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By 2030, around a quarter of UK buildings should be heated using them, according to the UK government's climate advisory body, rising to 52% by 2050. Electrifying heating will also be key to decarbonising buildings in the US, says Melissa Lott, director of research at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. One study in San Francisco referred to heat pumps as the "single most impactful lever" to reducing emissions. — BBC
Communal heatmains can be used to overcome the challenges of digging expensive boreholes for heat pumps in private homes and urban apartment blocks where most of the UK’s population resides. The country’s push to heat half of its homes using heat pumps, which are evolving, puts it... View full entry
The owners of luxury flats opposite Tate Modern’s viewing gallery face an unacceptable level of intrusion that prevents them enjoying their homes, the supreme court has ruled.
In a majority judgment, the court determined that the flat owners faced a “constant visual intrusion” that interfered with the “ordinary use and enjoyment” of their properties, extending the law of privacy to include overlooking – albeit only in extreme cases.
— The Guardian
The suit was initiated by a quintet of residents of the RSHP-designed apartment tower in 2017, offering Oliver Wainwright (another) chance to comment on the class tensions which lie at the heart of many high-profile Greater London housing kerfuffles. It was later dismissed by a lower court... View full entry
England's housing developers have been given an ultimatum - commit to repairing unsafe buildings or be banned from operating in the market.
Developers now have six weeks to sign a government contract to fix their unsafe buildings from the past 30 years.
According to the government's new plan, homeowners living in buildings whose construction poses a potential fire risk will be reimbursed, and building companies who installed the unsafe cladding must pay to replace it with a safer material.
— BBC
Speaking to the press on Sunday, UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove admitted “faulty” guidance was to blame for the Grenfell Tower tragedy, stating his opinion that the building industry had gone underregulated for years. Cladding manufacturers like Celotex and Kingspan were not included in the... View full entry
Influential Canadian architect Phyllis Lambert and SANAA co-founder Kazuyo Sejima have been named as this year's respective winners of the Jane Drew and Ada Louise Huxtable prizes by the UK-based publications Architects’ Journal and The Architectural Review as part of the annual W Awards... View full entry
[The] MSG Sphere, a new concert hall planned for Stratford in east London – which would be as wide as the London Eye and as tall as Big Ben – could soon move a step closer to reality.
On Tuesday evening, the planning committee of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) will meet to consider its developer’s plans for managing the advertising display and its impact.
— The Guardian
Efforts to halt the development of the Populous-designed entertainment venue date back to late 2020, when the public consultation phase for the project was extended for a third time over concerns about light pollution. Plans were approved by the LLDC in March of last year contingent on an... View full entry
A pair of unprecedented changes to the UK’s Architects Act 1997 has been announced jointly by the British Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Architects Registration Board (ARB), ending the reciprocal acceptance of qualifications for EU-trained architects that has been... View full entry
The UK’s housing chief is throwing his name into the contentious ongoing debate surrounding the role and perception of traditionalism and classical architecture in the country’s design culture and academia. The Architects’ Journal has details on Secretary Michael Gove’s foreword to a... View full entry
The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced that Scottish-Ghanaian architect and academic Lesley Lokko has been awarded an OBE for her services to architecture and education in King Charles III’s first New Year's honors list. Founder and Director of the African Futures... View full entry
New legislation aimed at enacting a countrywide mandate for the use of passive house design standards in all new housing developments is gaining traction in Scotland after Labour MSP Alex Rowley’s bill was endorsed by the national government earlier this month. The new Domestic Building... View full entry
The popular Gingerbread City holiday exhibition has returned to London’s Museum of Architecture featuring some tasty designs from top firms organized into five “mini-cities” master-planned for the second consecutive year by Madeleine Kessler Architecture. Each of the small cities... View full entry
UK real estate developer Art-Invest has announced Matthias Hollwich and the team at HWKN Architecture will be the designers for a new commercial tower at the Canada Water Dockside in London. The tower will be one of three new commercial buildings built on the 4.5-acre... View full entry
Lebanese-born architect Lina Ghotmeh has been selected as the architect for the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London. The Paris-based architect will be the 22nd designer of a Serpentine Pavilion, an annual event that began with Zaha Hadid’s commission in 2000. Ghotmeh’s work sits at the... View full entry
Sir David Adjaye has achieved yet another accolade after being named as one of the six new Order of Merit appointments announced this weekend and selected by Queen Elizabeth II shortly before her death in September at the age of 96. Adjaye is now also one of five architects on the list, joining... View full entry
The close of the 300-day-long inquiry into the devastating 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London saw attorneys for the victims pinning the “primary responsibility” on the building's designer, Studio E Architects, adding that a “rogue's gallery” comprised of Arconic Architectural Products and... View full entry
Selldorf Architects has released a revised plan for the controversial overhaul of the Sainsbury Wing at London’s National Gallery following a torrent of criticism that has grown online after their initial designs were unveiled this summer. The Architects’ Journal is reporting on the... View full entry
