The Humble ‘Scullery’

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Matt Wood

I liked this piece by Rob Annable of Axis design Architects, based in Birmingham, which appeared on Building Design Magazine’s new Housing Blog. If you’re stuck outside BD’s

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So it’s not really a ‘Nimby Charter’ after all…

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Matt Wood

Last week the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) published an ‘Impact Asessment’ on Neighbourhood Plans and the Community Right to Build. The document is a normal part of the legislative process, and seeks to quantify the likely impact of Neighbourhood Plans and the CRTB – how much they will cost to set up and administer, how much money they will save from the public purse, how much new development will be facilitated. The authors admit they have ‘no robust evidence of what the take-up of Neighbourhood Planning will be’, so the commentary is probably of more immediate interest than the predictions of how many additional homes the initiatives will create. Continue reading →

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Nice to Meet You, Unit 11.

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Matt Wood

I had a very enjoyable trip down to ‘the Smoke’ yesterday, courtesy of Unit 11 at the University of East London School of architecture. The Unit, run by Arthur Smart and Jamie Scott-Baxter, is in its second year looking at rural sites – Holderness last year (unit11-holderness), and this year in Cumbria. The brief for my talk was ’40 Minutes on the Community Right to Build’. I was a bit daunted; I wasn’t sure we yet know enough about the CRTB to fill 40 minutes… Continue reading →

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Thatch-fest #2

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Matt Wood

My tweet-pals at HAT Projects have reminded me of Ushida Findlay’s thatched Pool House 2, near Aylesbury Vale. It’s too good to miss out. Continue reading →

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Thatch-fest!

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Matt Wood

Writing about McCreanor Lavington’s Langerak reminded me of another Dutch project we came across a couple of weeks ago at Lucas Hickman Smith while researching ‘contemporary thatch’. Bureau B&B’s ‘Entreehuis’ was published on the excellent dezeen.com. Continue reading →

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‘Rogers Dumped from Oxley Park’

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Matt Wood

Last week Buidling Design magazine covered Taylor Wimpey’s decision to abandon the last phase of their much published development at Oxley Park in Milton Keynes, designed by architectural mega-star Richard Rogers.  Their leader focussed on issues of construction and delivery, but in the article Wimpey also reported that ‘Demand for these properties has not met with our expectations’. I highlighted this in a letter published in this week’s edition. Continue reading →

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More ‘Plain English’…But Not Much!

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Matt Wood

I said I’d give some further thoughts on the government’s ‘Plain English’ guide to the Localism Bill. It certainly is easier to read than the bill itself, but neither Bill nor ‘Guide’ really tell us anything more about the Community Right Build than has already appeared in briefing papers in advance of the Bill; much less, in fact. This is all the guide has to say about the CRTB: Continue reading →

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Contemporary Farmsteads #3

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Matt Wood

If the contemporary ‘farmstead’ described in the last ‘Farmstead’ post was a bit too literal, I thought this next one might be the antidote: a project by MacCreanor Lavington published nearly ten years ago which must have made quite an impression on me, because it’s been lying there in my mental lumber-room ever since. Continue reading →

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The Community Right to Build in ‘Plain English’!

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Matt Wood

Via a Google-alert and the RUDI website*, the Government’s ‘Plain English Guide to the Localism Bill’ has been brought to my attention. Continue reading →

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Contemporary ‘Farmsteads’ #2

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Matt Wood

Before I signed off at the end of the year I was talking about contemporary ‘farmsteads’ – one of my four rural archetypes. I had it in mind to talk about how a dense grouping of dwellings laid out around a shared courtyard – perhaps like Crown Paddock described previously – could be used to raise the average density of the edge of a new settlement, and introduce some variety to it at the same time. While reading up for a future post about the Norfolk Residential Design Guide I discovered that someone’s beaten me to it… Continue reading →

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