Images: CMJN.
The Great Fen Visitor Centre is a convincing attempt to intervene in a delicate landscape that man has radically altered since the 17th century, but which nature has resolved into a stable ecosystem of great beauty and value. The Fens were marshlands drained for agriculture. Subsequently, great swathes of peat were cut from the land for both fuel and agricultural nutrient. The result now, is a series of waterways teaming with diverse wildlife.
The French Practice CMJN won a competition with this delicate proposal they liken to a precise surgical intervention that, like acupuncture, works to enhance the natural rhythms and resources of the body. Their aim is to cause minimal disruption to the site’s ecological balance, whilst restoring the landscape to work more closely with the annual cycles of rising and receding water. Read more
The city of Stoke-on-Trent’s new bus station, designed by Grimshaw, will open officially next week. The result of a competition win in 2010, it promises to become a landmark for the city.
The building is conceived as a microcosm of the very landscape in which it is located seeking to perpetuate the idea of a common identity. Read more
Photos: Daniel-Hopkinson.
The pioneering industrial city of Manchester, long past its prime as the capital of cotton, is rediscovering its mojo through interesting and sustainable architecture.
This head quarter office building, part of a mixed use development that includes retail and residential, sits squat and powerful next to a tower in a defiant kind of way; something like an ugly, powerful, but lovable bull dog might sit at its master’s feet.
That is not to say the building is ugly, far from it, but it is powerful and it exudes a kind of attitude that is entirely appropriate for its setting and its client, The Co-operative. They hang their hat on their sustainability and ethical credentials. Read more
Images: Sou Fujimoto.
One of London’s summer delights, architecturally speaking, is the the Serpentine Pavilion. This year it will be designed by the young Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Read more
Photo: Hugh Broughton Architects.
The British Antarctic Survey officially opened its latest research station today designed by Hugh Broughton Architects. The station is re-locatable, the first of its kind, and is designed to move with the ice shelf, being periodically relocated back inland rather than eventually becoming stranded on an iceberg.
Halley VI, as it is known, has taken some eight years to come to fruition, beginning as the winner of an international competition to find a modular approach to the technically complex challenge. Read more
