Edward Cullinan Architects are pleased to be working on the remodelling of four classrooms at Rosendale School over the summer holidays.
Tuesday 26 July 2011
Michael Morpurgo at Rosendale School
Parents, staff and children of Rosendale Primary School were entertained by children's laureate Michael Morpurgo last Tuesday. He kindly accepted an offer to cut the ribbon on the school's new library, a red London bus. The bus arrived at the school last autumn and a team of volunteer parents, have worked hard to convert the interior of the bus into the school's library. Morpurgo certainly demonstrated why children love his stories so much as he relayed his experiences of growing up, learning to love reading as a teen, and traveling. His wit and humour kept the kids laughing and asking questions for a good 30 minutes before the ribbon cutting.
Edward Cullinan Architects are pleased to be working on the remodelling of four classrooms at Rosendale School over the summer holidays.
Sectional perspective of a proposed remodelled classroom with improved storage, learning space, natural lighting and ventilation.
Edward Cullinan Architects are pleased to be working on the remodelling of four classrooms at Rosendale School over the summer holidays.
Stonebridge Regeneration Celebration
On Saturday 23rd July, Roddy (+ family) and Amy from Cullinans attended the Stonebridge Regeneration Celebration. For the last 15 years there has been an extensive regeneration of the Stonebridge estate in North West London, which includes the Hillside Hub, completed in 2009. Hosted by Hyde Hillside and the residents of the estate, the celebrations began at the Hub with a carnival parade that made its way through the estate and ended at the Pavilion where a formal reception, games, stalls and performances celebrating the diverse community took place. Here are some photos:
Preparations inside the Hillside Hub for the carnival parade.
The carnival parade sets off...
...and dances its way through the Stonebridge estate
The carnival parade ended up at the Pavilion where games, stalls, performances and information about the regeneration of the estate could be found.
Saturday 16 July 2011
Penarth Heights coming home
On 14th July I went to the launch of the show home for the first phase of Penarth Heights, the 377 unit scheme we designed for Crest Nicholson which won the competition in 2005. On a glorious summer evening it was great to see our vision of streets and places taking cues from the adjacent town beginning to come to fruition, and to share that celebration with those who have been working for ten years to transform this area. The nearby terraces have benefited from an extensive urban renewal programme so the contrast between old and new is softened. The first sweeping crescent of 'Captains houses', their serrated roof profiles replacing the stark outlines of the demolished 1969 blocks, is looking great, both from across the bay and from the town. This project really exploits the strengths of a superb site, with its quiet location and astonishing 180deg views over the sparkling waters of Cardiff Bay, the city and the green horizons beyond.
Friday 15 July 2011
a flying visit to Belfast
The 6-monthly Project Advisory Board for the multi-university EPSRC/E.ON-funded CALEBRE Project http://www.calebre.org.uk (Consumer-Appealing Low Energy technologies for Buildng REtrofitting) met at Ulster University last week. Having not been to the city for 8 years, I went a day early to re-explore the oh so friendly Belfast with oh so many cars and hardly a bike in this largely flat city.
I started by looking around Queens University which was en fete, it being graduation day in the sun; and then looked up Architecture Professor at Queens, Ruth Morrow. After a good discussion about architectural education she walked me down to O'Donnell Tuomey's beautifully detailed new Lyric Theatre overlooking the Lagan; it was really well built by Gilbert Ash who have nearly finished our sub-zero Master Film Store for the BFI.
Then I met up with John Cole, whose determination to get quality health buildings for Northern Ireland led him to devise what the RIBA later adopted as smart PFI. After supper he drove me to see Penoyre and Prasad's Knockbreda Health Centre; although it was gone 9pm by the time we got there, the Centre Manager welcomed us and showed us around with great enthusiasm - great atmosphere and brilliant views through the atrium back over the centre of Belfast.
The next morning I took the train to Ulster University's Jordanstown Campus, deserted for the summer vacation. The low ceilings and lack of views out made the seemingly endless internal street a daunting experience - not the vital social space that must have been envisioned. Out in the air again, there was the smart new Innovation Centre and the labs where the heat pump and other infernal machines were being tested.
CALEBRE is approaching its final year and so it was really good to see the very varied sub-projects beginnning to join together. The excellent monitoring being done at the Nottingham E.ON house is producing really good evidence of how we might live in lower energy homes, how difficult it is for the local construction industry to retrofit MVHR and much else besides. Then there is a fascinating piece of work identifying personae (how different people react to lower energy homes) and a sequencing tool to help people to decide in what order to retrofit aspects of their homes. I can't wait to introduce Vicky Haines to Russell Smith of Parity Projects, who has approached this problem the other way round. Of course there are other great parts to CALEBRE so watch this space.
I started by looking around Queens University which was en fete, it being graduation day in the sun; and then looked up Architecture Professor at Queens, Ruth Morrow. After a good discussion about architectural education she walked me down to O'Donnell Tuomey's beautifully detailed new Lyric Theatre overlooking the Lagan; it was really well built by Gilbert Ash who have nearly finished our sub-zero Master Film Store for the BFI.
Then I met up with John Cole, whose determination to get quality health buildings for Northern Ireland led him to devise what the RIBA later adopted as smart PFI. After supper he drove me to see Penoyre and Prasad's Knockbreda Health Centre; although it was gone 9pm by the time we got there, the Centre Manager welcomed us and showed us around with great enthusiasm - great atmosphere and brilliant views through the atrium back over the centre of Belfast.
The next morning I took the train to Ulster University's Jordanstown Campus, deserted for the summer vacation. The low ceilings and lack of views out made the seemingly endless internal street a daunting experience - not the vital social space that must have been envisioned. Out in the air again, there was the smart new Innovation Centre and the labs where the heat pump and other infernal machines were being tested.
CALEBRE is approaching its final year and so it was really good to see the very varied sub-projects beginnning to join together. The excellent monitoring being done at the Nottingham E.ON house is producing really good evidence of how we might live in lower energy homes, how difficult it is for the local construction industry to retrofit MVHR and much else besides. Then there is a fascinating piece of work identifying personae (how different people react to lower energy homes) and a sequencing tool to help people to decide in what order to retrofit aspects of their homes. I can't wait to introduce Vicky Haines to Russell Smith of Parity Projects, who has approached this problem the other way round. Of course there are other great parts to CALEBRE so watch this space.
Monday 11 July 2011
Cyrene in BBC R4's "From Our Own Correspondent"
There was a good article on Saturday's From Our Own Correspondent (09/07/11) on BBC Radio 4 about our old stomping ground, Cyrene, in Libya's Jebel Akhdar or Geen Mountain region. Justin Marozzi had evidently called in on the ancient Hellenistic & Roman city ruins en route to Benghazi and met up with names known to us through our work there in 2009-2011.
In 2009, Cullinans prepared visitor strategies and masterplans proposals for four of eastern Libya's ancient city sites - Techira, Ptolemais, Apollonia and Cyrene - as part of the Green Mountain project with Ramboll UK. More recently, our masterplan for a new, carbon neutral city for 60,000 people - Shahat Garden City - just 7km south of Cyrene, would have introduced innovative, low enegry urban design solutions to the the region, helping to tackle the Jebal Akhdar's housing shortage as well as future energy needs.
Marozzi found the Cyrene site to be just as we knew it, only before February there was the odd international visitor or achaeologist to be found there: red earth, goats, wild flowers, increadible views north to the Mediterranean and an amazingly complete city in need of better care.
In 2009, Cullinans prepared visitor strategies and masterplans proposals for four of eastern Libya's ancient city sites - Techira, Ptolemais, Apollonia and Cyrene - as part of the Green Mountain project with Ramboll UK. More recently, our masterplan for a new, carbon neutral city for 60,000 people - Shahat Garden City - just 7km south of Cyrene, would have introduced innovative, low enegry urban design solutions to the the region, helping to tackle the Jebal Akhdar's housing shortage as well as future energy needs.
Marozzi found the Cyrene site to be just as we knew it, only before February there was the odd international visitor or achaeologist to be found there: red earth, goats, wild flowers, increadible views north to the Mediterranean and an amazingly complete city in need of better care.
Friday 1 July 2011
Who do you think you are
Over a hundred of us gathered in the heart of Penoyre and Prasad's cool naturally cross-ventilated deep plan office last evening to hear 4 excellent presentations - a real cornucopia followed by delicious carpaccio, gorgonzola, wine and conversation.
Richard Sennett kicked off with softly spoken and eloquent thoughts on the book he is currently writing; cities work when they operate with porous boundaries rather than impermeable barriers like that Israeli wall. Liminality is key but that was a new concept to me - "a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes" Wikipedia tells me. In discussion he posited that the sealed plate glass window was a challenge to the desired porosity denying aural and olfactory connection to the city, while pretending to be transparent ie a barrier to be banned. By contrast he described an exercise his LSE Cities Programme had done about how to put an Aids clinic into Bluewater Shopping Centre with housing in the car park - good thinking!
Brand Consultant Ralph Ardill explained how corporate branding had changed from the profligate '80s where you could sell pretty much anything with the right brand to today when social media expose fakes ("the inauthentic") pretty much instantly. He described his highly successful but accidental collaboration with an architect to devise thhe Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
The beautifully poised choreographer Siobham (Sue) Davies spoke about place and 'body memories' over a mesmerising film of 4 dancers rotating around a centre point , twisting and interweaving. She invited everyone to visit her studio in Lambeth by Sarah Wigglesworth
Finally Vincent Lacovara of AOC and Croydon Planning Dept described his annual Open House guided walk around the Seven Hills of Croydon; that is a trip around and up to the roof of the seven car parks in central Croydon, each year the experience being different, enriching his understanding of the place.
All four set thoughts running but Sue and Vincent offered related insights as to how we come to understand our sense of place in the city. In discussion Sue began to open up the elephant in the room which was that the new media were yet further encouraging us to consume ever more - next time perhaps?
Richard Sennett kicked off with softly spoken and eloquent thoughts on the book he is currently writing; cities work when they operate with porous boundaries rather than impermeable barriers like that Israeli wall. Liminality is key but that was a new concept to me - "a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes" Wikipedia tells me. In discussion he posited that the sealed plate glass window was a challenge to the desired porosity denying aural and olfactory connection to the city, while pretending to be transparent ie a barrier to be banned. By contrast he described an exercise his LSE Cities Programme had done about how to put an Aids clinic into Bluewater Shopping Centre with housing in the car park - good thinking!
Brand Consultant Ralph Ardill explained how corporate branding had changed from the profligate '80s where you could sell pretty much anything with the right brand to today when social media expose fakes ("the inauthentic") pretty much instantly. He described his highly successful but accidental collaboration with an architect to devise thhe Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.
The beautifully poised choreographer Siobham (Sue) Davies spoke about place and 'body memories' over a mesmerising film of 4 dancers rotating around a centre point , twisting and interweaving. She invited everyone to visit her studio in Lambeth by Sarah Wigglesworth
Finally Vincent Lacovara of AOC and Croydon Planning Dept described his annual Open House guided walk around the Seven Hills of Croydon; that is a trip around and up to the roof of the seven car parks in central Croydon, each year the experience being different, enriching his understanding of the place.
All four set thoughts running but Sue and Vincent offered related insights as to how we come to understand our sense of place in the city. In discussion Sue began to open up the elephant in the room which was that the new media were yet further encouraging us to consume ever more - next time perhaps?
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