WORLD ARCHITECTURE NEWS

ABA win with Tribeca

Alison Brooks Architects' three landmark buildings for the Tribeca development in Liverpool have won a 2008 Housing Design Project Award. ABA’s scheme forms part of the 5 acre Urban Splash development, believed to be Liverpool's largest ever residential project. The scheme will act as a beacon at the southern end of Great George Street, at the foot of the world renowned Anglican Cathedral designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. ABA’s buildings, which received planning permission in December 2007, will hold spacious apartments, roof terraces and colonnaded commercial space at street level. The judges commented: ' It's a brave architect who squares up to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool with a cluster of buildings of vigour, but ABA have taken on the challenge with their gateway to the Tribeca development...'
View the project page for project details.

UK’s design quality protected by law

RIBA has successfully lobbied Parliament to secure an amendment to the Housing and Regeneration Bill passed yesterday. The amendment will ensure the new Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), created in the bill to assume the duties currently held by the Housing Corporation and English Partnership, will have a statutory duty to contribute to design quality in new housing. RIBA worked with a careful selection of peers with expertise in the architecture area to provide a voice of authority during the passing of the bill. Anna Scott-Marshall, Head of Public Affairs at the RIBA said: “We are delighted that the Government has responded to our calls for an explicit duty for the Homes and Communities Agency to improve design quality. At a time when economic pressures on housebuilders could lead to design and quality being squeezed by more immediate pressures this duty should ensure that this does not happen.”