All articles by Martin Spring – Page 16
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FeaturesSink or swim: DQI on test at Darlaston Pool
As The DQI building appraisal system uses similar criteria to those used in Building's "Building revisited" series, Building decided to return the complement. Here the DQI is itself appraised in one of its pilot projects, a post-occupancy appraisal providing feedback from a recently completed building. This is the award-winning Darlaston ...
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Comment
Architecture without tears
In that holy trinity of any building project – cost, time and quality – it is quality that causes the longest lasting headaches. Once a building is completed and worries over cost and time have subsided, it is quality, or the lack of it, that the client, facilities manager and ...
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FeaturesHow to Account for taste
Can you give a building marks for design quality? The Construction Industry Council says yes, and has devised a system to do it. Martin Spring explains this 'design quality indicator' and assesses how well it sums up Hodder Associates' Walsall swimming pool.
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News
Research funding under review
The funding system for building and architectural research in universities was put under the spotlight this week over accusations of unfairness.
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FeaturesA man with a plan
The London Plan, which explains how the capital will cope with a population growth of 10% in 15 years, is Ken Livingstone's big chance to make a difference. But, asks Martin Spring, can he overcome five fundamental barriers to making the vision a reality?
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News
CIC launches design indicators
The Construction Industry Council and the government will launch a new tool next month to assess the design and quality of buildings.
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FeaturesArt for art's sake
Exposed, geometric concrete is making a comeback in Sheffield with an award-winning complex of artists' studios designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley. But, wonders Martin Spring, will it stand the test of time?
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FeaturesBest of British
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is making life better for thousands of people – and no, it's not handing out free chocolate. Foundation director Lord Best told Martin Spring about his organisation's innovative plans to tackle the housing crisis.
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FeaturesThe glass oasis
One of the IRA's unsolicited gifts to Manchester was a bombed out, wind-scoured, traffic-ridden wasteland. Martin Spring finds out how the architect turned it into Britain's dearest block of flats outside London.
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FeaturesGo on my sun
Over the past decade, countries such as Germany and the Netherlands have been harnessing solar energy through photovoltaic panels that produce electricity all year round, even on cloudy days. Now, as part of the government's commitment to develop the UK's renewable energy, the state will pay half the ...
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FeaturesTwisted Genius
Dizzy, Swirling, baroque, voluptuous, democratic, freakish, logical, contrversial, sustainable ... or in other words, welcom to Foster and Partners' GLA building.
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FeaturesThe beautiful games
As the England football squad prepares to fly out to Japan for the World Cup, Building was given a sneak preview of three of the country's spectacular new stadiums built for the tournament.
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NewsSOM makes London its European headquarters
Staff numbers double as US architectural giant makes London office focus of European ambitions.
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FeaturesManchester’s new slant
Buoyed by regeneration cash and the impending Commonwealth Games, Manchester council is about to complete an ambitious series of civic projects. Martin Spring took a look at the three jewels in the city’s crown.
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FeaturesUrbis – museum of the city
A huge iceberg – glistening, green and translucent – has incongruously floated into Manchester city centre. This is Urbis, Manchester's £30m millennium project and the culmination of the city centre's phoenix-like rebirth after the devastation of the IRA bomb in 1996. Due to open in June, it has been designed ...
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FeaturesCity of Manchester Stadium
It's the roller-coaster roof, visible from miles around, that is the big giveaway. Manchester's £110m stadium, designed by Arup and Arup Associates, is Britain's answer to the Stade de France, north of Paris, completed in 1997. It has a similar lightweight canopy that swoops up and down over the stands ...
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FeaturesManchester Art Gallery
Designed by Michael Hopkins & Partners, the £35m extension to the rear of Manchester's classical art gallery is a perfect fit. Before the extension was built, the gallery comprised two free-standing stone buildings designed in the classical style by Charles Barry, the architect of the Palace of Westminster. In contrast, ...
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FeaturesDavid Mackay
The architect who played a key role in making Barcelona the best-designed city in Europe is not trying to bring the Catalan touch here. We already have it – all we need to add is great design, civic pride and public money.
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FeaturesBright sparks
Kings Avenue School in Lambeth, south London, with its vivid colours and inclusive approach to special needs education, offers Martin Spring an inspiring glimpse into a possible future of Britain's schools.
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FeaturesAnd then there were three …
The fitting-out of the towers at either side of One Canada Square has completed the plan to make Canary Wharf into Manhattan-on-Thames