Perth Theatre
Perth Theatre plans have been revealed and submitted for planning permission. The practice was selected in 2008 to carry out the radical redesign of Perth Theatre. Plans have been in preparation and negotiation ever since and the proposed design has now been revealed and submitted for planning permission. A new webpage describes the project in more detail. The existing auditorium will be restored, a new studio theatre constructed and a new foyer connecting the High Street and Mill Street will transform the building Major facilities for Youth and Community theatre use are also being created.
Haymarket
Revised proposals for the Haymarket are well underway with a view to submitting a planning application on 13 August. Under the new legislation we are in a period of pre-application consultation which involves Richard and Matt making a series of presentations to interested parties.
Two projects completed...
Stratheden Demenia Unit II
Our second dementia centre at Stratheden Hospital near Cupar has been completed on time and within budget and like the first also constructed by Interserve Ltd. The building for organic and functional patient groups takes the form of two closed courtyards with communal facilities placed in between. Our first building at Stratheden won “Best NHS Building in Scotland Award in 2010” and reports back from staff indicate that satisfaction with the new building is, if anything, even higher.
11 Regent Terrace Mews
And on a different scale, a major mews flat reconstruction at No 11 Regent Terrace Mews has just been completed by Inscape Joinery. The project (which now has its own webpage) involved a total rebuild of the interior and a partial rebuilding of the roof. Two 11m beams were lowered into place to create a dramatic south facing roof light.
...and two projects almost complete.
Justice Mill Lane, Aberdeen
At the opposite end of the scale, our £45M office and hotel project is virtually complete. The hotel operators, Park Inn, have had beneficial access since 5th July and will be open to the public from 23rd August. New pictures have been posted on the website (the hotel interior is by others). Meanwhile, snagging is concluding in the 13,775sq m office next door with a view to handing it over to Hazeldene developers later this month. New photos have been posted onto the website.
The developers' own website presenting the development can be found here.
Highland Housing Fair
And our house on the Highland Housing Fair site on the outskirts of Inverness will be complete at the beginning of August. It along with another 50 others will be open to the public from 1st August. The project was singled out in BD magazine as one of the more interesting designs on the site.
Coatbridge College
Our proposals for a radical renovation of part of Coatbridge College are about to be submitted for planning permission. They envisage a completely renovated 200 seat auditorium, and new conference foyer and internally a new atrium, catering and renovated teaching areas. The project is due to start on site in May 2011.
News of three houses
Also just submitted for planning permission is a new house on Cromwell Road North Berwick. The site on the tennis court of a large now subdivided Victorian house envisages a blank “garden wall” elevation revealing an L-shaped single storey plan within. Almost all the rooms focus on a courtyard garden. A new webpage has been created.
The owner of Strathaven Airfield and flying club has commissioned fellow micro-lighter Richard to design him and his wife a house on the edge of the airfield. Outline planning permission has just been achieved. Aerial site visits will of course be derigeur!
And finally we are very excited at the possibility of a large new country house in Northumberland.
Travel, Lectures, Publicity
Richard has been busy travelling and lecturing. In May he travelled to China giving lectures on the work of the office and also about the work of Scarpa at Chengdu University, Nanjing University and Tsinghua University in Beijing. He also met a number of developers and architects and three weeks after returning the practice was invited to enter a competition of three architects for a new hotel and corporate headquarters for Lang-jiu Group, a major Chinese whisky distiller. At the end of June Richard travelled to Tripoli, Libya as part of a British Expertise Construction Mission. He also gave two lectures at Al Fatah University about the work of his practice and about Scarpa. We are hopeful that some new projects might result from the trip. Nearer to home in May Richard was the key note lecture at Edinburgh Napier University Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Creative Industries Postgraduate Research Conference and also in May spoke at a Cross Party Group at the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood about procurement.
The practice exhibited four projects in the Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition. They were - the forthcoming Postgraduate Residencies for Queens University Belfast, two Feasibility Studies for Edinburgh Napier University and the recently completed Dementia Centre at Stratheden Hospital, Fife.
Univeristy of East London in the AJ
The Architects’ Journal published a six page article on the practices nine years of work at the Stratford Campus of the University of East London. Jay Merrick, the architecture correspondent of the Independent, commented that the practice’s work had “given the campus a kudos beyond its fast developing reputation for innovation in clinical excellence”
Richard has also accepted two invitation to appear at events celebrating the Maggie’s Centres at the Edinburgh Festival. These are firstly an “In Conversation” with Charles Jencks at the Maggie Centre Exhibition Reception at 6.00 pm on 29 July; and secondly, on Saturday 7 August at lunchtime, another “In Conversation” this time with Colour Specialist/Artist, Linda Green, about the effect the colour scheme and surroundings have on the patients at the centre in Edinburgh – both “conversations” are being held at the Dovecot Studies, Infirmary Street.