The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today (21 September 2016) announced Níall McLaughlin, founder of Níall McLaughlin Architects, as winner of the 2016 RIBA Charles Jencks Award. The award is given to an individual or practice that has recently made a major contribution internationally to both the theory and practice of architecture. It will be presented on Tuesday 25 October at the RIBA in London, where the winner will also give a public lecture chaired by Charles Jencks. The judging panel for the 2016 RIBA Charles Jencks Award consisted of Charles Jencks (landscape designer, architectural theorist and writer), RIBA President Jane Duncan, Lily Jencks (Director, Lily Jencks Studio and JencksSquared), Deyan Sudjic (Director, Design Museum) and Brett Steele (Director, Architectural Association), and was chaired by David Gloster (RIBA Director of Education). RIBA President Jane Duncan said: “Níall’s body of work exemplifies the spirit of this award, which recognises the ability to seamlessly and in this case, beautifully, build theory into one’s practice. I am in awe of the materiality and the craftsmanship, of the dedication, the collaborative relationships and the contextual sensitivity with which Níall’s buildings are created, all of which make him a most-deserving winner of the 2016 RIBA Charles Jencks Award.” Speaking about Níall McLaughlin, Charles Jencks said: “Níall McLaughlin is a great inspiration for architects today, especially the young, because of his masterful skill in drawing from all traditions – classicism, modernism, postmodernism. All the “isms” are under his belt, not on his back, and he extends them all through the commitment to architecture as an art and professional practice.” On winning the 2016 RIBA Charles Jencks Award, Níall McLaughlin said: “I am honoured to receive the RIBA Charles Jencks Award; particularly given its special emphasis on a simultaneous engagement with theory and practice. For me, architectural practice includes drawing, writing and building as interlinked activities. It is a continual ferrying between an engagement in the natural processes required to bring something reliable and concrete into being, and the need to clear a space for the expression of doubt, possibility and a half-glimpsed ideal. I acknowledge the distinguished list of previous winners of this award; and I am very grateful for the recognition.” ENDS Notes to editors: 1. For further press information and images contact Callum Reilly callum.reilly@riba.org 020 7307 3757 2. Biography of Níall McLaughlin: Níall McLaughlin was born in Geneva in 1962. He was educated in Dublin and received his architectural qualifications from University College Dublin in 1984. He worked for Scott Tallon Walker in Dublin and London between 1984 and 1989. Níall established his practice in London in 1990. Níall McLaughlin Architects is now a studio of around 30 architects based in Camden, London. Significant projects include the Bandstand (Bexhill 2001), Pier Cafe (Deal 2006), Dirk Cove House (Cork 2004), ARC Building (Hull 2005), Goleen House (Cork 2008), Bishop Edward King Chapel (Oxford 2013), Olympic Athletes’ Housing (London 2012), Peabody Housing (Whitechapel 2015), and Somerville Student Residence (Oxford 2010). He is currently working on museum designs for the Natural History Museum in London and Auckland Castle in Durham. Niall won Young British Architect of the Year in 1998. He was named as one of the BBC’s Rising Stars in 2001 and his work represented Britain in a US exhibition Gritty Brits at the Carnegie Mellon Museum. Niall was made a Honorary Royal Designer for Industry (2015) and he represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale Architettura 2016. Niall is Professor of Architectural Practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He was a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles from 2012-2013, and was appointed Lord Norman Foster Visiting Professor of Architecture at Yale for 2014-2015. Niall lives in London with his wife Mary, son Diarmaid and daughter Iseult. 3. Citation by Charles Jencks: “Niall McLaughlin gives the profession of architecture a good name. Staying within the confines of a tradition – broadly put – between classicism and modernism, he is nonetheless not worried about changing both by hybridising them, nor frightened of being called postmodern. In the time honoured manner of Mozart, he takes well known themes and tropes – the classical repertoire of the five platonic solids and their cognate modes (ellipse, parabola, pointed arch and so on) – and plays new games with them. This Free Style Classicism of vigour and light is the Old Game as defined by Lutyens, but it is orchestrated very lightly without being etiolated. His structural logic carried out with their repetitive geometries creates a new kind of Optical Architecture. The Bishop Edward King Chapel has its primitive strength, delicacy and content — virtues not usually found together – and ones reminiscent of James Stirling. His Alzheimer’s Centre in Dublin is one of the most subtle and appropriate designs for a sensitive building task I know. It stems from long careful research on the affliction, and was reinterpreted for this year’s Venice Biennale in his installation ‘Losing Myself’. McLaughlin’s planning and city design are equally based in particular and local research. Materiality, geometry, light, metaphor, abstractions, ornament and elegance are the obvious qualities. Quotations and iconic expression are sometimes prominent, and unembarrassed, unlike much other apologetic work today. Direct and bold, McLaughlin will even use Neo-Grec Horses as mass-produced panels for Olympic Housing, and not be accused of pastiche. Obviously he has a strong enough belief in eclectic practice to overcome the usual taboos that straightjacket architects.” 4. The RIBA Charles Jencks Award is awarded annually to an individual (or practice) that has recently made a major contribution simultaneously to the theory and practice of architecture. Winners are invited to deliver a lecture at the RIBA. Charles Jencks is a landscape designer, architectural theorist and writer, best known for his writing on post-modern architecture and as Trustee and Co-founder of Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres with Maggie Keswick. 5. The 2016 Charles Jencks Award lecture will take place at the Jarvis Hall, RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD on Tuesday 25

The latest report from KIS Housing has revealed that house prices in the North East dropped by 4% in April, wiping £7000 from the value of the average home. The record recorded fall wipes out the 3.1% rise recorded in March which had added £4811 to property prices and left house prices 3.6% down over the course of 2016. The average house in the region is valued at £155,979 at the end of April 2016 – £7016 less than the end of March, but 1% higher than this time last year and 3% higher than April 2014. Every single area saw property prices fall over the past four weeks, with Morpeth recording the smallest fall (-0.1%). Above average falls were recorded in Jarrow (-6.3%) Whitley Bay (-6.1%) and Blyth (6%). Since KIS began compiling this data in April 2014, South Shields has seen the largest overall price increase, with a 6.7% rise in property prices. Other strong performers in this period in include Newcastle (6.6%) and Gateshead and Morpeth (6.2%). Prices in Easington have, however, fallen by 2.3% in this period – with Washington (-1.2%) and Jarrow (-0.6%) also seeing a reduction in prices over the past 24 months. Darlington’s April fall of 4.7% all-but returns property prices in the town to those seen in April 2014, with a price difference of just £486. This sees the town named this month’s “Best to Buy”. The majority of Darlington homes (38%) are semi-detached, 1% below the regional average. A further 30% are terraced, identical to the regional average. 60% of homes are owner-occupied, compared to 61% regionally. 15% of properties are socially rented and a further 18% privately rented. The average North East rent rose £14 per calendar month to £566pcm in April – a rise of 2.5%. Regional rents are, however, almost identical to those recorded in April 2014, when the average per calendar month cost of renting a North East home was £560. Blyth (£422) continues to be as the cheapest place to rent in the North East out of the areas surveyed, with Newcastle (£824) continuing to keep ahead of Tynemouth (£818) as the most expensive. As KIS’ monthly Tyne Wear Metro Map research shows, however, there is significant variation in rents within Newcastle itself. Peterlee has unexpectedly deposed Gateshead as the region’s Buy to Let capital, offering rental yields of 6.1% to investors. Other strong performers continue to be Gateshead and Sunderland (5.3%). Falling property prices and rising rents see the average North East rental yield rising 0.3% to 4.4%, with Easington and Tynemouth both seeing 0.7% monthly rises in the returns on their investment investors can expect to make. Yields in Gateshead continue to decline markedly, falling 0.8% over the past 4 weeks to a percentage figure 1.9% below a recorded high of 7.2%. Rents have risen sharpest in Whitley Bay over the past two years – rising from £578pcm in April 2014 to £679 today, a rise of 17.5%. As a whole, rents in the regional have risen by 1% over the past two years, with rents falling dramatically in Jarrow (-21%) and Houghton-le-Spring (-11%). Tynemouth’s yield rise of 0.7% and property price fall of 5.7% sees it named this month’s Best to Invest. 64% of homes are owner-occupied, 4% above the regional average. 15% of homes are socially rented, lower than the regional average of 22%. 17% of properties are privately rented, 3% above the regional average. Ajay Jagota, founder and Managing Director of North-East based sales and lettings firm KIS, had this to say: “House prices falling at a rate of 1% a week throughout April might sound surprising to some but the sad thing is these figures were entirely predictable. I’ve been forecasting for months that March would see prices boom as landlords raced to complete purchases ahead of tax changes which took place at the start of this month, before slumping back as many abandoned those investments altogether when they became less profitable. And so it proved.   The irony is that investors are now benefiting from higher rental yields and lower purchase prices. It’s the renters that lose out, as rents will inevitably rise as a consequence of those tax changes. Fewer properties are now available, leading to higher prices. It’s simple supply and demand. Having collected this data now for two years we are starting to see some fascinating trends emerging. Although average rents are all-but unchanged since April 2014, on an area-by-area basis there are some huge differences – 17.5% higher in Whitley Bay, but 21% lower in Jarrow. The reasons for these variations could easily be something as mundane as only a few rental properties coming onto the market, or a disproportionate number of cheaper or more expensive properties skewing the figures but overall they show the real value of us collecting this data – being able to tell our clients with absolute certainly which areas of the North East are at that moment the most attractive to renters and buyers and where landlords can expect to get the best returns”. Source link

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is delighted to announce medal maker Nicola Moss and architect/artist Simon Beeson as winners of the Research Medal Design Competition. Having caught the imagination of the judging panel with their submission – ‘Earth and Sky’ – Nicola and Simon will now set to work producing the medal in partnership with a casting firm, before presentation to the medal winner of the President’s Awards for Research on 2 December 2015 at 66 Portland Place. The winner of the President’s Awards for Research will be announced on 13 November 2015. RIBA President, and Chair of the Judging Panel, Jane Duncan said: “Nicola and Simon have produced a stunning design that illustrates our rich tradition of medal design and awarding medals. It feels both appropriate and contemporary, whilst highlighting the expansive future possibilities of architectural research. The unique combination of architect, academic and medallist in their partnership made for a subtle yet arresting response to the brief. The approach from all six shortlisted entries has shown the hallmarks of excellent contemporary medal design, and I thank all of those who entered.” The competition was judged by a panel including RIBA President, Jane Duncan, RIBA Immediate Past President, Stephen Hodder; Philip Attwood, Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum and President of the British Art Medal Society; and Charles Hind, RIBA Chief Curator and H J Heinz Curator of Drawings. Speaking about today’s announcement, Nicola Moss and Simon Beeson said: “We are delighted to be offered this challenge to create a contemporary medal for architectural research, in collaboration as artist and architect.” Nicola Moss is an established medal maker, whose work includes medals for the British Art Medal Society (George and the Dragon 1986, Mamoo 2008), St. Dunstan Millennium Medal (The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, 1988), Turtle Island Medal (Special Award, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture University of Minnesota, 1991 – cast bronze on ribbon, with box), and the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture, (The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, 2000). Her work is found in collections internationally, including Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum, V&A, The National Museum of Scotland, Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC, USA) and Munzkainett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Simon Beeson is an architect, public artist and sculptor and is currently the Principal Lecturer & BA (Hons) Course Leader for Architecture at Arts University Bournemouth. His medallic work includes Linlithgow Threshold (2002) commissioned the British Art Medal Society. He has created collaborative medallic works with Nicola Moss, notably Ice Fishing (1993) and Grain Elevator (1995). In 1997 he designed the Simmons Gallery for coins and medals in Lambs Conduit Street, London. Recent plaster reliefs and sculptures were exhibited as part of Building Walden, ArtSway 2014. – ends – Notes to editors 1. For more information members of the press should contact: Gagandeep Bedi, Press Officer, RIBA: gagandeep.bedi@riba.org 020 7307 3814. Non press queries should be sent to MedalComp@riba.org. 2. The RIBA President’s Awards for Research promote research – and researchers – that contribute new knowledge and understanding to architecture and the practice of architecture. They highlight the need for the insight that nurtures innovation, quality, value and strategic thinking in the practice of architecture. 3. An image of the medal will be released on November 13, with an online image gallery of all shortlisted submissions to follow shortly. 4. Nicola Moss and Simon Beeson included the following explanation as part of their submission; ‘The obverse is an idea of architectural research and the reverse is an interpretation of the RIBA crest. The composition of the two sides of the medal begins with an act of division. ‘The dividing line of the obverse creates a horizon, representing the limits of knowing, but setting a boundary to inspire beyond. The reverse is divided vertically, establishing the axis mundi, the centre of the world. It also represents claiming our place in the wilderness as the first act of architecture; dividing space, with wall or column. ‘The two forces of light and shadow are here formally anchored in the earth and the sky. While the labyrinth is anchored to the hill, the horizon is drawn as a sharp line, representing both our perception of the world as we experience it and the abstract first line drawn on a plan or section, or the eye-level of our abstracted perspective. ‘Above the earth is the dome of the sky, described beautifully by the curve of the medal. And arching down from the sky is the sun’s light, illuminating the earth below. The space between the earth and sky becomes the domain we inhabit, the phenomenological origin of architecture. This space between earth and sky is co-incidentally shaped like the Labrys, the double-headed axe of Minoan Crete, after which the Labyrinth is named.’ 5. Further information and full Competition guidelines are available at www.architecture.com/ResearchMedalComp 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 Posted on Wednesday 7th October 2015 Source link

Twenty retail brands have taken new stores in Leeds so far this year, with a distinct bias towards ‘aspirational’ brands, according to analysis by Savills. Retailers including Zara Home, Samsung, Oliver Bonas and Snow & Rock have all taken new units in the city in 2016, taking the total number of new brands which have arrived in Leeds since 2013 to 118. There are now approximately 1,200 independent and chain shops in the city centre, 780 of which are by brands which have at least one store elsewhere, according to Savills. Steve Henderson, director in Savills retail team, comments: “Such is the attraction of Leeds for retailers that it is now one of the most important retail destinations in the country. The trend will continue with the opening of Victoria Gate next month, which is set to be anchored by John Lewis and will bring a further upmarket retailers such as Calvin Klein, Anthropology and Cos to the city”. Tom Whittington, director in Savills commercial research team, adds: “The trend for retailers heading to Leeds has accelerated in the past three years, with 15 per cent of all the retail brands present in the city arriving in this time. We expect this only to continue as new schemes open”. Source link