Sustainable housing, sustainable communities, Scotland

                               Pic: Malcolm Fraser Architects

"Good Homes, Good Jobs and Good Neighbourhoods.”

Nicely alliterative headings there. Can't say I don't try for a bit of wider culcha in me blog.

Anyhow,  post to say warmest congratulations to Malcolm Fraser Architects for the win in the  Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative (SSCI) Design Ideas Competition, which was run by the Scottish Government in partnership with Assets Ltd.  It is  Whitecross, Linlithgow, on the site of a former brickworks.

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/malcolm-fraser-wins-rias-whitecross-housing-competition/8607054.article

Here is the background:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/212607/0083301.pdf

and the whole ethos and planned community sounds remarkable. Let's hope it all happens and does become an exemplar.

At the competition launch in June, the press publicity said that it was to seek 'a new Scottish vernacular' which seemed a contradiction in terms:

Scottish Government Sustainable Housing Ideas Competition

As part of the Scottish Government’s Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative (SSCI) the RIAS is managing a design competition based around the SSCI exemplar site at Whitecross, near Linlithgow. The competition, launched today, seeks housing and urban design proposals that combine high levels of sustainability and reductions in carbon emissions with a sensitive response to place and context.

It is expected that design proposals will reflect a ‘new vernacular’ for Scottish architecture that demonstrates how environmentally-sensitive designs might influence both the architecture and urban layout of contemporary development. “I look forward to seeing high-quality and creative responses developed for Scotland. What is different about this competition is that designs, while inspiring and innovative, must be realistic and commercially viable. Designing original and inventive buildings that can be realised and replicated is a vital element in supporting the construction sector to deliver the low-carbon communities that Scotland needs.”

I am delighted that the winner in fact does appear to be informed by the past while certainly being of the 21st century.  Lovely. Look forward to learning more in due course, in the sure and certain hope that there is an afterlife re the current housing hiatus, and that all goes forward and gets built. Timber and zinc are featured, both very sustainable materials and ones which look good in urban, suburban and rural settings.

As I wrote here:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/08/scottish-housing-expo-2010-inverness.html

I felt on the whole the MFA houses, a detached and a pair of semis, were the most easily livable in designs at the Scottish Housing Expo; it seems the wider public also thought so and in the public vote for 'favourite house' a Malcolm Fraser Architects' design, the catchily named House NS came top:

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/scotland/scotlands_housing_expo_winner.htm

http://www.scotlandshousingexpo.com/plot27.php

Click on pics to enlarge

followed by HLM Architects' Passive House:

http://www.sphc.co.uk/highland-housing-fair

http://www.scotlandshousingexpo.com/plot11.php

and Rural Design, based on the Isle of Skye ('rural design for the Scottish countryside' ) Secret Garden :

http://www.scotlandshousingexpo.com/plot17.php

http://www.ruraldesign.co.uk/

whose 'contemporary buildings for rural places' I hugely admire, and was delighted to see 15 Fiscavaig win in the 2010 Saltire Awards:

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/scotland/fiscavaig_house.htm

Further pics and plans:

http://bartlettyear1architecture.blogspot.com/2010/03/fiscavaig-project-by-rural-design.html


http://www.archdaily.com/42143/fiscavaig-rural-design/



Saltire Medal

We were delighted to be awarded the inaugural Saltire Medal, at a ceremony in Edinburgh on the 13th September. The medal was presented  by Chairman of the Jury, and World Architect of the Year John McAslan.

The award was for our project at 15 Fiscavaig on the West Coast of Skye.

McAslan said: ‘The Medal winner, Fiscavaig, stood out for its innovative use of materials and design which took account of its surroundings and setting.

The standard of architecture being produced in Scotland is truly world class and Fiscavaig is a perfect example.’

I can only concur; Scotland at its best is producing wonderful architects and architecture (and yes plenty of rubbish also, see previous blog, but let's celebrate success) and it does need shouting from the rooftops. If only the Londoncentric architecture writers for the UK press would leave their cosy enclaves and write a little more about the rest of the UK, and if only Scotland would stop feeling it has to run 'international design competitions' and give the best spots to  Big Names like Hadid and Holl and encourage its own... but I digress and will stop ranting.

Here are pics of all the shortlisted designs for the 2010 Saltire Housing Awards:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saltire_society/sets/72157624557226634/

and results

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/scotland/saltire_awards_2010.htm

http://www.urbanrealm.co.uk/news/2536/Fraser_voted_People%E2%80%99s_Expo_favourite_.html

and an Urban Realm report on the Whitecross competition here with decent sized images of the five shortlisted entries:

http://www.urbanrealm.co.uk/news/2586/Fraser_wins_Whitecross_design_comp_.html

and here:

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/competitions/ssci_design_ideas_competition.htm

Very strong shortlist of five whittled down from an initial forty-one entries.

I have blogged before and no doubt will again re the problems I perceive of a retro regressive approach to design, which Scotland is embracing in part with Prince Charles developments and Duany masterplans.

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/09/duanyising-britain.html

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/12/old-new-towns-new-old-towns.html

I appreciate Mr Duany's masterplans could be carried out with contemporary designs, but, alas, the 'codes' which accompany them seem to be  a wishful-thinking return to a past 'vernacular' based  on watching too much Disney.

Therefore the competition in association with the Scottish Government, and shortlisted five practices' designs, demonstrate that quality and sustainability allied to attractive places to live can be achieved without resorting to the  ill-digested 'paraphenalia of the past pastiche n pediments' school of design.

Here's the official press blurb:

Result of Whitecross Design Competition

As part of the Scottish Government's Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative (SSCI) RIAS Consultancy, from the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, has been managing a Design Ideas Competition for a proposed sustainable housing development at Whitecross in West Lothian.

The competition sought design idea proposals from registered architects, working in partnership with developers/housebuilders, for a proposed low carbon community at Whitecross, near Linlithgow. The Whitecross project has been selected as an exemplar project by the Scottish Government as part of the SSCI.

Forty-one pre qualification submissions were received and a shortlist of five was selected by the judging panel. The shortlisted practices were (listed alphabetically):

- Elder & Cannon Architects Ltd

- Gareth Hoskins Architects Ltd

- HTA Architects Ltd

- Malcolm Fraser Architects Ltd

- RMJM Scotland Ltd.

These practices prepared proposals for the judges to assess in association with interviews held on 14th October 2010. Images of the submissions can be viewed on the RIAS website http://www.rias.org.uk/

It is proposed that the shortlisted competition entries will be on public display for viewing at the Urban Room at the ground floor of Edinburgh City Council offices at Waverley Court. Further details of dates and times for viewing will be released soon.

RIAS Consultancy is pleased to announce that the winner is Malcolm Fraser Architects.

Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop said,

“The delivery of high-quality sustainable housing is at the heart of what this Government wants for communities across Scotland. The SSCI design competition has illustrated the depth of design talent in Scotland, with the five short-listed practices presenting bold and challenging architecture.

“I am delighted that all of the submissions demonstrate high-quality and creative solutions, taking account of commercial viability and responding to the particular requirements of the Whitecross site. These solutions showcase how innovative responses can help deliver places of real and enduring value in a time when the economic backdrop forces us all to be more resourceful.

“The winning team of Malcolm Fraser Architects has submitted an original and innovative proposal that I hope will be an important exemplar for the design and construction sector and help deliver low-carbon communities and sustainable economic growth for Scotland.”

The Chair of the judging panel, David Page of Page \ Park Architects, said,

“A strong shortlist of architecture and development teams competed for the first phase of development of the community extension for the village of Whitecross. Working to the masterplan conceived by Cadell2 the five consortia explored variations on the themes of creating a new sense of place on the site of a former brickworks near Linlithgow working to the brief of providing homes to meet the 2013 building regulations with their requirement for a 40% reduction in CO2 production. This Scottish Government initiative with Morston Developments is one of a number to lift the standard of place making and energy efficiency of new communities.

Elder and Cannon Architects enthused the jury with their sense of crafted place through the synthesis of courtyard typology and earthy brick materiality overlaid the CCG prefabricated timber frame technology.

HTA‟s partnership with Dualchas promoted a modular plan and sectional typology explored through their innovative work in the west coast of Scotland uniquely fused here with HTA‟s community based initiatives to promote community ownership of streets and public spaces.

RMJM boldly reconceptualised the masterplan with the identification of a wide variety of house typologies and settings to deliver a closer linkage between the existing village and proposed new settlement extension.

Gareth Hoskins Architects‟ careful reworking of the masterplan with Crudens was commended by the jury for its manipulation of a modular frame system to create a variety of street settings that would quickly establish a sense of contemporary place".

First place was awarded to Malcolm Fraser Architects with Stewart Milne Homes for development of themes explored at nearby Bo‟ness and more recently at the Scotland‟s Housing Expo. This consisted here of groupings of housing arranged around a sequence of courts and rows linked by a pedestrian spine stretching from the masterplan proposed civic garden in the north down to the river woodland walk to the south. Clever manipulation of the building typologies adapted to the Cadell2 masterplan through adaptation of Stewart Milne Homes‟ prefabricated timber frame systems with innovative suggestions to the commercial development of the anchoring High Street.”

David Dodge, Chief Executive, Morston Assets Ltd said,

“We are delighted that our vision for Yours Whitecross has generated such exciting high quality proposed design solutions throughout this competition. The key focus of the „Yours‟ brand is that the homes are sustainable in both design and use, are built within home zone layouts and facilitate home working and entrepreneurialism. We believe that this has been achieved by all of those shortlisted and was especially apparent in the winning entry. We look forward to delivering a truly sustainable community at Whitecross which delivers Good Homes, Good Jobs and Good Neighbourhoods.”

Nem

Duanyising Britain

A view of the future?

The Expo I have more to write about; for today, a slight diversion, and it's linked.  I point in the direction of two thought-provoking articles in Scottish Review on Andres Duany, DPZ, and his  work for the Scottish Government.

The articles focus particularly on the Design Charette at Lochgelly, which was attended by the writer, Andrew Gray. Here's a video on the STV website and a report from last March

'Lochgelly? perhaps a kind of Scottish Truman Show'  quote from Duany

'Truman show' town planner turns sights on Lochgelly

VIDEO: Andres Duany, who designed the idyllic Florida film set, is aiming to transform a former Fife mining town.

http://video.stv.tv/?bcpid=37654293001&bctid=71010766001
 
 http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/162464-truman-show-town-planner-turns-sights-on-lochgelly/

As it states in Scottish Review:  In March this year the Scottish Government supported an American urban design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk to promote its brand of ‘New Urbanism’ in Scotland – as part of the government’s aspiration for the re-invention in Scotland of ‘traditional qualities of place’ and ‘traditional architecture’. Following Duany Plater-Zyberk to one of its three destinations in Scotland, the Fife town of Lochgelly, Andrew Guest asks what was learnt from this expensive exercise, why it was necessary for Americans to teach us how we should be developing our towns, and what are the implications of government support for ‘traditional architecture’ in 21st century Scotland.


Part 1:

Re-inventing Scotland

http://www.scottishreview.net/AndrewGuest14.shtml


Part 2:

Welcome to the past

http://www.scottishreview.net/AndrewGuest15.shtml


Concluding paragraphs:

Most places already own a wealth of cultural, social and creative skills which could contribute to this process – especially if supported by local and national authority. We don't need a team of outside experts to do this for us. We already have our own immense knowledge of historical and traditional architectural traditions if we want to draw on these to inform new design solutions for new communities – we don't need to rely on an outsider's sentimental view of what Scottish architecture was or could be. Past experience and tradition is important but so is interpreting this with new ideas and new experience today, and Scotland has a substantial reservoir of its own design talents and plenty recent design experience with which to do this. If it is invidious for the Scottish Government to back this expertise to lead a programme to promote better design, then perhaps that was not the right programme, or the government should not be taking this particular lead.


But above all a superficial nostalgia for a past ideal of community should not prevent us from facing up to the multi-sided challenges of urbanisation and sustainability in Scotland in the 21st century and from engaging creatively and openly in a process that asks 'What kind of places do we want?' and 'Who will they be for?' One of the accusations against modernism is that it relied on aesthetic solutions to deal with the social problems it encountered – one result of which was that everywhere ending up looking the same, and mostly pretty dull. Scotland is in danger of planning the next 50 years pursuing another false aesthetic ideal – an un-debated ideal of the traditional – the result of which will be another form of destructive monotony.

Andrew Guest lives in Edinburgh and writes on culture and the environment.
 
And hooray.


Urban Realm comments are interesting here:

http://www.urbanrealm.co.uk/news/2225/Duany_puts_some_welly_into_Lochgelly_.html

and another video.

Link to the official charette site:

http://www.scotlandcharrettelochgelly.co.uk/about/

I gather Urban Realm has invited Duany to speak at a debate in October in Glasgow.  I expect that there will several architects with passionate views on 'Prince Charles urbanism' or 'shortbread tin Scotland'  willing to tackle him on the subject of 'traditional Scottish architecture' and its place in a 21st century Scotland.
 
My view is that Duany's views on urban planning may be the greatest thing to hit Scotland since Irn Bru; I cannot comment on that.  His views on architecture, however,  may not. My view is that possibly they are not.

Lochgelly, a proposal, from the Duany charette.

It's not only Scotland of course. For example, Duany and his brand of 'New Urbanism' is being imported to Norfolk:

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/eveningnews24/norwich-news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=xNews&itemid=NOED13%20Jul%202010%2022%3A42%3A20%3A250

Thorpe residents slammed for lack of vision

DAVID BALE

 14/07/2010


Extract:


An American planner has set out his vision for a new village on the outskirts of Norwich - and it incorporates ideas from north Norfolk, Norwich city centre and even colonial America.

Architect and urban planner Andres Duany, of urban planning firm DPZ, is best-known for creating the feted Sea-side town in Florida, which featured as the backdrop to the film The Truman Show.

His plans to build 631 new homes at a woodland site off Plumstead Road, Pound Lane and near Salhouse Road in Thorpe St Andrew are equally revolutionary.

His vision is to keep many of the trees on the site with more than 50pc open spaces, but also to add urban living based on Burnham Market's Green, The Crescent, off Chapel Field Road, and housing developments in South Carolina.

Last night's public meeting in central Norwich was part of the innovative design process called a 'charrette' or sometimes enquiry by design, which is aimed at involving the community in the planning process from the start.

It was the final presentation after an intensive eight days of consultation in the area, which included a stormy meeting at Thorpe Village Hall where residents gave a resounding 'NO' to the plans...

and I note a group of  residents is fighting back:

http://savethorpewoodlands.blogspot.com/p/charrette-or-charade-can-we-save.html

The website also features Lochgelly. Interesting read.  I also note Duany spoke for one and  half hours, but didn't take questions.

Throughout the Charrette, Duany and his team said they were interested in the views of the people who live in Thorpe, and those who neighbour the woods. However earlier this year, in front of an audience of journalists at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge Massachusetts, Duany put forward the case that the planning process needed to be reformed as it has been usurped by the public, and especially by those people who neighbour the site of the proposed development. He argued consultation should not be with the public in general and especially the locals, instead it should consist of a controlled consultation with a selected group of local citizens, he stated that if this isn’t done the process is taken over by "a bunch of little mobs, invited in by idiot public planners."


Duany has been criticised by members of his own profession.

The April edition of the Architects Journal published an article entitled “Scottish architects fry new urbanist Duany” it stated that “American new urbanist Andres Duany has sparked protests from Scottish architects after alleging the country had not built any housing to be proud of since 1945”.

In the article Duany’s position is criticised by fellow architects as being “ill informed”, Peter Wilson, director of Edinburgh Napier University’s Wood Studio, said Duany’s ‘twee way of viewing Scotland’ was to blame. ‘He does all these charrettes at a great expense and then expects everything to look like small Scottish town Dunkeld’ In Thorpe’s case for Dunkeld read Burnham Market.

The above shows that the Charrette process is being cynically used by developers as a means to convince local people that opposing a development would be futile, that the proposal is a ‘done deal’ and that if the local people don’t work with the developer they may end up with something far worse...

Our local councillors have opposed these plans and our local MP Chloe Smith has written to Broadland District Council’s planning department to draw their attention to the strong local opposition to these proposals.

...The destruction of these woods is not a done deal, the local people of Thorpe, who Andres Duany may view as a ‘little mob’, can stop this development and save the woods and its rich wildlife for today and for future generations...

And here is part of my worry; that Duany and his 'design team' is now being hired by developers to give the gloss (and perhaps glitz) of respectability and 'consultation' to schemes which otherwise could prove contentious.

Is this the 'urban planning' version of hiring an 'internationally known  architect' (or his/her practice) to build an 'iconic building', a sure way to override all manner of planning policies and objections?

Is he the Messiah, or simply someone hired to do a job, and making a tidy sum out of it?

Linked past post:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2009/12/old-new-towns-new-old-towns.html

Glancey in the Guardian, Dec 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/dec/03/architecture-design


Thou shalt not follow Duany's architectural gospel

British postwar architects have nothing to repent - it is Andres Duany's bland new urbanism that we must be saved from...

Poundbury


Nem