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Designing out homelessness appears to be part of a wider ambition to make consumers and investors feel secure, while avoiding direct human intervention. [...]
It is an indictment of our communities that we have come to identify street homelessness as a form of “disorder” – a sign that something is amiss or dangerous in our public spaces. Yet the reality is that these kinds of design and security measures are put in place because of the breakdown of these very communities.
— theconversation.com
This piece by Rowland Atkinson (Chair in Inclusive Societies) and Aidan While (Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning) at the University of Sheffield gets at how exclusionary design towards the homeless and so-called "rough" sleepers (those who sleep in the city's streets) is a sign of... View full entry
The Royal College of Art has announced the appointment of Dr Adrian Lahoud as Dean of the School of Architecture.
Currently Head of the Architecture programme, Dr Lahoud joined the College in September 2015. Previously he led the MArch in Urban Design at The Bartlett, University College London. [...]
The appointment represents the conclusion of an international search. Dr Lahoud will take up his new position in January 2016.
— Royal College of Art
If there is one thing Britons dislike more than their country’s housing shortage, it is the idea of building more houses. Even as a lack of homes has sent prices through the roof... cities have remained ringed by protected “green belts” of land that are off-limits to developers. Attempts to build on them provoke outcry. But on December 7th the government published a consultation on letting councils allocate “appropriate small-scale sites in the green belt specifically for starter homes”... — the Economist
Alongside the companies shortlisted for the management services, four of the UK’s largest architectural practices have been shortlisted to provide architectural advice. The companies shortlisted are Allies & Morrison, BDP, Foster & Partners and HOK.
[...] The report, produced by Deloitte Real Estate, Aecom and HOK, stated that the major works would cost between £3.5bn and £5.7bn and take between five and 40 years to complete.
— construction-manager.co.uk
Related news on Archinect:With London's Palace of Westminster crumbling, the British government may have to find a new homeLondon skyline campaigners' dismay as Unesco ignores risk to Westminster View full entry
After a decade of outlandish proposals for the City, Parry has come up with a refreshingly blunt stick of a building for the centrepiece of the district’s “cluster” of office blocks. [...]
“The thing that’s most interesting in all this is urban design,” says Parry, deflecting the discussion away from the fact that he is penning the City’s tallest totem. He’s more concerned with fixing the human experience at street level: “The project is really all about public space.”
— theguardian.com
Soon to join the "great dinner party in the sky," between Rogers Strik Harbour + Partners' Cheesegrater and Foster + Partners' Gherkin, 1 Undershaft will be as tall as The Shard (the maximum height limit for the city). According to The Guardian, the building was also designed to have a triangular... View full entry
You wait years for a new bridge across the Thames then three come along at once. Joining the controversial garden bridge and a plan for a crossing between Nine Elms and Pimlico, both of which have fierce opponents, comes a proposal unveiled today for a new pedestrian and cycle bridge between Rotherhithe and the Isle of Dogs in east London that hasn’t aroused a single objection – yet.
There’s a good reason why: of the three plans, it makes by far the most sense.
— Oliver Wainwright
The City of London skyline is to be dominated by a newcomer after the latest version of a tower formerly known as the Pinnacle or Helter Skelter received the green light from planners.
The revived building, officially known as 22 Bishopsgate – or simply 22 – will be the tallest building in the Square Mile at 278 metres (912ft) [...].
The new design scrapping the expensive curved-glass panels at the top was the work of PLP Architecture.
— theguardian.com
Previously: Arrested development: London's tallest building-to-be slated for demolitionRelated London news on Archinect:Canary Wharf may be host to western Europe's tallest residential towerSouthwark planners nix 'crude and literal' rocket-shaped flats3(00) feet and rising: an aerial video tour... View full entry
Transport bosses have unveiled the first official map showing the walking times between central London's Tube stations.
The comprehensive plan highlights the time it takes to travel on foot between almost all of the stations on London’s Underground network.
[Transport for London] Chief Executive Gordon Innes said: “The Tube is the most used transport method by visitors in London, stations for many of our top attractions are within walking distance of each other.
— the Evening Standard
You can download the new map here. View full entry
Visitors to the garden bridge in London will be tracked by their mobile phone signals and supervised by staff with powers to take people’s names and addresses and confiscate and destroy banned items, including kites and musical instruments, according to a planning document. [...]
Caroline Pidgeon [...] said she feared the bridge was following “a worrying trend of the privatisation of public places, where the rights of private owners trump those of ordinary people”.
— theguardian.com
Previously on Archinect:London Garden Bridge wins new supporters with revised funding dealFurther legal setbacks for London Garden BridgeCheeky "A Folly for London" winners announced View full entry
The controversial and seemingly doomed plan for a garden bridge over the Thames in London could be resurrected after the group behind the project reached an agreement with council officials over the level of public funding. On Monday...a joint announcement by Lambeth...and the Garden Bridge Trust said negotiations would resume after a deal to limit the money Transport for London (TfL) would have to pay towards construction to £10m, from an original £30m. — The Guardian
Previously on Archinect:London's Garden Bridge endangered by public funding shortfallAs Garden Bridge procurement process is headed for review, London group claims that 30 new parks could be funded insteadSatirical “Folly for London” competition mocks Garden Bridge projectZaha Hadid, Piers... View full entry
The collaboration will consist of seminars, workshops, and studio classes for MIT students and potential exhibitions at MIT and the Soane Museum. This fall, the Department of Architecture is offering the program’s first class, a reconsideration of architectural fragments [...]
“The Fragment,” taught by David Gissen, a visiting professor in the History, Theory and Criticism program, will explore architectural monuments rendered into a fragmented, disassembled, or ruined state.
— news.mit.edu
More news from MIT:Cutting across the Chicago Architecture Biennial: "Rock Print" from ETH Zürich and MITMIT presents 3D printer that can print 10 materials simultaneously without breaking the bankMIT's "Placelet" sensors technologize old-fashioned observation methods for placemakingHashim Sarkis... View full entry
The British Council announced today the winning proposal for the British Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennial of Architecture: Home Economics, a project authored by the architecture writers Shumi Bose and Jack Self alongside the architect and planner Finn Williams.According to the curatorial... View full entry
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2015Archinect's Get Lectured is ready for another school year. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any... View full entry
Following their July announcement of the shortlist for the 2015 Stirling Prize, RIBA announced [today] the Burntwood School in Wandsworth London as the winning project. Now in its 20th year, the RIBA Stirling Prize is regarded as the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize. Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), the practice that designed the all girls' school, is winning the coveted award for the first time. — Bustler
More photos and project details on Bustler.Previously: RIBA reveals the six 2015 Stirling Prize shortlisters View full entry
"O, giddy London," Morrissey once sang about the city which has been serially (and gorgeously) aerially filmed by Jason Hawkes. Hawkes has shared his professional-grade footage from September 2015 in this video that surveys the twilit glitter of the Gherkin, the watery sweep of the Thames, and, of... View full entry