Yes I love lists. Here’s one with nine in it, which by a freak act of nature is the number of the new year that we have entered. I hope I don’t run out of juice by number five:
Slow-tech - It’s the title of a book by author Andrew Price. He’s putting forward a philosophy [...]
OK, I’ve succumbed this year. Here goes:
Practice what I preach - could/can I start an eco-refurbishment this year?
Keep mucking in - not preaching from on high
Watch less TV - must avoid Celebrity Big Brother
Use as many wifi facilities as I can find in central London
Achieve Sustainability 2.0 (or at least define what it is)
As a loyal Today listener it’s always intriguing to be woken bleary-eyed - especially in this season - with guest-edited shows. Sprinkled between the usual slots across three hours you get an insight into a figure that can be illuminating and surprising - e.g. that Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the outgoing Bishop of Westminster, played [...]
Another year, another job. It’s becoming a bit of a habit - 2009 will be the third year in succession that I will start with a new role. This one’s a bit scarier than the last two but offers a kind of evolution - starting effectively from scratch in getting my head around online and [...]
Over on a steamed colleague, Dan Stewart’s blog, there’s some RIBA kicking.
The Building architecture correspondent doesn’t think much of the Institute’s plan for using refurbishment to extricate architects for recession, particularly as outlined by Building Design. His criticisms are twofold. Firstly, the idea is ‘at best aspirational and at worst fanstastical.’ Secondly, he says, it [...]
Clearly the most important question in the last month or so though is: what’s happened to the charming, chiming clock on the Swiss Centre in Leicester Square? When I walked through there the other day, I realised the ornate horological instrument which has been playing “Wooden Heart” and “Fur Elise” on the hour to a [...]
This afternoon, a few days after Ed Miliband announced the introduction of the government’s feed-in tariff plans (FIT) as an amendment to the Energy Bill, the Lords will be debating an amendment introduced to the chamber by Baroness Wilcox, and Lords Puttnam and Redesdale and supported by over 35 other major organisations and individuals including Lord Richard Rogers, the [...]
I recently heard a senior construction figure express how important it is that we don’t create another ‘lost generation’ of professionals as we go into this downturn. Another at the same meeting made a vow to hire all graduate trainees no matter what. Though I write from hearsay on the topic, I’ve gathered enough from [...]
I was struck by the presentation given to delegates at one of the Cityscape conference last week by architect Thom Mayne, principal at US practice Morphosis. As any self-respecting hack I honed in on the headline grabbing element of it for an article in last week’s BD, but he had a lot more of a [...]
Tony Benn writes in the Telegraph today that banks should have remained nationalised all along, much as Britain has a nationalised “army, police force, fire service, health care and education.” By handing power to the City and Wall Street, we face a threat to democracy just when that quality is most needed, he opines.
