About Me
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
Going low carbon can deliver progress on other crucial fronts such as energy security, affordable homes, new jobs and regeneration.
So CABE has launched a major new initiative, Sustainable Cities, for the people responsible for planning, designing and managing towns and cities.
Sustainable Cities is the result of a two year research programme, working with the English Core Cities and a team of 30 experts.
Making towns and cities low carbon is not impossibly complicated – but it does mean seeing the bigger picture to make the right decision. Biomass boilers or combined heat and power? How do you balance high density living with more green, natural space? How do you work out energy demand and supply over the next 20 years?
Sustainable Cities aims to help towns and cities avoid the risk of unintended consequences. Going low carbon is not just about the quality of our homes – it is about how we live our lives. The household fuel bill savings from well insulated homes could, after all, be spent on more plasma screens and flights.
As our towns and cities tackle climate change they need to become better places to live and work. It is possible to undermine the quality of a place at the same time as cutting emissions, and make it less sustainable. Investing in electric vehicles will cut carbon emissions, for instance, but contribute nothing to better traffic management, more walking and cycling, and more beautiful streets and open spaces.
Greening our cities
Greening our cities would help tackle recession
23 March 2009
A major shift of public money towards the greening of towns and cities is needed, to tackle both climate change and the recession and create places we all want to live in.
Green roof on Chicago City Hall by William McDonough and Partners
Photo by Morris K. Udall Foundation
With the next budget fast approaching, CABE and Natural England are calling on the government to prioritise funding for green assets such as parks, trees and open spaces. The two government advisors on urban design and the natural environment have just brought together international experts for a conference, ParkCity (March 2009), to help share understanding about how to create more liveable places.
CABE and Natural England argue that since we are faced with two urgent and fundamental challenges – climate change and the recession – investment in grey and green infrastructure needs to be rebalanced.
The spend on grey schemes, like building and expanding roads, is out of kilter with spend on assets like street trees and parks and green spaces.
Richard Simmons, CABE chief executive, spoke at the conference of the need to redesign our towns and cities in response to the imperative of climate change. Design is the signal of intent - and the intention of urban design should be to reduce, absorb and capture more carbon dioxide. “Greening towns and cities needs to be part of the green new deal, as much as technology” he said.
The creation and maintenance of green infrastructure will generate new and sustainable jobs in the private sector as well creating desirable areas to live and work.
Investment in green roofs, for instance, would not only protect cities from flooding by absorbing heavy rain, cool the air in summer, improve air quality and support biodiversity, but it would also create many new jobs.
Just 10 per cent of the nation’s £10 billion budget to widen and build roads could pay for 40 new parks, half a million new street trees, one and a half million square metres of green roof, and 1,000 miles of safe greenways for cyclists and pedestrians.
The ParkCity conference brought together world experts with leaders from the public, private and third sectors to debate how green infrastructure can deliver energy and transport solutions, economic regeneration, improved public health and climate change adaptation.
Read our interviews with:
Edward T McMahon – the founding father of the concept of green infrastructure is a leading conservationist, environmental lawyer and an inspirational public speaker
Wade Crowfoot – San Francisco’s director of climate protection initiatives is at the front line of the Californian city’s not-so-quiet climate revolution
Klaus Bondam – Copenhagen’s mayor of environmental administration is leading that city’s drive to become provide the world’s best urban environment by 2015.
23 March 2009
A major shift of public money towards the greening of towns and cities is needed, to tackle both climate change and the recession and create places we all want to live in.
Green roof on Chicago City Hall by William McDonough and Partners
Photo by Morris K. Udall Foundation
With the next budget fast approaching, CABE and Natural England are calling on the government to prioritise funding for green assets such as parks, trees and open spaces. The two government advisors on urban design and the natural environment have just brought together international experts for a conference, ParkCity (March 2009), to help share understanding about how to create more liveable places.CABE and Natural England argue that since we are faced with two urgent and fundamental challenges – climate change and the recession – investment in grey and green infrastructure needs to be rebalanced.
The spend on grey schemes, like building and expanding roads, is out of kilter with spend on assets like street trees and parks and green spaces.
Richard Simmons, CABE chief executive, spoke at the conference of the need to redesign our towns and cities in response to the imperative of climate change. Design is the signal of intent - and the intention of urban design should be to reduce, absorb and capture more carbon dioxide. “Greening towns and cities needs to be part of the green new deal, as much as technology” he said.
The creation and maintenance of green infrastructure will generate new and sustainable jobs in the private sector as well creating desirable areas to live and work.
Investment in green roofs, for instance, would not only protect cities from flooding by absorbing heavy rain, cool the air in summer, improve air quality and support biodiversity, but it would also create many new jobs.
Just 10 per cent of the nation’s £10 billion budget to widen and build roads could pay for 40 new parks, half a million new street trees, one and a half million square metres of green roof, and 1,000 miles of safe greenways for cyclists and pedestrians.
The ParkCity conference brought together world experts with leaders from the public, private and third sectors to debate how green infrastructure can deliver energy and transport solutions, economic regeneration, improved public health and climate change adaptation.
Read our interviews with:
Edward T McMahon – the founding father of the concept of green infrastructure is a leading conservationist, environmental lawyer and an inspirational public speaker
Wade Crowfoot – San Francisco’s director of climate protection initiatives is at the front line of the Californian city’s not-so-quiet climate revolution
Klaus Bondam – Copenhagen’s mayor of environmental administration is leading that city’s drive to become provide the world’s best urban environment by 2015.
Zira Island
The Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan is a master plan for a Zero Energy culture and entertainment city on Zira Island situated within the Caspian Sea. Located within the crescent shaped bay of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, Zira Island is designed to be a sustainable model for urban development, and an iconographic skyline recognizable from the city’s coastline. As a young post-soviet democracy, Azerbaijan is rediscovering its national identity, The Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan proposes an architectural landscape derived from its natural landscape. The mountains are conceived not only as metaphors, but engineered as entire eco-systems, a model for future sustainable urban development.
Zira Island from Andreas Klok Pedersen on Vimeo.
Zira Island from Andreas Klok Pedersen on Vimeo.
8-HOUSE
8-House is located in Ørestad on the edge of Copenhagen. 8-House offers homes for people in all of life’s stages: the young and the old, singles, families that grow and families that become smaller. Instead of dividing the different functions of the building - for both habitation and retail - into separate blocks, the various functions have been spread out horizontally. The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial program unfolds at the base of the building. As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the commercial merges with life on the street.
8H - The 8-House from BIG on Vimeo.
8H - The 8-House from BIG on Vimeo.
Monday, 20 April 2009
RIBA Competition '09
These pictures of mine and Affan Beg's (fellow MAED student) work exhibited at RIBA for there competition "caring for the old". Our project was to fuse an RSA brief with the RIBA one into producing a concept for how the elderly will live 60yrs in the future! We made top 20 but unfortunately didn't win!!
Business Unit_floursh visit 13/04/09
Notes from Visit:
> Shared office - with other design firm.
> 4 Main Staff - all come from Park Avenue, large corporate design consultancy.
> The rest are freelancers, means they look to find the right staff and then need to balance the staff with the amount of jobs/projects on. They give bonuses depending on good work! Try to always celebrate b-days, anniversaries within the company, few drinks down the pub or Christmas lunch etc!
> "F**k the credit crunch" when asked how its was affecting them, they said they were the "Busiest we've ever been!"
> They aim to keep overheads as small as possible!
> As they are small they can be attractive to potential employers as they are "adaptive" as well as stating that they can be competitive against other firms that maybe larger and not give as good rates! However this does limit the amount of work they can handle! Both Catherine and Guy don't get much time off!
> The company is quite dependent on both Guy T and Catherine.........if something were to happen to either of them e.g. birth or death etc, then this would be a massive threat to the company!!
> Some big companies over-look flourish, due to their size. Also many big companies have their own branding environment designers or already have a partnership with another company!
> All money earned for the project gets put into the project and the overall money earned is again put back into the company!
> They charge day-rate to the client and every job they take they aim to have a profit between the margin of 25-75%.
> The work they do is a balance between Consultancy vs Production. Consultancy (they make a higher profit from this type of work) is mainly producing visuals, concepts or graphical work for a client whereas the production is when they do an event or hire a venue, this is a much larger budget but has to include costs such as: venue, building sets, printing, building, hiring, personnel etc.
> So what makes them different?? They have a strong record, they make things happen! Everyone in the company is from a creative background, they have large individual experience within the company!
> "Our end goal is delivering the initial idea"
> Its key to put the audience first! and to create brand experience.
> They also work with much larger design agencies.
> Strongly believe people buy into flourish: Nearly all there work is from "word of mouth"
> Its is there aim to be approachable and welcoming as......
> Reasons to setup own company: within there previous company other departments were failing and they saw an opportunity!
> They believe a key part of their success is there complimentary skill sets!
> When they started they had 1 client (T-mobile), after 1st yr 95% of their turnover was from that client!
> They have a silent partner who provided the initial setup costs (Business Angel) and believe without this persons capital they wouldn't have been able to grow so fast. Started the company from Guy T's Spare room! This help with buying computers, software, hiring designers, renting office space etc.
> Now they have 2-3 regular clients.
> The Future plan is to keep "Responsible Growth" and "to deliver both interesting and great work!"
> They don't like boring work! But at during this economic downturn all work must be considered! The economic downturn does remain a threat to them!
> They look most for brand focused work......jobs that involve communicating a brand.....however also do smaller jobs such as visuals, conferences, graphical presentations etc.
> Like to challenge a problem to solve
> weaknesses: not brilliant in animations and new media!!
> Current: 4 full time, 4 freelancers but have a pool of 10-15 freelancers that they use! Good thing about freelancers is that they have experiences from other companies and can have a more influential presence, new ideas and fresh thinking/input! However they are paid nearly double!
> means 8 people in the office. In 3rs they've gone from 2 - 8!
> This years projected turnover is predicted to be 3x that of their 1st yr!
> They believe in keeping steady workload and that slow growth is key during the economic crisis!
> Future projects:they have a traveling project being done at the moment, this will travel the UK, the next world cup and also creating a beach in Birmingham for an airline company.
> They have the World Cup 2012 to look forward to.....they done projects at the previous 2, so are hopeful they will be doing projects at the next one!
> They are always looking for new ways to be innovative!! both themselves and there projects......they research new technologies, designs, materials, the market, blogs etc. "Always checking whats out there!"
> Some of there work is "white labeled" (a product or service produced by one company (the producer) that other companies (the marketers) rebrand to make it appear as if they made it.)
> Going to bigger companies and doing work for them gives instant cash flow!! However can't use the flourish name!
> Target audience: they approach the brand or creative director of a company.
> They are Rooster approved - for t-mob, castrole and BP. by getting on that list helps get them jobs.
> They keep up to date with new technology: projections, multi-touch screens etc as well as new software, just updated to the new apple imac and adobe CS4!
> Backgrounds:
Guy T - Product design degree, Park Avenue where his worked his way up to creative director.
Catherine - Interior Design Degree, worked at interior firms then at Park Avenue.
Guy C - Graphic Design degree, work at a number of consultancies before becoming Studio head at Park Avenue.
Trina - Photography degree, worked at Park Avenue and freelanced.
> Etos: Guy: "dont really have one but i would say, to work hard, have fun and enjoy it!"
> They have branded themsleves: Officially called Flourish Creative LTD
Why called flourish?? Because the word itself symbolises them! been told to look at the dictionary definition!
1. To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive: The crops flourished in the rich soil.
2. To do or fare well; prosper: "No village on the railroad failed to flourish" John Kenneth Galbraith.
3. To be in a period of highest productivity, excellence, or influence: a poet who flourished in the tenth century.
4. To make bold, sweeping movements: The banner flourished in the wind.
> They prefer longer projects but actually make more money on smaller projects - so try to link a balance between the two, to give stability within the company!
> They already have a varied range of projects within the company history, however they would like to do some more permanent projects like the Bentley development lab. They are current looking for these!
> Shared office - with other design firm.
> 4 Main Staff - all come from Park Avenue, large corporate design consultancy.
> The rest are freelancers, means they look to find the right staff and then need to balance the staff with the amount of jobs/projects on. They give bonuses depending on good work! Try to always celebrate b-days, anniversaries within the company, few drinks down the pub or Christmas lunch etc!
> "F**k the credit crunch" when asked how its was affecting them, they said they were the "Busiest we've ever been!"
> They aim to keep overheads as small as possible!
> As they are small they can be attractive to potential employers as they are "adaptive" as well as stating that they can be competitive against other firms that maybe larger and not give as good rates! However this does limit the amount of work they can handle! Both Catherine and Guy don't get much time off!
> The company is quite dependent on both Guy T and Catherine.........if something were to happen to either of them e.g. birth or death etc, then this would be a massive threat to the company!!
> Some big companies over-look flourish, due to their size. Also many big companies have their own branding environment designers or already have a partnership with another company!
> All money earned for the project gets put into the project and the overall money earned is again put back into the company!
> They charge day-rate to the client and every job they take they aim to have a profit between the margin of 25-75%.
> The work they do is a balance between Consultancy vs Production. Consultancy (they make a higher profit from this type of work) is mainly producing visuals, concepts or graphical work for a client whereas the production is when they do an event or hire a venue, this is a much larger budget but has to include costs such as: venue, building sets, printing, building, hiring, personnel etc.
> So what makes them different?? They have a strong record, they make things happen! Everyone in the company is from a creative background, they have large individual experience within the company!
> "Our end goal is delivering the initial idea"
> Its key to put the audience first! and to create brand experience.
> They also work with much larger design agencies.
> Strongly believe people buy into flourish: Nearly all there work is from "word of mouth"
> Its is there aim to be approachable and welcoming as......
> Reasons to setup own company: within there previous company other departments were failing and they saw an opportunity!
> They believe a key part of their success is there complimentary skill sets!
> When they started they had 1 client (T-mobile), after 1st yr 95% of their turnover was from that client!
> They have a silent partner who provided the initial setup costs (Business Angel) and believe without this persons capital they wouldn't have been able to grow so fast. Started the company from Guy T's Spare room! This help with buying computers, software, hiring designers, renting office space etc.
> Now they have 2-3 regular clients.
> The Future plan is to keep "Responsible Growth" and "to deliver both interesting and great work!"
> They don't like boring work! But at during this economic downturn all work must be considered! The economic downturn does remain a threat to them!
> They look most for brand focused work......jobs that involve communicating a brand.....however also do smaller jobs such as visuals, conferences, graphical presentations etc.
> Like to challenge a problem to solve
> weaknesses: not brilliant in animations and new media!!
> Current: 4 full time, 4 freelancers but have a pool of 10-15 freelancers that they use! Good thing about freelancers is that they have experiences from other companies and can have a more influential presence, new ideas and fresh thinking/input! However they are paid nearly double!
> means 8 people in the office. In 3rs they've gone from 2 - 8!
> This years projected turnover is predicted to be 3x that of their 1st yr!
> They believe in keeping steady workload and that slow growth is key during the economic crisis!
> Future projects:they have a traveling project being done at the moment, this will travel the UK, the next world cup and also creating a beach in Birmingham for an airline company.
> They have the World Cup 2012 to look forward to.....they done projects at the previous 2, so are hopeful they will be doing projects at the next one!
> They are always looking for new ways to be innovative!! both themselves and there projects......they research new technologies, designs, materials, the market, blogs etc. "Always checking whats out there!"
> Some of there work is "white labeled" (a product or service produced by one company (the producer) that other companies (the marketers) rebrand to make it appear as if they made it.)
> Going to bigger companies and doing work for them gives instant cash flow!! However can't use the flourish name!
> Target audience: they approach the brand or creative director of a company.
> They are Rooster approved - for t-mob, castrole and BP. by getting on that list helps get them jobs.
> They keep up to date with new technology: projections, multi-touch screens etc as well as new software, just updated to the new apple imac and adobe CS4!
> Backgrounds:
Guy T - Product design degree, Park Avenue where his worked his way up to creative director.
Catherine - Interior Design Degree, worked at interior firms then at Park Avenue.
Guy C - Graphic Design degree, work at a number of consultancies before becoming Studio head at Park Avenue.
Trina - Photography degree, worked at Park Avenue and freelanced.
> Etos: Guy: "dont really have one but i would say, to work hard, have fun and enjoy it!"
> They have branded themsleves: Officially called Flourish Creative LTD
Why called flourish?? Because the word itself symbolises them! been told to look at the dictionary definition!
1. To grow well or luxuriantly; thrive: The crops flourished in the rich soil.
2. To do or fare well; prosper: "No village on the railroad failed to flourish" John Kenneth Galbraith.
3. To be in a period of highest productivity, excellence, or influence: a poet who flourished in the tenth century.
4. To make bold, sweeping movements: The banner flourished in the wind.
> They prefer longer projects but actually make more money on smaller projects - so try to link a balance between the two, to give stability within the company!
> They already have a varied range of projects within the company history, however they would like to do some more permanent projects like the Bentley development lab. They are current looking for these!
Student Housing
The high rise at the Campagneplein location lies in the middle of the Residential and Social Centre on the Boulevard facilities street.
The project stands between the Bastille by Piet Blom and the Herman Haan sport centre. Just like the Calslaan project, this building is also on a former parking lot.
The building is nine stories high on the sport fields’ side. On the Boulevard side, the building fits the small-scale character of this pedestrian street with two building layers. The supermarket and the hairdresser are on this side. On the first floor, the dwellings are situated round a communal roof terrace. The façade facing the sport centre is fitted out as a climbing wall.
These two student dormitories – a courtyard building in the forest and a highrise with a climbing wall – are located on the campus of Enschede university in the east of the Netherlands. Thanks to a functional mix of housing, study and leisure and the arrangement of the buildings as solitaires in the landscape, the university compound from the 1950ies is one of the few real campuses in the Netherlands.
According to a new masterplan, the dorms were originally meant to be built next to a new straight aisle through the forest. In order to avoid this interference with the landscape, we looked for alternative sites and found two more or less abandoned parking lots in strategic locations.
The highrise at Campagneplein also stands on a former parking lot and borders on a sports field in the south. The sports theme has been literally integrated into the architecture, in the form of a 30 metre high climbing wall.
student housing
In this case, the floor plans as well as the building envelope were already determined by the client. From these starting points, we generated a 9-storey building next to the sports field, connecting to a 1-storey building housing a supermarket and some commercial spaces. On the north side, there’s an additional row of student studios on top of the low building, whose roof serves as a collective garden. The façade materials are the same as for the courtyard building in the forest: juicy red glass panels and dark brick.
The climbing wall with 2500 grips is the second highest in the Netherlands and forms the eyecatcher of the otherwise rather straight-forward building. It was a gift from the client to the inhabitants of the campus, because the university of Enschede has a very active and successful mountaineering club – however paradoxical that may sound in the flat Netherlands. As a climber in the Netherlands, one anyway has to resort to artificially created training spots, so why not combine architecture and climbing wall?
The folds of the wall look like the urban abstraction of a mountain and give the building a sculptural appearance. Seen from the sports field, it seems to be bending its hip. The brick frame around the glass panel façade emphasizes this impression and creates a logo-like shape. The western wall of the low-rise building is also covered in grips and can be used for „bouldering“.
The climbing wall instills a fun factor into the building and therefore forms a contrast to the chique red glass façade. As motive for a sculptural deformation, it also gives the highrise character and recognizability.
The project stands between the Bastille by Piet Blom and the Herman Haan sport centre. Just like the Calslaan project, this building is also on a former parking lot.
The building is nine stories high on the sport fields’ side. On the Boulevard side, the building fits the small-scale character of this pedestrian street with two building layers. The supermarket and the hairdresser are on this side. On the first floor, the dwellings are situated round a communal roof terrace. The façade facing the sport centre is fitted out as a climbing wall.
These two student dormitories – a courtyard building in the forest and a highrise with a climbing wall – are located on the campus of Enschede university in the east of the Netherlands. Thanks to a functional mix of housing, study and leisure and the arrangement of the buildings as solitaires in the landscape, the university compound from the 1950ies is one of the few real campuses in the Netherlands.
According to a new masterplan, the dorms were originally meant to be built next to a new straight aisle through the forest. In order to avoid this interference with the landscape, we looked for alternative sites and found two more or less abandoned parking lots in strategic locations.
The highrise at Campagneplein also stands on a former parking lot and borders on a sports field in the south. The sports theme has been literally integrated into the architecture, in the form of a 30 metre high climbing wall.
student housing
In this case, the floor plans as well as the building envelope were already determined by the client. From these starting points, we generated a 9-storey building next to the sports field, connecting to a 1-storey building housing a supermarket and some commercial spaces. On the north side, there’s an additional row of student studios on top of the low building, whose roof serves as a collective garden. The façade materials are the same as for the courtyard building in the forest: juicy red glass panels and dark brick.
The climbing wall with 2500 grips is the second highest in the Netherlands and forms the eyecatcher of the otherwise rather straight-forward building. It was a gift from the client to the inhabitants of the campus, because the university of Enschede has a very active and successful mountaineering club – however paradoxical that may sound in the flat Netherlands. As a climber in the Netherlands, one anyway has to resort to artificially created training spots, so why not combine architecture and climbing wall?
The folds of the wall look like the urban abstraction of a mountain and give the building a sculptural appearance. Seen from the sports field, it seems to be bending its hip. The brick frame around the glass panel façade emphasizes this impression and creates a logo-like shape. The western wall of the low-rise building is also covered in grips and can be used for „bouldering“.
The climbing wall instills a fun factor into the building and therefore forms a contrast to the chique red glass façade. As motive for a sculptural deformation, it also gives the highrise character and recognizability.
Saturday, 4 April 2009
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