Our Room for London - A weather(vane)

Perched on the roof edge of the Queen Elizabeth Hall our room is a weather vane. It rotates in the wind and changes its views accordingly. It celebrates the exposure to the elements, which is often kept out of cities.

Not only does the weather determine the view inside the vane, it also talks about the weather to the city. Its shiny presence reflects its surroundings, sky and city during the day, lights during the night.

The room is about views. In prevailing wind conditions, the picture window in the tail allows the lounging visitors to enjoy views onto St Paul’s cathedral. The panoramic window in its nose opens up across the river down to Big Ben to the left. When the wind changes the views change. Each stay in the vane will be determined by the conditions of the day.

Near the site of the Festival of Britain the weather vane re-enacts some of the experimental and futuristic spirit of the history behind the Southbank location.

Rumour has it that over 500 entries were submitted for the Artangel/ Living Architecture...

Special Commendation for erect architecture at Young Architect of the Year Awards

Building Design called it 'the closest-run competition in years': After 3 hours of deliberation the jury awarded us second place with a special commendation for our 'impressive body of built work'. BD quoted jury member Fran Tonkiss of the LSE: 'These are socially engaged, very useful buildings for real clients, showing great sensitivity for materials.'

We are thrilled about the commendation, which has only been awarded for the second time in the history of the YAYA.

Vote for Dexter Road APG

Local residents please get voting (Band 3 - Option C) for more funding to be allocated to works to the Adventure Playground in Dexter Road! A new canopy and an under 5s area will be added to the project. New play structures will explore the history of the site, which was heavily implicated in the Brixton Riots. The structures echo the previous urban fabric playing with issues of domesticity and public life.

Autumn impressions in Kilburn Grange Park

We went back to see the adventure playground in autumn. We found it merging into the park. Materials are weathering to become a continuation of the surroundings, structures play with bare trees and colours with autumn leaves, vistas open to enable renewed discoveries and tweak the character of spaces.
We were also excited to see the biodiversity roof of the play centre is indeed flourishing. It was designed to be an extension of the landscape. The plants now emphasize the undulation of the zinc roof edge - the manmade topography, which contains the (eventually hopefully quite) wild growth.

erect architecture presents work at Architecture Foundation

On 1 November all five finalists for the 2010 Young Architect of the Year Award will speak about their work at the Architecture Foundation. The event starts at 7pm.
The winner of the award will be announced on 4 November.

erect architecture finalists for Young Architect of the Year Award

October 7th was big: We not only won the international Making Space Children's Award, but were also shortlisted for the Young Architect of the Year Award. What a day!
Click hear for more info and the full YAYA 2010 shortlist.

Kilburn Grange Park Adventure wins international Children's Making Space Award

We are very honoured to have won the international award given every 5 years. Even more so as it is awarded by children - the very people the project was conceived with and for. We could not think of a bigger compliment for the adventure playcentre and playground. At the end of a project with much creative involvement of young people it feels like it has come full cycle.
More soon on the judging process and hopefully a link to the film the children's jury made about the selection process, which outlines their criteria for a successful project for young people.
A total of 75 schemes were submitted originating from 26 countries. Our project also received a commendation for the Making Space Architecture Award.

Planning Submitted for Streatham Common Play Space

Planning has been submitted for the proposed play space on Streatham Common! Following consultation with users of the Common and the Friends of Streatham Common a design has been developed that allows play to occur in and around the canopy of three enchanting mature oak trees.

It is also intended that the play space forms part of a wider educational experience for the mature Oak woodland.

Kennington Park consultation coming up

Public consultation for the new Adventure Playground and One O'Clock Club in Kennington Park will take place on 9th of September from 17.00 to 20.00 and on 10th and 11th of September from 10.00 to 13.00 at St Agnes Church. Come and have your say!

Notre Dame playground submitted for planning

A planning application has now been submitted for Notre Dame playground. Preceeding the submission were positive consultations with residents, which fed into our designs for a "Frankenstein" tree structure and informal landscaping. The project is part of the Play Pathfinder programme in Lambeth.

Kilburn Adventure playground shortlisted for Making Space 2010 Awards

The international award is given every 5 years to the best architecture and design project for young people. The winner will be announced during the award dinner on October 7th in Edinburgh. For more information, also on the two day conference, see Play in Scotland's website.

Topping out at Cypress Children Centre

Work Continues on Streatham Common Play Space

We have been busy surveying the trees on Streatham Common and we think it's turning out rather well; here are some of our photographs. Look out for a planning application being submitted soon.

Roly-poly at Studio in the Woods 2010

Studio in the Woods is an annual summer school, which explores architecture, landscape and importantly making. This year we traveled to the Isle of Wight where we spent the weekend - in the baking sun - rolling down (and walking up!) the hillside whilst weaving our roly-poly. Other groups' projects were a solar mirror, a wigwam, a treehouse and a horizon platform. For more reports of the event see Architecture Today, the Emap Blog or Building Design. Studio in the Woods was originally conceived by Piers Taylor of Mitchell Taylor Workshop and this year held in collaboration with the Isle of Wight Architecture Centre.

erect architecture at Streatham Big Day Out

erect architecture have been involved in the Streatham Big Day out, and have taken the opportunity of this art and cultural extravaganza to showcase our new proposal for a play space on the common.

We asked local residents to draw their dream play spaces and comment on our design for an educational play space that engages with three beautiful oak trees and the mature woodland on the East of the common.

Ideal Learning Spaces exhibition opens at Chingford Foundation School

Our exhibition in Chingford Foundation School opened yesterday with a talk to the teacher assembly, which outlined the ideas their students have for a new improved school environment.

The project was an investigation into the nature of great spaces for learning to constitute a brief for the planned renewal of the school.

On a trip to London yr7 and 6^th form students were inspired by spaces, which may lend themselves for learning. We then explored the ideas we collected to formulate ideal learning spaces and applied those proposals to improve the existing spaces within the school. The students were introduced to methods of spatial planning, aspects of architecture and learned ways of analyzing architectural situations as well as making spatial proposals. They used different techniques of working and communicating ideas such as sketches, collages and physical models – all tools of the architect or spatial designer.

The ideas and a manifesto for a new school were presented to the school in form of an exhibition as well as spatial interventions illustrating the proposals.

Adventure playground opens

Despite pouring rain a crowd gathered to storm into the playground the second the drawbridge was lowered. It was a busy and wild day exploring the new facilities. The climbing structure was the biggest hit, but first steps were made to experience and transform the site through free-running with Parkour Generations, making bird boxes as well as roof-seeding with self-built catapults.

Kilburn Grange Park Adventures opens

It is rapidly approaching completion...
The Kilburn Grange Park adventure playground and play centre will open on Saturday, 29th May.
The afternoon (12 and 4pm) will packed with treasure hunting, free running (with Parkour Generations), roof seeding (with big catapults), making things, simply exploring the facilities and much more. Come along and be adventurous!

Studio in the Woods this year on the Isle of Wight

It has always been such a great event, hence erect architecture and many other practices will again be running groups during Studio in the Woods this year. It is the intense event of the year where we all get full on stuck in and explore architecture through making of structures, which we design in reponse to the site. The event is accompanied by lectures and discussions.
Excitingly it will be hosted by the Isle of Wight Architecture Centre this year so please see their website for more details.

Keenly observed by the client, this clean-lines, no-frills glass extension to a basement flat in West London is nearing completion.

erect is now CHAS registered

It was a lot of work, but erect architecture have now been CHAS assessed and we are pleased to say that we are compliant designers. CHAS vets Health and Safety methods and procedures of professionals.

Design My Learning Space Live!

A hub of creativity and the BSEC 2010 (Building Schools Exhibition and Conference)

Students and teachers from 10 BSF schools teamed up with 10 young architecture practices to explore design ideas. The event was organised by Surface to Air in conjunction with EC Harris, Building Magazine and the RIBA Young Practitioners Panel.

Together with six keen students from Hounslow Manor School we explored the school’s ambitious brief focusing on accommodating different learning styles and facilitating communication within the school and with the wider community. Our design looked at:

- adaptable teaching spaces suitable for different group sizes and types of learning, with display opportunities to communicate ideas and project outcomes

- active circulation zones with small-scale learning and break-out spaces

- a generous and centrally located hub and meeting/studying space housing different functions for school and wider community, from e-learning café, event space to everyday study zones

- a welcoming entrance area communicating the school’s ethos and

- external spaces inspiring outdoor learning and socialising and offering a range of creative, healthy living activities for break and lesson time.

The jury highly commended our designs and we enjoyed a bottle of champagne after a fun, hectic, full-on day in the Excel Centre.

The builders call it 'The Crooked House'

The name becomes gradually more obvious as the steelwork proceeds. Once the new dormer is in the crooked house will be properly crooked.

Kilburn climbing frame taking shape

Bold and daring in areas, cozy and hidden in others such as the birdsnest hidden in the yew tree (skeleton visible above): The big climbing structure in the Kilburn Grange Park Adventure Playground is taking shape. The structures are exploring playing in and under trees. The big climbing tree will be craned in next week... See also for weekly updates on flickr.

Kilburn play centre celebrates topping up

Though we seem to have missed the actual ceremony (was there one?), we are very excited to see the new play centre now progressing fast. It was great to enter the fully enclosed building for the first time and seeing all these thoughts built, the space is alive! For weekly updates on the entire site and external views see also the link on flickr.

Cyress Children Centre on site

Works for the Cypress Children Centre have started on site. A new building will wrap around the existing nursery, which will also be comprehensively refurbished. Works are due to complete in August 2010.
The children centre is the first phase of the remodelling of Cypress Infant School, a competition erect architecture won in 2007.

Lambeth playgrounds on site

Construction has begun on several playgrounds in Lambeth as part of the Play Pathfinder programme. Amongst it is a large inclusive waterplay park in Norwood Park which offers creative and co-operative play. The water park will be dominated by a new water storage tower, drawing people from afar.

Ground broken for play centre in Kilburn Grange Park

Ground has been broken for the adventure playground and play centre in Kilburn Grange Park, the old cabins are gone.
We are taking weekly photos of the progress, which can be seen on
www.flickr.com/photos/exploringadventure