bottom drawer

A shameless long quote from this week's column by Ian Martin, via BD. My preliminary research turns up an interesting report from the Georgian Healing Collective. It interviewed two groups of people: one living in a Wolverhampton slab block, the other in the Royal Crescent, Bath. Although inconclusive - some of the residents in Bath are only there at weekends - the results were startling. Those living in the Georgian houses seemed much more pleased with themselves than the Wolverhampton housing association tenants. Executive summary: Britain needs more 18th century houses.

Queen's Market in Newham has been the subject of research by the New Economics Foundation, conducted as Newham Council plans to sell the market site for redevelopment as a mixed-use scheme with attendant Asda. Their research, found via R&R , concludes that the street market is more economically beneficial, providing more than double the employed people per 10sq metres than a typical supermarket. The fresh produce at the market is also 52% cheaper than the similar goods at Asda. Additionally, and similarly unsurprisingly, the report highlights the cultural draw of markets- more than can be said for your average chain supermarket.

The DCLG has announced the full responsibilities of its new ministers following the reshuffle. Amazingly, it's now an all-female department apart from the lovely Phil Woolas. And there's a newbie in Meg Munn who, amongst other things, is now responsible for gypsies. The first thing I thought of was Keats' poem Meg Merrilees which begins 'Old Meg she was a gypsy, and lived upon the moor." Strange of me, I know. The full list is as follows: Ruth Kelly MP- Secretary of state for communities and local government and minister for women - Overall responsibility for the Department. Phil Woolas MP - Minister for local government and community cohesion - Local government policy; local government finance; neighbourhood renewal; supporting people, community cohesion and faith; fire and civil resilience; cities. Yvette Cooper MP - Minister for housing and planning - Housing; planning; planning Casework; urban policy; growth areas; Thames Gateway; building regulations; governm...

24dash.com announces the provisional shortlist for the government's Super Casino, to be whittled down to 1 by the 'Casino Advisory Panel'. They are: Blackpool, Brent, Cardiff, Glasgow, Greenwich, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. A further 31 local authorities will be permitted to host large/small (not super!) casinos: Bath & NE Somerset; Bournemouth; Brighton; Canterbury; Chelmsford; Dartford; Dudley; Dumfries and Galloway; East Lindsey; Gt Yarmouth; Hastings; Hull; Leeds; Leicester; Luton; Mansfield; Middlesbrough; Milton Keynes; Newham; N E Lincs; Peterborough; Restormel; Scarborough; Sefton; Solihull; Southampton; South Tyneside; Swansea; Thurrock; Torbay; Wolverhampton. The shortlist now enters a consultation phase until 28th June. RDAs and members of the public are asked to have their say about the choice of locations in time for the final list.

June 9th is my new Jan 1st. Until then as you may have noticed, I'm head down, struggling to breathe under the tide of stress that accompanies trying to finish a thesis project to get my diploma in architecture when I haven't really done any work all year. After June 9th, I resolve: To get direct sunlight on my skin every day To find out if I still have any friends out there To clean my flat regularly and not live like a pig To go to art galleries and cultural events To blog regularly again (isn't this the 21st century equivalent of saying 'this year I promise to write my diary every day'?) To cook dinner at least three times a week To eat breakfast at home rather than paying money for crap To be nicer to my boyfriend To read books Never to go back to architecture school again.

Any possible remaining respect I had for George 'Moonbat' Monbiot as an intelligent being just evaporated, on reading his shrill and hopelessly wrong-headed tirade in today's Guardian about second home owners. I can't be bothered to go to the effort of sensibly refuting the points he makes. I just wish the man would do some research and try to actually understand the issues before spewing forth a thousand words on the subject. It is supremely irritating to find someone who cares about the right issues (affordable housing, rural community life) yet manages to go about suggesting 'solutions' that are completely lunatic: divisive, childish and playing right into the hands of those on the opposite bench. Someone kick the soapbox from under his feet, please.

Research out today from the DCLG (still getting used to that acronym!) is really interesting, and to me, quite a shock. It shows quite how few developments actually involve any sort of section 106 agreement to offset their commercial gain by contributing to the public good. 60 per cent of medium and large residential sites and 90 per cent of smaller sites, and an amazing 79 per cent of retail developments and 88 per cent of industrial applications have no s106 obligations attached to their planning permissions. That's incredibly low in my opinion. And the value of the s106 agreements that are made only added up to £2bn in 2003/04. - not very much, and to put that in more comprehensible figures, the average value per agreement was as follows: Affordable housing has the highest average at just under £250,000, followed by education (£118,000), transport and travel (£83,000), community and leisure (£59,000) and open space (£25,000). Given the amount of money that is being made by thes...

David's choice of the week's news... One in three London architects from overseas A survey conducted by BD suggests that a third of all architects in London are from outside the UK. This is no surprise to anyone who works here. Even more diverse, I would suggest, are the capitals architecture schools. Welsh Health Bonanza BD also reports on a £1.7bn framework agreement from Welsh Health Estates, 'Designed for Life'. 'Trafalgar Square' for King's Cross Ian Ritchie Architects are busy writing the brief for a major new public space in front of King's Cross, a development which stretches from the British Library to the Lighthouse building. It will apparently be the largest public space "carved out of London" since Trafalgar Square. Goodness knows the place needs it. The area is currently only good for extreme cycling (one on one combat with taxis, lost pedestrians, and bendy buses). Biennale Pavilions Chetwood Associates and David Morley Architects...

Interesting speech ( full text ) last night by Cooper about the government's commitment to greener and more energy-saving development. She praised the local authorities that are already doing good suff (like Merton with its famous 10% rule for renewable energy in new developments), saying that if all local authorities took the measures that the best are doing, Britain's energy use would fall by a fifth. She also announced as expected that the next stage of the Design for Manufacture competition (otherwise known as the £60,000 house) will be for zero-carbon and low-cost homes. Interestingly, I have been involved with a project at London Metropolitan University which this year has been getting students to design exactly that - a £60k, carbon-neutral house design. And she also said that they are undertaking feasibility work to see how to "make the Thames Gateway a low carbon development area and to move towards carbon neutrality." I think its fascinating how green issues...

The hot topic of the day. The long-awaited report from the Commission on Affordable Rural Housing has come out and has been all over the media today. If you haven't read it, the whole thing can be downloaded here . the main headlines: we need to be building 11,000 affordable homes a year in villages and small towns, 30,000 affordable homes a year altogether in rural areas, rural exception sites should be exempt from paying a planning gain supplement, and Natoinal Park authorities should take on some of the moral and economic responsibility for building affordable rural homes. I feel that my head is too deeply in this debate (I'm in the middle of completing a speculative project about low-impact new sustainable communities in the countryside) that I can hardly comment. There's nothing so surprising about these findings, as is usual, but it is how this new housing takes physical shape, and what kind of future it embodies in terms of social structures, working patterns, econom...

Sorry for lack of posts. Life is hectic. June will be better! But a few interesting bits and pieces around, aside from continual Ruth Kelly-watching as she gets into her stride at the DCLG. The draft planning guidance for the Lower Lea has been released , setting out the strategic framework for the areas around the Olympics site. It said up to 173ha of industrial land could be provide between 30,000 and 40,000 homes, as well as retaining some industrial facilities. Landowners, developers, funding and delivery agencies, and local councils, will be expected to incorporate the development principles into their plans. At least 44 per cent of the new homes should be family housing, with 50 per cent of the overall provision affordable. The plan outlines the transformation of the valley into a "water city" through the enhancement and extension of existing waterways. It also suggested a system for pooling planning gain receipts to spend on transport, and also possibly to education, h...

The AJ is sooo behind the times. Today they report (for subscribers only) that Tom Heatherwick has 'dramatically' replaced Wilkinson Eyre on the Lea bridge from the Leamouth peninsula site being developed by Ballymore to Canning Town centre. I was told back in March by Fred Manson that he'd been working on the bridge with Heatherwick, in his new role as associate director or somesuch with Heatherwick's studio. I would have reported it on the blog then if I'd have thought it was actually news. Hey, Ballymore probably thought a curling-up bridge would be a great idea to stop the Canning Town scallies getting into their swish gated - no, moated - development...

Tuesday: we all wake up to the Today programme and Ruth Kelly telling us how 'social housing will be my personal priority' and how she will 'root out' those NIMBYs who oppose new housing in their neighbourhoods. She says that she wants an end to the culture of householders being "protective of their own space" and raising objections to social housing developments near their homes. All in the context of housing being apparently a major factor in the BNP success in Barking and DAgenham. About which I hope to post in more detail in a bit (given that B&D is one of the major sites for the Thames Gateway carpet of commuter homes). Thursday: it comes out that actually Kelly opposed new social housing in her own back yard. Just last week she opposed the building of a new social housing development in Bolton for poor families and has opposed around 1600 new homes in total. Whoops. Evidently she has inherited a propensity for embarrassing mistakes from Prezza...

Obviously the big topic over the weekend was what the Cabinet reshuffle means for planning and the many huge regeneration schemes in progress all over the country, directly affecting the lives of millions of people. I was a bit annoyed to talk to someone who works at the Foregin Office on Saturday who glibly mentioned that he thought the ODPM 'didn't really do much'. What?? It may be hopelessly inefficient (just like the FO) but it really does impact on people's lives in a way few departments do, I would say. Well, now its the Department for Communities and Local Government, now it's Ruth Kelly not Prezza - and what have we got in store? The DCLG strangely has expanded responsibilities but less cabinet ministers. Its new remit includes Home Office community and civic responsibilities alonside race, faith and gender policy stuff that's being consolidated from across several different departments. Tellingly, although it gets some Home Office portfolios, it does n...

My fellow Tower Hamlets-blogger and Arsenal fan Diamond Geezer puts it much better than I can: Who'd want to live in one of the poorest boroughs in the country? Well, me for a start. But there are deep-seated problems here regarding poverty, community services and unemployment, so any local council has its work cut out trying to give the poorest residents a leg-up. The Liberals ran the borough back in the early 90s, while more recently Labour has had overall control. But this may not be the case by tomorrow morning. Come daybreak tomorrow the Respect Party may have wrested power via the ballot box, rather like their party's leader managed in the General Election last year. Yet again Tower Hamlets risks a major electoral upset, and I face living in a political experiment. I had to leave the house at 6am this morning so didn't get to vote then. Hopefully I'll be back in time to cast a vote against Galloway - but for whom? I'm not even sure I know who my local council...

Amazingly, London and Continental Railways have decided enough is enough, and sacked the developers for Stratford City. After the catfight that's been going on for the last few months, complete with takeover rumours, shoot-out auctions, Ken's dodgy ayatollah comments, and all the other stuff that makes this whole affair the greatest property soap opera running, it came through on my newsfeeds yesterday that they've served notice and are actively looking for a new developer. It's all here on Planning, but I thought y'all might want to read it without going through the annoying subscribers-only site, so I've cut-and-pasted the best bits: Landowner London & Continental Railways (LCR) has begun legal proceedings to terminate its contract with the developers on the Stratford City scheme. The consortium Stratford City Developments Limited is owned by developers Stanhope, Westfield, Multiplex and Aldersgate. LCR's decision came after the failure last week of a...

Ken Livingstone reckons Thames Water should spend its millions fixing water leaks instead of building an "energy guzzling desalination plant" in Beckton and is going to oppose the plans. The mayor believes that if the company worked to best practice in demand, supply and leakage management, it would be able to save seven times the capacity of the proposed desalination plant by 2029. Glad to see the lovely and thoroughly right-headed Sunand Prasad (of architects Penoyre and Prasad ) is going to stand for president of the RIBA . After two quite daft and actively unhelpful presidents, we hope he'll get it and restore some edge to the organisation. So far no-one else has put themselves forward, and nominations close on the 12th May. And in a really easy move, the Tories have said that they will crap lots of regeneration quangos and 'return power to local councils'. Easier said than done, and how to ensure co-ordinated strategy and delivery, who knows. Unfortunately,...

Anothe example of the generally toothless CABE flexing its muscles against a high-profile architect. One of my first year tutors many moons ago, Selina Mason (now head of design review at CABE) has called Gehry's controversial and curvy high-rise scheme for Brighton and Hove 'banal' due to the quality of the public realm. When will developers learn that at the end of the day, their schemes will fail or succeed due to the quality of the ground-level public spaces and integration with the surrounding area, no matter how glamorous the stuff above head-height may be? (from Planning , subs only)

Interesting stuff came out last week about some rural stuff. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation published a report on why affordable housing in rural areas is in such critically short supply. The report notes that house building levels have dropped by four per cent in the past three years, compared to a 19 per cent rise in urban areas, and that right to buy sales have cut the number of rented homes by 36 per cent since 1980 in rural communities. New affordable housing in rural areas now stands at just six per cent of total new stock compared with 16 per cent in urban districts. But in contrast to recent stuff coming out from the Tory party, the authors suggest that the way to solve this is through better use of empty properties, under-used farm building conversions and many other small measures. Very much in tune with what the JRF generally suggests, I think these are sensible measures but perhaps the scale of the issue, combined with other factors about the increase in demand for the rur...

Life is stil hectic so apologies for the stuttering stream of posts. But two new-ish blogs have appeared that are addressing some interesting things. It's good to see more people starting blogging on the topic of housing, development and all the rest of the regeneration stuff. At Brickonomics - written by a 'rogue housing researcher' (how rogue? how does this rogue-ish-ness manifest itself in the research?) there's a lot of good stuff about housing (surprise!) which is well worth a read. And over at this blog there is an admiral stab at a single-issue campaigning blog of which I would like to see more, and having more impact. Called 'Unlocking the potential of empty homes' it does exactly what it says on the tin - very in-depth coverage of the empty homes issue (which I do think is one of the major scandals in the debate around housing) alongside a lot of sensible suggestions about how to reform the policies that mean so very many houses lie empty around the c...