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Just under one in four high-rise UK residential structures in need of cladding remediation have had the necessary labor performed despite a previous increase in efforts in the wake of the ongoing inquiry into the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, according to a new report from the government office... View full entry
The dominance of starchitect-led high rises in London is the result of the UK’s subjective planning system, according to a new opinion piece in The New York Times. Taking aim at the city’s “weird” skyline, business and economics columnist Peter Coy argues that “developers hire star... View full entry
The number of schools with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), which the Health and Safety Executive has said is now 'life expired' and could collapse 'with little or no warning,' has been steadily rising since the government announced the sudden closure of more than 100 schools at the end of August, just days before the start of the new academic year. — The Guardian
There are now over 230 schools and colleges listed on the government’s register of buildings under consideration for Raac replacement and repair. The challenge is twofold at present, with contractors' inability to hasten repairs before 2026 being made worse by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's cuts... View full entry
A mural painted by Banksy which first appeared not long after Britain voted to leave the European Union (EU) has been destroyed after the building it was painted on was knocked down. The artwork, said to have been valued at around £1m, first appeared in the coastal town of Dover in 2017, the year after Britain voted to leave the union in a controversial referendum. — CNN
The mural, located on the side of the Castle Amusements building, depicted a worker chipping away at one the 12 stars on the EU flag. In 2019, the mural vanished after it was whitewashed. And, now, despite efforts to potentially restore the work, the building it was painted on has been demolished... View full entry
The UK’s Section of Architectural Workers (SAW) has announced its affiliation with Unite, one of the UK’s most influential trade union groups. The move will see SAW operate under the same union group as the UK’s wider construction sector. When it was established in 2019, SAW was affiliated... View full entry
The UK-based salary transparency advocates The Pay 100 have released their latest set of survey data on average salaries across UK firms. Expanding upon last year’s inaugural snapshot of results, the 2023 addition also includes data on unpaid overtime. As reported by the Architect’s... View full entry
The planning authority in London’s Royal Borough of Greenwich has ordered the demolition of a new residential development along the River Thames. In a statement, the authority concluded that the 23-story building, named Mast Quay Phase II, was “so substantially different to the... View full entry
More than one hundred schools and education settings in the United Kingdom have been closed due to concerns over the integrity of concrete roof panels. So far, 147 schools are known to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), with approximately one hundred fully or partially closed... View full entry
Rotterdam-based LOLA Landscape Architects has been selected by developers Landsec U+I and TOWN to design the new 48-hectare Hartree development, a mixed-use neighborhood in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The Hartree site in Cambridge. The masterplan for the urban quarter development was designed by... View full entry
Benedetti Architects has offered an insight into the new headquarters for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in London. The Grade II listed building has seen a comprehensive expansion and re-design with a budget of £33 million (USD 42 million). Photo credit: Jim Stephenson... View full entry
A statement from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has called into question the recent slate of educational overhauls proposed by the UK’s Architects Registration Board (ARB) in February in the interests of removing barriers for entry into the field. In our February... View full entry
AL_A has been granted permission to construct the world’s first magnetized fusion power plant. The Culham Science Centre facility, to be located in Oxford, UK, is anchored by a 125-foot-tall cylindrical fusion hall wrapped in a translucent facade. The scheme was first unveiled in August... View full entry
On January 11, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) published a new white paper examining potential solutions to cultivate a more diverse, skill-based educational environment and subsequent pathways into the profession. The paper identifies a series of impactful steps to be... View full entry
Foster + Partners have been granted approval for the construction of a new mixed-use cross-laminated timber development in London. Named The William, the scheme will become one of London’s largest timber developments, and Foster + Partners’ first timber office building in the city. Image... View full entry
There is no housing shortage. There are over 400,000 empty homes in the UK, and about 200,000 homeless people. The vast majority of empty homes are in parts of the country which have become depopulated because of economic decline – in the Midlands, the north, and coastal cities. So the solution to the housing crisis isn’t building tons of homes. It’s about reviving the economy in those places, launching a massive retrofit campaign, and bringing people back.” — The Guardian
“We could end the housing crisis overnight, if we wanted to,” Barber told Oliver Wainwright in a recent interview, referring to the private grab on council housing that has developed unabated since the Thatcher administration's Right-to-Buy laws came into effect in 1980. “We should... View full entry
