Zerochampion

My immediate response to Mark Brinkley’s post from a few weeks back entitled Is Blogging Dying? was that while he had a point – blogging doesn’t seem to be as exciting or popular as a few years back – this shouldn’t put the best ones like him off from continuing in the medium . Looking at the overall numbers – a report by the Association of Online Publishers issued earlier this month – backs up the thought that the explosion of blogs in the past decade has slowed. Year on year growth from 2008 to 2009 for blogs and personal websites in terms of visits was healthy – 12% up – but below that of growth in news and media (up nearly 20%) and social networking (17%). The point I made below his post was that I thought many online visitors were consolidating their digital experiences somewhat. I for one have now started to cut back on the feed of sites I follow in the past few weeks, simply down to time and new interests. And as Mark pointed out I’ve not seen many great new blogs or bloggers introduce themselves to our browsers in the past year or so.

Mark’s post has clearly lodged itself into my subconscious as in the past week as I’ve been seriously considering the future of this blog. Continue reading →

In a recent post I rather jokingly referred to my chilly house with no central heating. It’s all very well for me making gags about wearing slankets but for some the situation is entirely more sobering and uncomfortable. Holly Billen, an eight-month pregnant 26-year-old who lives in Wiltshire and features in today’s Guardian, is having to make a daily decision between spending money on heating or food. Which serves to underline our collective moral duty to upgrade our housing stock, both environmentally and socially.

Having read the initial gloomy summaries of how disastrous the Copenhagen conference was in the hours and days afterwards I, probably like many, put it to the back of my mind and concentrated on enjoying a high carbon Christmas. So in sober January it was useful to get a less tabloid version of events over the Channel at the Green Monday event earlier this week. The organisers pulled together four speakers to review events from their perspective. There was: the Government man – Chris Dodwell from DEC ; the environmentalist – Steve Howard from The Climate Group; the businessman – Ray Barker from Kingfisher; and the banker – Abyd Karmali, who works with Merrill Lynch. The consensus: an attempt to look on the bright side rather than continue to get depressed about what Copenhagen didn’t do. Which was a mixed success. Continue reading →

I am currently writing this sat next to an electric heater wearing a slanket. For those unaware of the unexpected Christmas phenomenon that was the slanket it’s a blanket with sleeves. Yes, you look like you’re in a straight-jacket, and it may well have been a seasonal gimmick, but for dwellers of leaky Victorian houses with no central heating it is essential attire.

So this is an overdue update on the refurb, not simply a pathetic whinge. Buying such a property and hunkering down for winter was part of the plan.  That said winter turned out to be the coldest since when the Beatles starting knocking out three minute ditties was not one that we anticipated. I’m currently living a rather schizophrenic existence. By morning and night there’s plenty of layers, rediscovering the rather old-fashioned pleasures of the electric blanket and the slipper; by day stripping off the layers in my overheated office. Continue reading →

Arse about tit given my last post but here’s the most popular posts on Zerochampion in 2009. A shout out to the team behind the East London refurbishment project who guest-posted during the year and proved plenty of value throughout the year. And to architectural student Benjamin Kinch for his thoughtful piece on BREEAM. Here goes:

1. Dubai and Rethinking Growth
2. Environmentalism as miserabalism
3. Eco Refurbishment Part 2
4. The Carbon Reduction Commitment is Bonkers
5. Refurbishment challenge: airtightness
6. Existing challenge: the builder’s tale
7. Celebrity architects and sustainability
8. Should aesthetics be part of BREEAM?
9. Nine people thoughts and quotes for 2009
10. Green refurbishment challenge part four

There’s still time (just) to deliver a New Year’s message. So here goes. It’s short and sweet and it’s Think Small (seems so much more important when you cap it up). In the face of potential economic and environmental disaster let’s try and get the detail right. In my experience too many times in the past couple of years I’ve thought that a grand project was appropriate. Let’s save the world! Let’s get really excited about a cool new site or app or product that will go huge! Er no, let’s deal with how we deliver some of the basics well first. Probably just as appropriate for my game of digital journalism as well as sustainability and the industry at large. That’s where environmentally something like the 10:10 campaign seems to have hit a nerve. And on the project front let’s have less of the grand projets (Elephant & Castle, Battersea Power Station, Dubai etc.) and think more subtle projects, cleverer additions, refurbishments etc. This struck me as I was walking around my home town Bishop’s Stortford last week with my Dad. Instead of point to huge swathes of green fields as areas for potential development on the outskirts of the town he was showing me small chunks of land or disused old buildings that were being developed. That makes sense.

Fabulously pompous headline. I thought I’d indulge myself. Being a bloke, reading the Guardian and wanting to show off my esteemed cultural taste, here’s a few stand-out moments for me from the last ten years:

• Band and song of the decade: I think Elbow have to take the plaudits here. Having the nicest bloke in pop music – Guy Garvey – helps, but it’s the standout quality of the songwriting that stands out. And that warm, melancholic voice of the aforementioned Garvey, which makes you want to hug him. For my money he also wrote my favourite song of the decade: Mirrorball Continue reading →

I have particular reason to review the past decade, given that it was back in January 2000 that I began my career in construction and architecture journalism. From a trawl through the archive of Building I see that my first by-lined article was the not-so earth shattering news that a small practice called Pawson Williams (the two founding partners subsequently parted company soon after this) had won a competition to design a new mixed-use scheme in Stockholm. More excitement followed, in the form of two of the stories that in their own way defined the decade, both that took place in 2001: in construction terms Ray O’Rourke’s audacious takeover of Laing construction in . Not only a master deal (for a quid) but one that shook up a rather fusty contracting sector. Consolidation followed, both in contracting and housebuilding, but it’s interesting to see that the quieter but more effective player this decade has been Balfour Beatty: it is far and away the largest UK contractor, and is growing in a fascinating fashion. This is amply displayed by its activity this year, buying respected engineering group Parsons Brinckerhoff in September for £380m and last week snapping up Doncaster-based affordable housing outfit Strata for £10m. Continue reading →

On a pretty grim night (driving sleet, collapsing Copenhagen discussions etc.) I discovered something of an oasis of optimism in the snug surroundings of the Shortwave cinema in Bermondsey Square. That’s the place with the rather original version of a Christmas tree made from recycled bicycle wheel, designed by Sarah Wigglesworth. There was a special screening of Yes Men Fix the World, which is effectively Borat/Bruno with a political edge. The two pranksters pretend to represent dubious corporations and make outrageously truthful/ridiculous/absurd claims in their behalf. With largely hilarious results. Unfortunately they don’t achieve what the title suggests, but it’s thought-provoking in how activism could work differently to large protests and banner waving. On our cinema seats were also editions of this spoof version of the International Herald Tribune for Saturday, which Greenpeace created earlier in the year, that envisages a result at Copenhagen. We’ll see. Right now it feels that Jeremy Leggett’s prediction of Copenhagen “failing noisily” from a few weeks back is more likely.

It’s good to see that Mark Brinkley’s considerable intellect is grappling with the debates that Copenhagen has set off. Last week he posted on economic growth, with the inevitable ensuing mixture of measured debate and asterisk anger from Mr Anonymous, and this week he’s turned his attentions to population, which I’m pretty shocked has not emerged as a topic over the Channel in past eight days. The problem as I see it is that whilst thousands of well intentioned individuals grapple with the future of our species, life, well… goes on regardless. A small case in point. I don’t usually read leader columns, but here’s one in yesterday’s Evening Standard. Three separate articles, offering three separate opinions: one on Copenhagen, one on the debt crisis, and one on how resurgent retail this Christmas is good for London.

Until Copenhagen is not looked at as a hermetically sealed room where we try and sort out that tricky stuff about, you know, the sea and that gas we emit and those islands that may start drowning soon, then whatever is agreed, if anything, will be about as concrete as that bit of paper that bloke Chamberlain waved to the crowd on his return from that country near Denmark.