The Villa Savoye – Le Corbusier

“Our engineers are healthy and virile, active and useful, balanced and happy in their work, while our architects are disillusioned and unemployed, boastful or peevish. This is because there will soon be nothing more for them to do. We no longer have the money to erect historical souvenirs. At the same time, everyone needs to wash! Our engineers provide for these things and so they will be our builders.”

Corbusier believed that the houses of the future should be clean, ascetic and free of decoration. He believed that true, great architecture should be motivated by the quest for efficiency. The function of a house in Corbusier view was to provide “1. A shelter against heat, cold, rain, thieves and the inquisitive. 2. A receptacle for light and sun. 3. A certain number of cells appropriated to cooking, work and personal life.”

Inside the villa, there are tiles of the floor, naked bulbs, a basin in the middle of the hall and exposed pipe work. There is no ornamental decoration and the visual language takes inspiration from industry.
Modernism believed that the point of a house was to be functional, not to be beautiful. However, this creates a problem because there will always be an aesthetic choice made and modernism has chosen to create buildings that look functional no matter how functional they are in reality.

Frank Gehry ……architect

frank Gehry presentation
follow the link

After a visit to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain I decided to investigate the life of Frank Gehry, sometimes referred to as a de-constructivist architect or “DeCon”
I hope you enjoy the presentation

Building Control

Building control

http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk

The building control service is responsible for ensuring that all building work carried out within the borough complies with building regulations. We deal with the construction of new buildings, change of use, alteration or conversion of existing buildings. This is done by determining applications, after consultation with the fire authority where appropriate, within statutory time limits and inspecting the building work on site.

National building regulations, which are made under the Building Act 1984, are designed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of people in and around buildings by outlining requirements for building design and construction.

In addition, the regulations promote energy efficiency in buildings and contribute to meeting the needs of disabled people.

The building control service also imposes conditions to preserve public safety and amenity in respect of demolition works and provides a 24/7 response to reports of alleged dangerous structures or buildings, acting to remove immediate danger where required.

We can provide expert advice on

building regulations
fire safety
pre-application advice
whether you need building control approval
what additional information you need to give us
what application form(s) you need to fill in
what charges you will need to pay
Before you start building work you or your agent (i.e. architect, builder, surveyor, developer) must notify the council either by submitting a full plans or building notice for building regulations approval.

If you have any doubts about the work you are planning to do you should consult us first.

Types of notifiable building work

construction of new buildings
conversions of existing buildings i.e. loft conversions
extensions
internal alterations
demolitions
roofing
drainage
electrical work
heating
replacement windows
Further information

Communities and Local Government
The Planning portal
Building regulations explanatory booklet (at the Planning portal website)
Local Authority Building Control
Electrical Safety

National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting NICEIC
The Part P competent person website
New rules for electrical safety in the home at Communities.gov.uk
Gas safety

Gas Safe
Corgi
Replacement windows

Fensa
Other

National Association of Professional Inspectors & Testers
BSI Product Services
How to contact us

For all general enquiries please telephone the planning & building control hotline: 020 7364 5009

Building Control offices
Mulberry Place (AH)
PO Box 55739
5 Clove Crescent
London
E14 1BY

Fax: 020 7364 5265
Email: buildingcontrol@towerhamlets.gov.uk

High Street 2012….. the vision

http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk

High Street 2012

High Street 2012 is an initiative that will use the Games as a catalyst for improvements to the A11/A118 corridor through the centre of Tower Hamlets (taking in Whitechapel High Street, Whitechapel Road, Mile End Road and Bow Road) and on into Stratford in Newham.

The vision for High Street 2012 is to create a world class and thriving ‘High Street’, where there is a balance between pedestrian and road uses, where people and places are connected, where locals, visitors and tourists want to be, and where there is a sense of well being, community and history.

Proposals for the route have been developed in consultation with local communities. They include

street actions – a series of measures for the length of the street, such as better lighting and wayfinding, more trees, and restored historic buildings
area studies – suggesting short, medium and long term improvements to places along the route, including Aldgate, Whitechapel, Mile End and Bow.
Works on the first High Street projects – the new park at Braham Street, and a programme of enhancements to historic buildings in Aldgate, Whitechapel and Mile End – will begin in 2009. Additional projects such as those set out below will be developed further, working closely with local communities.

High Street 2012 is a joint initiative by Tower Hamlets and Newham councils, LDA/Design for London, TfL, English Heritage and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation.

High Street 2012 – street actions

Decluttering Improving the street’s visual appeal and coherence
Historic building enhancements Restoring and improving the historic fabric of the street and reusing abandoned or partly vacated buildings
Lighting strategy Defining a unified system for lighting the High Street’s carriageways and pavements, historical assets and special spaces
Green thread Introducing new trees and planting, green roofs and walls
Street surfaces and cycleway Improving the material quality of the street and, in the longer term, forming a new ‘cycleway’
Wayfinding Aiding the intuitive use of the street and wider-scale movement
Community projects Keeping the community involved in delivering the High Street 2012 project and celebrating its history and cultures

Duty of care – Workshop at London Met

The workshop consisted mainly of group discussion about our personal ideas about duty of care as architects and individuals towards others and ourselves. To set off the discussion we were asked “what do you care about when you go out of your front door?” My instant response was keys, purse and phone. So my duty of care to myself is to fill needs that allow me to function at a basic level.

From this I thought that my duty of care as an architect would logically be to allow others to fulfill their basic needs so that they can function properly and look after their own higher needs

Maslow's hierachy of needs explains that before higher needs can be attained, the most basic needs must be fulfilled

Then as the discussion progressed I realised that when somebody else leaves their house, their main concern will be very different from mine; from taking a snack or remembering a music player (mood enhancing) to checking their own appearence (ideal self). These very different duties of care show how each of our priorities are different.

The group I was working with felt that the problem with finding a suitable definition for everybody was that it was dificult to apply because it wouldnt be specific enough. Eventually, we decided that the soulution is to create a general guideline which must be made more specific with each seperate individual it is applied to.

We decided that our duty of care is to ‘respect the individual, the group and humanity; we should care about the individual values and needs of those affected by us. Our duty as humans is to respect and to be trustworthy and to help wherever and however it is needed.’

De La Warr Pavillion

A couple of weeks ago i went along to a gig in Bexhill, Hastings at the De La Warr Pavillion.

The building is beautiful, right on the edge of the sea and with an incredible interior, featuring a wonderful spiral staircase.

- photo from dlwp.com

 

Here is what their website say about the building:
“Commissioned by the 9th Earl De La Warr in 1935 and designed by architects Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, the De La Warr Pavilion was the UK‘s first public building built in the Modernist style.

Pioneering in structure as it was in spirit, the purpose of this steel and concrete Pavilion was to provide accessible culture and leisure for the people of Bexhill and beyond and so regenerate the economy of the town and the surrounding area.” – quote from dlwp.com
The purpose of this building, as highlighted above, is very positive, especially the point about making culture ACCESSIBLE to people who may otherwise not have had the same opportunity.

I would recommend taking a trip. They regularly have an interesting selection of live music, performance and exhibitions. Currently there is an exhibition of Anthony Gormly-Critical Mass.

link to there website:

http://www.dlwp.com/default.aspx

Building Planning Regulations

Planning permission – when to apply

If you build something which needs planning permission without getting permission first, you may be forced to put things right later, which could prove troublesome and costly. If you are in any doubt, contact the planning department of your council.

http://www.direct.gov.uk

When you need to apply
Here are some common examples where you would need to apply for planning permission:
adding or extending a flat or maisonette, including those converted from houses
dividing off part of your house for use as a separate home (for example, a self-contained flat or bed-sit)
using a building or caravan in your garden as a separate residence for someone else
building a separate house in your garden
dividing off part of your home for business or commercial use (for example, a workshop) or building a parking place for a commercial vehicle
building something which goes against the terms of the original planning permission for your house (for example, a planning condition may have been imposed to stop you putting up a fence in the front garden because the house is on an ”open plan” estate)
work you want to do might obstruct the view of road users
work would involve a new or wider access to a trunk or classified road
For further advice on when you will need to apply for planning permission visit the Planning Portal website. You can also discuss your proposals by contacting the planning department of your council.

The Lives of Spaces

Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place

photo – from the riba website.

The Lives of Spaces, curated by Nathalie Weadick and Hugh Campbell, was Ireland’s exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008. – quote from the RIBA website.

OPENING – 9th APRIL

I  went along to the opening talk back in April and was impressed with the variety of ways in which the architects had communicated their projects.

Film, sound recordings, photography and abstract models were used to express different elements of the spaces.  The importance of space was given in relation to how and who would be using them and in what ways i.e.. domestic, public.

have a look at the website:

http://www.londonarchitecturediary.com/event.php?id=2018

One of the architects featured:

Grafton Architects

http://www.graftonarchitects.ie/

There is also currently an exhibition of Grafton Architects work at London Metropolitan University, Spring House which is definitely worth going along to.

Duty of Care

Where do architects stand when it comes to duty of care?
21 February, 2002 | By Kim Franklin

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/where-do-architects-stand-when-it-comes-to-duty-of-care/173524.article

legal matters
Do architects owe a duty of care in tort to subsequent occupiers for latent defects in a building, built to their design, even though they have no contract with the occupier?

For those architects who qualified during the past decade, this question is likely to cause no more than the raise of an academic eyebrow along the lines of ‘interesting question’. For those longer in the tooth, who can recall the heyday of tortious claims during the l980s, it will probably send a shiver of horror down their spines.

In the years between the two, major House of Lords decisions on this point – Anns v Merton (1978) and Murphy v Brentwood (1991) – showed that anyone who had anything to do with the design or construction of a building could be sued by the ultimate occupier, if it subsequently transpired that the building was defective.

Rarely was there a contract between the end user and the design and construction team. But in those days, it did not matter. The law lords had decided that designers, builders and the local authorities who approved the plans all owed a duty of care to the end user. Thus if the building subsequently failed the occupier could, and frequently did, claim against a long list of defendants, including, invariably, the designers.

All this came to an end in 1991 with the landmark decision of Murphy v Brentwood when the House of Lords reversed its previous decision and held that builders and local authorities did not owe a duty of care to subsequent purchasers in respect of latent defects. At a stroke, the ultimate occupier of a defective building had no claim against anyone involved in its design or construction unless they had a contract with them.

A device then rapidly emerged that gave occupiers some contractual redress – the collateral warranty. Otherwise the general rule for subsequent owners of dodgy buildings was ‘no contract – no claim’. And for a while the pressure was off the designer, well, at least so far as claims by subsequent owners of defective buildings were concerned.

But the law does not stand still and two recent cases have caused a ripple in these apparently calm waters.Last year, Technology and Construction Court (TCC) Judge Bowsher QC explored one of the exceptions to the ‘no contract – no claim’ rule, namely that designers could be liable for defects which the purchaser would not have had an opportunity of discovering before acquiring the building.That case, Baxall Securities Ltd v Sheard Walshaw Partnership (AJ 21.12.00), concerned a flood.

More recently, in Bellefield Computer Services Ltd v E Turner & Sons Ltd (judgment 9.11.01), the TCC considered architects’ liability for damage caused by a fire at a commercial dairy. The defendant contractor had, contrary to the usual practice, itself engaged architect HD Watkins and Associates to provide partial architectural services. After the fire it was discovered that the compartment walls and adjacent fire lining of the first floor had not been constructed in accordance with the specification. Importantly, the fire lining had not been taken up to the underside of the metal roof sheets, but only to the roof ‘s polystyrene insulation.

The judge, adopting the decision in Baxall Securities, found that the architect did owe a duty of care to a subsequent owner for damage caused by these defects, which the owner would not have been able to discover.

In this case, however, the judge rejected the contractor’s claim that the scope of the architect’s duty extended to designing a two-hour fire rated compartment wall. He said the architect’s position was an unusual one in that it was subcontracted to provide partial architectural services to the contractor, who in turn had agreed to carry out some design work.Thus the architect had not produced a detailed design for the construction of the fire-resistance detailing.

As it had not agreed to provide a complete design for the contractor, it could not owe such a duty to the owner. The contractor’s claim failed.

So, in the light of these authorities, the answer to the opening question is now ‘maybe’but, happily for the architects, ‘not in this case’.

Earlier Design prototypes and scale models

Designing is a process which entails mapping, gathering information, talking to people, concept models, refining these models making the space all that it can be
Above is a selection of prototypes and scale models