FEBRUARY


News brief... WORLD DESIGN


CAPITAL 2012 The official World Design Capital of 2012, Helsinki, has launched its year-long event. The city’s programme of events for the year ahead consists of 300 projects and exhibitions that aim to celebrate and promote all aspects of design, including a number of events dedicated to architecture.


RE-THINKING


SHANGHAI International architectural practice 10 Design has launched a design competition that aims to expand a dialog about green thinking in China. Applicants are invited to design a proposal for a sustainable architectural intervention along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai in China. The winner will be awarded $1500 and a three month work placement in 10 Design’s Shanghai or Hong Kong office to test and develop their winning design. The closing date for registration is 1st March 2012. The winners will be announced 1st May 2012.


BEST INDEPENDENT


LIVING DESIGN Pozzoni Architects has been shortlisted in the Pinders Healthcare Design Awards 2012, in the Category of Best Independent Living Design for its Belong Village at Atherton. In their thirteenth year, Pinders Healthcare Design Awards have become the premier accolade for those involved in the design, construction, funding and operation of Britain’s care homes, apartments, extensions, retirement housing projects and care villages across the UK.


An omen of doom An unhealthy correlation between skyscrapers and financial crisis is revealed


British Investment Bank Barclays Capital has released its annual report known as the Skyscraper Index. This points to an “unhealthy correlation” between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent financial crashes.


was completed in 1873 and coincided with a five-year


T


Due to be completed in May of this year, could the 1,017ft tall Shard signal a double-dip recession for Britain?


he world's first skyscraper, the Equitable Life building in New York,


recession. Notable examples referred to in the Barclays Capital’s latest report include the Empire State building - constructed at the start of the Great Depression, and the world's tallest skyscraper today, the Burj Khalifa - built just before the Dubai economy's downturn. It seems the world’s tallest


buildings have often arisen as the culmination of countrywide building boom – a well-known conspicuous omen of an


economic crisis. "Often the world's tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction," the Barclays Capital Skyscraper Index states. The report suggests that


construction of the next world’s tallest tower could coincide with financial catastrophe for the nation where the tower is sited.


Rate of construction never seen before


The T30 Hotel stands thirty stories high, but was erected in less than three weeks. Constructed by Broad Sustainable Building


(BSB) in just fifteen days by a team of 200 construction workers, the five-star hotel saw BSB break its own previous record of rapid construction. The hotel is to have 316


standard rooms, 32 suites, eight ambassador suites and two presidential suites. The hotel cost an affordable $17 million to build and is able withstand an earthquake that measures up to nine on


the Richter Magnitude Scale. An impressive feat of


engineering the prefabricated structure also boasts enormous eco- credentials – both in terms of construction and general day-to-day running. The 17,000sqm tower features external solar shading, superb energy efficiency, a heat recovery system, energy saving lighting and a state of the art air


4 | Architects Choice | ArchitectNews.co.uk


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