An experimental London house incorporating the walls of a 19th century stable into its split-wing design (Kew House) and Vaulted House, a sophisticated family house in Chiswick characterised by six skylight topped roofs, join Flint House and Sussex House on the 2015 RIBA House of the Year award shortlist, sponsored by specialist insurer, Hiscox. The annual award is run by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The projects in the running for the UK’s most prestigious award for a new house are being revealed in a special four part TV series for Channel 4, Grand Designs: House of the Year. During the course of the series which began on Wednesday 4 November 2015, the seven homes shortlisted for the 2015 RIBA House of the Year award will be announced; the winner will be revealed on screen on Wednesday 25 November. The latest two projects shortlisted for the 2015 RIBA House of the Year are: Kew House, London by Piercy&Company Vaulted House, London by vPPR Architects They join the following two houses on the RIBA House of the Year shortlist, with another three yet to be announced: Flint House, Buckinghamshire by Skene Catling De La Pena Sussex House, West Sussex by Wilkinson King Architects -ends- Notes to editors: 1. For further press information contact Howard Crosskey, howard.crosskey@riba.org 020 7307 3814 2. The RIBA House of the Year award (formerly the Manser Medal) is awarded every year to the best new house designed by an architect in the UK. It was created in 2001 to celebrate excellence in housing design.  3. The judges for the 2015 RIBA House of the Year award, sponsored by Hiscox, are Jonathan Manser, Chair of the jury; James Standen of Hiscox; award-winning architect, Mary Duggan; Chris Loyn, the recipient of the 2014 award and Tony Chapman, RIBA Head of Awards.  4. Hiscox, the international specialist insurer, is headquartered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:HSX). There are three main underwriting divisions in the Group – Hiscox London Market, Hiscox Re and Hiscox Retail (which includes Hiscox UK and Europe, Hiscox Guernsey, Hiscox USA and subsidiary brand, DirectAsia). Hiscox underwrites internationally traded, bigger ticket business and reinsurance through Hiscox Re and Hiscox London Market. Through its retail businesses in the UK, Europe and the US Hiscox offers a range of specialist insurance for professionals and business customers, as well as homeowners. For further information visit www.hiscoxgroup.com  5. The Architects’ Journal is media partner for the 2015 RIBA special awards, including the RIBA House of the Year www.architectsjournal.co.uk  6. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) champions better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture and our members. Visit www.architecture.com and follow us on Twitter. 7. Grand Designs: House of the Year is produced by Boundless, producers of Grand Designs. 8. The judges’ full citations and image links for each building follows: Kew House, London by Piercy&Company Images: https://riba.box.com/s/mft7pcmxsdci27e1k5ib2arnkrfn2bdo This four bedroom family house is formed of two prefabricated weathering steel volumes inserted behind a retained nineteenth century stable wall. The layout is informal; rich with incidental spaces and unexpected light sources. A delicate, glazed circulation link reveals the contrast between a rustic exterior and refined interior. Split into two wings, the simple plan makes the most of a constrained site and responds to the living patterns of the young family. Completed in January 2014, Kew House was an experimental project, driven by the architect’s and clients’ shared interest in a ‘kit-of-parts’ approach, prefabrication, and the self-build possibilities emerging from digital fabrication. Vaulted House, London by vPPR Architects Images: https://riba.box.com/s/lcvu3fg1kdzaihl6x6kp4bzdjz5kyfrk This family house, built on the walled site of a former taxi garage, is almost entirely hidden in the middle of a Victorian block in Chiswick. The approach is via a covered passage, beyond which is a brick-lined front porch. A recessed, chamfered surround for the front door hints at the geometric language of the house’s primary formal and spatial idea: a walled enclosure above which a cluster of six conjoined hipped roofs hovers enigmatically. The house is arranged so that on entry, one is poised between the two levels, with stairs leading up to the open-plan living level, and down to the lower level of bedrooms. The six roofs, each topped by a skylight, are lifted above the enclosing boundary wall. This creates a sense of weightlessness and a borrowed panorama of neighbouring gardens. The hipped roofs’ sloped planes join precisely to form a series of large coffers or ‘vaults’. These vaults spatially define and individually illuminate various parts of the open plan main living space; kitchen, dining and living areas. In two places, the vaulted roofs are absent, leaving two storey deep voids that act as garden courtyards for the basement level bedrooms and children’s playroom. Glazed walls slide back to expand the living space onto balconies that project into the voids, formed with perforated mesh. This material and its careful detailing creates beautiful shadows on pristine courtyard walls.   Posted on Wednesday 11th November 2015 Source link

©AFP Buddhist monks offer prayers for tsunami and earthquake victims at Soma in Fukushima, the scene of a radiation leak A welter of conflicting legal decisions has left Japan’s nuclear reactors in a state of limbo as national energy strategy clashes with the courts. The reactors are being turned on and off like light switches as activists file lawsuits, highlighting the tension between safety fears and energy supply, and raising questions about the role of courts in nuclear regulation. More On this topic IN China At stake is a multibillion-dollar nuclear infrastructure that is mothballed, reducing the risk of accidents but forcing energy-poor Japan to import and burn millions of tonnes of polluting fossil fuels. The nuclear industry received a small boost on Wednesday when Fukuoka’s high court refused to grant an injunction against the Sendai nuclear plant on the southern island of Kyushu — the only reactor in operation. But it does not make up for last month, when a district court ordered Japan’s only other online reactor, at Takahama on the main island of Honshu, to shut down again. The Takahama shutdown was a particular blow to the industry because a court in the district that hosts the reactor had lifted its injunction against the plant. That showed how plaintiffs can try different judges, given the wide areas potentially affected by an accident. The stop-start court decisions are a huge frustration to government policymakers, who last year set a goal of restoring nuclear power to 20-22 per cent of Japan’s energy mix. “I think [Takahama] was a very strange judgment,” says Masakazu Toyoda, chairman of the Institute of Energy Economics in Tokyo, pointing out that courts around the world scrutinise whether regulators and generators have properly followed their safety procedures. “But in Japan we have the really strange situation where the court has decided the safety standard itself is not sufficient to alleviate every possible adverse impact,” Mr Toyoda says. The court in the Takahama case said the causes of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster were not fully understood. It cited various problems and questions about tsunami risk and disaster preparedness. To Mr Toyoda, that overrides the regulators who wrote the safety standards, clearing Takahama to operate, and leaves no room for concerns such as climate change, energy security or the health risks from alternative power sources. But to Hiroyuki Kawai, one of the leading legal campaigners against Japan’s reactors, independence from nuclear experts and national energy strategy is the whole point of the courts. “We tried leaving everything to the experts and what we got is Fukushima,” he says, arguing that one way or another, Japan’s nuclear experts are tied to the industry. “The courts don’t consider energy strategy, they just consider whether a reactor should start or stop,” Mr Kawai says. “Thinking too much about energy strategy and government policy is what leads courts to error.” Kenichi Ido, a former judge who issued an injunction against a nuclear power station in 2006 — well before the Fukushima disaster — said it was not surprising Japan’s courts kept coming to different opinions given the widely different views in society. The courts have wide discretion to rule based on civil law or the constitutional rights to life and liberty. Mr Ido said a supreme court ruling would only settle the issue if it was framed widely, rather than on the facts of a particular case. That leaves Japan’s reactors facing a future of constant litigation — and Mr Kawai is revelling in it. “We’ll aim to get injunctions against any reactor that tries to restart,” he says. With the Sendai plant operating, he recognises his alliance of lawyers may not stop them all. But, he promises: “There’s no chance of all Japan’s reactors starting up again.” 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

Browser does not support script. Contact us The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced details for a series of new seminars dedicated to the up-and-coming architects poised to take the leap into senior roles in practice. The RIBA Future Leaders programme will help provide vital training and skills for architects to enable them drive the future direction of their profession. Three afternoon seminars, held in March, May and July at RIBA, 66 Portland Place will tackle major topics that all future leaders will need to engage with: 15 March – Social Purpose How can architects take the lead in projects with a social purpose? How can practices lead in Corporate Social Responsibility? Includes interactive sessions with leaders from Architecture Sans Frontières UK, UN Global Compact and the Social Value Portal. 10 May – Improving Outcomes How do leaders of practices explain the importance of design quality to clients? How can practices lead in Post Occupancy Evaluation to do so? Includes keynote session with Sherin Aminossehe, Head of Government Property Profession in the Government Property Unit at the Cabinet Office. 5 July – Future Proofing How to lead in securing your business against future challenges and take fullest advance of coming opportunities? What lessons can large practices learn from small practices? How do we engender closer collaboration? What are the major challenges facing the future leaders of the architecture profession? Includes keynote session with Daniel Susskind, Lecturer in Economics at Balliol College, University of Oxford, speaking about the future prospects of the architecture profession and professionalism. Each seminar programme will take the form of three sessions which develop specific hard and soft skills: Project and Practice Leadership – A presentation contextualising the seminar theme followed by three short presentations on leadership skills used on projects and in practice. Professional Leadership – Interactive workshop followed by discussion and debate on professional leadership facilitated by RIBA staff. Leadership in Context – Keynote presentation from a figure outside but close to the architectural profession to offer thought leadership and different styles of leadership. RIBA President Jane Duncan said: “Our bespoke seminars have been tailored to suit the exacting needs of architects on their way to the top. “If you or someone in your studio is ambitious and determined to progress in our profession, I recommend joining the RIBA Future Leaders programme.”   For further information and tickets visit: www.architecture.com/FutureLeaders2016  ENDS For further information contact Howard Crosskey howard.crosskey@riba.org  +44 (0)20 7307 3761 Press images are available on request For further information and tickets visit: www.architecture.com/FutureLeaders2016 The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) champions better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture and our members www.architecture.com  Follow us on Twitter for regular RIBA updates www.twitter.com/RIBA   Posted on Tuesday 1st March 2016 Source link

19 August 2016 | Martin Read A joint venture between real estate consultancies Pick Everard, Gleeds, and AECOM is to deliver a £350 million Built Environment Consultancy Services (BECS) framework for Scape Group, the local authority-owned built environment service provider.   It is the first time that a joint venture has been appointed by Scape, with the three partner organisations working together over the next four years – supported by their respective local supply chains – to deliver new public sector projects. The consortium has been given the name ‘Perfect Circle’.   Services to be delivered by Perfect Circle under the BECS framework will include project management, quantity surveying, building surveying, commercial surveying, architecture and design services, civil and structural engineering, highways consultancy and engineering services and strategic asset management.   Perfect Circle was selected through an OJEU-compliant tender process based on an evaluation of cost as well as social, economic and environmental sustainability criteria.   Scape says that about 150 SMEs will support the consortium as supply chain partners, with 27,000 discipline experts spanning the group. Perfect Circle has also committed to creating “significant opportunities for micro businesses”.   Duncan Green, chairman of Perfect Circle and managing partner at Pick Everard said: “Perfect Circle brings together three industry-leading organisations into a full service consortium that has the influence, scalability and expertise to make a significant and positive contribution to the challenges currently affecting the public sector.   “The consolidation of consultancy services into one framework presented a unique opportunity for our respective businesses to join forces and create an offering of unrivalled added value and efficient solutions nationwide.”   Richard Steer, chairman of Gleeds Worldwide, said: “The BECS Framework presents a significant business opportunity; our teams worked incredibly hard to produce a best-in-class bid and it is now our job to ensure that we are able to hit the ground running once the framework goes live.”   Patrick Flaherty, chief executive, UK & Ireland of AECOM, said: “The BECS framework provides public sector organisations with a responsive, cost-effective and efficient delivery model through which to access Perfect Circle’s full consultancy services.” Source link