New homes, hospitals, schools, shops and offices will be "automatically" granted planning permission in England

A "new planning system" that will see new housing, hospitals, schools, shops and offices on land designated for growth automatically granted planning permission in England has been announced by UK housing secretary Robert Jenrick.

Under the new regulations, described by Jenrick as a "once in a generation reform", land will be divided into three categories "for growth, for renewal or for protection".

Planning permission will be granted "automatically" in growth areas, with "permission in principle" given in renewal areas.

"Land designated for growth will empower development – new homes, hospitals, schools, shops and offices will be allowed automatically," Jenrick wrote in the Sunday Telegraph.

"Renewal areas will enable much quicker development with a 'permission in principle' approach to balance speed while ensuring appropriate checks are carried out."

"Complex and slow planning system barrier to building homes"

According to Jenrick, who became secretary of state for housing, communities and local government in 2019, the action is being taken to speed up the planning process and create more homes.

Jenrick blamed the current "lengthy and absurdly complex" planning process as the reason for high housing costs in England and delays to infrastructure projects.

"Our complex and slow planning system has been a barrier to building homes which are affordable, where families want to raise children and build their lives," he wrote.

"We are introducing a simpler, faster, people-focused system to deliver the homes and places we need."

"Cutting red tape, but not standards"

He claimed that it currently takes a "standard housing development" five years to pass through the planning process and that the reforms would greatly speed this up.

According to Jenrick, the new regulations would make it easier for smaller housebuilders to compete with England's largest developers.

"Our reforms seek a more diverse and competitive housing industry, in which smaller builders can thrive alongside the big players and where planning permissions are turned into homes faster than they are today."

Jenrick wrote that the deregulation of the planning process would not lead to lower standards of housing in the country.

"We are cutting red tape, but not standards," he added. "We will be driven by outcomes, not process."

"Planning regulations are absolutely not the reason for the housing crisis"

The intent of the regulations, however, was contested by architects including Charles Holland.

"This is just absolute boll*cks. Planning regulations are absolutely not the reason for the housing crisis," Holland wrote on Twitter.

"Deregulation of planning will not result in more affordable houses," he continued. "Nor is it intended to. It is just a way to allow volume housebuilders to build more shite and make more money."

Earlier this month the UK government unveiled plans to extend permitted development rights to allow the conversion of shops to homes without planning. At the time the Royal Institute of British Architects described the law change as "truly disgraceful".

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Mirrorball tops colourful wayfinding post for London Festival of Architecture

Charles Holland Architects has designed a pyramidal wayfinding post called The Tooley Street Triangle as a "symbol of celebration" for the London Festival of Architecture.

The Tooley Street Triangle was designed as part of a competition organised by the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) and Team London Bridge in 2018 to help people find their way around the city's London Bridge area.

The competition won by Charles Holland Architects aimed to transform "a busy but dull traffic island" positioned opposite the main entrance to London Bridge station.

The signpost has a pyramidal structure coloured with pastel shades of pink, yellow and mint, and is topped with a reflective mirrorball.

The Tooley Street Triangle also features a life-size map of the London Bridge area, painted onto the pavement in the form of brightly coloured lines that point in the direction of the location the follower intends to reach.

While these lines are printed with street names and famous landmarks – such as the river, Tower Bridge and Borough Market – the signpost itself is also printed with local directions and useful information.

A bench also surrounds the bottom perimeter of the pyramidal post, which passers-by can sit on to take a break from walking.

"The beacon and the map are intended as playful and enjoyable additions to the streetscape that will improve legibility and give identity to this small but important part of the public realm," said Charles Holland Architects founder Charles Holland.

This structure also works to draw people away from the busier main roads by signposting quieter routes away from noise and pollution.

An alternative route to Guy's Hospital, for instance, reduces pollution exposure by around 50 per cent, according to the organisers.

The Tooley Street Triangle was scheduled to be installed earlier this year in April, but was postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions.

"The unveiling of The Tooley Street Triangle could not have come at a better time," said Tamsie Thomson, director of the LFA. "While so many of us are looking forward to getting to know London again, we won't be getting lost outside London Bridge station any more."

"I'm delighted that people are beginning to enjoy London's buildings, streets and spaces once again, and Charles Holland Architects' joyful and quirky installation captures London's spirit of welcome and creativity," she added.

The wayfinding structure is the latest in a series of public realm improvements curated by the LFA that are released all-year-round, and are created as responses to open-call design competitions that aim to showcase creative talent.

Upcoming installations include a large public art piece located near St Paul's Cathedral, produced by the LFA in partnership with the Cheapside Business Alliance and the City of London Corporation.

An installation from last year's LFA called Happy Street saw Yinka Ilori envelop a south London railway bridge located on Thessaly Road with brightly patterned panels.

For the London Festival of Architecture's series titled Manifestos: Architecture for a New Generation, Siufan Adey and Thomas Aquilina from architecture collective Afterparti explained the work they are doing to make the future of architecture more inclusive and transdisciplinary.

Afterparti, which was born out of the New Architecture Writers (NAW) programme for emerging BAME writers, creates zines – non-commercial magazines – and events that promote underrepresented voices in architecture and design.

A selection of the Manifestos: Architecture for a New Generation series was broadcasted on Dezeen as part of Virtual Design Festival.

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Project credits:

Architect: Charles Holland Architects
Client: Team London Bridge
Competition/project enabler: London Festival of Architecture
Beacon: Links Signs
Pavement map: Total Line Markings
Mirror ball: RASKL
Installation: T Loughman and Co Ltd
Structural engineer: Jenkins and Potter
Typography: THISWAY
Text: Rebekah Lattin-Rawsthorne
Photography: Jim Stephenson & Luke Hayes

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Wuchazi Bridge creates "infinite meandering path" over river in Chengdu

Berlin-based architects Tom Wünschmann, Achim Kaufer, Wei Cai and Philipp Buschmeyer and Chinese design institutes SADI and JDTM have created a bridge that offers a variety of routes across a river in Chengdu, China.

The design team created a continual walkable path within the Wuchazi Bridge as part of its aim to make the structure a recreational destination rather than a purely functional piece of engineering.

"Our aim was to develop a bridge that is more than a monofunctional infrastructural element," Wünschmann told Dezeen.

"Together with the connecting shortcuts, an infinite meandering path can be walked without leaving the bridge, to experience all possible scenarios between nature and urban cityscape," he continued. "In this way, the bridge becomes a recreational destination by itself."

Wünschmann and Kaufer, who work together at Wünschmann Kaufer Architects and Cai and Buschmeyer, who run German studio Buschmeyer + Cai collaborated with Chinese design institutes The Fifth Design Institute of Sichuan Architectural Design and Research Institute Co (SADI) and Sichuan Southwest Jiaoda Civil Engineering Design Co (JDTM) to create Wuchazi Bridge.

It connects the Century City New International Conference & Exhibition Center and riverside park with neighbouring residential areas and forms a figure of eight across the Fu Hé river.

Wuchazi Bridge contains a variety of routes for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the river.

A direct, 240-metre long route for cyclists and pedestrians gently rises from the banks to a peak with near the centre of the river, while several curved ramps and a staircase create an interconnected route that dips below it.

"The routes are designed as a three-dimensional landscape with a barrier-free and fast cycle path – or a direct crossing  – with a panoramic view from a greater height above ground and a slow path for pedestrians, which is more intimate below ground and near the water, but both paths can be used freely by all users," said Wünschmann.

The bridge's form draws upon both traditional zigzag bridges found in China and the continuous loop of a Möebius strip.

"The form was developed out of paper models inspired on the one hand from the research into traditional Chinese zigzag bridges and their cultural significance and on the other hand by the interpretation of the Moebius strip as a continuous flow and structural system of short and long-spanning arcs that themselves form a landscape," explained Wünschmann.

Photo is by Xia Zhan

Within the lower route, the designers have incorporated several spaces to stop including a large south-facing seating area that stretches from the bridge's lowest point up its main level.

The studio hopes that this, combined with the multiple routes, will mean that people spend more time on Wuchazi Bridge rather than solely using it as a crossing.

"The idea is to not just to cross the river as quickly as possible, but also to provide an opportunity to escape, stroll and relax for a moment or to meet and spend time with friends in a dense urban environment," said Wünschmann.

"To this end, we have created an efficient hybrid, a place where people can come together, and a bridge that invites the usual fast user to take a break or a slightly slower detour, for which we have designed the space."

Other recently completed bridges in China include a pedestrian crossing that is also an art gallery in the city of Jishou designed by Atelier FCJZ and the world's longest 3D-printed concrete bridge in Shanghai.

Photography is by Arch-Exist unless stated.

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Project credits:

Architects: Tom Wünschmann, Achim Kaufer, Wei Cai, Philipp Buschmeyer, The Fifth Design Institute of Sichuan Architectural Design and Research Institute Co (SADI), Sichuan Southwest Jiaoda Civil Engineering Design Co (JDTM)
Client: Chengdu GTJS Investment Group Construction Development Co

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Dark Backgrounds Dramatize Colorful Portraits of Quilled Paper by Yulia Brodskaya

All images © Yulia Brodskaya, shared with permission

For years Yulia Brodskaya (previously) has gravitated toward light backdrops for her densely quilled paper portraits. “It rarely even crossed my mind that I should choose any colour other than white. White allows all wonderful colour reflections and blended inter-reflections from paper strips to be visible and showcased at their fullest potential,” she tells Colossal.

In recent months, though, the United Kingdom-based artist has started to utilize dark canvases, which poses new challenges as some of her standard techniques, like composing portraits with thin strips, don’t translate well. “Black color is dense, dominating, it absorbs all reflections and most of the shadows; only top edges of paper strips are left to see,” she says.

Instead, Brodskaya has focused on thicker rolls and larger bends to create necessary contrast. Many of the vibrant portraits feature larger, three-dimensional swaths similar to brushstrokes, a nod to the artist’s method of “painting with paper,” that help to highlight distinct features. “I chose to leave plenty of empty dark space and blend in colored parts to gradually transition them into the black nothingness, so the background plays a crucial role in these new artworks,” she says.

To see Brodskaya’s paper-based works in progress, check out the video below and follow her on Instagram.

 

 

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A post shared by Yulia Brodskaya (@yulia_brodskaya_artyulia) on Jun 10, 2020 at 7:40am PDT

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Matt Byrd sculpts Howard collection using salvaged granite

American sculptor Matt Byrd has used granite stones found in his hometown in Raleigh, North Carolina to create small abstract sculptures that fit together like puzzle pieces.

Byrd drew on the patterns and laying techniques used in traditional masonry to create the collection of sculptures, titled Howard.

Matt Byrd gathers granite from North Carolina to sculpt the series of abstract works

"All the materials are sourced from my surroundings," he explained. "I've spent a lot of time salvaging raw granite from around my hometown and taking them back to my studio."

To form the works the artist chisels the salvaged stone by hand and uses no adhesion

Each of the pieces is hand-sculpted and composed of two to four uniquely shaped pieces designed to fit together, including wavy cutouts, rounded edges and compartments and ledges formed to fit smaller parts.

The individual names of the sculptures are informed by their shapes and forms, including Headache, evocative of a human face

The stones are designed to rest on top of one another and fit together using no adhesion. This construction method is influenced by the artist's love for "old school dry stonewalling", a practice for constructing stone walls that uses no mortar.

"It is very important to me that each stone sits on top of each one without any adhesion," he added. "Trusting nothing more than friction, bond, and joinery."

Byrd has individually named each of the sculptures in the collection based on the shapes and objects the piece reminds him of.

Factory comprises two separate rectangular bases with cylindrical volumes that protrude from the top and sides. Small pink spheres lay on top of each circular stack as an added decorative element.

A circular handlebar can be pulled out of a crevice on the sculpture named Cradle

A rounded handlebar connects to a thin stick that pulls in and out of the gaping opening on the sculpture titled Cradle.

Also in the series is Cuddles, which comprises two interlocking L-shaped stones and Headache and Hips, designs evocative of human body parts.

For Cuddles Byrd has stacked two interlocking L-shaped stones on top of one another

Other designers working with granite include Stine Mikkelsen, who used the material and melted metal to design furniture and design studio AMOO, which created a series of side tables using interlocking slabs of the stone.

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