Edward Cullinan Architects Blog

Please don't scrap BREEAM Mr Gove!

2012-01-26T10:11:00.002Z

It has been suggested that the Goverment is about to sign off the scrapping of BREEAM as a requirement for school design following Sebastian James' singling it out as part of 'the excessive burden of regulation'. While not being perfect, BREEAM has achieved some major changes to our industry and it seems reckless to chuck it out without reallocating the best bits into the Building Regs and Planning. UKGBC and the Aldersagate Group have written an excellent letter which was reported in Building's Breaking News on Tuesday
http://www.building.co.uk/5030948.article?origin=bldgbreakingnewsletter.

So yesterday I wrote to Secretary of State Gove on behalf of the former Zero Carbon Task Force:

"I write as the Chairman of the former Zero Carbon Schools Task Force (2009-10) to express my concern that you may be considering the dropping of the BREEAM metric. My understanding is that, far from being a major burden, the construction industry has responded pretty well to this challenge, as it usually does, and that BREEAM Excellent has delivered significant carbon savings at next to no cost (+ 0.7%).

The industry needs certainty of work flow and the progressive raising of standards to a timetable so that it can prepare and not waste money gearing up for a phantom. The overall task of saving 34% of UK emissions by 2030 en route for 80% reduction by 2050 is a difficult challenge and schools have a key role to play both in the actual reduction of emissions and in the behaviour change of tomorrow’s citizens, whose futures we can so easily jeopardise.

Few would defend the last letter of BREEAM and some of the items have passed or can readily and more properly pass into the Building Regulations and the Planning process; BRE could certainly feed back much more to the industry. The Department has a long tradition of research and learning from what has and has not been achieved in school design. So I hope I am mistaken in being led to understand that your Department is preventing Partnerships for Schools from publishing the excellent Post-Occupancy Evaluation work that they have done. At a time of major change as the industry strives to mitigate the effects of the changing climate, we desperately need this feedback in order to do for less and to build more resilient schools.

So please do not abandon BREEAM until there has been a full review of its impact and the key elements relocated, as is being done with the Code for Sustainable Homes at CLG. And on behalf of the Zero Carbon Task Force, I would be grateful if you could re-convene a meeting of the TF so we can explain to you and your officials how Energy and Carbon Savings can be made at little or no additional cost to prepare your estate for a more sustainable future."

Demolition or Refurbishment

2012-01-18T16:17:00.005Z

On Monday evening Prof. Anne Power from LSE gave a thought provoking presentation at the Institute of Civil Engineers. She began by tackling the governments notion of a housing shortage in the UK. We currently have 25million homes (17million 3bed+). Also called into question was the idea that we reuse plastic bags but not a house!

She weighed up the argument for demolition or refurbishment in terms of

1. Economic cost

2. Environmental cost

3. Social Cost

She questioned some of common misconceptions in the refurbishment debate and spoke at length about the green deal.

For an hours watching well spent click on the link below for a recording of the lecture.

https://ice.adobeconnect.com/_a884535394/p36vt59xnyr/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal (some compatibility issues for windows 7 users)

The Social Life of Small Spaces

2012-01-06T17:37:00.004Z

Last night I took advantage of a free showing of W H Whyte's excellent film, "The Social Life of Small Spaces" (courtesy of The Urban Design Group) . Having previously seen some clips c/o Miriam Fitzpatrick who gave a talk in our practice about Whyte last year, I was keen to see more. Though old (1969) his observations are hardly dated and led to a simple set of design codes (seven or so in total) for New York, which were subsequently adopted by the city planners.

The film is made up of many observations of behaviour between people and each other and between people and spaces. In a simple, soporific and amusing way, Whyte's dry voiceover points out what should be obvious: that "People sit where there are places to sit" and that "People like to watch other people." However, the manner by which these needs are met through good design of public space is not so obvious , making this film a must-see for architects, urban designers and difficult-to-persuade clients alike. [Available to watch in full here.]

The Big Rethink

2012-01-06T08:45:00.003Z

First up on Christmas morning, I opened up the Dec/Jan issue of Architectural Review for the first time for a while; by the end of the Editorial I realised that 'The Big Rethink: Towards a Complete Architecture' was my secret Santa. The editor writes "Over the next 12 months, the AR will publish essays on various topics of critical concern with the aim of stimulating new thinking and debate. No other architectural publication is attempting anything similar (too right!). To open the pages of our competitors is to get no sense that this is a pivotal moment for architecture and architects."http://www.architectural-review.com/essays/the-big-rethink-towards-a-complete-architecture/8624049.article

What is all this about then? Well, Climate Change. The first Big Rethink essay by Peter Buchanan explores what many of us have been thinking for a while, that, however brilliant the techniques, much 'starchitecture' has lost touch with the real world and certainly with the urgent obligations of mitigating the effects of climate change. (Is there a parallel with the Bankers, who are so busy in their own self-fulfilling bubble that they dont understand how the rest of us see them?).

He starts with the proposition that modern architecture could be said to be have at last reached full maturity and identifies three practices "whose buildings display an admirable breadth of design concerns , responding to history and context, and are aptly inventive (without being contrived) formally and technically,as well as in social organisation and environmental strategies." He goes on to suggest that two of them" Hopkins and Cullinan are among the world leaders in green design."

Many thanks Peter and I look forward to the following articles with interest.

'The Icing on the Cake'

2011-12-20T17:28:00.000Z

A cake, made by members of the office, celebrates the completion of the BFI Master Film Store in the New Year.

What has George Osborne done to the Construction Industry now?

2011-12-16T14:03:00.004Z

The inter-disciplinary membership of the Edge (think-tank) http://www.edgedebate.com regularly debate current issues of substance, including the failure of our construction industry to fully embrace the opportunities offered by and our responsbilities arising from Climate Change. So agreeing a letter to send to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about his recent disastrous back-sliding was going to be hard work; coordinated by Simon Foxell, the letter was sent to Osborne on 9th Dec and the FT. President of CIBSE Andy Ford then suggested he and other Presidents should sign it and an abbreviated letter was circulated more widely.

The Daily Telegraph published it yesterday (15th Dec) signed by me as Convenor of the Edge and Presidents Andy Ford (CIBSE), Angela Brady (RIBA) and Prof. Roger Plank (IStructE) on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/8956670/Raising-the-price-of-alcohol-will-not-tackle-the-culture-of-binge-drinking.html - please scroll down to the end of the letters to find it.

Hattie Hartmann later covered it in the AJ in her review of 2011 http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/8623845.article for subscribers and today Building wrote it up on http://www.building.co.uk/5029337.article?origin=bldgweeklynewsletter

The next question is how to build on this in support of the sterling efforts of Government Chief Construction Adviser Paul Morrell at BIS and the Green Construction Board, on which Edge members Lynne Sullivan and Sunand Prasad sit. Why not ask the President of your institution what they are doing to change the views of the Treasury as green construction is an essential part of the economic recovery we all need.

Allan Collins Exhibition

2011-11-17T12:17:00.004Z

Last Thursday night August Art held the private view of Iteration: a joint show featuring the work of Edward Cullinan Architects partner Allan Collins.

Allan is showing a selection of his drawings together with the artist Bram Thomas Arnold.

The exhibition continues to 3 Dec

August Art Gallery, 224 Shoreditch High Street.

http://www.allancollins.co.uk/

http://www.augustart.co.uk/welcome.htm

A5B5, A5B9, A5B17, A5B33, A9B5, A9,B9, A9B17, A9B33
A17B5, A17B9, A17B17, A17B33, A33B5, A33B9, A33B17 A33B33
16 Ink Drawings on Isometric Paper. Each 21cm x 29.7cm

6x1 (v) A-B BlueRed & 6x3 (v) A-B BlueRed
Ink Drawings on Tracing Paper
Each 21cm x 29.7cm

“In the act of appreciation whether a work of art, architecture, a piece of music or a scientific equation the beholder experiences those precise emotions which passed through the mind of the creator in his moment of creation. With the help of the artist he himself shares the joy of creation. However the act of appreciation is not always given, the path to real aesthetic pleasure is often through toil”. Allan Collins

Coming soon to a cinema near you (fingers crossed)

2011-11-09T19:14:00.001Z

Last Thursday the All Parliamentary Party Climate Change Group in conjunction with the German Embassy screened “The 4th Revolution: Energy Autonomy” by Carl-A. Fletcher. The film presents a vision of a world powered entirely by renewable energy, accessible to everyone irrespective of geographic location or wealth. This is done by introducing the viewer to exemplar projects across the planet alongside listening to prominent players in the energy market.

Fletcher’s movie is thought provoking and leaves us asking why are we not striving for this wholly achievable future in the UK. That was certainly the question on many people’s lips at the closing Q&A session. Most were stunned by the impassioned words of Prof. Dr. Olav Hohmeyer as he presented Germans newly comissioned report for 100% renewable by 2050. If the Germans can do it without pandering to the persuasive nuclear lobby groups, then why shouldn’t we.

For the SRU 100% renewable report please follow the link below

http://www.umweltrat.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/02_Special_Reports/2011_10_Special_Report_Pathways_renewables.html

Are big businesses getting it?

2011-11-05T10:10:00.002Z

After years of wondering what we have to do to encourage our clients and big business generally to start investing to save carbon, energy and money, I was really heartened by a presentation this week by Nigel Graham of Whitbreads; I was sharing a platform with him at a Construction Products Association http://www.constructionproducts.org.uk/ networking event at BIS. Whitbread no longer make beer but are expanding their hotel chain (Premier Inn), their coffee bars (Costa) and other brands.

Nigel explained that they had been driven to invest by the rising cost of energy, landfill and the Carbon Reduction Commitment. Following footprinting work, they invested £3m in LEDs and were delighted that it paid for itself in 18 months - easy! They then footprinted a hotel bed and discovered that 87% of the carbon was in the materials and 57% of that was in the cotton sheet; so now they are tying to reduce their dependency, especially as the price of cotton has tripled in the last three years.

In the same session Rob Lambe of Willmott Dixon explained how WDC were aiming for zero waste from sites and carbon neutrality by 2012! He very rightly complained that the Treasury Green Book promoted While Life Value but that no one in the public sector does it!

There is no doubt that the Treasury is the biggest block to carbon and energy reduction, surrounded as they are by big capital and the utility companies; we must all take every opportunity to talk about this to politicians, to the press and to our public sector clients and act in a politically relevant way.

The Green Economy

2011-11-05T08:15:00.002Z

I was pleasantly surprised by the feisty performance put up by Tory Minister Caroline Spelman, Secretary of State at Defra, at the Aldersgate group meeting on Thursday; when challenged as to 'what can we do about George (Osborne)?' she replied that 'he had stumped up not £1bn, not £2bn but £3bn for the Green Investment Bank'. Not that the audience was impressed as the Aldersgate Group has been campaigning long and hard for the GIB's right to borrow, which George continues to deny.

Aldersgate Chairman Peter Young finished the evening with 6 points from the Group's Growth Statement that the Green economy will drive jobs and investment (my abbreviated notes):
1. Ensure Entreprise Zones are driving green growth
2. Set a clear rationale for meeting targets for environmental taxes
3. Ensure the Green Investment Bank can borrow from capital markets
4. Work with business to address green skills gap
5. Streamline the climate change and energy policy landscape to encourage investment in energy efficiency
6. Enhance the role of public procurement and increase support for research and demonstration.

Ideas First - and a talk on our work in Libya 2008-11

2011-10-21T12:18:00.004+01:00

Yesterday's news was an important tipping point for the new government in ending the job of war and beginning the perhaps more difficult job of future building. It will also give confidence to the Libyan people to disarm and return to work, and with leadership and security comes stability and growth.

However this is also a dangerous moment for Libya's future. An emerging government with so much to do so quickly may find the pressure of big business at the gates very hard to resist. But resist they must for there is too much at stake in Libya - archaeology, biodiversity, wild landscapes and coastlines, social needs and fragile micro-economies - to let a period of unmanaged growth compromise the promise of a new future for the deserving Libyan people.

Nowhere is there more need to plan carefully for sensitive growth than in the Green Mountain, east of Benghazi, where we spent almost three years working (and at times, living) alongside our Libyan friends and partners, helping to write a plan for the region's future. Our Shahat Garden City project was a worked example of many of our ideas for new economies, renewable energy, valued public spaces and low energy housing, offering both privacy with density. All this took care to demonstrate the value of archaeology, farming, biodiversity and climate as treasured parts of the region's natural but so often forgotten assets.

Without leaders who know the value of the work that has already been done towards Libya's sustainable future, and who have the courage to manage development until approved strategies are in place, the moment may pass with an opportunity missed.

The next phase should be about ideas not contracts.

[Goodenough College, (London, WC1N 2AB) will be hosting an evening talk on our work in Libya 2008-11 on Monday 24 October at 8pm, titled: "Libya's 'Foreign' Cities: how lessons from the ancient world, fascism and the sustainability agenda could inform an appropriate Libyan urbanism after Gadaffi."]

Future Healthcare

2011-10-06T14:14:00.003+01:00

Cullinan's Team Community Health attended a keynote speech by the former Secretary of State for Health Alan Milburn at the opening of the Future Health & Care Expo this week.

Milburn is an engaging speaker and he persuasively outlined five major challenges facing the NHS today:

Demography: How do we care for an ageing population?

Malady: Chronic, not infectious, disease is increasingly prevalent, which requires a movement from a focus on treatment to a focus on preventative action.

Citizen Centred: There is a need for more treatment in the community lessening the demand placed on hospitals.

Higher Expectations: Patients are more informed than ever with greater demands for quality of treatment and use of technology.

Money: Spending will need to decrease. A higher proportion of funding will go towards primary care with less spent on hospitals.

These concerns brought to mind our own Lambeth Community Care Centre which is a pioneering intermediate health facility that bridges the gap between GP surgeries and hospitals at the heart of the Lambeth Community. Perhaps something akin to this typology needs to be revisited by health practitioners to meet future health needs in this country? For more on this and our other healthcare projects see here.

Wood for Good: Roddy Langmuir: John Hope Gateway

2011-09-29T15:37:00.002+01:00

Project Director, Roddy Langmuir, talks about the use of timber in the John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh in part 4 of a series of short videos put together by Wood for Good, in order to demonstrate how increasing the use of wood will have benefits for the environment, the economy and the community.

Catmose Academy

2011-09-27T08:27:00.002+01:00

I was invited by Jonathan Ellis Miller to visit Catmose Academy in Oakham; 12 of us showed up on a glorious September morning to be inspired by the Head and the architecture; I just sent him my thoughts:

As we arrived, the sun was shining and the building glowed elegantly in its stripped down palate of materials and crisp detailing. The Ellis-Miller plan revealed itself as being descended from Hunstanton and this has proved a real bonus. The Head arrived after Stage C and worked with the inherited ideas to develop it into an exemplary school; all too often the new Head arrives to fight the building, designed inflexibily for the previous incumbent.

But then the Head is truly inspirational and the children of Oakham are very lucky. His introduction and tour took me back to my student days when we designed an educational system for Milton Keynes then nearing the end of its masterplanning. I had been inspired by the teacher tutor Mike Armstrong who then went on to put team-teaching and many other innovative ideas into practice at Countesthorpe School In Leicester. No bells because its quicker; no rules but loads of responsibilities, good food and wonderful workshops and a Hellerup Stair that really works.

The plan is rightly on an East/West axis with a significant number of classrooms and workshops facing North; naturally that means there are some South-facing classrooms but fortunately no East or West-facing ones. The sun-shading looked a little too neat and tidy from outside and indeed South-facing Shakespeare, the double classroom for English, was pretty hot when we visited but it is a minor quibble and should be easily sorted with the sensible natural ventilation strategy.

Well done all!

Teaching in Santiago, Chile

2011-09-27T08:22:00.003+01:00

Our former partner Chris Whitman invited me to speak on Sustainable Architecture at a Conference at the Universidad Central where he teaches in the Laboratorio Bioclimatico - four big lectures in two days! I have just sent him my reflections on the trip:

Having not been to Santiago for twelve years, I got really excited as we flew in over the snow-clad Andes without a cloud in the sky. The journey from the airport was uneventful but three major changes became apparent; new housing developments were creeping higher up the foothills; then the Costanera Centre tower broke through the smog and appeared behind the Cerro San Cristobal and then the fast-flowing concrete road tunnel under the Rio Mapoccho, each change provoking the question 'but why?'

The success of Santiago as a World City is undoubted but tall buildings, many fully glazed, are built without any concern with orientation or the energy they will consume or the parking that they generate. Although the metro is as popular as the new bus system seems unpopular, Santiago is a car-city and Chile a car-country, the downside of which is the smog over Santiago and the dependency on importing the ever-diminishing quantities of oil.

I remember from way back in 1973 how the centre of Santiago and many of the neighbourhoods were eminently walkable but not now. I set off like a good European to walk around the downtown; it felt familiar but then I walked up Calle San Antonio and was shocked to find myself in a street of multi-storey garages; where had the city gone to? And where were the cyclists? In comparison London is relatively hilly and admittedly slightly more temperate but I cycle on average 10 kilometres a day to go to work, for speed between meetings and for some modest exercise that's free; cycling is growing in London very rapidly but your streets are better suited.

It was great to see old friends and make new ones; the students at the Laboratorio Bioclimatico at the Universidad Central were delightful and really interested in the very different focus that many UK architects have now. We are in a major recession but low carbon construction (ie buildings with Low and Zero Carbon Emissions) is seen across Government to be a major part of the economic recovery plan for England. As a country we have a legal obligation to reduce our carbon emissions by 34% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 and that's seriously difficult but with buildings being 40% of the problem this is a great opportunity for architects and engineers working together.

When I visited Santiago in 1999, I was shocked to find so many office towers, fully glazed and un-shaded, especially to the north, with the honourable exception of the exemplary Edificio Consorcio. This time I was more shocked to find that there had been no change to the office buildings and then the Pacific coast was being re-clad with fully glazed West-facing apartments, all of which must overheat unless air-conditioned.

But I was even more shocked when we drove up the coast past the new coal-powered power stations in the already badly polluted Las Ventanas. I think of air-conditioning and C02 as waste or if you prefer it, bad design. Beautiful generous Chile may be losing some of its hydro-powered electricity but it has an almost perfect geography for low energy living. The cities are well dispersed and surely each could become self-sufficient in power, if you were to harness the boundless carbon-free wind, sun, wave and geo-thermal energy with good opportunities for solar powered distilled water as well. This would be better still if the utilities for each town were owned by the citizens of that city. I can see no need for a national grid and the perfect shape for high-speed trains to connect the very north to the very south.

I love visiting Chile and this time I enjoyed the ambitious Parque Chagual, the impressive Parque Nacional Las Chinchillas and best of all riding into the wooded hills at Zapallar. I like teaching low energy design and realising that we have so much to teach as well as a lot to learn. I hope that next time I will begin to see the architects taking their global carbon duties and opportunities more seriously and designing excellent new buildings while dramatically reducing the carbon footprints of the existing buildings that are going to be with us for a long time.

Ted's Talk at the RIBA North East

2011-09-21T10:57:00.000+01:00

On Thursday night Ted Cullinan gave a talk to the RIBA North East on his design for the new Maggie’s Centre in Newcastle. He used his trademark style of drawing as he talked to demonstrate ideas and referenced previous projects to explain the scheme.

Ted started by looking at the landscape work of Maggie Keswick Jencks herself before describing the location and approach to the Maggie’s Centre at the Freeman Hospital, drawing in reference to the settings of Fountains Abbey Visitor Centre and Archaeolink.

Fountains Abbey Visitor Centre

Archaeolink Visitor Centre

He then drew the layout in greater detail, emphasising the key connection between the building and its surrounding courtyard landscape and roof garden. Ted showed how this had been achieved at the John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. The Law House, Ready Mixed Concrete offices roof garden, Centre for Mathematical Sciences and his own house in Camden Mews were shown to demonstrate how accessible roof gardens can be used.

John Hope Gateway, RBGE

The Law House

Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge

RMC HQ

Camden Mews

The Maggie’s Centre is due on site in the next few months. We would like to say thanks to the RIBA NE Young Persons Forum for organising the event and for their fundraising towards the Maggie’s Centre.

Model of the North East Maggie's Centre

Maggie's London Night Hike

2011-09-15T09:38:00.001+01:00

A team from Edward Cullinan Architects are walking the Maggie's London Night Hike tomorrow night.

Last year we wore glow-in-the-dark glasses. This year we will be wearing glow-in-the-dark baseball caps.

If you would like to sponsor us, you can do so here: www.justgiving.com/sole-ii-solar

This event is particularly significant for us as the North East Maggie's Centre, designed by Ted Cullinan, will be going on site this year. We are honored to be working on a new Maggie's centre and are all proud to be supporting such a great cause. Maggie's Centres are for anyone affected by cancer, including family and friends of the person who has been diagnosed. Providing the right environment for visitors to a Maggie's Centre is crucial as it allows people to feel supported and uplifted. The North East centre will provide a place of calm and care. Particular to this centre is a sheltered sunken court on its south sides and a large south-facing sloping roof over the library that has photovoltaic cells to make electricity.

Our team name is 'Sole II Solar'; sole as in shoe, II as in second year in a row, and solar inspired by the sun image drawn by Ted (shown in the section above) as our emblem. He drew this to demonstrate the solar design principles used in the design of Maggie's North East.

Loddon lessons

2011-08-30T22:02:00.004+01:00

At the weekend I made a long-intended detour to Loddon in Norfolk where Tayler and Green built hundreds of sympathetically designed council houses in the 1940s-70s, some now listed. John Seymour in his 1970 Companion Guide to East Anglia writes 'these architects have managed to design homes that blend in beautifully with their surroundings, which continue in the tradition of East Anglia without slavishing aping the past, which do not strive ridiculously into a space-age future, which have unity and yet diversity, which in every case are pleasing to the eye, and which are said by the inmates to be pleasant to live in. ... Every architect in the country should be made to go and look at them.' Being half aware of them, I was expecting a couple of clusters but a large proportion of the small town is from the same hands. There is none of the pretentiousness of the likes of Poundbury or the laboured variety of Harlow's New Hall: the strengths are in the pure pleasure of making decorative design with the process of building - patterned brickwork to otherwise blank gables, little roofs to the chimneys, simple elaboration of barge boards. A thoughtful eye too for devices to enable home-making, such as sheltered set backs by entrances with surface to sit on or put plants. This is top-end 'people's detailing' : 'every house has a porch' but these are delicately designed porches and not all the same. There is a debt to Asplund as well as the local Norfolk vernacular, sweet and pleasant rather than hard and raw. The layouts are hardly radical in terms of relation to fronts, backs, roads and gardens but the use of wide-fronted terraces was unconventional then and still relevant now for making a very liveable environment.

Definitely worth a detour.

Arts and Crafts modern

2011-08-30T21:48:00.005+01:00

Traditional natural building materials such as timber, cob, thatch had to be used in a way that recognised their limited durability. Steep roof pitches, generous overhangs result. If these rules were not followed they would have fallen apart quickly. Well detailed, they age gracefully and delight with their marks of age.

Fed up with constant repairs - in particular reputtying and painting timber windows at the beach shack - has made me think about how to detail contemporary building in a traditional way.

The existing porch was detailed to invite water into it, in particular a window sill sloping backwards. After twenty years it was oozing decay.

We rebuilt it in a week this summer using decay resistant but economical details. Sawn fence posts are directly glazed with 4mm sheets of toughened glass. I love that ambiguity of the frameless window - the magic of the invisible cloak. The sheets drain over a simple aluminium flashing over open jointed Douglas Fir cladding, all detailed to keep everything beyond the air barrier nice and well ventilated. The roof overhangs and protects the wall - no gutter needed here so we could make an exceptionally thin edge for a built up felt roof. This is a detail 'under test', taking advantage of a self-adhesive felt system where a simple aluminium angle is primed, making the felt stick tenaciously to it. The test is to see how long this really does stick. In the meantime it is as razor sharp as any modernist could desire.

volunteering at Global Generation

2011-08-26T14:08:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday, I enjoyed a morning stint for Global Generation to help prepare their 2nd portable allotment site (for growing herbs & veg in polytunnels) at Kings Cross Central. Argent, the developer, gives them temporary use of the land whilst awaiting its sale.

GG's previous 'Living Food' projects here were the Skip Garden at St Pancras Station and the Hoop Garden, the other allotment site which they will decant from.

The Guardian's IT department (from its Kings Place HQ across the road) was also there helping to spruce up a couple of used portakabins, furniture, etc. into classroom (for teaching related BTech courses to local kids) and meeting spaces (for local community or business use).

From this new garden, one can see the new University of the Arts London complex, which is ready next month - it is huge! How will the art students adapt to this new environment, i.e. considering the change from the 'edgy-ness' of Central St Martin's current location in Soho?

Michael Morpurgo at Rosendale School

2011-07-26T16:58:00.000+01:00

Parents, staff and children of Rosendale Primary School were entertained by children's laureate Michael Morpurgo last Tuesday. He kindly accepted an offer to cut the ribbon on the school's new library, a red London bus. The bus arrived at the school last autumn and a team of volunteer parents, have worked hard to convert the interior of the bus into the school's library. Morpurgo certainly demonstrated why children love his stories so much as he relayed his experiences of growing up, learning to love reading as a teen, and traveling. His wit and humour kept the kids laughing and asking questions for a good 30 minutes before the ribbon cutting.

Edward Cullinan Architects are pleased to be working on the remodelling of four classrooms at Rosendale School over the summer holidays.

Sectional perspective of a proposed remodelled classroom with improved storage, learning space, natural lighting and ventilation.

Stonebridge Regeneration Celebration

2011-07-26T11:31:00.000+01:00

On Saturday 23rd July, Roddy (+ family) and Amy from Cullinans attended the Stonebridge Regeneration Celebration. For the last 15 years there has been an extensive regeneration of the Stonebridge estate in North West London, which includes the Hillside Hub, completed in 2009. Hosted by Hyde Hillside and the residents of the estate, the celebrations began at the Hub with a carnival parade that made its way through the estate and ended at the Pavilion where a formal reception, games, stalls and performances celebrating the diverse community took place. Here are some photos:

Preparations inside the Hillside Hub for the carnival parade.

The carnival parade sets off...

...and dances its way through the Stonebridge estate

The carnival parade ended up at the Pavilion where games, stalls, performances and information about the regeneration of the estate could be found.

Penarth Heights coming home

2011-07-16T08:48:00.006+01:00

On 14th July I went to the launch of the show home for the first phase of Penarth Heights, the 377 unit scheme we designed for Crest Nicholson which won the competition in 2005. On a glorious summer evening it was great to see our vision of streets and places taking cues from the adjacent town beginning to come to fruition, and to share that celebration with those who have been working for ten years to transform this area. The nearby terraces have benefited from an extensive urban renewal programme so the contrast between old and new is softened. The first sweeping crescent of 'Captains houses', their serrated roof profiles replacing the stark outlines of the demolished 1969 blocks, is looking great, both from across the bay and from the town. This project really exploits the strengths of a superb site, with its quiet location and astonishing 180deg views over the sparkling waters of Cardiff Bay, the city and the green horizons beyond.

a flying visit to Belfast

2011-07-15T11:37:00.002+01:00

The 6-monthly Project Advisory Board for the multi-university EPSRC/E.ON-funded CALEBRE Project http://www.calebre.org.uk (Consumer-Appealing Low Energy technologies for Buildng REtrofitting) met at Ulster University last week. Having not been to the city for 8 years, I went a day early to re-explore the oh so friendly Belfast with oh so many cars and hardly a bike in this largely flat city.

I started by looking around Queens University which was en fete, it being graduation day in the sun; and then looked up Architecture Professor at Queens, Ruth Morrow. After a good discussion about architectural education she walked me down to O'Donnell Tuomey's beautifully detailed new Lyric Theatre overlooking the Lagan; it was really well built by Gilbert Ash who have nearly finished our sub-zero Master Film Store for the BFI.

Then I met up with John Cole, whose determination to get quality health buildings for Northern Ireland led him to devise what the RIBA later adopted as smart PFI. After supper he drove me to see Penoyre and Prasad's Knockbreda Health Centre; although it was gone 9pm by the time we got there, the Centre Manager welcomed us and showed us around with great enthusiasm - great atmosphere and brilliant views through the atrium back over the centre of Belfast.

The next morning I took the train to Ulster University's Jordanstown Campus, deserted for the summer vacation. The low ceilings and lack of views out made the seemingly endless internal street a daunting experience - not the vital social space that must have been envisioned. Out in the air again, there was the smart new Innovation Centre and the labs where the heat pump and other infernal machines were being tested.

CALEBRE is approaching its final year and so it was really good to see the very varied sub-projects beginnning to join together. The excellent monitoring being done at the Nottingham E.ON house is producing really good evidence of how we might live in lower energy homes, how difficult it is for the local construction industry to retrofit MVHR and much else besides. Then there is a fascinating piece of work identifying personae (how different people react to lower energy homes) and a sequencing tool to help people to decide in what order to retrofit aspects of their homes. I can't wait to introduce Vicky Haines to Russell Smith of Parity Projects, who has approached this problem the other way round. Of course there are other great parts to CALEBRE so watch this space.

Cyrene in BBC R4's "From Our Own Correspondent"

2011-07-11T14:06:00.005+01:00

There was a good article on Saturday's From Our Own Correspondent (09/07/11) on BBC Radio 4 about our old stomping ground, Cyrene, in Libya's Jebel Akhdar or Geen Mountain region. Justin Marozzi had evidently called in on the ancient Hellenistic & Roman city ruins en route to Benghazi and met up with names known to us through our work there in 2009-2011.

In 2009, Cullinans prepared visitor strategies and masterplans proposals for four of eastern Libya's ancient city sites - Techira, Ptolemais, Apollonia and Cyrene - as part of the Green Mountain project with Ramboll UK. More recently, our masterplan for a new, carbon neutral city for 60,000 people - Shahat Garden City - just 7km south of Cyrene, would have introduced innovative, low enegry urban design solutions to the the region, helping to tackle the Jebal Akhdar's housing shortage as well as future energy needs.

Marozzi found the Cyrene site to be just as we knew it, only before February there was the odd international visitor or achaeologist to be found there: red earth, goats, wild flowers, increadible views north to the Mediterranean and an amazingly complete city in need of better care.

Who do you think you are

2011-07-01T09:12:00.002+01:00

Over a hundred of us gathered in the heart of Penoyre and Prasad's cool naturally cross-ventilated deep plan office last evening to hear 4 excellent presentations - a real cornucopia followed by delicious carpaccio, gorgonzola, wine and conversation.

Richard Sennett kicked off with softly spoken and eloquent thoughts on the book he is currently writing; cities work when they operate with porous boundaries rather than impermeable barriers like that Israeli wall. Liminality is key but that was a new concept to me - "a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes" Wikipedia tells me. In discussion he posited that the sealed plate glass window was a challenge to the desired porosity denying aural and olfactory connection to the city, while pretending to be transparent ie a barrier to be banned. By contrast he described an exercise his LSE Cities Programme had done about how to put an Aids clinic into Bluewater Shopping Centre with housing in the car park - good thinking!

Brand Consultant Ralph Ardill explained how corporate branding had changed from the profligate '80s where you could sell pretty much anything with the right brand to today when social media expose fakes ("the inauthentic") pretty much instantly. He described his highly successful but accidental collaboration with an architect to devise thhe Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.

The beautifully poised choreographer Siobham (Sue) Davies spoke about place and 'body memories' over a mesmerising film of 4 dancers rotating around a centre point , twisting and interweaving. She invited everyone to visit her studio in Lambeth by Sarah Wigglesworth

Finally Vincent Lacovara of AOC and Croydon Planning Dept described his annual Open House guided walk around the Seven Hills of Croydon; that is a trip around and up to the roof of the seven car parks in central Croydon, each year the experience being different, enriching his understanding of the place.

All four set thoughts running but Sue and Vincent offered related insights as to how we come to understand our sense of place in the city. In discussion Sue began to open up the elephant in the room which was that the new media were yet further encouraging us to consume ever more - next time perhaps?

From the archive...

2011-06-23T12:01:00.001+01:00

Edward Cullinan Architects photographed in 1975

From left to right: Mark Beedle, Susan Ford, Tchaik Chassay, Claire Herniman, Ted Cullinan, Philip Tabor, Sunand Prasad, Tony Peake

The cooperative manifesto

Heathcare in Bath

2011-06-20T09:21:00.010+01:00

Together with other members of the EOA (Employee Ownership Association) ECA's Community Healthcare Team enjoyed a tour of CircleBath Hospital last week. As members of an architectural cooperative we were interested to see another cooperatively run company in action. Circle is co-founded, co-run and co-owned by clinicians. The consultants and healthcare professionals who work for the organisation own the facilities they work in and from what we were told and shown this seems to motivate and empower the staff to put patients first in everything that they do.

The project was designed by Foster and Partners and some of the ambitions of the building reminded us of our Maggie's Centre North East in Newcastle which is due to start on site later this year. Circle has a calm domestic feel with lots of natural light (even in the operating theatres), great views to open countryside and, in contrast to typical healthcare facilities, a palette of warm and textured materials. Institutional corridors and signage are avoided as much as possible, and many of the rooms are multi-use and can be allocated to staff as required. Interestingly, the hospitality side of things is run by a former hotel manager in tandem with a Michelin star chef. The food, rooms and views are so good that many patients literally don't want to leave.

sustainable housing update courtesy of NHBC conference

2011-06-03T15:48:00.009+01:00

1. The coaltion want to reduce regulations but some anxieties/upcoming activities from CLG included:

CLG (Building Regs) Minister Andrew Stunnell very exercised by compliance failure
Zero Carbon now means CSH 5 but 'Code 6 is not dead'
security
rainwater-harvesting
ecology
embodied carbon
ventilation and over-heating
health and lifetime homes

Watch for the release of the National Planning Policy Framework proposals, soon

2. Some news form the Zero Carbon Hub included:

Carbon compliance is a minimum standard of fabric and technologies but this is now based on emissions/m2 rather than percentage improvements - much better! But the variation in UK weather is a huge problem; SAP assumes we all live in Nottingham
Cyril Sweett have reported that the extra over cost of a Code 5 (ie new ZC) home will have come down to £10k by 2016.

3. BRE have studied Greenwatt Way in Slough and concluded, among other things, that MVHR can be problematic:

the need for a better research into how MVHR works (or doesnt)
need to insulate MVHR ductwork in cold roofs
watch out for noise from fans
it can cost £20 to change the filters
better not to put the MVHR in the attic for ease of maintenance access - think about putting it in a cupboard, although this can conflict with need for storage space; dont forget the condensate pipe
try to minimise the duct runs and ensure the flexible ducting isnt kinked etc

4. Lessons from Joseph Rowntree Floundation's Elm Tree Mews in York included:

Airtighness target was 3m3/m2 but it measured bewteen 6 and 9m3; luckily the ventilation had been designed thinking the target was 10!
Co-heating tests showed up massive fabric failure in part due to construction of presinsulated timber cassettes in a wet summer; wet warmcell insulation had to be replaced and there was much more timber in the cassettes than anticipated leading to U-value deteriorating from 0.18 to 0.3
locally sourced windows claimed a u-value of 1.5 but that was mid-point not overall as specified, so rated 2.0 overall
complex shapes and contextual arts and crafts detailing led to extensive cold bridging
solar thermal only worked in one home - problems included a nail through a pipe, kinked pipework and one with the flow and return fitted the wrong way round
tenants didn know how to use the winter gardens and used them for storage
each dwelling had 4 controllers - heat pump, space heaing, solar hot water and immersion heater!

Let me know if you want to see the powerpoints.

Lambeth Community Care Centre Open Day

2011-06-02T11:34:00.000+01:00

On Saturday 21st May a group from the office went to the Lambeth Community Care Centre annual garden open day, to see the building in action and to enjoy some tea and cake. It was great to see how this innovative centre has been used and the garden has matured, over 25 years on from when it was first opened.

Robin Nicholson, senior partner at Cullinans and the project architect of the Care Centre, took us on a tour of the building and its extensive gardens, pointing out his mature fig tree, laden with fruit, and stories behind many of the plants. The local community got a warm welcome from staff and volunteers and from the gardener Millie who was there encouraging everyone to buy plants to help fund the next year’s work in the garden.

For the opening by Charles and Diana on a cold winter afternoon in 1985, Ted took the newly wed Di around the ground floor to meet the patients and those involved in making the Centre happen. Meanwhile Robin introduced Charles to the design and construction teams in the upper conservatory including the foremen plumber and electrician, while their bosses were out in the rather chilly garden. All the guests were invited to bring bulbs to plant in the garden.

The wonderful first senior nurse Sheila Woodward, now retired but devoted to the Centre, showed us around the 1st floor ward areas, pointing out various design features that made an impact in the lives of the patients. For example, Sheila told us how the clerestory windows bathed the wards in the dawn light, and helped patients connect with passing of time each day. Apparently dawn is one of the most common times for people to pass away, at the most peaceful time of the day.

The wards look out over the verdant garden, allowing patients to enjoy the greenery and wildlife from their beds. A terrace runs along the ward where patients can sit and double doors enable beds to be wheeled out onto the terrace from the wards if a patient wants to be outside.

Sheila had had the unenviable task of taking over the building from a passionately determined group of doctors, therapists, administrators and architects who had lived and breathed the design for 5 years and it had taken the founders 5 years before that to get the money. The plan had been to make a model place where patients would be looked after by the Centre’s nurses and therapists and visited by their GP as though they were in their own home. The story of the early years is beautifully recorded by Gillian Wilce in ‘A Place Like Home’.

After huge initial success, Sheila moved on and inevitably there were some changes but the Tomlinson report in 1992 thrust the Lambeth CCC right back on the agenda as a model for the future of Community healthcare in London.

The centre is based around an innovative approach to patient care, where patients have an active role in their own care and the running of the centre. It was very interesting to see these principles in practice, innovative in its time and still very much relevant to current healthcare projects such as our current Maggie’s Cancer care centre project in Newcastle, where visitors are encouraged to feel ownership of the building and enabled to help themselves to cups of tea and participate in the gardening.

North East Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre

A special issue of the Architects Journal was devoted to the building 16th Oct 1985.

From Arts and Crafts to DIY

2011-05-22T23:16:00.015+01:00

‘Where does my baggage come from?’ was a talk Ted gave in 1986. It’s a good question to keep asking on our journey of practice. One - though not the only - source for our inspiration has been the Arts and Crafts movement. The ‘Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture’ was Philip Webb, who in 1859 designed the Red House with and for William Morris. Webb's view was that architecture is ‘a common tradition of honest building’, and that architecture must be ‘mastership in building-craft developed out of contact with needs and materials’. He wrote little himself but his theories were articulated in a series of articles in 1925 by his biographer, friend and disciple W.R.Lethaby in ‘Philip Webb and his Work’. Lethaby was himself an innovative if not prolific architect - his church at Brockhampton with its unique thatched mass concrete vault was certainly honest building from first principles.

These ideas seem so out of sync with current procurement, where in spite of much good talk of integrated teams, the pressures are often to separate design and construction. With modern construction seemingly trying its best to separate design from making – at the same time as accusing architects of being detached from the process of building – the relevance of remaining grounded in the process and pleasure of making has never been greater. We have a culture within our office of self-building and DIY and we try and share successes, advice and tools. So, rather than keep this within the office I thought I’d add a thread within our blog touching on DIY.

Tom Brooksbank recently lent me a copy he’d picked up of Nomadic Furniture, 1974, by Victor Papanek and James Hennessy – ‘how to build and where to buy lightweight furniture that fold, inflates, knocks down, stacks or is disposable and can be recycled’. You can just feel the wobbliness and rough edges in most of these designs, although I particularly like this space-saving drop down desk.

IKEA has adopted these principles and made them work on a global scale, at the same time internationalising a seemingly acceptable level of wobble.

Here’s a tip for self assembly that is not wobbly and can be used to make self-build furniture composed in our beloved post-Cubist manner using floating planes and disengaged elements. Cut 6mm threaded stud to suitable lengths. Cut a slot in one end wide enough to take a screw driver bit. Set up your pieces with spacers and cramp together - it’s a good idea to prefinish them. Drill an undersized hole of 5 or 5.5mm depending on the material and drive the stud in. Remove the spacers and hey presto!

Here are some bedside units I made 15 years ago using this technique:

…. and more recently a unit for my daughter using some offcuts of shuttering ply.

Mary Lou Arscott taught me this tip, using it for door handle details in our self-built cubicles in office. I copied it for handles on wardrobe doors that turn light softwood framing into a rigid beam. Global wobble? – no thanks!

RIBA Award for Kew Herbarium

2011-05-19T17:04:00.000+01:00

The new Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives wing at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew has been awarded a RIBA 2011 Award.

The collections at Kew are the best of their kind in the world and are identified as of national importance under the National Heritage Act 1983. The priceless collections not only include over 7 million dried plant specimens but also contain unpublished information on the exploration, discovery and investigation of the world's plants and fungi, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition there are letters of botanists such as Sir Joseph Banks, George Bentham, Sir William and Sir Joseph Hooker, and Charles Darwin.

Kew appointed Cullinans to design a new 5,000sqm extension to the Herbarium to provide a modern archive for the most vulnerable pieces of the existing collections and to allow for future acquisitions. The new building has allowed Kew to retain its internationally pre-eminent position as the world's leading centre for the study of plant diversity.

Edward Cullinan Architects are currently on site with an archive building for the British Film Institute.A key objective of the new film store is to prevent the deterioration and loss of the nation's films so that they can be made accessible now and in the future.

RICS Scotland Sustainability Award - John Hope Gateway

2011-05-18T17:07:00.000+01:00

The John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is the winner of the 2011 RICS Scotland Award for Sustainability.

The Gateway was designed to demonstrate sustainability through its exhibitions and in its construction. With a beautiful city centre location, a unique mix of events, educational experience and centuries of expertise, the Gateway has become the prime facility in Scotland for engaging the public about biodiversity and climate change.

Renewable energy systems were included in the Gateway's design to meet the aspirations of the Botanic Garden to educate the public on new technologies and their potential. These include rainwater harvesting, a biomass boiler, solar thermal and photo voltaic panels and a wind turbine.

Extensive use of engineered timber, including Scottish timber where possible, in the structure and finishes of the building demonstrate the uses and importance of trees. The naturally ventilated Gateway is heavily insulated to have a thermal performance 20% better than current Building Regulations and this year has achieved an A+ EPC rating.

Roddy Langmuir, Project Director of the John Hope Gateway and a senior partner at Cullinans, said:
"We are delighted to receive this award for a project that we hope is seen as taking an optimistic view on sustainability. We have tried to show visitors to the Garden what great opportunities there are in creating a low-energy building with activities, views and daylight all framed in a carefully wrought timber shell. As architects the best response you can hope for is that people 'get-it' and vote with their feet, as they have done here. To be sustainable, buildings need to be enthusiastically adopted by their hosts and to serve an enduring role in their community."

Last year the Gateway received an Institution of Structural Engineers Award for Best Arts or Entertainment Structure and contributed to us winning Building Magazine's Architectural Practice of the Year Award and Building Design's Public Building Architect of the Year Award. Earlier this year the Gateway received a Civic Trust Award Commendation and is currently shortlisted for a 2011 RIBA Award.

Colin Hamilton and Jasper Rae from Max Fordham LLP, Services Engineers on the John Hope Gateway project, collected the RICS Award in Edinburgh on our behalf

The rainwater collected in a drum visible from the entrance 'greenhouse' fills the cisterns of the WCs below it.

A curving glass wall connects the ground floor exhibition spaces to the new biodiversity garden.

Think Big

2011-05-16T16:38:00.001+01:00

All London dwellers learn to adapt to living in small homes. I recently came across this video of an apartment in Barcelona where simple clicks and folds afford a dazzling array of spaces in one tiny room.

Falling Tea Leaves in Detroit

2011-04-21T14:19:00.011+01:00

Our contemporary world is gripped in tension between economic development and the use of increasingly scarce environmental resources. This issue is pertinent to architecture and 2011 is an appropriate time to be considering possible reconciliations to it – the 2008 financial crisis has opened opportunities to rethink aspects of our globalised systems of commerce and distribution and the 2010 election of the coalition government introduced the notion of decentralisation - or localism - to political debate in the UK. And last summer the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico illuminated the environmental hazards of our consumption of fossil fuels as well as the vulnerabilities inherent within dependence on this form of energy.

Within this frame Detroit is highly relevant. Once the fifth largest city in the US and home to the three largest car manufacturers in the world it is now becoming a post-industrial city; an apocalyptic landscape populated by empty skyscrapers, redundant infrastructure, abandoned houses and vacant lots. The entropic condition of this shrinking city reflects the shifting fortunes of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. And, looking ahead to a 21st century defined by higher oil prices and diminishing oil reserves, the future of the ultimate symbol of mass consumer confidence – the car – looks increasingly uncertain. What destiny awaits Detroit itself as a result?

One answer is a neo-liberal apologia: to allow the spiral of decline to continue or even, as has been suggested in the press, to formally abandon the city by federal act. But there is another more hopeful solution already arising within the city. This is a radical form of localism – one which questions the assumptions of centralised industrial processes and challenges the role of institutionalised authority. Vacant land across the city is now being taken over by local action groups for food production and abandoned buildings are being requisitioned, restored and taken ‘off-grid’ with micro systems of energy production which operate independently from centralised utility networks. These resourceful and innovative solutions by social entrepreneurs, artists and architects are particular to the extreme landscape of 21st century Detroit. But the ideas they represent contain nascent solutions to the contemporary global tension between economic development and environmental sustainability. And, as the 2011 UK Localism Bill is being debated in Parliament, the basis for the success, failure or wider application of these ideas is a topical area for investigation.

Tilting at windmills

2011-04-21T07:30:00.004+01:00

On the landing of my late aunt’s house hung this watercolour of Holmwood in Surrey, from 1845 according to a note on the back. As a child I used to love studying how a few easy brush strokes describe the form of the mill, how the colours and thinning of the paint capture the particular aerial perspective of the Surrey Weald.

I’m looking at it again from a different perspective. Windmills are common in paintings (particularly from windy countries like England and the Low Countries) and are invariably portrayed as rather beautiful components of our native landscape. They have largely disappeared. No-one bemoans their loss and yet there is a widespread assumption that wind turbines - their successors in harnessing the useful power of the wind - are marring and will destroy our beautiful countryside.

“It’s a question of scale” you might say, but look at how the trees near the mill have been painted deliberately small to increase its scale towering above the fields. Windmills ‘fit in’ to the landscape because they are a physical identifier of the points of greatest wind intensity – they describe what we can’t see. If sited wrongly they would have fallen more quickly into disuse. Reaching for maximum exposure rather than nestling into the landscape for shelter as old farm buildings do they are similarly at one with it. As free-standing objects they reinforce the sense of openness of landscape space.

In the same way, our modern equivalents will have to be sited for maximum benefit rather than scattered randomly over fields and valleys, and as finely honed functional machines they have their own austere beauty.

How effective they are at meeting our energy needs is another matter but on aesthetic grounds they have my vote.

Parametrically cutting carbon

2011-04-19T14:20:00.006+01:00

Last Thusday Ramboll showcased the work of their applied computational design unit at the building centre. In a follow on from Colin's blog on being thrifty, the skilful use of parametric design allows for thriftiness when it comes to structural design.

In the mid 20th century Pier Luigi Nervi mimicked bone structures at the Gatti Wool Mill to reduce the amount of concrete used. Rambol parametric boffins have applied the same principals of mapping stress to double curved roof of Greenlands National Gallery of Art. This has greatly cut the embodied carbon of the building. Perhaps as this drive to reduce carbon emissions intensifies we will see the structures of large buildings tend towards more organic, efficient forms.

Upcoming Urban Design Group Events

2011-04-18T14:33:00.003+01:00

Upcoming Urban Design Group Events include:

Tonight...
Tim Long’s Covent Garden Walkabout: Innovations in Street Design in Covent Garden / Holborn

Starts at 6.30 outside Chancery Court Hotel, 252 High Holborn (150 metres east of Holborn Underground Station)

Join Tim Long to view some of the recent work in High Holborn and Great Queen Street ending up in a Covent Garden Market winebar in the balmy air of a fine London spring evening for an expansive discussion on urban issues.

Cost – free. Meet outside Chancery Court Hotel 252 High Holborn at 6.30 Monday, 18^th April

Wednesday 20th April 2011

Urban Design Group Monthly Event
Innovations in Street Design & Pedestrian progress?

Wednesday 20^th April, The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street London EC1M 6 EJ – 6.00 for 6.30

Why does it take so long for thinking about street design to change? This event will reflect on the circumstances that have led up to Manual for Streets and beyond . In particular, it will look at the seminal 1991 Devon County Council Traffic Calming Guidelines. Based on a thorough and extensive study of street design and traffic management practice across Europe it presented designers in the UK with a radically different approach, that was to be followed in the Department for Transport's Manual for Streets in 2007.

Subjects to be debated will include:

How might innovation be made easier in the future?
Who leads on street design?
How might emerging technologies make a difference?
How do we stop today’s progressive design guidance turning into tomorrow’s reactionary design dogma.
Is risk aversion and the fear of litigation still obstructing good design?

Keynote Speaker
Tim Pharoah, Leading authority on the public realm and co-author of the Devon County Council Traffic Calming Guide
Followed by debate with Expert Discussion Panel including Dr Graham Smith & Colin Davis

Fun with thrift: towards the circular economy

2011-04-17T08:07:00.004+01:00

I went with Simon Smith of Ramboll to the EAUC conference this week to listen to what was going on and to promote our ideas for ‘smart refurbishment’. Of course the current economic conditions are forcing us to make do with reuse of existing stock but the growing recognition of the importance of putting embodied carbon into the equation should be driving this in any case. The ‘smart’ bit is getting the balance right between optimum use of space, upgraded fabric and energy.

In the light of this, Ellen Macarthur gave a timely and inspiring closing key note on how she had gone from record-busting sailor to campaigner for a radical transformation of our economy, bringing to that overwhelming challenge the same sense that the impossible can be done. The overarching vision is that we must redesign our economy from a linear ‘take, make, dump’ pattern to a circular one in which resources are used more prudently, intensively and design enables their repeated re-use. If the world’s supplies of mineral resources used in the conventional way are running out at the pace predicted (‘coal will last for 117 years’ etc) this is clearly an imperative.

One aspect of the circular economy is the idea of ‘Industrial Symbiosis’ in which one industry’s waste is another’s resource. The principle underpins the London Sustainable Industries Park in Dagenham where we (with Ramboll, Hoare Lea and Grontmij designed the Institute for Sustainability’s Research Centre for the LTGDC. As in the natural world, symbiosis doesn’t happen overnight and it takes time for a richly complex industrial ecosystem to take root. Good ecological management to speed up germination, nurture seedlings, and link mutually beneficial organisms translates to some pretty challenging marketing and creative approaches to funding to get the industrial ecosystem underway and self-sustaining.

One of the pioneer plants at the LSIP is Closed Loop, the company that recycles plastic bottles to food grade plastic. As a small example of low energy reuse rather resource hungry recycling I must show you my reuse of plastic bottles for replacement mudguards for my Brompton. They have lasted far longer than the originals - the serious mismatch between supply and demand is perhaps a lesson in itself.

There’s an old fashioned word for this which I think we might begin to see more of – thrift. Whether you call it thrift or ‘Project Redesign’ we need more of it and I look forward to sharing ideas.

The Edge discusses the James Review

2011-04-14T17:57:00.002+01:00

This week, I sat in on The Edge monthly meeting hosted by Robin Nicholson at our office. First on the agenda was the James (Schools Capital) Review which was hotly debated amongst the members. Although the call for POE was welcomed along with a National Database for the Condition of Schools ( work abandoned by the last government in 2005), the 10-15% target of energy reduction seemed wholly inadequate with no mention of CRC. Several members of the Edge sat on the Zero Carbon Schools Task Force which adopted Bill Bordass' mantra "Halve the demand, double the efficiency and halve the carbon in the supply and you are down to one eighth of the emissions" but Mr Gove has abandoned the whole ZC programme. So much for Osborne's promise to become the “greenest ever” Government. The Edge has a programme of debates coming up which are then published on the Edge website www.edgedebate.com The next is on the future of Research with the Carbon Trust on April 20th - speak to Robin if you are interested in going.

The hours of repose

2011-04-10T08:30:00.004+01:00

‘Growing your own’ is becoming mainstream again.

What better way to enjoy the glorious weather at the weekend than to get out and plant? As a newcomer to this game I’m concentrating on high value or unusual herbs and veggies, or the ones – like potatoes – that taste so much better dug straight from the garden. Some lettuce, leeks, spinach and chard somehow survived the winter frosts, and I supplemented these by fresh planting. We have a couple of trays of chilli seedlings for the first time – why buy ones flown in when you can grow your own?

I’m not quite ready to go communal myself but I’m intrigued by how vegetable growing might be a core ‘grass root’ activity feeding the new localism. Incredible Edible appears to have had a truly regenerative effect in Todmorden – it is inspiring.

Le Corbusier isn’t the first urban designer to spring to mind when thinking about allotments. If you google ‘The City of Tomorrow’ you will find principally those familiar images ‘Cartesian’ skyscrapers we have learned to mock.

But elsewhere in the book (which is well worth a read) Le Corbusier vividly describes his ‘garden city housing scheme on the honeycomb principle’. By grouping dwellings together, each with their own terrace, shared land is available in the centre of the block 'just outside your own home'. As well as 150 square yards for communal sports, ‘close at hand are the 150 square yards of kitchen garden joined up with the similar plots belonging to the neighbours.’ By rationalising the layout the allotments are automatically watered. ‘There would be a farmer in charge of 100 such plots and heavy cultivation employed. The inhabitant comes back from his work and with the renewed strength given him by his games, set to work on his garden. His plot, cultivated in a standardised and scientific way, feeds him for the greater part of the year. There are storehouses on the boarders of each group of plots in which he can store his produce for the winter. Orchards lie between the houses and the cultivated ground. This new type of housing scheme turns the inhabitant into a producer.’

Published in 1924, even more relevant today.

Building Awards

2011-04-08T10:48:00.003+01:00

As usual the Building Awards kicked off with a great VIP party for the judges (me) and other friends of the magazine. Our Kew Herbarium was pipped by FCB's Chelsea Academy for Public Building Project of the Award; Rab and Denise Bennetts got Architectural Practice of the Year and Building Magazine Project of the Year; Willmott Dixon got Major Contractor of the Year helped by placing sustainability at the heart of their business. Architype won the new Cut the Carbon Award with some impressive carbon savings over 26 years. Technical Editor Tom Lane explained to me that he is building up a library of Post Occupancy Evaluations; I explained that we were nearly there with Hoare Lea's POE on our Warwick Digital Laboratory.

Campus of the Future

2011-04-06T11:32:00.002+01:00

I recently took part in an excellent multi-disciplinary Arup Foresight workshop looking at the STEEP (Social, Technical, Economic, Environmental and Political) drivers for the future of the university. At the end of the day the vast majority of us voted for The Village Campus, one of four options arranged around integrated/segregated and physical/virtual cross-axes. The other options were Open Education, A la Carte E-Learning and Faculty Islands. As part of the 'brain food' Annette Smith reminded us that lecturing was a cheap but very ineffective way of learning, Andy Black dazzled us with social media and Sean McDougall shocked us with the idea that on the basis that: 1. 80% of black children leave school at 16 while 97% of white middle class girls go to University 2. 99% of London teachers are white but 50% pupils have one non-white parent Schools are designed for those going to University but the other 50% need different kinds of space.

Architecture by Bike - Lumen Church

2011-03-29T10:50:00.004+01:00

Cullinans' Design Management Team - Team 1 - continued their series of "Architecture by Bike" visits with a lunchtime trip to Theis & Khan's Lumen Church and community centre in Bloomsbury on Monday 28th March.
We found the simplicity and clarity of detailing well suited to the calmness and legibility of function that the cleverly planned series of spaces demand. Spaces within spaces have made for a much more valuable community facility than a simple place of worship could have provided. A prayer / meditation "cone" separates the excellent cafe from the chapel whilst a separate atrium route allows the community to use the garden and meeting spaces at the rear, without interrupting services.
Ubiquitous rooflights ensure that daylight is used to good effect in all rooms, whilst a huge, triple-height window onto Tavistock Place ensures that passers by are welcomed in. The busyness of the cafe despite the church's position away from the main thoroughfares of Judd Street and Gray's Inn Road is evidence of the success of the project. Good food too!

Space or water - a lifestyle choice?

2011-03-25T10:26:00.001Z

Great talk by Francesca Greco here last night on water and its place in our economy. Enjoyed the conversation afterwards with Mark Bradbury about lifestyle and use of water. Where does the obsession with washing all the time come from? Why we were brought up with baths once a week and now are designing 65m2 flats with two bathrooms? Surely some want more space instead of ensuites?

John Hope Gateway in Architecture Today

2011-03-25T08:57:00.000Z

Article in AT:

"Multi-faceted and multi-functional, the John Hope Gateway is a clever response to its pivotal site in the Royal Botanic Garden, says Mark Swenarton"

Photo: Paul Raftery

Atelier Van Lieshout at the Bartlett

2011-03-24T10:42:00.002Z

Functional, irrational, satirical, anarchic, grotesque, erotic, ugly/ beautiful. Political.

Joep Van Lieshout's lecture at the Bartlett last night was a provocative description of his work over the past three decades and the ideas running through it. The work itself exists somewhere between art and architecture and includes public art (Mix & Match), functional living modules (Autocrat), scale models (Shopping Mall of Babel) and farms (Pioneer set). There seems to be something at once intimate and impersonal about it.

All these things reveal a preoccupation with the tensions between development, consumerism, environmental sustainability, collaboration and personal freedom. And as individual works I like their communicative power because this seems commensurate with the relevance of their subject matter. TB.

Roddy Langmuir talking at the Building Centre tonight

2011-03-24T09:20:00.000Z

Roddy Langmuir will be talking about the Downland Gridshell at the Building Centre at the launch of this year's Wood Awards.

"A gridshell is a structure that gains its strength and stiffness through its double curvature configuration. Its advantages are a minimum use of materials, structural efficiency and the creation of a large volume, as well as the potential for quick and cost effective construction. However, few gridshells have been built due to a lack of knowledge and data. The process of creating the Downland Gridshell, as a specialist museum workshop completed in the spring of 2002, is a case study of successful collaboration and innovation in architecture, engineering and construction led by a multidisciplinary team of practitioners. This gridshell structure was composed of a double layer of mats comprising four layers of thin timber laths. These were harnessed together as a flat mat and then formed into a three-dimensional structure by a carefully orchestrated lowering of each supporting scaffolding prop, thereby harnessing gravity to pull the mat into shape. Many innovations are described in detail: team working, risk sharing, multidisciplinary design, structural modelling, the creation of new structural components, cladding, and construction processes including the sequence and techniques of gridshell forming. Advances made in this project have added to the knowledge of gridshell behaviour, construction and cost, thereby making the design and construction of future timber gridshells a more viable option."- Taken from 'Design and Construction of the Downland Gridshell' (2003) by Richard Harris, John Romer, Oliver Kelly and Stephen Johnson

Government u-turn on zero carbon homes

2011-03-23T16:42:00.013Z

“The commitment to Zero Carbon remains in place - there's no ambiguity about that...we can now say that zero carbon homes by 2016 is not just an abstract theoretical goal, but that new homes really will be zero net contributors to C02 in reality too.”

Housing Minister Grant Shapps (Feb 1 2011)

Today's budget saw the self-declared "greenest government ever" scrap their commitment to zero carbon homes. This is yet another sorry erosion in the push for a more sustainable future. The government is striving for economic growth yet this back tracking has dealt a severe blow to one of the countries biggest growth sectors. Mr. Osborne need only look at this year’s ecobuild to see how the innovation of home grown companies has lead to such advances and subsequent growth of this market.

This U-turn was glossed over by the formation of the green investment bank and an a injection of £3 billion into risky green projects. This money is welcome but it is not on a par with the whole scale level of change required to cut our addiction to carbon which 'zero carbon homes' promised.

To find out more see the UK's Green Building Council's excellent blog entry.

Collaborative working in Berlin

2011-03-23T14:27:00.005Z

Just returned from 'Betahaus' in Berlin; a former office block that has been converted into co-working space for creative professionals. Berliners can pay a standard daily, weekly or annual rate to hire a desk space. For a small top-up fee they have access to a range of additional facilities including a workshop (laser-cutter, 3-d modelling etc.), meeting rooms and a constant supply of coffee from the ground floor cafe. Putting artists, architects, web designers and journalists together in one space makes for a chaotic and creative environment where ideas can easily be shared.....

Gridshell Workshop at Sheffield Hallam University

2011-03-18T14:57:00.005Z

Sheffield Hallam University held a week long programme of events on the design of shell structures which included lectures from Prof. John Chilton on the work of Heinz Isler, Prof Remo Pedreschi on the work of Eldio Dieste and John Romer from Cullinans on the making of theDownland Gridshell.

With the course leader Gabriel Tang, John worked with the architectural students in design workshops culminating in the construction of a full size gridshell structure in the University's grounds.

Brit Insurance Design Awards

2011-01-19T14:02:00.005Z

The Stonebridge Hillside Hub has been shortlisted for a Brit Insurance Design Award - "the Oscars of the design world". An exhibition of the shortlisted entries will take place at the Design Museum from 16th February - 7th August 2011.

The Hub has also been shortlisted, along with the John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (pictured below), for a Civic Trust Award. The winners will be announced in March 2011.

Sustainable Development Foundation

2011-01-17T10:51:00.005Z

We are delighted to welcome the Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF) to our offices in Islington and we look forward to their monthly guest blog spot which will come, in turn, from each one of the programmes they run (Good Homes Alliance, SHINE etc).

More about the SDF:

The aim of the SDF is to encourage a step-change, radical improvement in the performance of the UK's built environment, with our ultimate goal being healthy, environmentally sound and productive buildings that support sustainable lifestyles and communities.

The SDF delivers change through a series of learning networks, undertaking research and gathering evidence about leading-edge practices, providing education and training about their implementation, and then collaborating with leaders in each field to create exemplar projects, before finally measuring their actual performance and feeding this all back into the learning cycle again.

Our main programmes are focussed around groups of leading clients, with other members of the supply chain providing additional knowledge and support. Programmes include:

the Good Homes Alliance - a gathering of leading-edge private and public sector housing developers and others (including Culllinans)
SHINE - a learning network for sustainable healthcare estates
LoCO2CO - looking beyond individual buildings to low carbon communities
the Passivhaus Trust - a member-led organisation that promotes the Passivhaus standard in the UK.

For more information on the SDF, please contact: info@sdfoundation.org.uk

NLA Breakfast Talk: Are Architects Sustainable?

2010-12-01T12:16:00.007Z

On 15th December 2010, Carol Costello from Cullinans will be a speaker at the NLA Breakfast talk; 'Are Architects Sustainable'.

Taking place at the Building Centre on Store Street, the breakfast talk will discuss how the architecture profession is responding to the sustainability agenda and the value that the profession can bring.

Carol Costello was the Project Director on the recently opened Herbarium, Library, Art and Archive wing at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and is currently leading the design of a new Master Film Store for the BFI.

The talk is free, but registration is essential

Tonight, Roddy Langmuir will be speaking at another event at the Building Centre, 'Wood Talks: Concepts, challenges and results', which is now fully booked. Roddy will be talking about the John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and other timber stories.

John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Photo: Paul Raftery

Team Build 2010

2010-11-24T18:16:00.015Z

Last weekend, the finals of the annual Teambuild UK event took place at Eynsham Hall, in Oxfordshire, and ECA employees Scott and Brendan were both part of finalist teams, in collaboration with, among others, our friends at Expedition, Arup, WSP & Grimshaws

Teambuild sees young construction industry professionals form multi-disciplinary teams and pitch to be involved in a major construction project. The winners are invited to Eynsham Hall to present their masterplans, and then take part in several design and contract related tasks to decide on a winner. This year, tasks were centred around the Nirah development, who very kindly allowed competitors to remasterplan part of their site.

It was a fast paced weekend, both around the work tables as teams worked against the clock to complete tasks, and in Eynsham Hall's award winning bar late into the night.

We are proud to announce that one of the ECA teams was selected to win the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects's procurement prize for best performance in the procurement task.

(Images courtesy of Teambuild UK)

Brendan's team presenting their construction task

Brendan's team collecting their certificates

Scott presenting his team's masterplan

Scott's team receiving their procurement prize

Public Architect of the Year

2010-11-22T17:10:00.010Z

Edward Cullinan Architects are this year's AYA Public Building Architect of the Year. The jury admired our concern for sustainability and the buildings' relationships to their landscape settings, including two recently completed buildings at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh (John Hope Gateway pictured above) and Kew (Herbarium, Library Art and Archives) and the future Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre in Newcastle.

Also this November we have won:

3 awards at the Islington Giant Green Business Awards: overall winner, energy and CO2 reduction and sustainable transport categories
2 awards for the Stonebridge Hillside Hub; Building Better Healthcare Award for Best Primary Care Design and a Building For Life Award
the Arts or Entertainment Structures category at the Structural Awards (entered by the Structural Engineers Buro Happold) for the John Hope Gateway.

Building for Life Award

2010-11-19T10:25:00.007Z

Last night, the Stonebridge Hillside Hub was one of 10 buildings given a Building for Life Award. At the event, Project Director Roddy Langmuir was on a Panel with Simon Chatfield of Hyde Housing for a question and answer workshop.

Earlier this year the Stonebridge Hillside Hub achieved a Building for Life Gold Standard. Building for Life promotes the real core qualities of good design, rather than surface and form. The Building for Life criteria is a series of 20 questions which are used to evaluate the quality of new housing developments.

Last week the Stonebridge Hillside Hub was also winner of the Best Primary Care Design Category at the Building Better Healthcare Awards 2010.

Plastic pollution in our oceans

2010-10-26T14:06:00.005+01:00

Tom Dollard from Cullinans has written a guest entry for the AJ's Footprint Blog on a recent discussion at the Royal Geographical Society about plastic in pollution in our oceans.

The panel included David de Rothschild who sailed across the pacific on 'Plastiki', a boat made of recycled plastic bottles, to raise awareness of the pollution problem.

The full article can be read on the Footprint blog.

Good Employers Guide 2010

2010-10-22T15:05:00.003+01:00

Every year Building Magazine produce a Good Employers Guide containing a full listing of the top 50 employers in construction. This year we came 2nd overall and top of all architectural practices.

Awards Awards Awards

2010-10-19T08:47:00.003+01:00

We are currently shortlisted for 10 awards:

Public Building Architect of the Year in BD's Architect of the Year Awards.
Sustainability Awards: Sustainability Champion of the Year (Robin Nicholson)
Sustainability Awards: Sustainable Project of the Year over £10m (John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh)
Sustainability Awards: Sustainable Project of the Year over £10m (Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives Wing, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew)
Islington Green Giant Business Awards: Energy and CO2 Reduction
Islington Green Giant Business Awards: Green Engagement
Islington Green Giant Business Awards: Sustainable Transport
Building for Life Awards (Stonebridge Hillside Hub, which has recently achieved a BfL Gold Standard)
Building Better Healthcare Awards (Hillside Primary Care Centre, Stonebridge Hillside Hub)
Brick Awards (New Library & IT Centre, Fitzwilliam College)

Cullinan's Solar Strollers

2010-09-20T10:01:00.012+01:00

Edward Cullinan Architects have raised £3,307.50 (so far) for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres.

A team of 12 from Cullinans walked 20 miles around London in the annual Maggie's Night Hike and Johnny Winter cycled 100 miles to raise money for the charity.

This year we are designing the Maggie's Centre North East in Newcastle. Taking part in the Night Hike and cycling over the Southern Downs enabled us to make another contribution to this worthy cause.

The Night Hike Team's name, Cullinan's Solar Strollers, was inspired by the solar passive design for the Newcastle Maggie's Centre, which also inspired the glow-in-the-dark sunglasses worn on the night.

Stocking up on energy with a good meal at the Barbican before we start.

Colin, Lara and Mark (Melissa)

The Cullinan Solar Stroller's with our Maggie's North East client, Marcia - bottom left.

The team, ready to go.

Quick warm up.

Benedict Cumberbatch (middle), who set the hikers on their way, dons the spare glasses

The first stop; Channel 4 - still looking quite fresh

Well earned break just over half-way (10.3 miles) at the London Maggie's Centre.

Nearing the end at the Serpentine Pavilion.

Maggie's lanterns at the Horse Guards.

The end, back at the Guildhall... not looking quite as fresh at 4.30am... but we all made it.

2010-08-03T15:47:00.005+01:00

The John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh was officially opened by Her Royal Highness The Queen on Monday 12th July, 2010.

Roddy Langmuir (Project Director) and Alex Abbey (Project Architect) from ECA attended the opening with their families.

The Queen was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh for the ceremony and were given a tour by RBGE Regius Keeper, Professor Stephen Blackmore of the exhibition and the Biodiversity Garden, where she planted a commemorative Japanese rowan tree.

Roddy then escorted them across the roof terrace and through the restaurant. He explained the key features of the building's design, and she was particularly interested in how some of the key environmental features worked, such as the wind turbine and the rainwater collection.

The Royal Party then descended the timber helical stair to unveil a commemorative plaque and toll an antique bell both located at the foot of the stair. After this they left to visit the Queen Mother’s Memorial Garden.

Afterwards the attendees enjoyed a delicious tea and Alex and Roddy caught up with members of the client and design teams.

Maggie's Night Hike

2010-07-22T09:25:00.006+01:00

A team from Edward Cullinan Architects will be taking part in this years Maggie's Night Hike.

This 20 mile night walk around London takes place on 17 September and is in aid of Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres. Maggie's Centres aim to help people adjusting to living with a diagnosis of cancer so that they can get on with their lives. They provide relaxation and stress reduction techniques, guidance on finding the right information for anyone affected by cancer, and simply a welcoming environment to meet and share experiences over a cup of tea.

Having participated in 2008, we are looking forward to taking part again this year, particularly as we are designing the Maggie's Centre North East.

The team name, Cullinan's Solar Strollers, has been inspired by the sun image, shown in the section below, that Ted Cullinan drew to highlight the passive solar principles used in the design of the Maggie's Centre North East.

We are very grateful of any donations!

Section through the proposed Maggie's Centre North East: Pipes below the surrounding banks will provide ground source heating to the building and a south facing sloping roof over the library will have photovoltaic cells to make electricity.

Roof plan: A landscaped garden on the roof of the Centre will be furnished with a bowling green and fixed exercise equipment.

Ground floor plan: The Centre will have within it a dining/kitchen for meeting and preparing food in; a large shared room for activities such as yoga, classes and lectures; two smaller meeting rooms; two counselling rooms for three people; and a library with a fire in to sit by in peace.

ICCP's 3rd Anniversary

2010-07-05T06:31:00.006+01:00

An inspiring event was to be had on Tuesday, 29th June, as the Emirates Stadium witnessed the celebrations of ICCP's 3rd anniversary.

ICCP is a unique partnership of Islington-based organisations committed to tackling climate change in a no-nonsense way. When ECA joined ICCP in 2008, we welcomed the idea of a 15% carbon footprint reduction in 3 years challenge, which forms part of the new member's pledge. It has motivated us to formalise our footprint monitoring procedures and search for better energy saving systems.

Since becoming a member, ECA has reduced its overall carbon footprint by 10.1% and is now on its way to meet the 3 year target.

London Festival of Architecture 2010

2010-07-01T10:09:00.008+01:00

Preparations are well under way for Edward Cullinan Architects' (ECA) London Festival of Architecture events this weekend.

Reclaimed doors have been hung in the exhibition space ready for project panels of ECA and Ramboll UK's recent and current projects and the postcards from our Love Your Canal competition are ready for judging by Ted Cullinan, Peter Murray (LFA, NLA, Wordsearch) and Mark Davy (Futurecity).

The installation on the street and canal facades of our studios has been completed. The banners on the canal side of the building can be enjoyed at this very moment and will be up for a couple of weeks. The reclaimed doors on the street facade, painted with an image that is legible from only one vantage point, will be installed each morning of this weekend's events.

The weekend of events kicks off with a talk by Ted Cullinan on Friday evening from 6.30pm. Places are filling up fast so if you would like to attend, book you free ticket asap at the LFA website.

Join us on Saturday for an afternoon of tea and cake and the announcement of the winners of our Love Your Canal postcard competition. Prizes have been kindly donated by Cass Art. There will also be free boat rides to and from local architects along the canal who are also participating in the Festival.

The Making Places exhibition of ECA and Ramboll's work will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 1 - 5pm.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Journey Home from Libya, via the HMS Albion

2010-04-23T11:43:00.007+01:00

Edward Cullinan Architects' (ECA) Roddy Langmuir and Philip Graham turned what looked like a tortuous retreat from Libya this week into an adventure aboard HMS Albion. Following a successful series of workshops and presentations in the east of the country on ECA's Masterplan for a new town - Janoub Shahat - they found themselves stuck in Tripoli due to airspace closure over northern Europe. A flight to Madrid took them as close to the no-fly-zone as was possible and a canny decision to hire a car only as far as the French border sidestepped the car rental companies' rampant profiteering from the crisis. Following some intelligence that the Royal Navy was coming, they diverted to the northern port of Santander and talked their way aboard on Tuesday morning. Thirty hours of fascinating insight into an active warship in the company of 500 returning troops ensued, to come alongside at Portsmouth (Pompy) on Wednesday evening.

Phil

Higher Education Design Quality Forum

2010-04-22T08:53:00.004+01:00

Last Wednesday, some 70 architects, engineers, contractors and QSs filled the main lecture theatre at our Centre for Mathematical Sciences to hear a distinguished panel debate the opportunities for the private financing of high quality teaching buildings in universities. There was a considerable appetite for the funding of research facilities, which we look forward to exploring.

Robin

Royal Opening of the Fitzwilliam Library

2010-04-21T16:00:00.006+01:00

The New Library and IT Centre at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, was officially opened by HRH Duke of Edinburgh on Monday 19th April.

Ted Cullinan, Johnny Winter (Project Director) and Lucy Spencer (Project Architect) attended the opening.

From left to right: Lucy Spencer, Johnny Winter, Ted Cullinan

Sustainability Talk 2: Simon Smith

2010-03-30T08:44:00.005+01:00

On Thursday 25th March a lively debate on low carbon structures ensued at Edward Cullinan Architects (ECA). Simon Smith, a structural engineer and director at Ramboll (formerly Whitbybird), was invited to present a talk on embodied carbon in construction. The talk was the second in a series of sustainable talks being held at ECA this year.

Simon is also a TRADA (Timber Research and Development Association) board director and a design teaching fellow at Cambridge University. Simon presented some of the research on low carbon structures that Ramboll are conducting with Cambridge University. He was recently voted ‘Green Guru Engineer’ at Building Magazine’s online sustainability seminar for his team’s work in reducing the embodied carbon in structures, some 6000tCO2 over the last 5 years.

In the audience we had members of ECA, the Building Centre, Hoare Lea, Arup and Hattie Hartman, currently best known for her sustainable blog – footprint – part of the Architects’ Journal.

The talk promoted timber structures and in particular cross-laminated timber structures as performing the best in terms of carbon; currently cross-laminated timber is imported from Europe – mainly Austria – and is made of softwood glued together (water-based glues). The current negative aspects are transport, in terms of carbon, and costs because of the strength of the Euro. However, Simon’s view is that within the next 10 years Britain will be manufacturing the structural panels (importing material) ourselves and reminded us of the National Tree Planting Year slogan, “plant a tree in ‘73”, suggesting that Britain may even be able to supply the material in the future too.

ECA’s first sustainable talk was by RockTron on carbon positive concrete. The next talk entitled ‘Zero carbon development: How low can we go?’ will be by Ashley Bateson of Hoare Lea regarding recent advice to the government on how to achieve the targets set for 2016.

Lara

Gib Tor Weekend: 20th - 21st March 2010

2010-03-26T18:23:00.005Z

In mid-March a group of office members along with their friends and family ventured north for a tree-planting weekend on Ted's farm, Gib Tor. The first day was spent getting to grips with technique and planting the key avenues in the midst of a thick, atmospheric fog, while the second was spent filling out the area under a cheerful springtime sun. Over 250 trees were planted by the 15 strong team; ash, rowan and birch were carefully placed to complete the future wood's grand ellipse.

Sahiba

Lambeth Community Care Centre 25th Anniversary

2010-03-05T15:34:00.007Z

On February 17th, Ted Cullinan, Robin Nicholson and Kristina Roszynski took part in the 25th Anniversary event at the wonderful Lambeth Community Care Centre (LCCC), which was chaired by local MP Kate Hoey.

The Friends of LCCC are fiercely defensive of the services provided in what was a radical realignment of community care away from the large hospitals, to a place where patients are looked after by their own GP as though they were in their homes. The design of the building which was widely acclaimed has been seriously compromised by recent insensitive interventions - there were no false ceiling tiles, wobbly glass blocks or pink paint back then. Much of what made the building special as the result of intensive consultation with the highly motivated Project Team has been removed and made banal and normal. The garden remains a real asset.

Brazilian Architects visit ECA

2010-03-05T14:03:00.004Z

On Tuesday a group of 18 Brazilian Architects and Engineers visited our office. Kristina, Alex and Lara presented an overview of our work and looked in detail at two case studies; the John Hope Gateway at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the new Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden.

The group had come to London on an organised architectural tour to visit Ecobuild and had heard of our work, particularly in the field of sustainable design. As such, we tailored our talks to focus on the environmental principles and systems employed in our recent projects.

It proved to be a stimulating evening; after much discussion, debate and translation between ECA and the Brazilians, we all went to the pub to discuss further architecture, our cultural differences and to introduce them to strong English Beer!

Forest Gate Community School

2010-02-05T17:23:00.005Z

The new entrance building/multi-use hall at Forest Gate Community School is now taking shape. The works, including the remodelling of this BSF school, are due for completion in August 2011.

Sustainability Talk 1: RockTron

2010-02-04T15:24:00.009Z

Last Thursday (28th January) we held our first talk in a Sustainability Series, where inventor and entrepreneur, Philip Michael, showed his innovative transformation of waste flyash into the carbon-positive RockTron Alpha, which has now been adopted by three of the major ready-mix companies in the UK and is generating a massive interest around the world wherever there are coal-fired power stations.

For architects wanting colour-consistent fair-face concrete this is exciting news, as the Alpha product is a pure light grey in colour, which is unlike PFAs that still contain mobile heavy metals, including iron, and so have a yellowy hue.
RockTron's proprietary benefication process designed to recycle 100% of fly ash waste from coal-fire power stations produces five valuable eco-minerals; one of which is recycled carbon fuel reburnt in the power stations, producing more energy than the manufacturing process uses. RockTron are now exploring uses for these other high-performance by-products in the Pre-cast concrete, Thermoplastics, Vinyl and Tyre Manufacturing industries, as well as light-weight fillers for the Automotive, Aeropace and the Electronics industries, thus 'greening' a number of supply chains. RockTron, who have already won the Nicklin Medal at the IChemE Awards were also awarded the Fossil Fuels award at the Rushlight Awards for their technology advancement in reducing the need for burning fossil fules.

More information on RockTron can be found at their website

This picture illustrates raw fly ash before processing where the carbon; CarbTron are separated leaving the cleaner Alpha product. The photos were taken with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

Zero Carbon (Schools) Task Force

2009-12-23T10:59:00.003Z

On 10th December I presented Ed Balls, Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), Secretary of State and his Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Diana Johnson, with the main recommendations of the Zero Carbon Task Force I have been chairing for nearly two years.

The Task Force and the officials were expecting him to breeze in and thank us for all our hard work, only to be invited to sit down and explain our thoughts in a robust conversation for some 20 minutes. The Task Force was persuaded early on that Zero Carbon was first about behaviour change, and only then technical, and we adopted the Bill Bordass mantra "halve the demand, double the efficiency and halve the carbon in the supply and you are down to one eighth of the emissions".

John Hope Gateway on STV

2009-12-22T17:49:00.003Z

"Edinburgh's Botanic Garden Blossoms into the 21st Century"

Christmas Toy Collection 2009

2009-12-18T20:02:00.008Z

To a great disappointment of many ECA members, busy December schedules prevented us this year from getting involved in Crisis (an initiative aiming at providing help and support to the homeless) as we used to do in previous years and in an attempt to find a less time-consuming but by no means less charitable way of continuing with ECA’s Christmas traditions, our Christmas Party Team came up with the idea of a Toy Collection for one of the London’s children homes.

Our Office Manager took charge and liaised with Ms Beard, the Centre Manager of the Little House - a day-care ‘play and leisure’ home for disabled (mainly autistic) children – who agreed to take part in our initiative despite the fact that the Centre was soon to move into a new location and the deadline of our collection coincided with the handover date of their new property at 2a Willingford Avenue.

A big box stood next to our Christmas Tree for almost a month, and several heavy-duty “Secret Santa’ bags were delivered to the Little House on Friday, 18th December.

We will be looking out for news on the Little House’s team as they continue to provide support to activity groups, parents, carers and siblings at their new location and under the new name of St Quintin’s Centre.

Robin Nicholson filmed for the AJ

2009-11-25T10:20:00.001Z

Engineering the Road to Copenhagen- Robin Nicholson from The Architects' Journal on Vimeo.

2009-11-10T17:46:00.003Z

Poor Amanda Baillieu, much loved editor of BD, has had to resort to climate scepticism (BD 6/11). COP15 in Copenhagen is a huge challenge and a great opportunity for us all, so burying our heads in the sand and hoping it will go away won't get anyone very far. I shall be debating the roles and responsiblities of architects and engineers at the next Edge Debate on 19th Nov in the Danish Embassy and will let you know the outcome.

The Edge

2009-11-05T15:17:00.004Z

Members of the Edge were out in force at the Institution of Civil Engineers (London) on Tuesday to hear the Presidential Address by fellow Edge Member Prof. Paul Jowitt. "Now is the time" is a powerful challenge to all civil engineers to provide sustainable infrastructure for everyone on the planet including the one billion who have none. The address is available on ice.org.uk/president. Edge members present included Adam Poole (Buro Happold), Paddy Conaghan (Hoare Lea), Michael Dickson (Buro Happold), Mike Murray (1to1solutions), Mark Whitby (co-founder Whitby Bird), Max Fordham (co-founder Max Fordham LLP), Jan Hellings (Olympic Development Authority), Chris Twinn (Arup) and our Robin Nicholson (ECA).

Tour de Pasenville

2009-10-20T10:00:00.010+01:00

For the last six years Ted Cullinan has run a two day workshop called the Tour de Pasenville (Pasenville being Nottingham in French) at the University of Nottingham, which involves first, fifth and sixth year architecture students.

Over two days at the end of September, the first years were helped along by the more experienced students to make models, drawings, videos (and human pyramids) to create proposals for an imaginary building situated on the university campus. Each year the brief is based around physical activities to enable to students to recreate the activities that would take place in the buildings. This year the students designed a Department for Circus Skills.

The Tour de Pasenville helps the first years to immediately bond with their fellow "debutants", promotes cross year communication and, perhaps most importantly, encourages students to work quickly and enjoy architecture.

Ben Hopkins

New Library and IT Centre, Fitzwilliam College

2009-10-15T15:53:00.007+01:00

On Monday night, Ted Cullinan and Johnny Winter gave a talk at Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge, on the concept design of the new library. The visitors were also given a guided tour of the newly completed library.

Extending on the east wing of Denys Lasdun's 1959 College masterplan, the new building is designed to create a place for study that reflects the peaceful landscape and that respects and enhances the adjacent architecture.

The library, which reached practical completion last week is due to have its collection installed over the next few months, with the building fully open to students after Christmas.

Open House at Stonebridge

2009-09-23T11:03:00.009+01:00

As part of the Open House London weekend, we held a breakfast event at the Stonebridge Hillside Hub; a mixed-use building that we saw through to completion earlier this year. Greeted with coffee and tea and a selection of pastries, attendees were then given a talk by architects, Roddy Langmuir and David Cawston, which explained the design and structure of the Hub and the local community's involvement in the design process. This was followed by a tour of the building.

Last Thursday, the Stonebridge Hillside Hub won the Mail on Sunday British Homes Award for Mixed-Use Regeneration Development of the Year and has also been shortlisted for a Regeneration and Renewal Award, for which the winners will be announced later this week.

The Stonebridge Hillside Hub is located in the Stonebridge Estate in north west London, near Harlesden.

The Community Hall set up for the presentation.

Roddy Langmuir, Project Director for the Hub, talks about the early stages of the project and the community's involvement in shaping the final design.

The communal garden at the rear of the scheme, overlooked by the Community Hall.

The main reception area leading to the PCT Health Centre.

The three storey atrium at the main entrance to the Health Centre, which is due to open in November.

A model of the local area shows the regeneration of the estate and the Hillside Hub in context.

Fitzwilliam College Library

2009-09-22T09:17:00.003+01:00

Progress on site at Brampton Manor School

2009-09-11T16:30:00.004+01:00

The Performing Arts block is nearing completion (plant enclosure and the landscaping to be completed), the new circulation link is also nearing completion and the Dance Studio is complete.

10:10

2009-09-01T17:44:00.007+01:00

The 10:10 climate change campaign is the brainchild of Franny Armstrong (Director of 'The Age of Stupid' film) and was launched today in partnership with The Guardian. Ted Cullinan is one of many well-known individuals and organisations from the arts, sport, tv, politics, etc., to have joined the campaign. Ted joined them this afternoon for the official launch in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall.

The project aims to bring every sector of British society to work together to achieve a 10% cut in the UK's carbon emissions in 2010. Scientists now agree that global emissions must peak within the next five to ten years and then begin to fall. 10:10 believes that in order to give ourselves a chance, we need to act now. By cutting emissions by 10%, it provides an immediate action that is achievable for everyone. This is a brilliant first step towards the 85% cuts by 2050.

Ted designed and built his own passive-solar house in Camden in 1964, and this has recently been listed Grade II*. But buildings are currently responsible for 40% of UK emissions, so there is a lot for us architects to be doing. Our practice has been monitoring its footprint for just under two years and although originally aiming for a 5% reduction in utilities usage, we are now well on target for a 20% reduction, comparing 2009 against 2008 consumption.

On his return to the office Ted said of the inauguration that it was "brilliantly organised chaos".

Progress on site at Brampton Manor School

2009-08-24T09:09:00.005+01:00

Reglit in three opacities, brick base and the theatre starting to take shape and random samurai.

Kew Visit

2009-08-14T14:56:00.006+01:00

Yesterday, Roderick James Architects, from Totnes in Devon, came up to London to visit our new Herbarium building for Kew Gardens. Ted Cullinan and Carol Costello (Project Director) gave the group a brief talk on the history of the existing Herbarium buildings and the design for the new wing. A tour of the building followed and Ted, Carol and Amy from ECA were then invited to join the group on a boat trip down the Thames.

After negotiating a four foot 'leap of faith' into the ribs from Kew Pier, a sometimes rather damp, but always exhilarating journey along the river ensued.

Thank you to Roderick James Architects for a wonderful afternoon.

Practical Completion at RBGE

2009-08-04T17:40:00.006+01:00

On Friday 31 July 2009, the John Hope Gateway Building reached practical completion. The new visitor centre at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is due to open to the public after fit-out is complete on Wednesday 7 October 2009.

Good Homes Alliance seminar

2009-07-10T17:14:00.003+01:00

GOOD HEALTH THROUGH GOOD BUILDINGS

An event at CABE in a banana shaped room in a round building…

After introduction by the GHA Chair Neil May, Ed Hobson (CABE’s Head of Research and Futures) set the scene for why ‘what’s good for health is good for the planet too’.

Dominic Church (CABE’s Senior Policy Advisor) made the case for using Building For Life as best practice guide for designing healthy buildings.

Next, a double act by Alistair Gould (carbonfreegroup.com) and Dr Nichol Clarke (real-healthventures.com) on their experience in adopting an integrated health approach to designing Pines Calyx (www.pinescalyx.co.uk) as a centre for sustainable living based on three core values: collaboration, community and cradle-to-cradle sustainability.

Clarke is against the pharmaceutical approach to health which focuses on individuals as machines to be serviced - as everything around us affects our health, the starting point for design is to reconnect with nature, using it as inspiration (bio-mimicry).

How stressors of health on our human body are dealt with at Pines Calyx:
· Air quality – fresh sea air
· Air temperature – spaces are naturally cooled in summer and warmed in winter
· Visual aspects and daylighting – how colour and frequency of light affect our behaviour and performance
· Sound and electro-magnetics (restricted cell phone use)
· Materials – untreated, natural, recycled
· Smells and tastes
· Touch and movement

Leadership being critical to the success of any approach was stressed.

Some healthy people interaction followed with group discussions about the health and well-being aspects of a ghastly design proposal for a mixed use inner-city gateway development which was successful at appeal despite failing Building For Life assessment and design review by CABE!

After the tea break with fresh strawberries, Dr Marcella Ucci mesmerised us with her research at UCL on the prospering of dust mites as houses become more air-tight.

The seminar ended with Sue Riddlestone (Director, BioRegional Development Group) on lessons learnt at Bedzed where the sense of community was valued most and reinforced by:
· Residents knowing about 20 people (8 being the general average) – people engaged in community activities are more likely to be healthier and happier)
· community spaces – garden, play area, compost area
· Car club
· Cycling
· Recycling
· Pride in green spaces – sky gardens

Stonebridge Hillside Hub Official Opening

2009-07-03T16:37:00.008+01:00

The Stonebridge Hillside Hub, a mixed-use building in north west London, was completed in February this year, but had its official opening today. The building was alive with the carnival spirit...

David Cawston (project architect) shows Ted (Cullinan) the PCT Health Centre facade

The Community Hall

Roddy Langmuir (project director)

as 'bold' as a coot

2009-06-30T14:11:00.005+01:00

For a few days now we have been listening to calls of young nestlings as they have boldly ventured out onto the canal from their nest.

The nest

On the 'rail'

Progress on site at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh

2009-06-29T17:55:00.006+01:00

The John Hope Gateway Building at the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh is nearing completion.

Scaffolding coming down at Fitzwilliam College

2009-06-24T09:36:00.007+01:00

View of the south end from the College grounds

Oversailing eaves next to the south tower

The reader tower with Douglas Fir soffits to the upper and lower eaves

The raised access floor in place

View from the second floor to the Lasdun dining hall

Further progress at Fitzwilliam College

2009-06-23T09:04:00.006+01:00

View in front of second floor window looking along zinc lower roof, Douglas Fir soffit boards above (temporary downpipes!)

Raised access floor to second floor

Zig-zag ductwork along the zig-zag facade

Softball Season

2009-05-27T09:14:00.008+01:00

ECA's one match winning streak was ended in dramatic fashion last Wednesday night by ESA. Brimming with confidence from our 100% record, ECA opted to bat first and were all out for a spectacular zero runs. ESA's very soft ball taking most of the credit - with even the big hitters struggling to hit it out of the diamond! ESA also struggled with the ball, but still managed to hit a home run and finished the innings on 3. Kevin taking a catch in the field and Amy taking 2 run-outs on first base. Unfazed ECA stepped up to the plate - it could only get better - and we did ourselves proud with a much improved innings, in which we again failed to score a single run! ESA hit another home run in their second innings, but the score was held to 5-0 by good work between Lucy and Amy, who managed to get all 3 ESA scalps on first base.

ECA encouraged a change of ball for the 3rd innings, and it looked to have paid off as Chris C hit a home run, getting ECA's first score on the board. This was unfortunately followed by three quick outs leaving ECA on a slightly disappointing 2 runs after 3 innings! ESA then took full advantage of the harder ball, quadrupling their score before being halted by a long catch by Johnny, and another 2 run-outs by Amy on first base (bringing her total to 7 outs in the game!) With the score at 20-3 ECA had it all to do in the 4th innings - and had a promising start with Kevin hitting a home run. It wasn't to be however, as another quick 3 outs saw ECA finish on 4 runs after 4 innings! This meant ESA had won by an innings and 16 runs, with the final score 20 - 4.

ESA offered to give us another short game - one innings each - then proceeded to score 16 runs very quickly indeed! With the light fading, ESA declared on 16 to give us a chance to bat. ECA rose like a phoenix from the flames, and began hitting runs left right and centre. With a home run each from Johnny, Kevin, Dave and myself - and an impressive 2 home runs off 2 balls from Chris C we managed to save face and kind of sort of won the second game 20-16!

Disappointed captain

...even more disappointed Johnny

...things weren't looking so good at this point...

...finally a home run for Johnny......and for Chris C.

Design Day

2009-05-05T15:41:00.007+01:00

This year's Design Day took inspiration from the RIBA's competition to design your own Cabanon. As we left the office the heaven's opened, but undeterred we walked to the Barbican, arriving a little wet and windswept, but still eager.

After a quick tour and the rest of the morning in the Le Corbusier exhibition, we occupied the lower floor of the Barbican and set to work on our designs. Half-time crits ensued and the final designs were transferred to the RIBA competition postcards. After a brief synopsis from each entrant and careful examination, Peter was voted the (in house) winner. All the postcards were then raced to the RIBA to be entered into the (real) competition.

Orchid

2009-04-29T08:59:00.003+01:00

We'd all given up hope with this orchid, and then...

2009-04-28T17:43:00.002+01:00

Ted and Ros invited Alex, Katy and their son Jasper together with Cherry, Ben and Mark to plant trees on their farm Gib Tor on the North Staffordshire Moors. Weather was glorious - here we all are having a wine break.

We managed to plant 250 trees comprising ash, willow and oak.

Jasper supervising

Dig those trees pits!

Delivering willows - the all terrain toddler

Discussing the merits of Ninky Nonk

Progress at Fitzwilliam College

2009-04-24T14:45:00.004+01:00

The reader tower

view from the library to the east wing of the 1959 Denys Lasdun College masterplan