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Hong Kong-based philanthropist and entrepreneur Yana Peel has been appointed chief executive of the Serpentine Galleries in London. The [Serpentine's] trustees took the unusual decision to choose a fellow trustee to fill the new post. Julia Peyton-Jones, who put the institution on the international map, is stepping down as co-director this month after 25 years at the helm.
Peel will work in partnership with Hans Ulrich Obrist...[who] takes on the new role of artistic director.
— The Art Newspaper
More on Archinect:After 25 years, Serpentine co-director Julia Peyton-Jones is leavingThe Serpentine Pavilions from the past: Where are they now?BIG to design 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, alongside smaller "Summer Houses" by Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman and Asif Kahn View full entry
Plans for London’s first timber skyscraper were presented to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson this week with researchers saying natural materials were “vastly underused”.
The design is for an 80-storey, 300m-high wooden building integrated into the Barbican complex. The tower would create 1,000 new residences. Architects’ Journal described the concept scheme as “toothpick-like”.
— independent.co.uk
Read relating articles on Archinect here:A guide to London mayoral candidates and their housing policiesIs London experiencing a brick boom?Design revealed for 1 Undershaft, London's tallest skyscraper by the "thinking developer’s architect" View full entry
The East End of London has been associated with many things: the “cockney” sense of humour; colourful criminals; waves of immigration; and poverty. Not many people associate it with architecture. But it was in Poplar in the south eastern corner of the East End that I chose to do my... View full entry
If you're in London Friday, you can celebrate the late, great Zaha Hadid at a public memorial held at the Magazine restaurant at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery. Between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., visitors can sign books of condolence and pay respects to her surviving family members, which include her... View full entry
London’s red-hot housing market of late is by now an international legend, drip-feeding the media with tragicomic stories of insane pricing on a weekly basis—from the $710 cupboard to the one-bedroom flat on sale for $37 million. Now a new report out this week details some of the harmful social effects that this boom in housing costs has wrought. Unsurprisingly, they are many. — CityLab
This research, conducted by the think tank Centre for London, shows that the city's housing crisis is creating a massive gulf between the city's rich and poor. It's also creating an "inequality chasm" between London and the rest of the United Kingdom.The report identifies three major trends... View full entry
Caruso St John, Stanton Williams with Asif Khan, and BIG in a team with Hawkins\Brown have been shortlisted to design the Museum of London’s new home in Smithfields.
The shortlisted teams saw off 80 entries from more than 140 practices and were chosen based on their relevant skills and experience, in particular of significant cultural projects.
The competition will create a £150 million new base for the Museum of London in the historic West Smithfield market.
— architectsjournal.co.uk
Also selected:Lacaton & Vassal Architectes with Pernilla Ohrstedt StudioDiener & Diener Architekten with Sergison Bates Architects, East Architecture and Graphic Thought FacilityStudio Milou architecture with RL & Associés, Axis Architects and Alan Baxter AssociatesRead more articles... View full entry
Foster + Partners’ plans for the overhaul of London’s Grade II-listed Whiteleys shopping centre have got the go-ahead – despite opposition from locals.
Westminster City Council approved the contentious scheme last night, but will now look into setting conditions concerning the scale of two residential towers that form part of the proposal, alongside a gym, hotel, cinema and new shops.
— thespaces.com
For more on listed projects, take a look at previous coverage here:Another Grade II listed building loses its protected status in north east EnglandSex Pistols graffiti secures famous Tin Pan Alley building Grade 2* listed status View full entry
Zaha Hadid will rightfully go down in history for the tremendous mark she made on architecture. But buildings weren't the only things she designed.In fact, for the majority of her career, she worked at smaller scales, whether with painting, furniture design, or some other venture. One of her first... View full entry
What was it like to be Zaha Hadid? From teaching to developing her vision to turning down an opportunity to work with Rem Koolhaas, in this remembrance we collect a few of Zaha's first-person writings and interviews about her life and work from her unparalleled, groundbreaking career. On being a... View full entry
Visionary and highly experimental, her legacy despite her young age, is formidable. She leaves behind a body of work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, that delight and astound people all around the world. — architecture.com
RIBA President Jane Duncan comments on the sudden passing of Dame Zaha Hadid DBE View full entry
She died of a heart attack on Thursday in a Miami hospital, where she was being treated for bronchitis. — BBC News
Zaha Hadid passed away Thursday from an apparent heart attack in Miami, Florida. She was being treated in a hospital at the time. Update: Zaha Hadid's office has released an official statement on their website as follows: ZAHA HADID 1950-2016 It is with great sadness that... View full entry
Which London mayor candidate will fix the capital's housing crisis?
There’s a short answer to [that] question. It is that none of them will. There are two big reasons for that: one, there’s only so much any mayor has the power to do about the city’s various housing problems; two, none of the front line candidates are willing to do everything they actually could do. Housing policy is difficult stuff...
— the Guardian
For more on London's housing woes, check out these links:Could a pop-up village in south-east London be the answer to the city's housing crisis?"Pay to stay" may boot 60,000 UK families from their homesLondon's Bleak HousingActivism targeting London's housing crisis bubbles to the surface View full entry
‘If we accidentally complete our isolation from Europe, please don’t let us imagine that this creates a new openness to the rest of the world – isolation is isolation. We would not only give up the distinct practical advantages of collaboration but the social, political and intellectual advantages too’, he said.
Chipperfield, who has offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai, has hit out at politicians for failing to articulate the cultural significance of the European Union.
— The Architects' Journal
For more UK-specific news, take a look at some past coverage:Excavating ancient Rome beneath London's streetsBritain's last deep-pit coal mine closes — the end of the industrial revolution?Encroaching on the green belt: UK loosens protections on rural landAssemble wins Turner Prize, becoming... View full entry
"Students are the advanced guard of creating that activity, that buzz. They help make it easier to persuade other businesses and investors there is something going on here.”
Not everyone is convinced. [...]
“Universities are now aping the private sector by building this top-end stuff, so a lot of students feel priced out. You can’t blame private companies, but universities have a got a different role. They should try to provide affordable options and not act like property developers.”
— theguardian.com
Related on Archinect:Viennese student dorms may Passively House refugeesHomework and Jacuzzis as Dorms Move to McMansions in CaliforniaNew Philadelphians and the end of gentrification guiltThose hipster millennials might not be the true gentrifiers of U.S. neighborhoods View full entry
Buy-to-let landlords should face new limits on the amount they can borrow, the Bank of England has proposed.
It suggested that lenders should be much stricter when deciding whether or not to grant landlords a mortgage.
Instead of just taking their rental income into account, the Bank wants lenders to look at their wider financial situation as well.
If adopted, the new rules could reduce lending to landlords by up to 20% over the next three years.
— BBC
According to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the newly-proposed standards should "curtail inappropriate lending, and the potential for excessive credit losses."The new strictures would take into account the costs a landlord accrues in order to rent a property, tax liabilities associated... View full entry
