Posts Tagged Society
Saturday interview: Fiona Reynolds, National Trust director general
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on October 28, 2011
National Trust chief Fiona Reynolds believes planning law is the biggest test yet of the government's claim to be green, and is leading the backlash against the plans
I sit in the beer garden of a Cotswold pub – long before it opens – on a perfect autumn morning. Strands of spiders' silk, untethered from their webs, float through the air, visible only for a second when they catch a glint of sunlight. The leaves on the trees look golden in this light, and the fields stretch out in front as far as you can see. Could there be anywhere more beautiful than right here, right now? Count yourself lucky, you think, for England's green and pleasant land. And for its planning laws.
"I know we're sitting in a very privileged part of the countryside now, in terms of landscape," says Dame Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust, as she sits down on a picnic bench and tries to get her collie-spaniel cross Lucy to sit too, "but this has all been protected through good planning and the moment you let good planning go, it's lost for ever." Reynolds doesn't have the look of a victorious warrior returning from battle – she is far too measured for that – but she could be allowed a small, self-satisfied smile at the firestorm the National Trust helped inflict on the government's National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) consultation. Reynolds took the step – for the first time in her 11 years at the National Trust – of writing to all four million members and asking them to support its campaign against the consultation that could be the biggest change to planning regulation in several decades. Most potentially devastating, the Trust warned, was prioritising economic growth over longterm protection of the countryside when it came to planning decisions. Their petition was signed by more than 200,000 people and David Cameron stepped in and wrote to the National Trust, pledging to protect the "beautiful British landscape." The consultation closed last week, and the months of waiting have begun. "We've just got to hope the government is really listening. I'm passionate about protecting the countryside, and the need to get it right. If you get it wrong what you lose, you lose for ever."
She says she was "hugely impressed" by the response of the National Trust's members. "I think it's one of those things about our nation – and we're a very urban society now – but we do love the countryside, it's something that seems to be part of our character and our sense of what England is. I think people were shocked, particularly that a Conservative-led government should appear not to be passionate about the countryside. It just felt wrong."
The coalition is "so preoccupied with growth and of course we have every sympathy with that, but it's about what kind of growth, what kind of economy, and in a way the recession has given us a chance to think about the quality of what we do. We have 330,000 houses with planning permission that aren't being built because there is no money for mortgages, so the problems in a way are elsewhere. But given that we have a chance to build really well and intelligently – in a way a recession is a time to think positively about that. That's the disappointing thing: they felt they had to press the old 'growth at any cost' button."
The National Trust isn't a campaigning organisation, she says, and isn't about to become one, despite occasional forays onto the battlefield – it objected to the expansion of Stansted airport, for example, and against the government's proposed forests sell-off.
"[Campaigning] is dependent on the issue," she says. "I would not expect us to be doing it all the time. If we became rentaquote, that wouldn't be right. We reserve our voice for something that is really important, absolutely at the heart of our core purpose and touches what we stand for and where we make a difference. This felt like the single most important issue in the time I have been here. I think we should campaign on issues that are central to what we do and I suspect it would be rare, but when we make a contribution it matters. I think this is what this has shown." It is a "caricature", says Reynolds, that the National Trust is against all development. "We recognise we need housing, schools, the physical buildings where these things happen. Our big question is how we do it."
The National Trust is the biggest private landowner and biggest NGO, with an estimated one in 10 voters a member. Reynolds is head of a huge powerbase. Does this make her the most powerful woman in Britain? She laughs. "I wouldn't say that. I'm the luckiest woman in Britain because I have the best job in the country."
Are politicians frightened of her? "I don't know about frightened. I think they are listening, and that's absolutely right. I think the National Trust stepping up on this issue really made them think, and that's a good thing. They did the wrong thing with it by giving it this economic slant. I hope that our intervention will get us to a proper balance between social, environment and economic objectives. They're listening," she adds, "but we're not there yet. We don't know the outcome."
David Cameron's promise that his would be the greenest government ever is met by a small laugh. "I've yet to see it, put it that way. You can only judge a government by what it does. This is a big test and they haven't failed it yet because it was only a draft consultation, but it has to change significantly to deliver what the country needs."
When Reynolds was a child, growing up in Alston in Cumbria, her parents would take her to National Trust properties. She became a member of the organisation while she was still at Cambridge, where she did an MPhil in land economy. "I never thought I would end up running it, but I've always been intrigued by the National Trust. I love the sense of purpose. I love an organisation that has a long view back, but also a long view forward. We say to people we are going to look after places for ever for everyone, and I believe we will."
At 53, Reynolds has been in the job since 2001. "Now I'm suddenly feeling quite old," she says. "It's a bit of a shock, really. When I started, my children were small and now they're growing up." Her husband, a teacher, "did the stay at home bit. I couldn't have done this job as somebody who was also trying to be the number one carer, so I was very lucky that he was willing to do that, because it is very, very hard to be a mother and have a big job, to pursue a career. I know lots of people who found that impossible."
It's perhaps the main reason, she says, why there are so few women at her level. Does she think it is getting easier? "I wouldn't say it's getting easier, but it's becoming more acceptable to have unconventional arrangements at home. But I don't think it's that much better for women. It's that age-old tension – even if you're not physically responsible for the children, you're emotionally thinking 'should I be there?' or 'I'm missing that sports day – again.'"
Reynolds worked at the Council for National Parks, then the Council to Protect Rural England, before spending two years as director of the women's unit at the cabinet office under Tony Blair. When she got the job as director general of the National Trust, she was accused of being one of "Tony's cronies", though she insists she was not on social terms with the then-prime minister. But still, her appointment was controversial. "I was the youngest director general and the first woman, and it would have been surprising if people hadn't gone 'hmm'. But I hope my track record spoke for itself, and now my track record from being there for 11 years – we've done some great things."
Membership – and income – has swelled under her directorship, and the organisation is steadily modernising. She acknowledges "nobody will ever agree with everything the Trust does, I learned that early on. It's not an organisation that in the detail of what we do we can please everybody, and it's impossible to try." For instance, the Trust was accused of "dumbing down" (and "Disney-fying") for its recent efforts to, as Reynolds puts it, "bring houses to life" by dressing guides up and recreating scenes in rooms. "I'm completely unrepentant, because I think our job is to make history appealing and accessible to a new generation who haven't all learned history in school. Provided you are telling the truth and there's an integrity, so you're not simplifying or glossing over difficult stories in order to make something sound nice, I don't think it's dumbing down at all."
But isn't "glossing over difficult stories" what the National Trust became expert at doing? It is only in recent years, for instance, that the National Trust has acknowledged how many of its properties were built on fortunes from slavery. "I think we recognise that we didn't always tell all the stories," she says, adding that it is changing. "If you go to properties now you will see much more about where the fortune came from that built the house, some of the slavery issues. We are prepared to tell the more difficult stories as well."
I've always felt too nose-up-against-the-window in most National Trust houses I've been to, and an unease at the worship of its original aristocratic owners a visit seemed to demand.
"I'm not sure it's worshipping," says Reynolds. "I think it's curiosity. People are really intrigued by it. If you go to the back-to-backs [former slum housing in Birmingham acquired by the National Trust], people are just as enthralled by them. There, for a lot of people, you could think, 'that might well have been me', whereas in a great stately home, you think, 'actually I would probably have been the scullery maid'."
The family membership has swelled, Reynolds points out, which makes the demographic younger. There is still much room for improvement, though. I suspect low-income families are still a rarity – quite aside from the entry prices, it can be impossible to get to many properties on public transport – and Reynolds admits there are few ethnic minority members. "I freely recognise that, and we've been working with properties that are either located in urban areas, or close to large areas of different populations. For example, Wightwick Manor in the west Midlands is surrounded by a huge Sikh and Afro-Caribbean community, and they have been working specifically on how to involve their local community."
Providing people with access to nature still underpins the Trust's original purpose. "We're very concerned about [people decreasing contact with nature]," says Reynolds. "One of our founders, Octavia Hill, said something like 'the need of air, the sight of sky and all things growing seem human needs common to all'. She was saying it's as important to have access to beauty, and the ability to get out into the countryside – that's as important as the roof over your head and something to eat. Which comes back to the planning issue. I've got shelves of books at home about the early-20th-century and the conservation movement beginning, and through the 20s and 30s the Trust was very involved in establishing our planning system. It just felt right that we should be there now defending it."
Our time runs out and Reynolds has to go. My last glimpse of her is in silhouette as she strides across open fields, her dog racing off in front towards the sun.
Response: Labelling new properties ‘Noddy boxes’ is simply unfair
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on October 19, 2011
We have to build the homes the country needs, at prices our customers can afford
The recent interview with Angela Brady, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, (Sense of space, Society, 5 October) made me wonder whether Riba has lost touch with the realities of housing delivery in a desperate attempt to chase headlines.
Brady labels "buildings passing for detached homes as 'Noddy boxes'". The article states: "It is a criticism she heard time and again during this year's party conference fringe meetings which outlined Riba's Case for Space campaign, a drive to persuade house-builders to raise their game as new homes become significantly smaller."
Representatives of the Home Builders Federation didn't hear this phrase used at the conferences, but we did hear how Riba's Future Homes Commission will "find out what consumers want and make recommendations to house builders"– it seems that Riba didn't ask customers these questions before they criticised the way new homes are currently built.
That contrasts with house builders who, in difficult economic circumstances, actually have to build and sell the homes the country needs. Our members are constantly talking to their customers and building the homes that they want at prices they can afford – if they didn't they would soon go out of business.
Our latest survey showed that 84% of new home buyers are satisfied or very satisfied with their new home, with 86% saying they would recommend their builder to a friend. The people who matter, those who buy and live in the homes – rather than those commenting on the industry – are happy. And if house builders, who are in stiff competition with each other, could easily build bigger houses that customers would prefer, why don't they?
Land supply is the key. For decades the planning system has not delivered enough land for the number of homes our population needs.
As Brady says, there is a compelling argument for new homes: "We've got a huge housing crisis, a shortage of 250,000 units a year. And there should be more opportunity for better housing." If indeed she does recognise this, she would be well advised to focus Riba's efforts on supporting us as we push for a robust planning system that will deliver the land for that to happen.
Land supply, viability, the burden of regulation, local authority design and sustainability demands – these are the issues that matter.
In private, Riba staff have constantly assured us that they want to work constructively with our industry. Unfortunately their continued insistence on using provocative statements about "Noddy boxes" is deeply discouraging.
Home builders, who all work with architects on the frontline, are struggling to cope with the economic malaise and credit drought, a battle over the new planning system and hefty environmental regulation. Riba must engage in the real issues – then we'll be happy to work with the Future Homes Commission.
Bramley baths campaigners prepare to make takeover bid
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on October 10, 2011
Russian steam room will be run by people power if Leeds city council accepts local residents' business plan
The campaign to save Bramley's historic but cosy public baths in Leeds, complete with their exotic Russian steam room, has moved up another step.
John reported tirelessly on this in the days of Guardian Leeds and we swam together at a Tweet-in memorable for the excellence of the cake supplied by supporters.
I am very biased on this issue because I learned to swim at Bramley, helped by the strange diet of Wagon Wheel biscuits and Horlicks tablets served up in the mid-1950s by Leeds Corporation. But there is a problem in the gap between delight in the interest and pleasure of both the building and the baths, and the actual number of people who use the place.
Now a band of Bramlegians and local groups have got together under the umbrella of the Friends of Bramley Baths to prepare a business plan for a local management takeover. This takes up Leeds city council's request earlier this year for expressions of interest in such a 'community asset transfer' for the baths, whose opening hours were cut earlier this year from 80 hours a week to 49.
The Friends believe their plan has the makings of a new regime which would "restore the Baths into a thriving centre for health, socialising and fitness", presenting the case to the council before the end of the year and taking over management during 2012 if all goes well. There will be a public meeting with a film about the baths and a contribution from the local West Leeds MP Rachel Reeves from 6-30 – 7.30pm on 20 October at Bramley St Peter's Primary School in Hough Lane.
John Battle, Reeves' predecessor and chair of the Friends who want to restore full opening times and have national support from the Victorian Society, says Put your cozzies where your campaigning is:
We are asking people in Leeds who use or love this beautiful place, to support our efforts by continuing to use it as much as possible in the coming months. We are delighted that Leeds City Council has accepted our initial plan and is supporting us to prepare a full proposal that will show how this asset could be successfully run by a community group as a socially-minded enterprise. Bramley Baths is important to local residents; it is also an architectural gem of wider interest and historical significance. We are not seeking simply to save a building, but to ensure that Bramley Baths serves its local community well; an affordable place where young children can continue to take their first strokes and a place for relaxation, health, fitness and fun for young and old alike.
Rebecca Whittington, 30 and a Friends member, says:
This issue has united a lot of people in the local area who are focused on keeping this useful and important place open. Bramley Baths is a place for people to get fit and stay healthy, but it's also a valuable community hub. We represent a group of people with a wide set of skills and experience, in running businesses, charities and community groups. With the support of the local community and schools, and the expertise of established organisations like Barca, Bramley Elderly Action and West Leeds Academy, we believe we can turn Bramley Baths around in the near future.
The baths opened 107 years ago and are one of only 13 Victorian and Edwardian examples still on the go - their plight has parallels elsewhere, including many more modern public baths which are targets of the public spending cuts.
Battle to save Broadmoor hospital from demolition
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on October 10, 2011
Victorian Society lists first state asylum for criminally insane among Britain top 10 most endangered buildings
A campaign has been launched to save the listed buildings of one of the most notorious institutions in the country, Broadmoor, built in 1863 as the first state asylum for the criminally insane.
One of the first patients transferred from the old Bethlem hospital - now the Imperial War Museum - was the artist Richard Dadd, renowned for his minutely detailed fairy paintings which now change hands for huge prices, who was confined for life for the murder of his father. He was encouraged to continue painting and help decorate the new building and its theatre, and some of his work survives there.
Other famous patients have included Ronald Kray, one of the Kray twins; Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper; James Kelly, one of the suspects as the original Jack the Ripper; and William Chester Minor, an American army surgeon, who became one of the most prolific contributors of quotations from Broadmoor when the Oxford English Dictionary was compiled, and who inspired the best-selling novel The Surgeon of Crowthorne.
Broadmoor remains a high-security psychiatric hospital. Despite its grim reputation, and the fact that its designer Joshua Jebb was better known as a prison architect, Broadmoor was seen as an enlightened approach to care rather than imprisonment. It was built on a height in Berkshire with beautiful views, terraces and flowerbeds, and a kitchen garden where the patients grew much of their own food: an Edwardian photograph shows the buildings in a landscaped setting that could be taken for an opulent private home or a hotel.
The NHS wants to demolish one building and replace the walled gardens with housing.
The campaign has been launched by the Victorian Society, which has included the hospital, whose buildings and gardens are listed Grade II, on its list of the 10 most endangered Victorian buildings in the country. Also on the list are a cricket pavilion now cut off from its pitch by a high hedges, a train station closed to the passengers still using its platform, a Leeds flax mill designed as an ancient Egyptian temple that originally had a grass roof with a flock of sheep, and an Edwardian swimming pool in Bradford, which has just been closed by the council and drained of water.
"Broadmoor has suffered from insensitive new buildings, but the old buildings and the grounds survive in remarkably intact condition," Ian Dungavell, director of the Victorian Society, said. "We're not denying that they may not be suitable for a modern psychiatric hospital, but we are questioning whether it might not be better to develop some of the yucky modern buildings that litter the grounds, and consider more carefully the most suitable use for the old buildings. In particularly we're not convinced that a boutique hotel can possibly survive overlooking a new high security hospital."
Dungavell said the recession had triggered a flood of reports to the society of important buildings in trouble, as businesses close and local authorities slash budgets. He believes Manningham Baths, in Bradford, built in 1904, to be the most intact surviving example in the country, complete with ceramic spittoons along the sides of the swimming pool. The local authority closed and drained it in the past few months to save money, and it has since been broken into and vandalised on three occasions.
Dungavell, who swam 104 lengths there in 2008, one for every year of the building, as part of a campaign to highlight the threat to Edwardian and Victorian pools, said: "It is really sad to see the building locked and deteriorating, when it is still surrounded by streets full of people who could be using its facilities."
Other buildings on the Victorian Society's top 10 at-risk list are:
• Ancoats Dispensary, Manchester, built in 1891, Grade II listed
• Bletchley cricket pavilion, 1898, unlisted
• South Eastern railway office, London Bridge, 1900, unlisted
• Wansford railway station, Peterborough, 1845, Grade II listed
• Crumpsall and Cheetham library, Manchester, 1911, Grade II listed
• The Old Rectory, Columb Major, Cornwall, 1851, Grade II listed
• Temple Mill, Leeds, 1843, Grade I listed
• Former YMCA building, Merthyr Tydfil, 1911, Grade II listed
New homes must be fit for purpose, says leading architect
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on October 4, 2011
The new president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Angela Brady, wants to start a conversation on building better new homes
For Angela Brady, good design is a watchword. That means communicating its benefits on television, radio, at workshops for children, on public platforms and, in her new role, to the country at large.
The new president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) has a Channel 4 series featuring architecture in six European cities behind her. Right now, her passion is the lamentable design of much of the new housing in England. She does not mince words, labelling buildings passing for detached homes as "Noddy boxes". It is a criticism she heard time and again during this year's party conference fringe meetings which outlined Riba's Case for Space campaign, a drive to persuade house-builders to raise their game as new homes become significantly smaller.
Those Riba events, titled Leaving Legoland, attracted several hundred at the three party conferences. "The strong criticism that came from the audience was: 'We're sick of these volume housebuilders, the Noddy box houses in cul-de-sacs all around the country. We have to drive to improve them. They're not built sustainably. They're tiny, cramped.' And they've got a fair point," says Brady.
"People will say housebuilders have got a monopoly because they've got the land. We're saying there hasn't really been an analysis of how we live, what spaces we need, since 1961. So we're starting the conversation. Let's ask what people want."
That is what Riba is proposing with a Future Homes Commission, comprising experts from a variety of fields. With the average new home in England 8% below the recommended minimum size (which can equate to a bedroom) the institute wants to find out what consumers want and need, then make recommendations to house builders and developers.
When I mention that architecture seems to be an afterthought in many new houses, Brady interjects: "If at all." It's a serious point because, she says, many homes are simply constructed off-the-shelf from manuals; even the once ubiquitous term "architect designed" has been ditched. She thinks it is symptomatic of a "let's get something cheap, cheerful and quick".
But Brady's criticisms go further than house design; she thinks the layout and planning of new estates leaves much to be desired. She spent a year on a working group organised by the former Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment – an organisation, she laments, needlessly scrapped by the government – looking at the country's post-war new towns. "There was some fantastic planning then," she enthuses. "Just compare that with suburban sprawl, ribbon development, these sort of executive cul-de-sacs you've got to drive to and you can't even buy a bottle of milk on the corner."
Better models
Brady adds: "We need to really re-examine the way we live and play, and we need to seek better models for the next 20 years. We've got huge constraints, if you look at the pressure on the environment, and I believe we are the custodians of [that]. People are relying on architects, planners, to come up with the right answers – how to make the green deal, make homes more zero carbon. As architects, we've got so much to offer. Governments ignore that at their peril."
Brady studied architecture in her native Dublin and sought early inspiration in her career with work spells in Denmark, and Toronto, before landing in London. In 1987, she set up an architecture practice with her husband Robin Mallalleu.
Brady is the second female president of Riba and has a record of activism in the organisation. She was a leading light in Architects for Change, promoting the progression of women alongside black and minority ethnic groups. "You can inspire children who would never think of going into architecture that it's a worthwhile career," she says.
In the contest for president, Brady believes that her activism proved the trump card. "One of the reasons I got voted in was because I was the only person pushing diversity in our profession. We're only 18% women and I'd love it if we could push it to 40%." Therein lies a dilemma because women, she says, constitute 37% of students in the country's 44 schools of architecture . Brady says it's not hard to discover why so many women subsequently leave. "They are the main child carers; take a year out, and it's quite hard to get in again."
Another passion is de-mystifying architecture – "taking it to the people" and involving them in the process. She believes the profession needs to broaden its appeal, and evangelise. "This is what's missing, how are we architects going to help deliver the 'localist' agenda of the government?" she enthuses. "That means helping people make local plans, when there isn't the revenue there in the support structure. Communicating with neighbourhood groups, helping them draw up local plans, it's a long-term strategy that we want."
Proper consideration
Why, she asks, plonk houses miles from anywhere without the services to support families? "We want to make sure there is some infrastructure in place before people come and put housing down, to know that housing has been given proper consideration, is going to fit in, and it's not going to be yet more ribbon development."
And why, she wonders, build exclusive estates and properties for one privileged sector of society while housing others in separate enclaves? "If we look to Denmark and Holland, for example, they live as a community coming together without an 'us and them', the rich and the poor. It's much more social," she explains.
Brady is enthralled by the "rich mix" of the capital's culture even after over two decades in London. She is appalled that plans for a cap of £26,000 on the amount of benefits one family can claim a year from 2013 will undermine that mix, driving the lower paid out of the capital. "People have a right to live in the communities where they were born," she says.
That aside, she insists that the compelling case for many more houses should not mean poor design. "We've got a huge housing crisis, a shortage of 250,000 units a year. And there should be more opportunity for better housing. We need to build more sustainably, to cut carbon, it's a matter of convincing the contractors to build for the long-term."
No easy task. She has two years as president to make her mark.
Curriculum vitae
Age 54.
Status Married, two teenage children.
Lives Finsbury Park, north London.
Education Holy Child school, Killiney, County Dublin; Dublin School of Architecture.
Career 1987–present: director, Brady Mallalieu Architects; 1983-86: architecture graduate in London; 1982-83: trainee architect, architectural practice in Toronto; 1981-82: scholarship to study co-housing in Denmark.
Public life 2011: elected Riba president for two-year term; 2010: joins Riba trust board; 2000: founder, Architects for Change group within Riba, campaigning for greater representation for women and ethnic minorities.
Interests Painting, designing glassware.
Stirling prize: Zaha Hadid’s Brixton school beats Olympic velodrome
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on October 1, 2011
Evelyn Grace Academy wins the 16th RIBA Stirling prize, giving Hadid top award for second year running
Architect Zaha Hadid's Z-shaped school in Brixton, south London, has beaten the hot favourite, the Olympic velodrome, to win the 16th annual RIBA Stirling prize for architecture.
Victory for Evelyn Grace academy gives Hadid's practice a Stirling prize for the second year running, although it is the architect's first major building project in Britain. Last year her practice won for the Maxxi Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome.
"Schools are among the first examples of architecture that everyone experiences and have a profound impact on all children as they grow up," said Hadid. "I am delighted that the Evelyn Grace academy has been so well received by all its students and staff."
The prestigious £20,000 award, handed over by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Architects' Journal and construction products manufacturer Benchmark at a ceremony in Rotherham, is intended to celebrate the best new European building "built or designed in Britain". It was expected to go to Michael Hopkins's eye-catching east London Olympic venue, popularly known as "the Pringle". But Hadid's school triumphed with its bold approach to solving a difficult problem: how to bring four schools together on a small site under one "academy" umbrella. Evelyn Grace had to be squeezed into 1.4 hectares, while the average secondary school takes up more like 8ha. The school is also situated in the area of the capital with the highest crime rate in western Europe.
Rather than building the sort of glass atrium that has been adopted by many new schools, Hadid's team opted to spend the money on better-lit classrooms and corridors with more space. But her design does have one remarkable, central feature: a bright-red 100m sprint track running right through the site. There is also a multiuse Astroturf pitch, while another quiet corner is home to a wildflower garden.
RIBA president Angela Brady, who chaired the judges, said: "The Evelyn Grace academy is an exceptional example of what can be achieved when we invest carefully in a well-designed new school building. The result – a highly imaginative, exciting academy that shows the students, staff and local residents that they are valued – is what every school should and could be."
The school is run by the Ark (Absolute Return for Kids) Academy organisation, a charity set up by Arpad "Arki" Busson, the hedge-fund multimillionaire.
The final shortlist of the six rival structures competing for this year's award included not just Hopkins's velodrome, but Rab Bennetts's careful remodelling of the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres in Stratford-on-Avon, an innovative cultural centre in Derry, the re-facing and transforming of a 1980s office building in north London, and the extension of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, by David Chipperfield Architects, who have also won the Stirling prize before. This was the first year previous entrants were eligible for consideration and all six shortlisted practices had been shortlisted before.
Full coverage of the prizegiving ceremony will be broadcast in a special edition of BBC2's Culture Show on Sunday.
Park Hill estate, Sheffield’s notorious landmark, gets £100m revamp
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on September 27, 2011
Developers take gamble on formerly run-down housing estate, with first renovated apartments going on sale in October
For many people in Sheffield over recent decades, Park Hill was the last place you would want to end up living as a social tenant. It thus sounds little short of a miracle that around 1,000 people have expressed an interest in buying a flat in the vast postwar housing estate, a fortnight before the homes even go on sale.
It is, in fact, the first indication that a hugely ambitious £100m gamble on the rehabilitation of that most disparaged of architectural styles, postwar brutalism, might pay off. For more than 50 years Park Hill has been one of Sheffield's most famous – or, depending on your view, notorious – landmarks, looming vast and grey on a hill overlooking the city centre. It was designed in the late 1950s by Ivor Smith and Jack Lynn, a pair of idealistic young modernists, and replaced a badly bombed slum area.
While sticking to a tight budget, their blueprint incorporated a series of innovative ideas, including blocks which tapered down from 14 to four storeys as the site rose, giving a continuously level roofline, and a famous network of interlinked "streets in the sky" – ascending walkways wide enough for milk floats.
Park Hill was initially popular but its fortunes declined due both to design – the streets in the sky proved an ideal escape route for criminals – and poor maintenance, as well as the gradual replacement of original residents by short-term tenants and problem families.
By the 1980s Park Hill had a reputation, not completely deserved, as a decrepit no-go area. Probably the only thing which saved it was English Heritage's decision in 1998 to grant the estate a heavily protected Grade II* listing.
This in turn left Sheffield city council with a headache: not only was it forbidden from demolishing Park Hill, the listing meant scope for renovation was severely limited.
Eventually the council signed a deal with Urban Splash, a developer which made its name turning central Manchester's long-neglected Victorian warehouses into desirable homes.
After a tortuous and financially precarious seven-year project, on 8 October the first 52 apartments of an eventual 874 will go on sale, with another 26 available via a housing association. The developers also want cafes, shops and other businesses to occupy commercial units.
In a deliberate statement of intent, the first renovated block is that directly facing the city. While only a handful of show flats are completed, the exterior already presents an utterly transformed face – the crumbling concrete frame cleaned and repaired, window spaces expanded and grubby brick facings replaced by anodised metal panels in a cascade of vibrant colours.
Urban Splash says it has been "delighted" with the response, with about 1,000 people signing up for information ahead of the first sales, and strong interest from businesses.
If Park Hill is successfully reborn – far from a certainty for a project which has already required one public bailout – it will complete a 50-year full circle for the estate and indicate a possible wider shift in public opinion towards such postwar schemes.
While a handful have been adopted by private buyers, notably Trellick Tower in North Kensington and Keeling House in Bethnal Green, these are smaller in scale and, crucially, in fashionable parts of London.
Tom Bloxham, who runs Urban Splash, said he believed tastes have changed: "There was a time when they used to demolish lovely Victorian mansions just because they had a bit of damp and the windows were rotten. That seems crazy now, and it would have been crazy to demolish Park Hill. Park Hill is a quality building, and not just from a point of view of subjective taste.
"All the flats are duplex, they're all dual-facing, they're all full of glazing, they all have south-facing living rooms. It's a very, very clever piece of design and it will be a great place to live."
Some critics say the scale of redevelopment, which saw the block stripped back to its bare concrete frame, has been too significant.
"The project seemed to start with the premise that they had to fundamentally change Park Hill if people were going to love it and move back, rather than saying, 'This is incredibly interesting and a really good bit of design, and the problem with it is that it's been poorly maintained and run down,' " said Catherine Croft, director of the 20th Century Society.
"The cumulative total of all the decisions that have been made means there's not a lot of the historic building left."
The architects and developers, however, argue that such was Park Hill's reputation – its ubiquitous visibility from the city centre meant the crumbling facade became a shorthand for Sheffield's wider decline – a significant and visible makeover was vital.
But the estate's long and mixed history is celebrated in places, most visibly the retention of a famous piece of graffiti on a high concrete walkway, "I love you will u marry me", now etched in neon and illuminated at night.
The hope is that Park Hill will become simultaneously more accessible – new landscaping and the planned shops and cafes are intended so locals walk through the estate rather than around it – and more secure, with the "streets in the sky" sealed off by gates and concierges.
Bloxham sees a parallel with the origins of his company: "When we first started putting loft apartments in Manchester 20 years ago, people said we were stupid. 'Why would you want to live there?' they said. 'You can't even buy a loaf of bread.' Will it work this time? We'll find out soon."
How a 'palace' lost its lustre
Edith Bradbury and her husband, Ron, have lived at Park Hill long enough to experience its entire history of hope, decline and subsequent resurrection from a ringside sofa. They arrived in 1959, two years before the estate was finished, having come from a single room in a slum area.
"When we got here it felt like a palace," said Edith, 78. "In our old place we only had a Baby Belling cooker. You had to cook your chips on the fire."
At first, the estate functioned as well as the architects could have dreamed: "It was a lovely atmosphere and there was such a sense of community. The bingo was on at 7.30pm and you'd have to start queuing at 5.30pm to get in.
"There were two butchers, a Co-op, a dentist, sweet shop, chemist, even a bike shop. You were only a few minutes from town but you never had to go in."
Then came the gradual decline, as the shops and on-site pubs closed, long-term neighbours left and drug use escalated. Now, the couple are finally leaving, but only to move into a nearby retirement complex. "We'd stay forever but the stairs are getting tricky," said Ron.
Scotland’s creepiest building in £10m restoration scheme
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on September 17, 2011
St Peter's Seminary, a masterpiece of radical architecture, has lain derelict for 30 years and fallen prey to vandals
An appeal has been launched to save a derelict building hidden in an overgrown wood in Scotland that is described as one of the greatest modernist buildings in Europe.
With its long, clean lines covered by graffiti and its concrete greyed with rainwater, St Peter's Seminary has lain in a state of ruin since it was abandoned by the Catholic church in 1980. The vast, crumbling building is accessible only by foot and, despite a number of restoration proposals over recent decades, it has been left to decay and to the vandals. It has been dubbed "Scotland's shame" and "Scotland's creepiest building", yet a plan to turn the ruin into a hotel in 2007 was dropped because of the cost of restoration.
Foreign architecture students who make pilgrimages to see St Peter's have often been unable to locate it, lost as it is inside the 140-acre Kilmahew Forest, near the small town of Cardross, about 25 miles outside Glasgow, whose great architectural scion was Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
St Peter's was opened in 1966, a triumph of post-war architecture and stunningly imaginative design. But it was practically obsolete by the time it was completed, as the Catholic church had decreed in 1965 that its trainee priests should be schooled not in isolated rural havens like St Peter's, but inside the urban churches of Europe, close to those they would later serve.
As a result the seminary was never fully occupied. In 1980, it briefly became a drug rehabilitation centre before its closure later that year.
The Catholic church was at the forefront of modernist building works in Scotland at the time, commissioning several churches of bold radical design across the country. Many were designed by Isi Metzstein, known as Britain's answer to Frank Lloyd Wright, and Andy McMillan, who then ran the Scottish firm Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, which designed St Peter's.
The seminary is now the subject of a new book: To Have and To Hold, Future of a Contested Landscape. Funded by the Scottish government and Creative Scotland, the book is the first step in an ambitious £10 million project to save St Peter's, turn the surrounding area into a public space and establish a new arts college there.
"It's not a lot of money for a project like this. There is a lot of positivity, but we are very aware we are attempting to do what we want to do in the middle of the worst recession in however long," said Angus Farquhar, the creative director of Nacionale Vitae Activa, a Scottish arts charity which has acquired the site, which is also home to a Victorian estate within its ancient woodlands which the seminary was designed to sit against.
"But we won't be trying a complete restoration. This isn't like the National Trust approach, where everything will be restored to its original state. This is more an intent to preserve and re-use a modern ruin. St Peter's was designed with 107 cell bedrooms for trainee priests. As we have seen with previous commercial projects, that doesn't translate into a hotel or flats."
The idea was to clean up St Peter's, seal it from the elements and use it as a public arts space, treating it "as one would a 19th-century castle", he said.
"As a skeletal form it is very powerful. There is this great sweeping form with each cell making a floating concrete plinth. The use of light is exquisite. The chapel in particular uses light and shadow and shape, where light is filtered down across these huge beams above the altar and across this curved linear wall.
"It's such a symbol of that period of post-war regeneration, it seems logical to use the site as living heritage for artists and the public to come into this amazing landscape, for concerts and theatre groups. It will be something very special for Scotland."
In 2008 St Peter's was listed on the World Monuments Fund's list of 100 most endangered sites, but Farquhar hopes that the £10m fund, to be raised over the next two years, will enable restoration work to begin by 2013.
RIBA condemns ‘shameful shoe box homes’ now built in Britain
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on September 14, 2011
Architects' report claims new three-bedroom houses are being constructed 8% smaller than guidelines advise
The Royal Institute of British Architects has criticised the "shoe box" sized homes now being built in Britain. Ahead of its inquiry into housing needs, RIBA claims that many of the new homes being constructed are too small for the number of people expected to live in them.
The institute says the average new three-bedroom house is 8% smaller than the recently adopted standard for homes in London, with floor space of 88 sq metres (947 sq ft). That is 8 sq metres short of the recommended space, the equivalent of a single bedroom.
One-bedroom properties, at an average of 46 sq metres, are 4 sq metres short of the recommended size, it adds in its recent report The Case for Space.
RIBA suggests that potential buyers are being short-changed and fobbed off with "shameful shoe box homes".
The London Housing Design Guide, adopted in the past year or so, lays down, among other features, minimum space standards for new properties, based on factors such as the average quantity of furnishings as well as number of occupants.
The RIBA inquiry, to be conducted by Sir John Banham, a former director-general of the CBI and former chair of the Tarmac group, is expected to report by next summer and will feed into the government's proposals to alter planning rules. The inquiry will seek the views of architects, builders, planners and purchasers.
Banham said: ""There are some fundamental issues that need to be addressed to ensure we have more of the right kind of affordable homes in villages, towns and cities … new thinking and financing approaches will be needed."
Anna Scott-Marshall, RIBA's head of policy, said that the organisation's Future Homes Commission would address issues such as housing costs, building quality, design and layout, including factors such as the amount of light in a property.
"We need to look into affordability and the mechanisms that need to be in place to enable people to buy," she said.
Response: Upgrading Broadmoor’s old buildings is not in patients’ best interests
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on October 24, 2011
NHS money will be better spent on redeveloping safer, up-to-date facilities
Your article, Battle to save Broadmoor buildings from demolition (10 October), explains the Victorian Society's rationale for including the hospital in its top 10 endangered buildings list. It doesn't, however, address the challenge of how to provide patients with the modern mental healthcare services they need in a cost-efficient way within a Victorian infrastructure. Tasked with improving on the average six-year length of stay for patients, West London Mental Health NHS Trust is seeking to manage this challenge through a carefully planned and environmentally sensitive redevelopment.
"We're not denying that [the Victorian buildings] may not be suitable for a modern psychiatric hospital," states the Victorian Society. They are not alone in this view; numerous official reports have deemed the fabric of the hospital "unfit for purpose". As your article states, the hospital was built in 1863, and was seen at the time as providing "an enlightened approach to care". However, psychiatric treatments have progressed radically in the past 148 years – and the environment in which this care takes place should be updated too.
As one of only three high-security hospitals in England, Broadmoor must be fit for purpose. As well as treating patients in a secure setting and ensuring public safety, it is imperative that the building is compatible with 21st-century design, thus ensuring patients' recovery is managed in an environment that is safe for those who work here.
In your piece, the society suggests that it might be "better to develop some of the yucky modern buildings that litter the grounds" of Broadmoor, yet our patients have benefited tremendously from these newer structures. Today, secure mental healthcare is generally conducted in purpose-built hospitals. These facilities have no ligature points, or T- or L-shaped corridors with poor visibility – instead, newer buildings provide natural light and space and have easy access to a range of treatment facilities.
The trust has a responsibility to ensure NHS resources are properly deployed, and this includes financial diligence. Spending public resources on upgrading outdated buildings with high running costs is not a good use of taxpayers' money, when the proposed redevelopment will not only reduce running costs but also deliver lasting improvements for the hospital's environment, services and the local community.
The society wants to save the hospital's listed buildings. Since our earliest redevelopment proposals, we've developed a strong working relationship with English Heritage and assured them that no listed buildings will be demolished.
The Victorian buildings' conversion into a hotel, mentioned in your article, remains a possibility. But one of our priorities is to ensure that a suitable alternative use is found for them, which will preserve their heritage and be an asset to the local community. The trust's proposals for this vital redevelopment enable us to strike a balance between our needs and the desire to preserve our heritage.
Architecture, Art and design, Comment, Comment is free, Conservation, Culture, Health, Heritage, Mental health, Society, The Guardian
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