The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is calling for applications for the 2015 RIBA Boyd Auger Scholarship. The generous scholarship, awarded since 2008, supports the personal, professional and academic development of its recipients by contributing towards their imaginative and original research and travel. In 2015, one scholarship worth £5,000 is available to individuals or groups of students and graduates for a period of international travel (which can coincide with international work experience). Applications for funding international travel associated with architecture-related work in non-governmental organisations or as part of broader research at postgraduate level (namely towards Masters or PhD/MPhil programmes) are also welcome. The deadline for applications is 1 June 2015. For more information, head to the RIBA Boyd Auger Scholarship.   ENDS Notes to editors 1. For further press information contact Callum Reilly in the RIBA Press Office: callum.reilly@riba.org 020 7307 3757 2. For more information, visit: http://www.architecture.com/RIBABoydAugerScholarship 3. Interested applicants should contact Hayley Russell hayley.russell@riba.org 020 7307 3678 if they require help with their applications. 4. In 2007, Mrs Margot Auger made a donation to the RIBA in memory of her late husband, the architect and civil engineer Boyd Auger, for the creation and administration of a funding scheme to reward a student or group of students of architecture. Since it was first awarded in 2008, the scholarship has funded nine talented students. 5. Boyd Auger achieved international fame in 1968 when he used computer programming to address a difficult housing problem in Italy. Even though the project was never built, Auger’s proposal was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and his radically innovative methods (which maximised light, view and privacy in housing design) were featured in the BBC television programme ‘Cities of the Future’. In 1969 he won the Reynold Memorial Award by the American Institute of Architects for best use of aluminium in his Gyrotron project, a 200-foot space-frame structure built in 1967 for the Montreal Expo. His was the second ever British project to receive the Reynold Memorial award, following James Stirling and James Gowan in 1965 for their engineering block at Leicester University. 6. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) champions better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture and our members www.architecture.com 7. Follow us on Twitter for regular RIBA updates: @RIBA www.twitter.com/RIBA   Posted on Monday 9th March 2015 Source link

©Andrew Fox/Alamy Wind and solar farms have always had faithful adherents in the environmental movement but now more than 3,500 churches have turned their back on fossil fuels to embrace renewable energy. Churches from a range of denominations have either made such a switch or registered their interest in doing so, but Catholics have proved especially keen, according to figures from religious charities released on Thursday. More On this topic IN UK Business & Economy Nearly 2,000 Catholic parishes have forsaken conventional energy in favour of green electricity in 16 dioceses, the charities said. Some made the decision after Pope Francis issued an encyclical last year urging the world to cut its dependence on fossil fuels. “Pope Francis challenges us all to ‘care for our common home’, and by adopting renewable energy we will directly help people threatened, and already most severely affected, by climate change,” said John Arnold, Bishop of Salford, one of the 16 dioceses to have switched. “There are many ways in which we may respond to the threat and the reality of climate change and adopting renewable energy for our church buildings must be a priority.” In some cases, churches had banded together to use their collective buying power to secure green energy tariffs from companies that bought or produced at least 80 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources, said Tim Gee, campaigns leader at Christian Aid. A number had saved money but in certain instances this was because the churches had not switched suppliers in a long time, he said. “The very cheapest electricity supplier is still fossil fuels,” he said, but the churches had still been able to obtain the cheapest available renewable energy tariffs. The overriding reason for acting, he added, was to send a message to governments and investors that there needed to be a shift away from fossil fuels if the world were to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. “There really is a wave of enthusiasm for it,” Mr Gee said. “It’s relatively recent and it’s really sped up in the last year.” Some synagogues and mosques had also made the shift, he said. Some of the companies benefiting from the churches’ shift are smaller green energy groups such as Ecotricity and Good Energy rather than the larger “big six” suppliers. At least 100 Quaker meeting houses have switched to renewables by dealing directly with seven-year-old Good Energy. There really is a wave of enthusiasm for it. It’s relatively recent and it’s really sped up in the last year – Tim Gee, Christian Aid The move is part of a wider trend, according to the Energy UK trade association, which represents big six companies as well as smaller groups. “There is a real and increasing demand in the market for an energy supply contract which is based on more renewable sources,” a spokesman said. Christian Aid and the other charities that have collected data on churches are switching to green energy have not yet calculated the financial impact of their move on more established energy companies. “It’s certainly millions that have been shifted,” said Mr Gee. More than 900 Salvation Army buildings have switched to renewable energy suppliers, according to the charities’ data. Nearly 700 churches from several denominations have individually signed up for green power tariffs through the Big Church Switch website, which offers a simple way for churches to shift to green tariffs. Nicholas Holtam, the Bishop of Salisbury and the Church of England’s lead bishop on the environment, said the churches’ move was a response to a complex environmental crisis. “It is important that Christians rediscover older traditions of a godly relationship of humanity to the wider created order,” he said. “One simple thing we can do in response to such a crisis is to switch to using clean energy in our homes, communities, schools and places of worship.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

British Safety Council 2016 Annual Conference Date and location Wednesday 5 October 2016, the King’s Fund, 11 – 13 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0AN Conference overview This year’s annual conference will attempt to de-mystify the meaning and place of health in the workplace. Who should attend? The event is for everyone from academics to risk managers to trade union representatives and is a great opportunity to share best practice with other like-minded professionals with an interest in health in the workplace. Further information and booking For further information, full programme details and booking visit the British Safety Council 2016 Annual Conference web page. If you have any queries about the event, please e-mail customer.service@britsafe.org or telephone +44 (0)20 3510 8355. Source link

The average cost of a manor house is now £2,102,344 which is 11 times higher than the national average, according to the latest sale price analysis from Jackson-Stops & Staff. The estate agent, which has 44 offices throughout the UK, states that the manor house cost is almost double the sale price of the average UK farmhouse, which has an average sale price of £1,089,857. Meanwhile the least expensive of the three typically English homes is the cottage, although the data also reveals that they do not offer the best value for money. On average, the old rectory style cottage comes in at £234 per sq ft, while the roomier barn conversion sosts around £288 per sq ft. Therefore, on this basis, cottages are more expensive at £320 per sq ft. While manor houses cost £1 million more than a farmhouse on average, they provide better value for money in terms of a price per sq ft basis (£343) which is just £23 more than a chocolate box style cottage (£320). Barn conversions are on average £378,066 cheaper than old rectories, which is more than the average sale price of a typical property in the UK. However, in terms of price per sq ft, old rectories provide greater value for money. Although barn conversions attract a higher sq ft premium because of their large open plan entertaining areas that fit in well with dinner party culture and modern lifestyles. Chairman of Jackson-Stops & Staff, Nick Leeming, commented that their research illustrates the feudal hierarchy that remains present in terms of the most popular quintessentially English homes. He believes that for large families who are in a position to invest in a historic property, manor houses offer the best value for money in terms of the space they provide rather than the cheaper farmhouse. The survey also revealed that the typical chocolate box cottage is the cheapest but they do not offer the best value for money with regard to size.