no2self.net

A quick note to highlight some places I’ll be this week, in the hope that you’ll come by and say hello if you happen to be there too…

Tomorrow I’ll be taking part in a workshop event leading up to the btween conference in Manchester. I’m very flattered to find myself invited along to play geek architect of the group. Here’s the premise:

The workshop is the first stage of a project designed for Beacon to develop collaborative proposals for on online service that will map connections between people, place and knowledge, and creative activity across Manchester

A process of scoping, seed idea proposals, selection and development will lead to ideas pitching and final selection of one concept to be commissioned to answer Beacon’s needs effectively

The workshop will generate ideas and questions that will form the heart of a story cube collaboration that will run throughout b.TWEEN 08 on the 19th and 20th June

Story Cubes - a consultation tool developed by Proboscis. I’ve been a fan of their work for a long time so I’m looking forward to meeting the people behind the projects.

On Wednesday I’ll be at Urban Vision North Staffordshire for the last in their series of green design seminars. They’ve decided to end in a slightly more lighthearted way and run a Dragon’s Den style event following a morning design workshop. I’ll be playing one of the dragons alongside 3 others from UVNS, CABE and Open University.

My only concern is that I’ve never actually watched an episode. Are there any catchphrases I need to learn? Colleagues tell me that TV dragons are arrogant and full of themselves. I’m sure I’ll fit right in.

Time to put my money where my mouth is, as they say. Here’s the fourth and concluding part of the ‘architecture re-housed’ trilogy - photos of the completed houses.

Of course, although I’ve been quoted on the Building web site this week about the need to focus on existing housing, that doesn’t mean I’m not delivering new build as well. The trick is to make sure you’re getting that right too. It’s a modest scheme, there were some changes along the way, but I’m very pleased with the end result.
For the eco geeks among you these properties scored an ecohomes ‘exellent’ rating and a SAP rating of 87 - band B.

Further images and the original sketches are in a flickr set: Queens Road

Here in Birmingham we await the results of the competition to see which starchitect will be delivering us their iconic vision for the future of the city’s library. As you can imagine, we’re all jolly excited about it *cough*.

Before we get to this bright new future, the previous one has to be dealt with. The city is determined to demolish the existing library and Margaret Hodge will soon be faced with deciding the fate of another part of our brutalist history.

Designed by John Madin, one of Birmingham’s most prolific and well respected 20th Century architects, the library was completed in 1974, controversially replacing its much loved Victorian predecessor. Like other’s being hotly debated at the moment (Robin Hood Gardens) it wears it’s structural heart on it’s sleeve and seems well suited to refurbishment rather than demolition. They’ve found a way to do it with Park Hill in Sheffield and elsewhere in Birmingham we’ve seen the reopening of the city’s other ‘icon’ from the same period - the Rotunda. A building that in my opinion achieved iconic status by way of it’s Lynch-friendly urban node location and height only, rather than any inherent architectural quality.

That said, petitions signed by the architecture fraternity screaming for the retention of a period piece like Robin Hood Gardens for it’s architectural value alone make me deeply uncomfortable. Does it actually work as a home, or in this case a library, anymore? If you want to tear down a cherished monument, is it wise to ask the people it was designed to monumentalize?

I argued for the retention of the Bull Ring, but in that case, as well as here, my position is perhaps summed up by one simple observation: Oh dear, here we go again.

Alan Clawley from Birmingham’s Friends of Central Library was kind enough to come over to our office last week and give us a showing of a 1965 BBC documentary that John Madin has given him permission to distribute.

Filmed as part of a series following six influential men, this episode (in the somewhat predictably entitled ‘Six Men’ series) provides a perfect freeze frame of the period. Bold and assertive, ambitiously moving into a future whose success is dependent on the amount of it that can be controlled by the vision of one man - “I’d like to design a town, completely“.

Madin was the starchitect of his day.

It’s too good to be left on DVD alone, so I’ve released it on the world via Google video (click the link, I can’t get the embedded option to work here): Six Men - John Madin

It’s a fascinating piece of footage, but for me the most important moment comes a few minutes in as we see Madin discussing projects with his staff, one of which is my much missed friend and mentor, Tony Goodall, leaning on his board the same way he used to when teaching me many years later.

There’s a collection of stills in a flickr set (Six Men) that capture a few moments from the film and I’ve also added the movie to the architecture video pod I run: architecture.vodpod.com

Also, footage of Madin himself recently discussing the fate of his building is available via The Stirrer.

caravantgarde, originally uploaded by eversion.

It stacks just like the MCH.

Mr Bellamy, originally uploaded by eversion.

Opening ecoterrace.co.uk

A timely post from the Staufenberger Repository on clip art as I prepare my Powerpoint for next week:

Includes an outrageous comment from me suggesting that my old letraset uploads were without precedent. In fact, the very opposite is true.

Patrick sent over the direct links for each of these fine collections:

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486273512.html

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486257622.html

http://store.doverpublications.com/048628218x.html

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486243419.html

Richard Horden in BD on the development (2 years on) of his micro compact home:

Horden is now working on the family compact home, where kids have their own cube. “I’m constantly coming up with variants,” he says. “Next is a low-carbon version. It could be built like a car on a production line, but we don’t have enough orders.” So how many have been sold? “We’ve only built 15 and haven’t sold any… yet. I get emails saying what a wonderful idea. Of course when they see it, it’s much too small for most people.”

Size: 2.6m x 2.6m

Price:

“m-ch units are available to purchase for delivery to geographical Europe at a guide price of EUR 25,000 to EUR 34,000 (subject to contract). This price includes all interior fittings. Subject to site conditions, the price excludes delivery, installation, connection to services, consultant’s fees and taxes.”

Cost per sq m: 3698.22 EUR

photo credit

Grantham Caravans on their Sterling Onyx micro compact home:

We always have an excellent selection of new and used caravans for sale. The comprehensive touring caravan accessory shop is well worth visiting. We display all the latest caravan and leisure equipment and run special offers throughout the year. We are specialists in touring caravan insurance. We also have a coffee shop.

A warm welcome awaits you at Grantham Caravans - we look forward to seeing you.

Size: 5.51m x 2.29m

Price:

EUR 20,232.26 - deliver it yourself, no need to connect to services, no consultant’s fees or taxes.

Cost per sq m: 1603.45 EUR

I’ll be attending Think 08 next week and taking part in the session at 4:30pm on the 7th, thanks to an invite to present from Phil Clark.

Here’s the summary of the session:

Embracing the existing estate and communities

What’s already built is a much greater part of our built environment than new development. How do we tackle the existing estate to deliver greater sustainability in social, economic and environmental terms? A panel will discuss the issues generated and solutions required by outdated workplaces, ageing housing stock and the sustainability problems they cause. This will include a consideration or legislative hurdles in tackling the built stock as well as a live example of green refurbishment work being carried out on Victorian properties in Newcastle-Under-Lyme.

Chair: Denise Chevin, Editor, Building
Kate Symons, Associate Director, Building Research Establishment
David Strong, Chief Executive, Inbuilt Consulting,
Rob Annable, Director, Axis Design Architects
Dr Douglas Robertson, Head of Applied Social Sciences, Stirling University
and Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Roger Hawkins, Director, Hawkins Brown

And here’s the PDF of the full program: Think08 program

If there are any fellow bloggers attending on the Wednesday it would be great to meet up, so drop me a line!

twitterature, originally uploaded by eversion.

If Hemingway were alive today I’m sure he’d approve.

Small but perfectly formed twitterature, delivered in
short
bursts
to
your
mobile
for
free
by
Rod

Radio 3 interviews are ripe for the picking of architectural metaphors.

In the time honoured blogging tradition of curating x and pointing out that it’s a bit like y, here’s a quote from Booker Prize winning author Anne Enright that got me thinking about spatial comparisons and architectural narratives (my emphasis).

A short story is a slight thing, the only thing it does is change the quality of the silence after the last line. Just a shift. Just a change. It doesn’t have to be epiphanic, it can be metaphorical, it can be a change of weather. I’m quite interested in slight changes. I like the silence after a fly has flown out of the window. That kind of change. That’s a lovely and subtle thing if you can catch that.

My overarching concern is with the shape of the thing. And also with keeping it moving, I like the sentences to move, I like lives to move, I want fluidity, I want a kinetic thing. It’s like a poet wants the poem to move and be still at the same time. I’m interested in getting the sentences around corners, and I’m interested in getting the light to change, and I’m interested in them not being fixed, that’s when I say that they have these free running minds - these people. So whatever happens, good or bad, happy or unhappy, to me isn’t as important as the shifts.

(see also: John Tusa interviewing Edmund De Waal transcribed on no2self1.0 and my brief entries on Walsall Art Gallery for examples of those shifts.)