Architects in Space; Virgin unveils spaceport designed by Foster and Partners

Virgin Galactic space terminal designs for Richard Branson in New Mexico has been unveiled.The first private spaceport, in New Mexico, USA, have been revealed by Foster + Partners.
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India in the 21st Century: RIBA Sustainability Talk

LKE Ozolins Lecture 2008: Balkrishna Doshi

Balkrishna Doshi: Universe of an Indian Architect (Sthapati)

Today, with the huge increase in population and competitive global aspirations in India, sprawling unplanned growth is engulfing traditional towns and cities. Yet we have come so far due to our synergetic co-existence with nature.

‘Our fragmented short-term and crisis oriented solutions have made me experience this devastating paradox. As an architect, planner and academician I am pained to be part of the growing divide’.

Professor Balkrishna Doshi will talk about the complex issues facing India in the 21st Century and some of his alternative proposals to the rapid urban development taking place across the continent.

Chaired by Sunand Prasad, RIBA President.

Part of the International Dialogues programme.

Standard Tickets: £8

RIBA members / students: £5

Advance booking essential

Sponsors:

Sponsored by:

London Lite Home Discount Show

Event Review:

I saw the exhibition advertised on the back of a bus, so, when getting home I looked it up online. Tickets were available if I had the code (from the newspaper). A quick google search, code in hand, and I had managed to obtain 2 free tickets. Pleased with myself I took a quick look round the house, what did I actually NEED?

Bar stools… and not much else!

Either way, it would be interesting to look round a home show, would it be like a temporary Ikea, or interior designers fit out store?

On arrival I was disappointed before I even got through the door – they were handing out tickets on the street! How desperate were they to get people through the doors?!

Inside it went from bad to worse, tacky reproduction baths gleamed from every corner of the room, with fake gold taps gleaming and crying for attention. Huge leather sofas divided up every space I looked at, these settees were tacky and cheap, yet they held a price tag of more than a thousand pounds!

Forever hopeful I moved around the various trade stands, seeing if there were any items of quality to be had at this discount show… Market style traders wired up with microphones and speakers shouted for my attention, trying to persuade me that they had the latest in mop inventions and it would clean the floor like no other! Another woman convinced a crowd that a simple blender could be used to make ice cream in thirty seconds, and it was not only good for that, it could make soup too! By this point I realised this was one home show that I didn’t like. Everything was overpriced (even though most stock was meant to be reduced by 75%), the whole exhibition lacked any class whatsoever, and style was completely lacking. This is the sort of show that vain people come to, to spend their hard earned money, on something they think shows off their excellence. Instead it simply shouts “too much money and I don’t know what to do with it!” The next time anyone wants to serious invest in furniture or interiors, don’t waste your cash at a show like this, employ an architect or interior designer, you will at least get a good quality product, even if it is of poor taste!

london design festival 08: rodeca bar by tom dixon at 100% detail

rodeca bar at 100% detail
image © designboom

tom dixon created the rodeca bar for 100% detail, as part of the london design festival.
using the company’s signature polycarbonate sheets, the brightly colored bar consisted

london design festival 08: rodeca bar by tom dixon at 100% detail

rodeca bar at 100% detail
image © designboom

tom dixon created the rodeca bar for 100% detail, as part of the london design festival.
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Le Corbusier design show opens in Liverpool

 By Kate Ahira via: Building

An exhibition of le Corbusier’s work will open on Tuesday in Liverpool as part of the city’s European Capital of Culture events.

The show includes models of the architect’s most influential buildings, from the arts-and-crafts houses in his native Switzerland to the Ronchamp chapel and his designs for Chandigarh in India.

It will also explore le Corbusier’s multidisciplinary approach to design, combining art and film with urban planning and architecture.

The exhibition will be the first ever staged in the crypt of Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral. It will remain there until 18 January, then move to another UK location – the Barbican Arts Centre in London, where it will be on view from 19 February to 24 May.

Review via Building

for more information: RIBA

First commercial straw building opens in UK

The UK’s first commercial straw bale building has opened in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex. The fine art sale room was commissioned by Sworders and has been built by Collins & Beckett.

Named the Eco Barn it has been constructed using a timber frame sourced from sustainable, managed forests which is filled with tight-packed straw bales.

The roof of the building, which comprises three sale rooms, a reception area and offices, was built first in order to keep the straw dry during construction, and then lowered so as to compress and hold the bales in place. These were then rendered both internally and externally with lime render to allow the walls to breath.

Rainwater is harvested from the cedar shingle roof and used to flush the lavatories, while a biofuel wood-chip boiler and solar panels provide much of the hot water and the heating for the reception and offices.

The sale room was officially opened by Princess Michael of Kent

Via: Building

Is there such a thing as architectural raving?!

Well, last week was a productive week, and also a very tiring week!

I got up early and went to some “open house” events, for those of you who don’t know, each year some buildings are open to the public that we would not normally get to see. We went to the ex daily express HQ (art deco), to the Unilever HQ (the view from the roof was amazing, and we got free ice cream too!), then to Ernst and Young (next to city hall), and after that to City Hall. The final event we went to was at the Southbank centre (food festival!)…. Needless to say it was a busy day, and lots of walking.

Then on the way home we heard some dance music on the radio and just decided on the spur of the moment – lets go out to a Superclub!

We checked the web and went to RAINDANCE at SEONE!!!

I have wanted to go for the last 2 years, and this year is their 19th birthday, it was awesome! I can’t even describe how good it was, I’m a fan of true old skool rave, and this was so cool! It had 3 rooms, plus some smaller ones, festival stalls, great lasers, the works: 3000 people all up for a good time! We got there about 11 or 11:30pm and left at 7:30am! On the way home I bought food and made a big breakfast; go to bed at 9:30.

I got up at mid day and went to Greenwich Park, it was such a beautiful day and what a view, even though I have seen it many times before it still impresses me, I love it!

LSBU: Open Series Two – Peter Cook

25.09.08
Peter Cook – An energetic inspiration to us all.

Sir Peter Cook is best known for his “Plug in City” of 1964.

This was part of the Archigram group which came from the Architectural Association; it was a revolutionary movement in architecture. Cook’s second claim to fame is the Graz Art Museum in Graz, Austria.

The Archigram group consisted of:

Peter Cook – “Spokesman”
Dennis Crompton – “Technician”
David Greene – “Thoughtful poet”
Warren Chalk – “Political thinker”
Ron Heron – “Artist”
Michael Webb – “Conceptual genius”

They started out producing a pamphlet or magazine that caught the eye of the public; no one had seen anything like it before, it was a radical time for architects.

It “incapacitated” architecture in a way that nothing else ever had, some loved it, some hated it, and it proved to affect everyone that experienced it. Archigram was “anti-buildings” it was about “non-architecture”.

Some of Cook’s ideas may seem like a waste of time, for example his proposal to flood most of Southwark, or his “buildings of vegetation”. But let us not forget: these are design concepts that he may have not realised, but others certainly have.

Cook’s team of designers and model makers are clearly talented people, helping to put his ideas into practice some might say that it is to them that he owes his built projects. After all – a lot of the competitions that he works on are never built, or even win.

The fascination that Cook and his team have for drawing, and designing just for the sake of it impresses me. He certainly seems to do it for the love of doing it. He clearly enjoys the act of hand drawing, the crazy process that he goes through to develop these concepts must be a hobby that is a borderline obsession! He is an excitable man, full of energy and passion. He loves the design process and seems to generate ideas at a speed that most of us can only aspire to.

Whether you like his old work, his current work, or none of his work, seeing him in person will truly inspire anyone with an ounce of design talent to do what they do best and that is to design!

The 0S2 Lecture series is held at London South Bank University –
Keyworth Street, The Keyworth Centre,
Every Thursday at 6:30PM

Archive: OS1 series

Open House Review: Lloyds of London

Lloyds of London

Richard Rogers

The queue leads from the main reception under the silver and glass lifts whizzing to higher levels, and around the corner into the Leadenhall market. The queue to see Lloyds of London suggests that it hasn’t yet lost its magic to intrigue the viewer or maybe there are just a lot of Bladerunner fans around today.

I once wrote an essay in the first year of degree about this building and it was as an intrigued viewer that I queued for 30 minutes or so to get in. I wasn’t disappointed. Lloyds of London is both historic and spectacular. The first escalator, with its yellow mechanism expressed for all to see, whisks you to the underwriter’s floor, known simply as ‘the Room’. Look up and see the majesty that is the great atrium, this crystalline shaft rising 12 floors up the centre of the building.

Yet seemingly in juxtaposition there is great history to the Room. Lloyds began in 1688 and pioneered insurance. Its roots lie in shipping. This is emphasized by the loss book  detailing ships lost at sea. From those early beginnings Lloyds has grown to be the worldwide centre for insurance. But it is the Rostrum and ringing bell that dominates the floor. This is a magnificent mahogany centre piece originally from the 1928 Lloyds building. Rogers thought it necessary to incorporate this within the building. A wise choice!

Today the floor is packed with the curious. One assumes that on a working day it is much busier and in light of recent events it must have been quite frenetic. I can see the AIG sign but I cannot see if the desks are full or empty. It sits amongst the field of specially designed underwriter desks. Each has a sign and logo of an insurance company.

Whisked skyward in the great glass lift as if flying, you arrive at floor 11. Suddenly you are looking down on the Room. The rostrum seems insignificant. The movement of people is like ants. The building is dominant. The bright sunshine pours in to the upper floors. The great armatures cast dramatic shadows. It is a magnificent interplay in an ethereal space that borders on the religious. It is a technological wonder.

But just like the Room there is that curious juxtaposition of old and new. The Adam Room is an 18^th century room in a 20^th century building. It is like an open time capsule and a testament to Robert Adam the original Architect from 1763. It was bought at auction and installed in the 1953 Lloyds building. It is a very grand meeting room. It is a complete surprise to go from the drama of the atrium space to the drama of this space.

As I travel down the escalators I consider the views above across and down. This is an exciting dramatic building. Imagine what it would be like on a busy working day.