In brief: China, Alsop, Prescott Lock and other stuff.

Apparently China no longer wants European architects indulging ego-trips on big budgets: ‘Some foreign architects are divorced from China’s national conditions and single-mindedly pursue novelty, oddity and uniqueness.’ The Chinese Construction Ministry has announced new guidelines to stop government officials commissioning public buildings that waste money and electricity.

Will Alsop and his long-term collaborator, artist Bruce McLean, are designing a £90m office block artwork. Hmm. The 43 floor building on Old St roundabout contains a business centre, apartments, a hotel and fitness centre, but also has 15 floors for a self-storage facility and so would not require conventional fenestration, thereby providing a large “blank canvas” for McLean.

Prescott Lock (not named after Two-Jags) is being re-engineered as a linchpin of the Lea Valley 'water city' concept, as well as helping the ODA meet a target of transporting 50% of its materials sustainably [however that's defined] by allowing deeper-draft barges further up the Bow Back Rivers.

Paul King, formerly of the WWF, and who oversaw its One Million Sustainable Homes initiative and the One Planet Living campaign, is to become the new chief exec of the UK Green Building Council.

The new Communities England agency is to drop the land purchasing aspects of EP, which it replaces. It will apparently focus on helping landowners bring “difficult” sites to market.

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