bottom drawer

This time last year, I made a resolution to blog more here. It didn't happen. This year I'm going to try a bit better, and hopefully this will be aided by my recent decision to go back to a freelance lifestyle, after a year of full-time work as GPA 's deputy director. I'm still working 2 days a week with them, as an Associate, but also branching out to take on new projects and gain the flexibility to pursue my own interests a little more. It definitely feels like the right decision so far, with already some interesting projects on the go, and more in the offing for the New Year. But most importantly, if I can spend a day a week in the London Library writing and reading, that would revolutionise my life. Anyway, happy holidays to everyone, hope you all have full bellies, and see y'all in the New Year! PS: Gig alert! We are playing at the Apple Tree in Clerkenwell on Jan 6th! come along...

OK. I generally love Arup and admire their history and philosophy. I have friends there, I have indeed collaborated with them in the past. But this is just quackery...I really hope it isn't as dumb as it sounds. Today's BD: Arup’s Peter Head, project director of Dongtan — the proposed low-carbon city near Shanghai three-quarters of the size of Manhattan — told BD the firm had devised a more scientific system to create a “sense of place”, incorporating historical and cultural elements into designs. Head predicted that Arup’s new approach, which has led to the development of 24 cultural places or “scenes” within Dongtan, would be a valuable tool in helping create an identity for the troubled Thames Gateway. Head said the system will help create identity and context for new public space through disciplines including psychology, anthropology, music and art. In Dongtan, this focuses on the historical relationship between people and the natural ...

The headline that grabbed the press today about Gordon's pre-budget speech was his pledge that all homes should be carbon-neutral in ten years time. While you all sit back and think about how to deliver that one (he didn't help by giving no details), he also said that in the short term he would give a limited-term stamp duty relief to zero-carbon homes. Building Schools for the Future projects would have to meet BREEAM Very Good or Excellent ratings. These 'green' measures were by far the most extreme out of a speech that I thought was surprisingly tame on the subject of green taxes . A mere £5 extra tax on flights, a few pence on petrol... And for those of you who care about these things, the introduction of any Planning Gain Supplement will be delayed till 2009 to have time for a fresh consultation. Well, I think it is a pretty weak attempt to gain green points off the Tories but it is noticeable that Cameron has not come out saying that he would have been any more ...

Wow, it's been so over-previewed that I had a strange sense of deja-vue when it actually came out . But if you have avoided, so far, the welter of breathless journalism, this is basically what it said: Less Planning . Extend permitted development rights for minor house extensions/alterations, microgeneration and other small things. A more 'risk-based' approach and less paperwork required to support applications. Relaxation of use classes to enable more mixed-use designation and easier change of use Less time taken preparing LDFs - aiming for 18-24 months, not the current 36-42. Faster processing of planning appeals, a new mediation service and a major reduction in the number of schemes called-in by ministers. And most ambiguously, encouragement for authorities to 'review' green belt designations to ensure a sufficient supply of land, although the report also strongly supports the principle of town centre-first development. A national planning commission to examine ...

I actually played another gig in Camden on Sunday but it was a bit late notice...however here's another golden opportunity to come hear the Coal Porters with twin fiddling action from their original and best fiddler Gemma, plus the rather amateur moi, at the lovely Ritzy Cinema bar on the 22nd December. And in other related news, I gave in and ordered a new iPod...

Oh dear - sorry. A week of unexpected amounts of things to do, followed by a week in Bucharest running a workshop on culturally led regeneration for the British Council, means it is a shockingly long time since I last posted. And indeed there may be more changes afoot in my blogging life as a few changes take place to what I'm up to, but more of that soon. The big stories while I've been AWOL have involved Battersea Power Station being bought for £400m by an Irish consortium - possibly the least unexpected deal of the year as we've known about the negotations for some time. Also more Olympics news, with Ricky Burdett being offically unveiled as a design adviser to the ODA, and the ex-Archigram and creator of a blob in Graz, Peter Cook, being brought on board to HOK's team for the stadium to spice it up some. Zaha's aquatic centre came out with nil points on the environmental front, and got massively scaled down in size. That's beside yet more boring speculat...

Did my first bluegrass gig on English soil last night, stepping in at the last minute with the thoroughly excellent Coal Porters , headed up by Sid Griffin of Long Ryders fame, who I heard in London on St Patrick's Day last. Had to learn a whole load of their original material from scratch in a couple of days and one rehearsal...and last night we were down in Bristol at the Prom with me casting glances at my crib sheet (Idiot wind...f*** those chord changes...when does my break come...what, now?!? help!!) but nevertheless I did have the best time and I think we all had fun. They have an excellent fiddle player usually in Gemma White so it was truly a privilege to step in. It felt so good to get back to playing some of that ol' lonesome sound music again...with a bit of ruckus thrown in at the end! Fingers crossed I may get a few more gigs with them in the future, so watch this space. And if any of you have the need for a fiddler, I'm getting back in the scene!

The damn thing died. Not immediately after I dropped it on the floor - oh no, it continued to play the track quite happily. But then I tried to skip to another track and a dreadful clicking noise started. It carried on clicking until it ran out of battery. Then if I tried to restart it, the clicking started again. Hate gadgets. Desperately want a new one. Sod's law will have it die when I actually NEED it to work, when I'm desperately trying to learn a whole bunch of new songs for a last-minute gig I've been asked to play, bringing me onto stage for the first time in a year. Well - I have resisted temptation only so far: it is on my wishlist , and my unchecked out shopping cart...

Money, money, money...that's what it's all about in the news. After all the front page splashes over the rising costs of the Games, it is all about where to find the extra cash - and indeed, how much to find. The Treasury wants a huge 60% contingency to be factored in, whereas the Ken and the ODA call this "breathtakingly ridiculous" and call for a still massive 30%. And where to get it? Well, according to Ken, he wants to effectively introduce a planning gain supplement levy on the uplift in land prices. “Land prices in the Olympics area have doubled. I will be looking at using the profits from developers on additional profits to service any cost overruns [on the Olympics].” Neale Coleman, policy director to the mayor and a member of the ODA board, said “If we had reliable receipts of what the land values would be after the Games, we could borrow against that now and the money could be used to fund extra Games costs. The two are connected because the LDA owns the lan...

I wish I had more time to do a proper post on the Stern report and reaction. Luckily a colleague at WorldChanging has done a fantastic article here . But suffice to say it has only fuelled the fire of those who are trying to push zero-carbon development. In particular, publicly funded development is going to have a lot more demanded of it in the next few years. Ruth Kelly has already committed to developing a timescale, but the WWF is proposing that within five years residential development that is financed by the Housing Corporation, or that uses land supplied by English Partnerships, should be zero carbon. The WWF argues further that all residential development that receives public finance should be zero carbon within 10 years. This would include the former ODPM’s growth programmes, including the Thames Gateway. They want these goals to be achieved using the Code for Sustainable Homes. This document, which is due to be finalised by the DCLG next month, will set mandatory standar...

In the last census, 390,000 people listed Jedi Knight as their religion, making it the UK's fourth largest belief system. Today they are marking the UN's International Day of Tolerance by asking for them to gain official recognition. "Like the UN, the Jedi Knights are peacekeepers and we feel we have the basic right to express our religion through wearing our robes, and to be recognised by the national and international community. "Tolerance is about respecting difference where ever it lies, including other galaxies. Please don't exclude us from your important work. May the Force be with you." They want the day to be renamed Interstellar Day of Tolerance.

The ever fantastic mysociety have come up with another genius project of the sort that you think 'how come no-one did this years ago?' They've launched the beta of an e-petition site that enables you to launch a petition, email all your friend,s gather electronically verified signatures and then email it off to Downing St all in a few easy clicks. It's all done in partnership with the Prime Minister's office so super-legit and might actually work. Now I've just got to think of something to petition about...

Derwent Valley is buying London Merchant Securities for £1bn to create a combined £2.25bn portfolio of mainly commercial West End property. In other takeover news, Crest Nicholson is in talks with consortium HBOS despite rejecting a £660m takeover offer from them last Friday, and Henderson has increased its bid for John Laing in the bidding war with Allianz. GMW Architects with developer Hammerson is on the verge of being appointed to the massive redevelopment of Victoria Station in central London. Land Secs posted a healthy rise in net asset value ahead of its confirmed conversion to a REIT in January. The last details of Argent's s106 agreement will go to Camden committee on Thursday. The remaining objectors are expected to protest but it should, hopefully, be a formality. A new unit has been set up by the government to provide independent advice on improving the provision of affordable homes. The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit will help provide evidence an...

I feel a little sorry for the Queen, having to mouth the politicised words of 'my government'. Today's speech was dominated by security, immigration and the environment, and the Queen confirmed that the government would introduce a climate change bill “consistent with the need to secure the country’s long-term energy supply”. The Climate Change Bill commits to a 60% reduction by 2050 but there was no mention of annual targets. Other measures: A new Local Government Bill will overhaul the regulation and inspection of councils while devolving more powers. Greater London Authority Bill will strengthen the mayor's powers on homes, strategic planning and climate change issues. Planning reform proposals to be published in spring 2007.

Looks like its all systems go, despite some murmurs of discontent from the Treasury about the costs of setting up the new body. Apparently we may hear something officially on the 20th. Likely to be called Communities England, it also appears that it will be headed up by civil servant Richard McCarthy, currently a senior director of the DCLG, and presently chairing the joint EP/corporation board that is managing the merger. It held its first meeting last week. McCarthy is also close to Baroness Ford, EP’s chairman, and is a former chief executive of the Peabody Trust and chairman of the National Housing Federation. Communities England would take over the DCLG’s responsibilities for programmes such as stock transfer, arm’s length management organisations, housing market renewal, the Thames Gateway and neighbourhood renewal. It will take between nine and 18 months to set up because of the need to secure parliamentary approval for winding up the corporation and EP, as they...

Richard Rogers kicked up a storm last week by claiming that he and Ken Livingstone are 'deeply concerned' about the procurement strategy being undertaken by the Olympic Delivery Agency. Rogers attacked the planned use of design-and-build contracts, and threatened a boycott, saying that he wouldn't compete for buildings that were going be be delivered by D&B. Meanwhile his practice RRP is going to compete for the only remaining non DB contract - for the velodrome, which sees every ambitious and big-name architect in town joining the competition. His brother Peter, who chaired the Strategic Forum 2012 task group, has told everyone to 'stop bashing' the Olympics. Effectively criticising Jack Lemley's comments that there was too much talking and not enough action going on, he said “I think what they are trying to do, which is think before they act, is absolutely right. We’re far too prone to coming up with good ideas and getting on with the building, before we...

The developer of Battersea Power Station has been given the go-ahead to develop on the adjacent site, before actually completing the renovation of the power station itself. Wandsworth Council agreed to Parkview's plans, as well as the amendment to the Section 106 agreement, which defined how ‘complete’ renovations needed to be on the power station before work could continue elsewhere on the site. They now just have to secure the site and do a few repairs. Leslie McDonnell, of Wandsworth Council, said: ‘Parkview now have the consents they need to get on with the job of restoring this famous building. They have told us they will be ready to start the work in earnest in the New Year – we expect them to keep to this.’

A call by Conservative Party cities taskforce chief Michael Heseltine to privatise the planning system has been slammed by planning officer representatives. Heseltine said that he would favour the privatisation of some planning functions to speed up the system, saying that currently, public sector planning applications were often dealt with by inexperienced and overcautious staff. He said that planning consultants and surveyors could be licensed to take planning decisions, rather than planning officials. But Planning Officers Society president Hilary Herbert said: "We do not think he should be preempting the work of Kate Barker's review. The government has also just implemented a fundamental reform of the planning framework, and this should be given time to bed down." She added that privatising the system would remove the democratic mandate currently held by planning departments. After the row, Heseltine appeared to backtrack, saying that he specifically meant only issues...

One pathfinder is innovating: Ikea is about to enter the first planning application for its BokLok homes in Gateshead. The flatpack homes will have their UK launch at the Building Centre later this month. But another is in the news for all the wrong reasons: because it is apparently 'ignoring' a design review panel in the area, seeing it as a thorn in the flesh. Liverpool’s design review body has not been shown any detailed planning applications for new housing in the controversial housing market renewal area. The Liverpool Urban Design & Conservation Advisory Panel (Ludcap) has grave concerns about the quality of schemes now being built and passing through planning, which it has been denied the opportunity to comment on because it is seen as “a thorn in the flesh”. The panel’s frustration follows a row between the pathfinder and Cabe in the summer, when the design watchdog opposed compulsory purchase orders in the area. It later dropped its opposition. A sou...

Yesterday I received my contributor's copy of the eponymous book from worldchanging.com (where my latest post on on Google Sketch-up is up, btw) and it is humungously exciting. Beautifully designed, packed with authoritative, pithy articles on everything from nanotechnology to urbanism to lightbulbs, it really is the definitive "User's Guide to the 21st Century" as the strapline has it. And all priced at a very reasonable £24.95 (£16.46 on Amazon , though please support your local bookshop...) so guys, you know what to get all your friends for Christmas! Shameless plug, I know - but with a foreword by Al Gore and rave reviews from the other side of the Atlantic where it is already released, the book speaks for itself. Out officially on the 24th November in the UK.

Yesterday I received my contributor's copy of the eponymous book from worldchanging.com (where I write, recently on Google Sketch-up and before that on Kinsale's Energy Descent Action Plan , Ecoliteracy and more ) and it is humungously exciting. Beautifully designed, packed with authoritative, pithy articles on everything from nanotechnology to urbanism to lightbulbs, it really is the definitive "User's Guide to the 21st Century" as the strapline has it. And all priced at a very reasonable £24.95 (£16.46 on Amazon , though please support your local bookshop...) so guys, you know what to get all your friends for Christmas! Shameless plug, I know - but with a foreword by Al Gore and rave reviews from the other side of the Atlantic where it is already released, the book speaks for itself. Out officially on the 24th November.

Wow. Pointing out the obvious...A study by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) reveals that middle-class people aspire to suburban living and see regeneration as an aid to that - but working class people are less convinced by such change. "The lesson for regeneration agencies is that they need to understand how people feel about them, not assume that they will be understood. This shows just how successful middle-class residents have been at imposing their tastes when it comes to the places in which we live." Basically, it says that working-class residents don't see themselves on a housing ladder and don't see any way of moving 'up in the world', so don't value regeneration for bringing an uplift in property values. They were most affected by lack of jobs and services and thought that public agencies generally did 'nothing' for them, while the middle-classes saw themselves as 'here for now' and didn't mind a bit of scruff...

In case you haven't heard: I forgot to mention in yesterday's Gateway round-up the pretty hilarious news that part of the DCLG's strategy is to rebrand it as Thames Estuary Parklands in order to attract investors and residents. That's as well as the 'oops' from the Olympics team as it was revealed that they had forgotten to add VAT to their budget estimates. You might think that at that level, mistakes like that wouldn't happen? Residents of Croydon are bracing themselves for the big man after Will Alsop won a competition to carry out a 'visioning exercise' for the town centre. Unconnectedly, plans for the controversial Gateway site in Croydon are apprently pushing ahead with a new planning application from Stanhope imminent. Clever old Davis Langdon have announced they are going to offset all their carbon emissions and also start a carbon consultancy service for clients. CABE has rapped the wrists of Dev Secs and Sheppard Robson for not being green...

Talk about planning reform is hotting up ahead of the Barker review publication. Tony Blair has pledged to introduce a new planning bill, pre-empting the Barker report. This is despite Barker hinting in her interim report that she didn't think there should be another major shake-up of the planning system. The government is also considering establishing an independent commission to examine major infrastructure projects including nuclear power stations, transport schemes and possibly large housing schemes. This comes as the proposals in last week's White Paper, to remove major planning decisions from council committees to a nominated individual, received a mixed response, with the LGIU worrying that it will lead to corruption. The proposal suggests a single elected mayor or council leader could take all decisions on strategically important applications. Meanwhile, a committee of MPs have reported on the planning gain supplement idea and said that it needs a lot more work to ensu...

No phasing in Barking, barks Ken at Bellway Homes. A report presented to the mayor's latest planning meeting said Bellway and EP, its JV partner, had proposed a cap of 4,000 units on its Barking Riverside scheme until funding has been secured for a £295m extension of the Docklands Light Railway through the site. The joint venture envisages 10,800 homes spread across the 179ha brownfield site. But basically Ken wants no phasing to force the government to commit funding for the DLR. Meanwhile the DLR link to Stratford International got planning approval, which will come as a relief. It will mean there is an alternative to walking 400m with your wheely suitcase between the Eurostar and the Tube station, although you will have to endure more escalators/crowded DLR carriage/etc in the process. Proposals for an airport-style travelator are still being contested by the government (pro) and LCR (anti). Moving further out, a couple of EP projects around Basildon have hit the buffers, due to...

Over the weekend, I'm sure a lot of you read or heard about an idea from La Cameron's fave think-tank (the Policy Exchange) to x-list building s that 'the people' find ugly and demolish them. As almost everything the PE suggest seems to get made into Tory policy about a month later, this is one to spend a minute untangling. From the Observer: "The X-list manifesto, part of a collection of essays on a new 'green' approach to cities, admits that simply being ugly won't be enough to condemn a building to the wrecking ball. Candidates for destruction will also have to be uninhabited or unused, have 'a distressing and anti-social impact' and blight the local economy. "Under the Policy Exchange plan, local residents would nominate urban architecture for X-listing. There would then be a three-month period for debate, a selection of a long list by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and a final selection by an 'X-list ju...

Ooh, how embarrassing. After resigning a couple of weeks ago as the chair of the ODA, when everyone said nice platitudinous things about him, Jack Lemley has exposed the real reasons for his departure to his local paper, the Idaho Statesman. He claimed that politics was threatening to bring the project in late and over-budget. He said there had been a “huge amount of local politics” involved in moving the 300 businesses from the 700-acre Olympic site in East London. He said that the issue was the “kind of thing that confuses and frustrates the process.” Lemley said that he resigned because he did not want to have his reputation of delivering projects on time ruined. He said: “I felt it better to come home now than face that in five or six years. I went there to build things, not to sit and talk about it, so I felt it best to leave the post and come home.” Lemley also criticised the current debate over whether the main Olympic arena should be converted...

Allied London , developers of the Brunswick Centre and endurers of a "rollercoaster of strategy shifts and ownership changes" over the last decade, are set to start acquiring new city centre sites in London with a new restructure that sees Allied's management retain a 20% stake, with Delancey and RBS taking 40% each. Quite big news - Delancey see it as forming a vehicle similar to the retail venture they have going with Centros Miller. They want to do big masterplan-able sites, mixed-use, medium-term. Ashford are working on plans to establish the UK’s first financial institution to fund the development of local infrastructure. The £1bn Omega Warrington development finally gets planning permission, after all the objectors got too tired to carry on fighting. Omega Warrington is a JV between RBS, EP and Miller. The first two phases include industrial and distribution space to the north of the site and office accommodation to the south. The south site will also feature compli...

The draft strategic framework for the whole muddy mess is out (well, unofficially, but reported everywhere), and Terry Farrell is crowing because his big park idea has really taken root. He says he is 'very, very gratified'. The draft framework proposes a Thames Estuary Park that “should be seen as an environmental network rather than an individual park” but it won't be a National Park because, of course, that would mean you couldn't build any houses in it. Among its other proposals, and as if there weren't enough suits there already, the government is to set up a taskforce to speed up housing delivery as they've found that despite declaring it a growth area, it hasn't really seen a massive increase in housing starts. The LDA, EP and Housing Corp will be on it. They're also increasing the housing numbers from 120,000 to 160,000, with most to be inside London's boundaries (another idea from Farrell.) It also apparently proposes the formation of a Gat...

Oh, what a let-down. Months late and keeping everyone in limbo, and then when it arrives , it doesn't really have much in it. Word on the street is generally: why didn't they coordinate the WP with the Lyons review of LG finance out in a month, and the Barker review of planning? Seems pretty daft. And also that Gordon Brown is commissioning a new study into city regions b/c he doesn't want to have them while Tony does, so that's why its so weak in that respect. Anyway, in brief: It institutes three new ways that councils can be organised - directly elected mayor, directly elected cabinet that nominates a leader with no executive powers, or councillors, cabinet and leader as now, but functioning on a 4-year cycle where everyone gets elected at once. (The others also have a 4-year term.) It supports city regions but doesn't say what they will do about it. A few councils will be allowed to apply for unitary status (Norwich has already put its name in the hat.) A lot of...

Battersea power station continues to be in the news a lot. A double spread in this week's AJ and more, prompted by rumours of new investors, arguments over the s106 agreement, and much more. Vicky Wang, (presumably daughter of the owner Victor?) gave an interview to Proerty Week this week in which she revealed that she wants to change the epmhasis from the retail-led to make the leisure aspects work harder, citing the Eden project as a precedent. they are calling it the 'Turbine Gardens' and as part of the plan, the station’s 6 acre (2.4 ha) roof will be converted into a landscaped garden and entertainment park. And apparently Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe is negotiating a deal to open a 40,000 sq ft Yo! Zone spa, including hot pools, steam rooms and massage tables. Meanwhile, according to a local residents organisation, Parkview want to change their s106 agreement, which states that the power station must be redeveloped in its entirety before anything else can be devel...

The story of the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan is quite amazing - how a tiny town in Ireland could do a groundbreaking piece of work and start weaning itself off oil. I posted about it on WorldChanging here today.

It occurred to me that I should really be posting up here when I have a piece go up on WorldChanging as y'all might be interested to read them...particularly as I have SO little time right now to blog here in any meaningful way. So - here's a quick round-up of the stuff I've written up so far. I only post once a fortnight or so and the posts tend to be on the long side (surprise!) but still, I try to think of it as keeping up the journalistic side of the blogging spectrum... I posted last on Ecoliteracy and the Edible Schoolyard. Here's a book review of Mayer Hillman's fantastic How we can save the planet . I was surprised that no-one had written it up on WC before, so did the honours. Here's one on low-carbon policies with reference to what our own dear Ken Livingstone is doing here in London. And another political one, this time on the growing debate within British politics and how green issues have suddenly gone mainstream. And finally, my first ever pos...

We really can't do anything, can we. Richard Rogers wins the Stirling Prize for a foreign airport that took about 2 days to build in comparison to the Jurassic timescale of Heathrow T5, and Thameslink 2000 has finally taken a step out of the blocks only six years after it was meant to be finished. The £3.5 billion congestion-easing rail scheme moved a step closer as the Government announced that it was giving planning permission and granting legal powers to Network Rail (NR) for the Thameslink 2000 project. However, Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman stressed that this did not amount to a final go-ahead for the scheme as the DfT was still considering the question of funding. Talk about giving with one hand, taking with the other. Well, at least that means that at my Borough Market office, we still won't have to move out for a good long while yet.

After the resignation of Lemley, there was more to set the hacks scribbling this week as it emerged that Richard Rogers has queried the designs for the Olympic Stadium, saying that it should be more 'iconic'. And this is after the ODA announced that it had appointed Team McAlpine as preferred bidder for the stadium because its submission was “the only one that met all the ODA’s prequalification criteria." The only one? That's pretty desperate. The other team members are HOK Sport and Buro Happold, for the record - and its the same team as did such a good job over at Arsenal's new home. However, it seems like they've got a massively less organised client, as they have till Christmas whether to actually take on the job as they still haven't seen a final design brief. So I'm still unclear how Rogers can crit a design that hasn't even got a brief yet. Sounds like a very British mess already. Amidst all that, it now seems that West Ham might move into th...

Well, most of this will be old news to those of you who read any press at all towards the end of last week. But forgive me, I was sick in bed and couldn't get there first. But for the record: Jack Lemley, the chair of the ODA, resigned in 'uncertain' circumstances. Everyone said nice things but the gossip is that he had differences of opinion with David Higgins, the charismatic Austrailan chief exec. Lemley was 71. Then Vince Taylor, director of implementation at the Northern Way, left the organisation by "mutual agreement" this week. He probably won't be replaced, as after Prescott's departure, the Northern Way will probably be disbanded pretty soon.

This post has been sitting unfinished for nearly two weeks. It's still unfinished, but maybe useful if you want to get the feel of the political landscape. Really its mostly about the Tories, reflecting the current zeitgeist that Labour won't be able to hold out for another term. Tory Basically, look forward to an easier ride if you want to build houses, in line with a 'competitive streamlining' of the planning system. Cameron has said that there is a social responsibility to provide more homes in rural areas. "We want to build beautiful, iconic new communities, not put the brakes on everything" said Simon Wolfson, CEO of Next but on the 'competitiveness' policy group which will report next summer. Buzzwords include "positive planning" which means assuming that development should go ahead unless there are compelling reasons to stop it, building in rural villages to supposedly ease the lack of 'local housing for local people', not to m...

Or rather, the return of the maisonette. Tres retro. In one of the most debated development sites in the London Thames Gateway, Barking Riverside consortium has come up with a proposal to build “double decker” houses so that 30% of the 10,800 units planned for the site can be three or four-bedroom family homes without depriving the site of open space. The houses would be similar to conventional maisonettes, but would have decking to provide high-level gardens, the consortium said. “There is a drive for family housing here, but it won’t all be traditional. These designs will allow us to get a lot of family housing on the site and the homes could be ideally suited for modern methods of construction.”

Everyone knows that the only way to do development now and get it through the raft of policy and guidance is to do mixed-use. Apartment blocks have retail on the ground floor, office buildings have retail on the ground floor, big schemes mix it all up with residentially-led ones still finding room for retail, offices and live-work. All in the cause of sustainability, local shops and local jobs, less travelling and less fumes. Except it seems that we haven't figured out how to masterplan and design all this new space to make it attractive to the market. About one-third of the commercial space in new mixed-use developments in London is lying empty, a report by London Development Research has revealed. Within mixed-use schemes the long-term vacancy rate for offices is 34% and 27% for shops. Short-term rates are 75% for offices and 52% for shops. The research covers schemes that have been finished for between six months and five-and-a-half years. The report calculates that a quarter of...

Surely some mistake. Getting rid of use classes would basically mean no planning at all. The Tories have been talking about slimming down planning but this is the most radical yet. Michael Gove, the Tories’ housing spokesperson, told a fringe event organised by CABE that the system of “use class orders” should be scrapped to give commercial and residential projects the same planning status. Gove’s proposals would mean that developers would no longer have to submit a planning application if they wanted to change the use of a building from commercial to residential. Gove said scrapping the distinction between the two uses was a logical response to the lack of demand for commercial space. He said: “I am very attracted to the idea of abolishing use class orders and the distinction between commercial and residential. At the moment, we have hundreds of thousands of square metres of office space that is empty." He said circumstances had changed since the late eigh...

A planning appeal to build more than 570 homes in Purfleet, Essex, has been rejected by Ruth Kelly on design grounds. Wimpey appealed against Thurrock Borough Council's failure to grant permission for the homes, as well as public space and a river walkway, but after a public inquiry Kelly has upheld the refusal, stating that the site should instead make way for a future "world-leading" development. She notes that the site would be "highly conspicuous", lying at "the gateway to the [Thames] Gateway" and whatever development takes place on it should be of "high design quality". The decision was taken following design advice provided by CABE. A spokeswoman from Wimpey said: "We are looking at the implications of the decision before planning any next steps." The company has already secured an earlier permission for 504 homes on the site. Update: I just read that this scheme is designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, a well-known design firm...

...who have been awarded this year's RIBA Gold Medal.

Argent and Camden have finally thrashed out a deal on all Section 106 agreements for the £2bn Kings Cross rail lands scheme. Peter Bishop said: ‘We have established all Section 106 agreements, and we will be signing in November. It’s been a great accomplishment steering a scheme as complex as King’s Cross through the minefields of community and political process, and doing so without a public inquiry. ‘It will be a futuristic scheme, especially in terms of public access – it will really buck the trend.’ Argent has been bracing itself for a judicial review following a campaign by local residents who claimed Camden council’s handling of the affordable housing was ‘flawed’. It was originally thought that the allocation for affordable housing was too small, but evidently an acceptable new agreement has been reached.

We've had UDCs and URCs, so now get ready for CDCs. The new regeneration companies are set to be included in the overdue local government white paper that is due out this autumn. They will be city-wide organisations with a focus on economic rather than physical regeneration, and are supposedly based on Creative Sheffield, the body set up when the Sheffield URC and investment agencies merged. Apparently they will be asset-owning but apart from that, work in a similar way to URCs. Meanwhile, Ruth Kelly endorsed Greater Manchester's plans for a city-regional governmental structure with a cabinet, which will also go into the white paper.

It has emerged that only 2% of Stratford City's energy needs will be met by renewables on-site, as compared to the 10% required by the London Plan. They got away with it because the scheme was submitted for planning permission before the Plan came into force in 2004. Newham, which was allowed to retain control over the Stratford area, is now pushing Westfield to up its targets, as it submitted a new planning application this May, but I'm sure it won't be easy. Quintain have selected Bellway Homes, with Stock Woolstencroft and Whitelaw Turkington landscape architects, as their residential partner for the Greenwich Peninsula first phase - 229 flats on the southern part of the site. While out in Ashford, CPRE is stirring up trouble again, claiming that jobs growht has not been fast enough to justify the housing numbers proposed, which will therefore become "an enormous, sprawling hosing estate, all of whose population trawl up to work each day on the Channel Tunnel Rail L...

Ooh, CABE get tough with MAKE architects. Their Cube project in Birmingham has been labelled 'claustrophobic' and 'uncomfortable' in its attempts to make a large genuinely mixed-use building actually work. They've ended up with lots of single-aspect apartments in their very deep plan. And a proposed 36 storey tower by Mersey Property on the Liverpool waterfront has been slammed for being 'joyless'. The quango also added that the site may not be suitable for a tall building: "the northern cluster may be adjacent to the site, but it is cut off physically...it will not be understood the same way at street level." But MP is still confident of getting planning.

Conference season has seen an outpouring of love for going green. From the gushingly green David Cameron, to the pragmatically green Lib Dems, to Ken's bold announcement about only funding carbon-neutral housing in London, to Miliband's speech which again raised the prospect of Meyer Hillman-style personal carbon credit cards, to the TCPA and Friends of the Earth's mock Planning Policy Statement on climate change (backed by - oh, most everyone, as lending 'support' is such an easy thing to do) which promptly meant that Yvette Cooper announced that she would bring out a real one, it's all over us like a rash. Cooper also said that all housing 'must' move to be zero-carbon - "it is going to be a challenge but ultimately we don't have much of a choice" - although craftily gave no timetable. Jon Rouse said that improvement were needed over a 8-10 year period. So basically, it doesn't take Ken to tell us that the environment will dominate...

And I don't mean the collapse of the crane at the huge and ugly Barratts development down there. Last week it emerged that Parkview are in talks to sell a controlling stake in the power station development to Treasury Holdings, an Irish developer. Treasury has apparently been getting Foster & Partners to draw up alternative plans for the site, with more housing to make it commercially viable. Meanwhile, Richard Rogers had an 'informal' meeting with Parkview recently. Watch this space.

And it's not Will Alsop & Paul Finch. Nor Ricky Burdett - losing his place at the top of the GLA design tree. Its Peter Bishop - currently Camden's director of culture and environment, all round nice guy, and the hot tip since last week. He's expected to take up position in December.

The shortlist for the development partner at Stratford (after L&CR took back control of the non-retail areas) is down to two: Bougyues (with Barratt) and Lend Lease (with East Thmaes Group and First Base). The winner will be announced in the next two months. Herzog and de Meuron have received planning permission for their first housing scheme in the UKK. After Greengate House in Plaistow fell through rather disastrously last year, Poplar HARCA contacted H&dM and now they've got planning for four buildings totalling 36 residential units and a medical centre. The shortlist for Ken's model zero-carbon development at Gallion's Reach has been announced: L&Q Group; Guinness Trust with Gallions Housing; Crest/Bioregional/Quintain (my hot tip?); Metropolitan/J Leon (who?); Bellway/Genesis Housing Group; and Lend Lease/First Base (another hot tip, I would have thought). Technorati Tags: l&cr , london , olympics , stratford

Look out, housing associations! Or, as may be, look out, people in need of affordable housing! Ken got so bowled over by being next to Bill Clinton that he said that he won't fund any more 'polluting public sector homes', ever. That is to say, when he gets control of London's housing budget (set to be approved by Parliament soon) he is going to demand new homes that are as near carbon-neutral as possible. "I intend to bring the architects and the housing association people in and say we're not going to allocate that money to any new home for construction that isn't absolutely state of the art. If you want a commitment from me at this conference it's that that three billion dollars won't subsidise another polluting public sector home in London." Technorati Tags: housing , green , london

Late notice I know, but executive editor of Worldchanging.com (where I write nearly as infrequently as here right now!) Alex Steffen is in London at the moment and we're having a meetup of readers, potential writers and anyone else who's curious this Sunday. We'll be drinking-in-residence at the Crown on Clerkenwell Green from around 2-6, so please come along! Any questions, leave me a comment.

Late notice I know, but executive editor of Worldchanging.com (where I write nearly as infrequently as here right now!) Alex Steffen is in London at the moment and we're having a meetup of readers, potential writers and anyone else who's curious this Sunday. We'll be drinking-in-residence at the Crown on Clerkenwell Green from around 2-6, do do come along! Any questions, leave me a comment.

Now that the British Pavilion has run out of 'Pride of Sheffield' real ale, the Japanese pavilion has run out of its exquisite catalogues, and most of the original builders/occupants of the French Pavilion have packed their bags and left, it seems like a good time to ponder the highlights and low-points of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale. I was there last weekend. I missed the Japanese catalogue, drank the last of Britain's real ale supply, and had dinner with the French. I imagine that the various pavilions and exhibitions are seen in a rather different light after the superstars and the press have decamped than how they are seen during the frenzy of the opening weekend: The AF/MoMa's 'venice super blog' http://www.venicesuperblog.net would have us believe that the festival of celebrating white-haired men and getting sloshed whilst talking in very serious tones about population destiny continues apace, but the truth is that the two sites, Arsenale...

The Housing Corporation has launched a new initiative for design quality in the Gateway by appointing Tim Williams (former adviser to Miliband and ex-chief exec of the LTGSP) to chair a commission. He's going to collaborate with CABE, local authorities and everyone else to provide a 'guide to the Corporation's expectations' of quality for homes they will fund. This is linked to a fundamental review of the Corp's Scheme Development Standards, the space and design standards to which every HC-funded development must adhere and so this initiative may actually be pretty useful, coming a day after CABE said yet again that almost all new housing in this country is badly designed. "By agreeing with providers and planners the expectations of the Housing Corporation upfront, we will ensure we get quality affordable housing across the board rather than the regular trickle of average schemes through section 106s that seek waivers from our standards." Quite right too....

My walk to work is really going to change over the next few years. Allies and Morrison have released images of their new skyscraper for Great Portland Estates, which has just gone in for planning. It will be on Bishopsgate just south of Camomile St, replacing some existing stuff, and includes a nice corporate plaza which they claim will be an "active public realm". And Hammerson are moving forward with Foster & Partners to develop yet more of the north side of the City, actually breaking the boundary by buying some land off cash-strapped Hackney to add to their Norton Folgate sites. They've stuck with Fosters (who designed their controversial Bishops Square development just down the road). Expect a 40 storey tower which, interestingly, will have not only offices, but a hotel and apartments on top. They've also got the Bishopsgate Goodsyard to come, to complete their monopoly over the northern City Fringe.

Phew! There's going to be a Waitrose in Statford City . Sighs of relief from estate agents all round. And a John Lewis too, so all those new residents can stock up on good quality basics for their flats without going to IKEA at Brent Cross. How convenient. On to more serious news. The ODA has formally assumed its role as planning authority for the Olympic zone. But Newham has won the right to determine the first phase of Stratford City despite it being within the Olympic Park, and is still 'negotiating' with the ODA about the second phase. I saw some drawings the other day of the Park and it seems to have shrunk rather a lot from the glorious panoramas that we saw around the time of the bid. There's been a huge furore over Eurostar's decision to massivly cut services that stop at Ashford in favour of Ebbsfleet, and also to not stop at Stratford when St Pancras becomes operational next year. I'll go more into detail in another post, but basically everyone's h...

For some reason two long-ish draft posts got deleted by my system. Suffice to say I can't be bothered to research and write them again. Ephemera that was probably boring anyway. Well, today's round-up contains: Ruth Kelly has challenged developers to beat the standards of Scandinavian housing within the decade, with regard to energy efficiency and carbon neutrality. Well, maybe they'll beat the Scandis standards of today in ten years...but by that time the original energy-saving blondes will have moved onto houses that probably eat carbon for breakfast, rather than emitting any. Is it groundhog day? CABE says that housebuilders are still failing on quality but get planning permission anyway. Apparently just six percent of new housing is 'good' or 'very good' under their measures and despite some design champions being appointed, they are "not being listened too", which comes as a shock. Meanwhile CABE itself has been missing targets: BD reports th...

A lovely picture of all the boats to pass London Bridge in an hour, in one montage. Apparently the number of passengers transported on the river has gone up by 44% since 1999, to 2.4 million a year. Weirdly, the blogs are all linking to this via the Daily Mail (eugh). In other news, (hello, sorry for not blogging) I went to Scotland for a week of gorgeous hermit-dom; sailing (into the Atlantic, no less! Needless to say I wasn't actually *doing* the sailing), walking, eating, reading (six books: intellectual nourishment.) I will be off to the Venice Biennale in a few weeks, trying to avoid the crowds and actually enjoy being in Venice. Autumn has come to London with an unexpected Indian summer punctuated by downpours. Arsenal win in Europe and not at home.

I've been away for ten days to a place without email, where regeneration starts sounding like the silly word it really is and where the local village (of 60 people) has been trying to get a project to build a new shop off the ground for about a decade. Where the local post office is totally unsigned, and run out of a freezing room in a decaying stone mansion by the batty maiden survivor of the dynasty, alongside her dogs, rabbits and birds. Yet, because this is the British Isles, in the pub people discuss how they can get broadband, and the local smokehouse sells to Harrods. The face of rural Scotland. There was only one really significant piece of 'real news' while I was away in what the Guardina calls the "booming Highlands" . Us Londoners have a newly Ken-ized Overground rail service (why, oh why, not just call it a tube? it will run every 8 mins, just like the Circle line) which will actually help people in London get around. And I will be able to get from my...

OK. It really is silly season, despite the plethora of what should be important news stories (bomb plots, wars, etc). Because the Tories have seized the moment to launch a Five-Point Plan on suburban back gardens. Yes, really, and it is Friday. Apparently, without King David to protect us, our back gardens will be taxed, or stolen from us to build 'pokey flats' on. And bless'em, they even want to help out the nation of DIY-lovers with this little tidbit: "Stop new taxes being levied on home improvements and gardens". Just in time for B&Q's summer sale. Labour's hit back hard. claiming that 'Tory policy would make it harder for people to...build extensions." So no tasteless conservatories under the Notting Hill Tories, then.

Kansas City has a great new idea to mix the need for sustainable urban drainage with citizen participation for minimal effort: 10,000 Rain Gardens . Basically, it aims to get residents to create 'rain gardens' that hold stormwater - as small as a few square metres - and help the massive problems of drainage that the city has. Easy - and made even easier by the website which has easy how-to guides on making one, equipment suppliers if you want to install a rainwater butt or buy native plants, and a list of professionals who can make one for you if you don't have the time: alongside workshops, festivals, and a picture gallery of completed projects. I bet the whole scheme costs nothing - the price of a few metres of municipal stormwater drain installation in a busy road. I'd like to see every city have a scheme like this.

A great post from my mate Lucy on planning post-Katrina and the farce of 'democracy' that it involves. Particularly good on the self-presentation skills of New Urbanist Andres Duany, who skilfully manages to seem like the good guy in comparison to all the rest, despite his backstory of designing pastiche developments exclusively for the white and rich. really worth reading for all interested in 'participation' - it is extreme, but weirdly not that far at all from what happens here in the name of 'community' involvement. Which brings me onto another good post from Kevin Harris which continues his musings about the real nature of the 'neighbourhood governance' that our government is so keen on. Otherwise, if I was to be more cynical than I'm allowed to be normally, known as 'poor people should get off their asses and help themselves'. Volunteering is a measure of good citizenship, especially if you are a single mother on a sink estate. "...

I like things to do with identity: at GPA we work on this theme a lot; even to the point of saying maybe it is the basis of our whole approach. therefore lovely to see the BBC's online survey of Britain's unsung landmarks, as nominated by readers. All the things that don't make it inot tourist brochures, that by some supposed measure of 'value' are 'ordinary', 'ugly' or 'boring' - yet which make us feel that a place is special. Cooling towers, pylons, and fantastic testimony from individuals: "I love the Runcorn chemical works. When I was a kid we often used to drive past it at night (on our way back from a holiday in Wales). I asked my father what it was - then decided I wanted to be a chemist so that I could work there. Twenty years later I have a degree in chemistry and am on my way to a PhD - all I need now is the job."

An interesting point has been raised in relation to the now-compulsory design and access statements for all planning applications. Brian Waters, joint editor of Planning in London, thinks that they will lead to even further 'dumbing-down' of planning staff within LAs. He reckons that planners are losing the skills to evaluate design quality through a tick-box approach that codifies 'good' quality rather than relying on good judgement. Its a really universal problem: on the one hand 'good judgement' for one person is another person's stupid personal opinion; on the other hand, quality isn't just about ticking certain boxes: it isn't a quantifiable thing. I have to admit that I thought the design statements were a good thing but clearly, as with all these statements (EIAs, anyone?) a clever person can write a convincing-sounding design statement for a poor scheme. Planners still need to exercise judgement, comparing the written statement with the actua...

Judith Armitt , current chief exec of Medway Council, has taken up the potentially poisoned chalice of becoming DCLG's Thames Gateway chief executive. She's meant to co-ordinate - well, pretty much everything in the nightmare of multiple agencies, crazy target-setting, floodplains and greenfields. Despite the six-figure salary I'm not sure how many people really wanted that job. Apparently she's one of CABE chief Richard Simmons' life mentors . Meanwhile, DCLG is set to reveal the results of its recent decision to actually strategise for the area. A discussion document is currently circulating and a draft strategy will be unveiled for broader consultation next month, including a delivery strategy (hooray!) and an economic development strategy (what? haven't they already had one?). And after three years of negotiations and public inquiry, DCLG has said that it will approve the massive development of Shellhaven, in Thurrock, as a deep water container port and bu...

Last week the CPRE (who really seem to be rarely out of the news these days) published yet another report in which 'experts' voiced 'fears' over the amount of housing not being built on brownfield land. It is pretty clever, taking stats from official public sources and using them to prove that many TG boroughs are failing to meet governmetn targets for density and brownfield development. But in so explicitly calling for 'density', they've found themselves up against an unlikely mix of major housebuilders and homelessness charities all calling for more family housing to address the real needs of the population. The fact is (as I always love to bore people with) if you measured density in habitable rooms rather than dwellings, this issue would immediately vanish as it would be remove the incentive for housebuilders to build one-bedroom flats. Adam Sampson, director of Shelter , said: "Maximising brownfield development and high density building are crucia...

News from the Lower Lea: Lorraine Baldry, the chair of the LTGDC, has been unveiled as also the chair of the new Olympic Planning Committee. The rest of the committee consists of a somewhat odd group of people - basically the portfolio holder councillors from the five boroughs, plus some other randoms (William Hodgson, a Hackney-based architect - anyone heard of him?!). Full list: David Taylor, co-founder of Silvertown Quays Limited, in the role of deputy chairman (an ODA board member as well as Baldry) Rofique Ahmed, councillor with Tower Hamlets Council Conor McAuley, councillor with Newham Council Geoff Taylor, councillor with Hackney Council Terry Wheeler, councillor with Waltham Forest Mike Appleton, director with regeneration company Cibitas Celia Carrington, deputy chief executive of Swindon Council William Hodgson, a Hackney-based architect Janice Morphet, visiting professor of Planning at the Bartlett Dru Vesty, board member of the LTGDC And the ODA and L&CR have announced...

Now the seaman from Hull is no longer at the helm at DCLG, it looks like the 'flagship' Northern Way programme is going to follow him into an unofficial retirement. Director of Implementation Vince Taylor has let on that he is working on the potential dismantlement of the programme after the end of this period of funding, in 2008. He also said that the Northern Way will not be receiveing any further funding after the spending review. Basically it looks like the northern RDA's will take the initiative in-house, i.e. killing it off but trying to retain some of its priorities about cross-regional working. The whole thing was launched just under two years ago as a "groundbreaking vision for economic renaissance" with £100m of funding. Hey ho, what has it achieved? From the annual report published this month: "The Northern Way has made significant progress since its inception. Highlights include: • Establishing the Northern Transport Compact to provide a unified ...

The excellent blog Diamond Geezer is perhaps too rare an entrant onto these pages (not being solely about regeneration and building stuff, yawn), but for anyone interested in a thoughtful and observant take on London's past and future, he's always good. But living as he does on the edge of the Olympics zone, he's been keeping a particularly beady eye on the changes (or lack of) there. Here's his response to the recently published Olympics Delivery Programme . The weary tone is a true and funny expression of what I sense a lot of people still feel about the whole thing, and will do until the legacy programme gets into gear.