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Recent Posts
- A Scandinavian Approach to Social Housing in the UK
- UK Government Widens ‘City Deals’ Proposal
- Peaks and Troughs – The Unsettling Relationship Between Skyscrapers and Impending Financial Turmoil.
- New Year, Old Problems and (some) New Solutions.
- Industrial Plight – How One Midwest Town may Hold the Answer to the Regeneration of Industrial Small Town America.
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Author Archives: thebuiltenvironmentblog
A Scandinavian Approach to Social Housing in the UK
When it was announced that Swedish practice ‘White Arkitekter’ had won RIBA’s international design competition ‘House 4 Life’ in April last year for their proposal in the English town of Salford, it represented a fundamental departure from the traditional attitude toward social housing design in the … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Development, Sustainability, Urban Design
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UK Government Widens ‘City Deals’ Proposal
When one talks of ‘City Deals’ today, most people immediately see red at the thought of huge payouts in the financial services sector. However, in this case at least, the term refers to the latest incarnation of the government’s continued drive for economic growth and regeneration … Continue reading
Posted in Planning, Regeneration
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Peaks and Troughs – The Unsettling Relationship Between Skyscrapers and Impending Financial Turmoil.
In the latest iteration of an annual report by researchers at Barclays Capital last week, it has been suggested that historically, an ‘unhealthy correlation’ has tended to exist between the construction of the worlds ‘tallest’ skyscrapers and an approaching financial crash. In an interview with the BBC, the author … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Development
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New Year, Old Problems and (some) New Solutions.
The first week of 2012 is over. Having now consolidated resolutions which almost certainly won’t be maintained, it seemed like a good time to reflect on the previous year and also make some predictions and observations on the issues likely to impact the … Continue reading
Posted in Development, Planning, Regeneration
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Industrial Plight – How One Midwest Town may Hold the Answer to the Regeneration of Industrial Small Town America.
As an outsider visiting the town of Holyoke, a small town in Western Massachusetts recently, my first impressions of the town weren’t initially of its underlying socio-economic problems, but rather, of the impressive but now derelict and gradually decaying shells … Continue reading
Posted in Development, Regeneration, Sustainability
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The Problems With Reform…
When is streamlining not a good thing? Apparently, when doing so means editing a 1300 page planning policy document down to just 52. Following the publication of its review of the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the general consensus … Continue reading
Posted in Development, Planning, Sustainability
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Pulling the Plug – The Uncertain Future of Battersea Power Station.
Iconic benchmark of British industrial architecture or an archaic throwback occupying prime Central London development land? Whatever your views of the site at Battersea, although its coal-fired turbines stopped producing electricity over 25 years ago, the now derelict, Grade-II* listed power … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Development, Regeneration
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Localism and the Market – An Unsustainable Balancing Act or a Match Made in Heaven?
To those of us who have been following the progress of the government’s new localism bill passed last month, it comes as little surprise to discover that as is so often the case with all things planning related, ambiguity rules, and … Continue reading
Posted in Development, Planning, Sustainability
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The Built Environment Review 