The month: Oct10

War of the Wolds
It’s not often we see a freehand perspective plan, so respect to Jonathan Hobson of Beverley practice Ingleby and Hobson, who not only drew this earth-sheltered house, but has won a lengthy planning battle to get it built.  It’s a modest two-bedroom home for a resident of the East Yorkshire village of Garton on the Wolds – but the site is close to the grade 1-listed village church. Hobson had two earlier designs turned down by the planners and at appeal, so went this organically-shaped, grass-roofed route. This time he got the support of planning officers, only to be rejected by the committee. But finally, with the help of planning consultant Hickling Gray Associates, his written appeal was upheld. Not only that, but partial costs have been awarded against the local authority for ‘unreasonable behaviour resulting in unnecessary expense.’ Construction should start in the New Year. HP

Fair exchange
Some of the greatest artistic minds of the past have been associated with autism, so it comes as no surprise that some of the biggest names in British architecture have been liaising, for the last couple of years, with some of these more vulnerable and misunderstood young people.

As part of an ongoing conversation, the charity Resources for Autism asked some of the main people who shape the environment that can so disorientate and confuse, to communicate with lads from their Adult Art Studio via images or poems; and in return, some of the boys sent images back to them. On 7 October, a number of the architects’ images will be placed on eBay as part of an online auction, raising money for the Resources for Autism charity.

So if you’re interested in owning the squiggles of Foster, Rogers or Hadid, go online at www.resourcesforautism.org.uk on the day, and bag yourself an architectural original while contributing to a great cause.

Olympics site shapes up
Some 4,000 people swarmed through London’s 2012 Olympics site on Open House weekend in mid-September. We had a preview and the place – frantically busy – is coming on nicely.

The main stadium by Populous with Sir Peter Cook is now structurally complete, though works to the interior continue. This lean demountable structure – the very opposite of Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium by Herzog and de Meuron – is turning out well. Fact: the ring-beam holding it all together on top is made of off-the-peg bolt-together steel gas pipes.
The complex roof of Zaha Hadid’s Aquatics Centre contains as much steel as the whole of the main stadium, we were told: still more is going in to form its banks of temporary seating for the Games’ duration. 

The most promising-looking building at this stage, however, is Hopkins’ Velodrome, with cable-net roof engineered by Expedition. Elegant, understated, fit for purpose,  it makes the Aquatics Centre look distinctly clumsy.  But what most interests us is the landscaping, by George Hargreaves. The margins of the previously very industrial River Lea are starting to green up promisingly (see the designs at http://is.gd/fd9Si ). HP

­­Greenwich meantime…
There’s been some astronomical goings down in Greenwich over the summer, making a zenith for some and a nadir for others. Last month saw the announcement of the shortlist of architects for the final tranche of 1,850 homes of the Greenwich Millennium village, pioneered in the late nineties by none other than Ralph Erskine. The final three teams are Fielden Clegg Bradley, Alison Brooks and S333 with Proctor Matthews; Aecom with Maccreanor Lavington and Karakusevic Carson; and Jestico + Whiles with Peter Barber Studio 54 Architecture. Meanwhile Hopkins Architects is going to a public inquiry over its Greenwich market mixed-use development, which received a second knockback from the planning committee. Foreign Office Architects opened its Ravensbourne College (right), and Heneghan Peng had a public exhibition of its proposed Greenwich University School of Architecture and Construction. CK

Tipping point
With Balancing Barn, Living Architecture hopes to nudge design tourism beyond a tipping point. MVRDV’s house in Suffolk is one of the developer’s first holiday homes to open. A child-like version of a home is visible on the approach but the house gradually reveals its length, 15m of which is cantilevered over the meadow below. Its mirrored surface reflects the surrounding countryside while inside it is lined in ash planks, although the sitting room does have a glass floor so for visitors to achieve a visceral sense of the cantilever. EY
www.living-architecture.co.uk

White Greenhouse
Take an art deco brick hostel in a run down part of Beeston, Leeds, add 140mm of insulation, white render and a couple of wind turbines and your have the Greenhouse.
The client CITU prides itself on its sustainable approach.
The building has been extended upwards by Leeds-based West and Machell with two new storeys which look down into an internal courtyard.
The Greenhouse with its 172 apartments and work spaces is being marketed as a pioneering low carbon development. EY

All the news from Venice
With the Architecture Biennale now in full swing, last month saw the announcement of two other high profile architects who will be making their presence felt in the sinking city.
Rem Koolhaas announced OMA will restore the 15th century Fondaco dei Tedeschi building for Italian clothier Benetton. The proposal is for a major new public events space for the city comprising exhibition galleries cinema spaces and a new public roof terrace, combined with a prestige department store, re-establishing the city’s ‘historic connection between culture and commerce’.

Meanwhile, on the mainland, the Veneto town of Mestre is to be the home of the Fondazione di Venezia’s new 9000m2 M9 museum. Anglo-German practice Sauerbruch Hutton beat off stiff competition whose names included David Chipperfield and Portugal’s Souto de Moura architects to win the E100m competition. If Nicolas Roeg’s disturbing ‘Don’t Look Now’ isn’t a sure bet for the opening line up for either of these venues on completion, RIBAJ will eat its red plastic hood. CK