahama. His site-specific piece Purple Hibiscus, named in reference to the 2003 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is installed on the facade of the Barbican’s central Lakeside... View full entry
Mecanoo has shared the news of its completed transformation of the Perth Museum in central Scotland. The three-year construction yields 37,700 square feet worth of new public space inside of the Edwardian-style former City Hall that serviced the community from 1914 on. A specially carved... View full entry
Legal requirements for housing and infrastructure schemes in England to deliver at least a 10 per cent improvement for nature have been extended to cover small developments from today, applying to developments where the number of dwellings is between one and nine or where the site area is less than 0.5 hectares. — BusinessGreen
The scheme, called Biodiversity Net Gain, is designed to ensure that "habitats for wildlife are left in a measurably better state than they were before the development," according to UK Government guidance. Natural habitats in the UK will be given 'biodiversity units' depending on their... View full entry
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has provided an outline to overhaul its 66 Portland Place London headquarters into a “once-in-a-generation” home of the new House of Architecture initiative. For a reported cost of £85 million ($107.4 million USD), the project from... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects director Melodie Leung has collaborated with Scottish whisky distillery Dalmore to create a “dramatic glass sculpture” housing two rare Highland Single Malt whiskies. The sculpture is the second chapter of ‘The Dalmore Luminary Series,’ a collaboration between the... View full entry
The newly published RIBA Artificial Intelligence Report has revealed statistics detailing the architecture industry’s turn towards AI within professional practice using findings from a recent survey of 500+ members. The study also gives clues about the technology’s future and feedback on... View full entry
Its sale, for £275m, by BT to a hotel group, if it gives the tower a secure future, is welcome. I’m more troubled by the reports that the designer Thomas Heatherwick is to “repurpose” the building. His past work shows that he’s not one to leave well alone, but rather festoon structures with over-sized flower-pots and look-at-me swirling shapes. One can only hope that he discovers some restraint. The BT Tower is already an icon. It’s perfect. Let it be. — The Guardian
Readers will remember the critic's jabs at Heatherwick last fall after the publication of his new treatise on architecture and mental health, wherein Moore declared “an outbreak of shallow wannabe Gaudís” will follow in tow should the call-to-action be adopted. That provocation isn't... View full entry
London’s iconic BT Tower is to be purchased by U.S. hotel owner-operator MCR. Partnering with Heatherwick Studio, the company is to explore the tower’s adaptive reuse as a hotel. Standing at 620 feet in height, the BT Tower is one of London’s tallest buildings. Opened in 1965, the tower is... View full entry
Designer Kyle Branchesi has shared images from his latest creative experimentation with generative AI tools, a visual commentary touching on the debate over pedestrianism and motor vehicles happening currently within the UK. For 'The Motorist Won,' Branchesi imagined a far-off dystopia plagued by... View full entry
Art by the famous artist Banksy is to be included in a new initiative to document the UK’s murals. As reported by The Art Newspaper, the project will see more than 5,000 murals from across the UK digitally recorded for access in a free public database. The project is being overseen by the... View full entry
A group of 11 AEC industry groups in the United Kingdom, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Chartered Institute of Building, and UK Green Building Council, have joined together in urging the government toward taking action on restricting embodied carbon emissions in the... View full entry
