Architects Journal
15 July 2004

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A timber cruck frame structure

working details
ARMSTRONG CEILINGS AJ ENQUIRY NO: 208

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Ask the expert?

architech - In the first of an occasional series, Joe Croser provides advice on a reader's IT dilemma
Being on camera marks the end of the public realm

Travel around London and the 'Gherkin'appears continuously on your horizon; it is as if the streets of the capital radiate from the site. The building's form has captured the public imagination partly because the construction process was a great London street performance. We knew it was coming, then saw it rapidly appear, like some time-lapse film projected at the end of our street. Construction in reverse: a lattice sculpture sheathed from within.
Brave Morrison had plenty to shout about

letters
BRITISH GYPSUM-ISOVER AJ ENQUIRY NO: 206

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BROWN PLANS TO BUILD

news
CABE still unconvinced by Wilkinson Eyre's Kings Waterfront plans

CABE's design review committee still has some reservations about Wilkinson Eyre Architects' high-profile riverside development in Liverpool, according to a recent report.
Cable or wireless?

Deciding which technologies to design into the buildings of the future is far from straightforward
Clued-up students can make schools pay price for the high cost of failure

editorial
Council blocks facing collapse as Packington fault 'is everywhere'

news
Country house wins appeal first

Adrian James Architects has amazed the planning and architecture fraternity by winning an appeal regarding its plans for a Modernist country house in the Cotswolds.
Crate expectations

review
Crossrail's Whitechapel is not Aukett's work

letters
Dad's army

The Regent Palace Hotel has been sending conservation media types into a frenzy of rage, simply because the Crown Estate and Allies and Morrison produced designs to replace the Edwardian building (though preserving the most significant interiors).
diary

London Line & Form 15 July-14 August. A group show at the Stephen Lacey Gallery, One Crawford Passage, Ray St, EC1.
Discriminating evidence

technical & practice - The final part of the DDA comes into force in just three months and relates to every office's employment practices
DOUBLE BILL

Two contrasting ways of taking architectural photographs can be seen at Photofusion, 17a Electric Lane, Brixton, from 16 July until 11 September.
Election toast

Another nice informal party was thrown by Jack Pringle for his supporters, the night he learned he had won the RIBA presidential election. I noticed Ian Ritchie, Peter Cook, Max Hutchinson, Iain Borden, Kit Allsop and John Pringle (no relation) among the guests; RIBA types included George Ferguson and past-president Paul Hyett.
End game

In a new book on church architecture, Richard Kieckhefer's Theology in Stone, we hear of an all-too-likely meeting between Sigfried Giedion and Frank Lloyd Wright. The latter extends his hand to Giedion, asking:
FORMICA AJ ENQUIRY NO: 207

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Fury as UCE students fail in droves

news
HANSENGROUP AJ ENQUIRY NO: 202

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Health and safety fears are there for all to see

letters
Holyrood critic again casts Black Magick over overspend

Holyrood critic David Black has updated his savage exposÚ into the Scottish Parliament fiasco with a new pamphlet that aims to shift the debate from architectural shortcomings to political and legal mismanagement.
IN THE FRAME

Alec French Partnership has given a client strongly committed to sustainability an upto-date conference centre and offices that rework the idea of the cruck-framed long barn
KALWALL PROJECT OF THE WEEK AJ ENQUIRY NO: 204

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KEIM MINERAL PAINTS AJ ENQUIRY NO: 201

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LANDSCAPE AWARDS

This year the Landscape Institute celebrates its 75th anniversary and in recognition it has supplemented its usual biennial awards for new work with some historic prizes recognising major achievements over the institute's life. It has made the following selections LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT WHO HAS MADE THE GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO THE UK LANDSCAPE Dame Sylvia Crowe (1901-97) designed one-off schemes such as the landscape for London's Commonwealth Institute, but her significance derives more from he
LEE VALLEY OLYMPIC TASK

news
'Let's get our house in order'

Last week, Jack Pringle was named the next president of the RIBA. Here, Clive Walker gets behind the celebrations and cheer to investigate the agenda of the man himself
Livingstone dismisses 'oppressive' plans for RHWL's Waterloo tower

London mayor Ken Livingstone has sunk RHWL's ambitious plans for a £250 million sail-shaped skyscraper beside Waterloo Station, dismissing the scheme as 'overbearing' and 'oppressive'.
Make's Vortex is just a load of past wind

letters
Mobile matters

Move House By Sean Topham. Prestel, 2004. 144pp. £25
Moore the merrier

people - The Landscape Institute's new president, Kathryn Moore, is looking to silence the moaning, increase the profile of the organisation, and put the bite back into design
Morrison's new-found vision lost on Fulham

letters
No uplift

A splendid visit to the Lord Foster 'Gherkin', courtesy of the Open House organisation, is only slightly marred by the nonworking of the disabled access lift. 'If we'd known someone in a wheelchair was coming we would have got it mended, ' an embarrassed Swiss Re functionary explained. Their insurance policy would surely cover the cost?
OCAD is new Peckham - no visit necessary

letters
Pork barrel

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's latest publication, Culture at the Heart of Regeneration, talks about how regeneration projects can build community esteem, a sense of belonging and civic pride.
Prince hungry for big Wimpey deal

Prince Charles is set to enter the world of large-scale residential development by teaming up with housebuilder Wimpey.
Q & A - Nick Guy Benoy

When and where were you born?
RA remembers

The Royal Academy organised an excellent tribute to the work of Powell and Moya at an event chaired by David Dunster last week; speakers included Paul Koralek, historian Andrew Saint and cultural historian Barry Curtis, Tony Noakes (ex-Department of Health architect) and Sir Richard MacCormac. Looking at the work from the slides assembled by Koralek and Jeremy Melvin, it seems extraordinary that here is no real monograph about the work of this most important practice, from Churchill Gardens i
Righteous Greens need to send in the professionals

webwatch
Rogers' library in doubt as Tories spark Brum renaissance rethink

Birmingham's massive regeneration programme, including the Richard Rogers Partnership's new central library, has been left in turmoil following a change in political control at the city council.
Rogers to continue as mayoral adviser

Richard Rogers has been reappointed as the architectural adviser to London mayor Ken Livingstone.
Salisbury ejected from board meeting over legal leak row

news
SCANDINAVIAN WINDOW SYSTEMS AJ ENQUIRY NO: 203

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Sound-bite debate does architecture no favours

letters
Starring role

Recruitment of a new CABE chair began in the Sunday Times last weekend, though potential applicants have until 11 September to make their move; £42,000 per annum for eight days a month, by the way.
Store appeal

What a reopening party for the Peter Jones store! Some 700 of the great, good and glitterati rushed to Sloane Square, including local resident Lord Rogers, Lord McAlpine, Sir Terry Farrell, Peter Blake, Michael Craig-Martin, Leonard Manasseh, Julyan and Tess Wickham, Sherban Cantacuzino, Peter Murray etc in the rooftop restaurant. Great views across rain-sodden London.
Swiss Cottage scheme not me, says Farrell

letters
TATE TOWER GETS COURT NOD

news
'Terry Farrell stole my walkway!'

Terry Farrell & Partners' proposal for a new walkway through central London is embroiled in controversy following accusations that the practice 'stole' the idea.
the ones that got away

Astragal's 'The Ones That Got Away' competition features schemes that, for better or worse, stayed on the drawing board. Can you identify this project and its architect? Post your entry, to arrive by first thing Monday morning, to AJ Astragal, 151 Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4GB, or fax 020 7505 6701. The first correct entry out of the hat wins a bottle of champagne. Last week's winner (AJ 8.7.04) was John Melvin of Burford in Oxfordshire. The never-built scheme was Sir William Holford's pro
The show must go on

ajenda
The urban revolution of Cold War conversions is a battle in itself

The bomb-proof hangars of the RAF base at Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire can be seen from a great distance. On the skyline they look like children's toys willfully scattered about in a tantrum. Closer to, they turn into giant sun-bleached carbonated drink cans, half-buried in the ground. Altogether there are 56 of them, each named after an American fighter pilot, and each sealed up as tight as a Pharaoh's tomb.
Time is key, as inspectors face the fallout of failing to notice

legal matters
Virtually present

Zaha Hadid was too exhausted by too much travel to give her keynote address at the RIBA conference in Dublin last weekend. She did send a video of the 'I do hope you have a good conference' variety; her big news was obviously the competition win (against Foster, Gehry, Piano, etc) in Milan. It is Zaha's annus mirabilis; Astragal's advice - enjoy it while it lasts.
Weight-watching

Anthony Caro: The Way It Is At Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, London NW3, until 25 July
WWW.TIMOTHYSOAR.CO.UK AJ ENQUIRY NO: 205

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Architects Journal15 July 2004

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Architects Journal
15 July 2004