Tulip tower by Foster + Partners set to be given go-ahead

UK housing secretary Michael Gove is expected to approve the construction of the Tulip tourist attraction designed by Foster + Partners, over-ruling London mayor Sadiq Khan's previous decision to refuse planning permission.

Gove is preparing to give the controversial 300-metre-high tower by Foster + Partners the go-ahead within the next month according to a report in the Telegraph newspaper.

Michael Gove is expected to give the Tulip tourist attraction the go-ahead

The decision would overturn London mayor Khan's rejection of the Tulip in 2019 due to concerns that the structure would provide "very limited public benefit" to the capital city.

At the time, the mayor's spokesperson also said Khan felt the design was "of insufficient quality for such a prominent location" and that it would "result in harm to London's skyline".

Tulip is "inevitably controversial"

The Tulip was designed by Foster + Partners in 2018 for a site next to the Stirling Prize-winning 30 St Mary Axe, known as The Gherkin, which the studio also created.

If built, it would contain a publicly accessible observation deck along with bars and restaurants and become the tallest structure in the City of London financial district.

According to the Telegraph, the government is believed to be backing the City of London Corporation, which originally approved the structure and believes it will establish the area as a "world-class destination".

"The Tulip would play an important role in further realising a vision for the Square Mile as a vibrant 24/7 world-class destination and that the building would send a powerful message that London remains open to all," a City of London Corporation spokesperson told the Telegraph.

If built it will become the tallest structure in the City of London

Plans for the Tulip tourist attraction have proved controversial from its inception. London City Airport has previously raised concerns about the structure impacting its radar system and Khan said it would breach London's planning guidelines when it was first revealed.

Norman Foster,  the founder of Foster + Partners, also said himself that the project was "inevitably controversial" but that it has "the possibility of being a symbol beyond its host city".

Decision to be made by 11 November

Gove's final decision on the Tulip is expected to be announced by 11 November at the latest.

Former housing secretary Robert Jenrick was due to make the decision in September, but he was removed from his post in a cabinet reshuffle.

Read:

Foster + Partners reveals updated visuals of The Tulip viewing platform as planning inquiry begins

New London Architecture chairman Peter Murray is another supporter of the Tulip, having previously said the attraction could help the city recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

"The whole of London needs a strong centre if we are to remain a competitive global city," Murray said. "If it is to do so it needs investments like The Tulip more than ever."

The Tulip is not the only controversial proposal for a new London landmark to be opposed by Khan. In 2017, plans for the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Garden Bridge were scrapped due to a lack of support from the mayor.

It followed a financial inquiry into the project found that it would be likely to cost over £200 million, well above the original estimated price tag of £60 million.

The renders are by DBOX for Foster + Partners.

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Competition: win a TwistFlush toilet by Villeroy & Boch

For Dezeen's latest competition, German ceramics brand Villeroy & Boch is giving 10 architects or interior designers based in the UK the chance to win a toilet with TwistFlush technology.

The TwistFlush flushing system by Villeroy & Boch is designed to create a vortex-like stream of water to clean the toilet bowl.

Two nozzles fitted just below the seat of the toilet work to build up a powerful swirl of water that is able to carry away waste, without splashing or excessive noise.

The TwistFlush toilet has a powerful vortex-like flush system

The force of the TwistFlush system also means less water is required per flush. Four-and-a-half litres of water is used in the model's large flush setting, while three litres is used in the small flush.

As a result, the brand says the toilet can cut down water consumption and could save the average four-person household a total of 19,700 litres of water per year.

"A sustainable lifestyle includes the conscious use of resources," the brand explained, "a TwistFlush toilet that saves precious water every time it is used plays an important role in this."

The toilet is mounted to the wall with no visible screws

TwistFlush toilets are wall-mounted, resulting in an overall streamlined aesthetic. This is enhanced by the fact the toilet also has no visible screws on its exterior.

Internally, the toilet features a conical-shaped bowl with steep, smooth walls. It also has Villeroy & Boch's specially developed CeramicPlus and AntiBac surfacing, making it easy to clean.

Villeroy & Boch was established in 1748 and is headquartered in Mettlach, a municipality in the Saarland region of Germany. Alongside bathroom products, the brand also creates a wide range of pieces for the kitchen and living room, as well as tiles and flooring. To find out more, visit its website.

Competition closes on 14 November 2021. Terms and conditions apply.

Ten winners will be selected at random and notified by email. All entries must be UK-based. No install cost is included.

Each winner will receive the Subway 3.0 Combi-Packs with TwistFlush WC in white, which will be sent out to the winners in January 2022.

Competition closes on 14 November 2021. Entries from the UK only. Other terms and conditions apply. 10 winners will be selected at random and notified by email.

Each winner will receive the TwistFlush toilet in white.

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WAA transforms Beijing warehouses into a playscape for sensory learning

A playful network of large pipes containing walkways and bridges wraps around this children's community centre in Beijing by local practice We Architech Anonymous (WAA), housed in a series of refurbished 1970s industrial buildings.

The Playscape, which has been shortlisted in the landscape project category of Dezeen Awards 2021, was designed for a children's healthcare provider that specialises in exploration and play, and created as a "tool for sensory learning".

The playground was built by WAA and encompasses a group of industrial buildings

A cluster of former grain warehouses form the basis for the project, with the courtyard in their centre transformed into an undulating, steel-framed landscape that creates a series of new interactions among the existing buildings.

"Beijing is a city where many children do not have access to an adequate-sized outdoor space within their close locale," said the WAA. "Children are often drawn to risk, creating a feedback loop of design refinement and safety concerns...we allowed a managed element of risk, where children can learn to be more confident to tackle problems independently."

The undulating floors reach the building roof tops and include built-in trampolines

Cut-outs revealing bright yellow play-spaces, built-in trampolines and a series of mounds that can be scaled to access the roofs of the original warehouses animate this central landscape, which also acts to stitch together the previously disconnected buildings on the site.

Inside these former warehouses are a series of play spaces for a range of ages. These include crawlspaces and climbing areas with hanging fabrics, a suspended tensile net area and classrooms for more directed learning, as well as a library and restaurant.

Read:

Qidi Design Group creates tranquil landscaped garden for property development in Danyang

Externally, new openings and textured perforated brickwork subtly updates the warehouses, with minimal interior changes made in order to highlight the contrast between the industrial structures and the newly inserted playscape.

"The new additions for play are visually distinct from the industrial vernacular...this had a greater functional outcome and also generated more interest for children," said the practice.

Sheltered spaces were carved out from beneath the undulating floor

The surrounding pipework incorporates viewing areas and half-covered sections as it moves around the structure, culminating in access to a roof terrace atop one of the warehouse buildings, where skylights give views into the play areas below.

"A full loop can be made and children can travel from the terrace under the mound through slides which vary in height from seven metres to 4.3 metres," described the practice. "The network impresses upon them alternative directions to goals, and that sometimes the second-shortest route is more fun."

WAA inserted large curving pipes across the playground

These pipes also work to connect the warehouse buildings back into the surrounding area, providing access and views out over an adjacent public park.

The project was shortlisted in the 2021 Dezeen Award's landscape project category, along with Qidi Design Group's landscaped garden in Danyang, among others.

The Playscape's pipes and bridges connect several for warehouses

Previous projects for children in Beijing include a kindergarten by MAD, which transformed an 18th-century structure with a bright red rooftop walkway and playscape.

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Coldplay announces "net-zero carbon" Music of the Spheres world tour

Coldplay has announced its next world tour will have a net-zero carbon footprint and released a sustainability plan that includes direct-air carbon capture technology by Climeworks.

The British band accompanied the announcement of its Music of the Spheres tour with a detailed list of environmental initiatives that it said would reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent compared to its last tour.

It also pledged to use various methods to offset the remaining carbon emissions.

Coldplay's sustainability plan includes a partnership with Climeworks for carbon capture and storage

"We have set ourselves a science-led target of 50 per cent reduction in our CO2 emissions using the 'absolute contraction' method," the band said.

"We pledge to drawdown any unavoidable emissions according to the Oxford Principles for Net-Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting."

The plan includes a partnership with Swiss company Climeworks, whose machines remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it safely or package it for commercial use in products such as fizzy drinks.

Climeworks' is the only technological carbon removal approach included in the plan, which otherwise focuses on nature-based options such as reforestation, rewilding, soil restoration and seagrass meadow restoration to offset emissions generated by the tour.

"Coldplay has announced their next tour Music of the Spheres World Tour to have at minimum a net-zero carbon footprint and as such have built a portfolio of solutions to help them achieve this goal by the end of the new touring cycle," said Climeworks in a statement.

Kinetic dancefloors and sustainable aviation fuel among technologies to cut emissions

Coldplay's target of a 50 per cent reduction in emissions is in comparison to the band's most recent tour in 2016-17.

To achieve this, it will power its concerts through fully renewable energy, generated by solar installations, waste cooking oil, a kinetic stadium floor and electricity-generating power bikes that fans can use to actively charge the show battery.

This first-of-its-kind mobile rechargeable show battery will charge the show with renewable energy and was made in collaboration with BMW from recyclable BMW i3 batteries.

To reduce emissions from transport, Coldplay will avoid charter flights and pay a surcharge to use or supply Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF.) The fuel is made from renewable waste materials.

It has also pledged to adapt the show design so that local equipment and materials can be used as much as possible, minimising freight emissions, while the stage will be built from low-carbon, reusable materials including bamboo and recycled steel.

Each venue will be provided with a "sustainability rider" setting out the best environmental practices, while fans will be encouraged to use low-carbon transport to and from the shows via an official tour app that rewards them with discounts.

Climeworks partnership shows "measurable benefits" of carbon removal technology

To compensate for all the tour emissions that could not be cut, Coldplay's plan also includes a portfolio of mostly nature-based measures to remove and store carbon from the atmosphere.

Climeworks is the only technological approach to carbon capture that is used in the plan, which the Swiss company says is because the band was "convinced by its permanence and measurable benefits".

The Climeworks' Orca plant is the world's largest direct air capture and storage site

"It is already proven that carbon removal at scale is a must on the current emissions pathway and technological solutions will be needed," said Climeworks co-CEO and co-founder Christoph Gebald.

"We are very inspired to see public figures like Coldplay seizing the magnitude of the challenge and acting boldly by working towards ambitious emissions reduction and removing the unavoidable part."

Announcement follows 2019 tour hiatus due to global warming concerns

Coldplay announced in 2019 that it was quitting touring until it could find a way to do it more sustainably.

The band has spent the intervening time developing this plan, which also includes sustainable pyrotechnics and biodegradable confetti and is detailed in full on the band's website.

"We've spent the last two years consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible, and, just as importantly, to harness the tour’s potential to push things forward," said Coldplay.

"We won't get everything right, but we're committed to doing everything we can and sharing what we learn. It's a work in progress and we're really grateful for the help we've had so far."

Coldplay has a partnership with climate change researchers at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute to quantify the impact of the tour on the environment.

The Music of the Spheres world tour will start in Costa Rica on 18 March 2022 and then travel to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, USA, Germany, Poland, France, Belgium and the UK.

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Pratt students create home-compostable water filters from food waste

Pratt Institute graduate students Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempres have designed a collection of carbon water filters made completely without fossil fuels, using waste from their own kitchens.

The four-piece range, called Strøm, includes a sustainable substitute for Brita filter cartridges, purifying sticks that can be added into cups or bottles and a self-cleaning pitcher and carafe.

The Strøm collection includes squiggly filtration sticks (top and above)

Traditional water filters consist of activated carbon housed in plastic cartridges, both of which are generally derived from non-renewable coal and petroleum.

But for their designs, the graduate students have developed a new fossil-fuel-free material, made by turning food waste into carbon-rich biochar and combining it with natural resins, so it can be shaped like a thermoplastic.

The range also includes a filter cartridge

The resulting composite acts as both filter and vessel at the same time and, unlike the 100 million polypropylene cartridges that end up in landfills every year, will decompose in soil over the course of a single month.

"By utilizing an existing waste stream, we can reduce the negative lifecycle impact of water filtration," Lempres told Dezeen.

"While carbon filtration immobilises harmful contaminants, the plastic cartridge's only function is to hold the activated carbon," she continued. "Meanwhile, sourcing, manufacturing and injection-moulding the polypropylene are the largest contributors to the filter's impact."

The Strøm cartridge can replace plastic Brita ones

Activated carbon is used in water purification due to its high porosity, which gives it an outsized surface area equivalent to one football field for every four grams of material and gives it the capacity to absorb a variety of contaminants including bacteria, pesticides and even nanoplastics.

Böhning and Lempres' material achieves a similar effect through the use of biochar, which they make by burning banana peels, sheep bones and other food waste from their kitchens, as well as from local farms and restaurants, in a special kiln in the absence of oxygen.

A two-part carafe also features in the collection

This process, called pyrolysis, does not allow the carbon in the biomass to form carbon dioxide during combustion and instead turns it into a porous, highly absorbent char while permanently storing away the carbon contained in the food, which would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere during decomposition.

"Fundamental to our interest in biochar is the ability to create circularity by turning waste into a functional, carbon-sequestering material," Böhning added.

"One of the advantages of pyrolysis is that when the biochar reaches a landfill, it will continue to store carbon stably as opposed to food waste, which due to the conditions in a landfill would produce methane."

The purification sticks can be added to cups or bottles of water

The biochar is mixed with a binder of bee propolis and tree resins to create a material that can be cast, injection or hand moulded to form disposable filtration pellets for use in the cartridge and carafe, as well as the actual Strøm vessels themselves.

Böhning and Lempres say the final products don't just match but actually outperform traditional filters and work on several substances that don't react to activated carbon.

Magnetising the biochar in a ferrous salt bath allows it to draw heavy metals out of the water, while the addition of animal bones into the char helps the material to filter out fluoride.

Read:

Atmospheric CO2 is "our biggest resource" says carbon-negative plastic brand Made of Air

Meanwhile, the propolis, which consists of a mixture of tree sap as well as beeswax and saliva, acts not just as a binder but also helps to prevent bacterial growth and grime build-up.

"Bees use it to mummify the carcasses of any unlucky hive intruders like mice to stop the spread of disease," explained the students and hobbyist beekeepers.

"So it has significant antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties. However, it needs to be harvested ethically so as to not disturb the hive."

The students material can be turned into pellets as well as vessels

According to the duo, the final material is more affordable and accessible than activated charcoal, due to being made from waste materials, as well as being longer lasting.

While the Strøm cartridge and carafe are powered through filter pellets that can be replaced in order to expand the lifespan of the products, both the pitcher and the squiggly purifying sticks need to be discarded once their filtration capabilities have waned.

But as all the products are made from the biochar-propolis composite, the students say they are completely backyard compostable and will decompose in soil in around a month.

The carafe can be filled with replaceable pellets to extend its life

The biochar can even help to enrich the earth, as it has been used as a fertiliser for centuries and is increasingly being used to turn soils into more effective carbon sinks.

But Böhning and Lempres, who are completing their masters in industrial design at the Pratt Institute, are currently still investigating whether the toxins, metals and plastics immobilised in the filters could also have adverse effects.

Nevertheless, their Støm project was awarded the design school's second annual Material Lab Prize, which recognises student projects that give waste streams a new purpose.

The whole collection is compostable

Berlin startup Made of Air has previously made use of biochar's ability to sequester carbon to create a bioplastic that stores more CO2 than it emits and can be turned into everything from furniture to facades.

Elsewhere, Snohetta has experimented with using the material to create low-carbon concrete, which it hopes to use in its restoration of the Knubben harbour bath in Arendal, Norway.

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