Readers were attracted to webinars on bespoke house design and sustainability as well as a report on the growing demand for TV and film studios in the UK
#5: Bricks made from quarry waste cut carbon on Hackney extension (12 April)
Whether a PV-impregnated standing seam roof, ultra-low carbon concrete or prefabricated Passivhaus systems, RIBAJ’s products tab makes it a home for those seeking innovations in low-carbon specification. You seemed particularly drawn to this story on architect Draper Studios’ innovative use of stone bricks for a domestic house extension in Hackney, east London. Sourced from France, Polycor stone bricks are sized and cut from first ‘break’ fragments, when large rocks are cleaved away in quarries. Requiring no energy-intensive firing, they realise an incredible 86 per cent carbon saving in manufacture – and give a crisper, cleaner edge too!
#4: PiP webinar: Bespoke house design (4 November)
PiP webinars not only drew many viewers of the live event but remain evergreen CPD content – and why not? Speakers are at the top of their game, with design approaches and insight of immediate use to any practice. Our webinar on bespoke house design was no exception, focusing on some of the projects shortlisted for RIBA House of the Year. Catch Taylor Hare’s restoration and extension of the Grade II*-listed Hall in the Kent Downs, to create a stunning home, while Hugh Strange discusses the farm aesthetic driving his restrained Farmworkers Cottage. And witness the joy as architect Will Burges of 31/44 Architects takes us through the design and everyday moments of Six Columns, his own House of the Year-winning family home in south London. You’ll want to move in!
#3: Stage is set for evolving demands of film studios (25 March)
‘In the future,’ said Andy Warhol, ‘everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.’ Is it the fame by association that made you want to click on PiP’s special report on UK facilities for the film and TV industry? Or maybe that, with the UK government trying to court US studios via tax credits to make films and streaming shows this side of the pond, TV and film campus estate expansion is a thing? Judge for yourself, as Jo Smit takes you on a whistlestop tour of new facilities springing up outside London and Manchester, aiming to meet our seemingly insatiable demand for the binge watch.
#2: PiP webinar: Good for the planet, good for the people (29 May)
Our Design for Sustainability webinar proved popular with viewers – and for good reason. FCBS’s Shrewsbury Flaxmill is a striking example of forensic, structural intervention on an 18th-century mill that has made it an almost invisible 21st-century fit. Northern Ireland architect Patrick Bradley’s rejuvenation of his own ruined clachan in the Ulster hills, which surprisingly uses a shipping container, became a poetic meditation on time and memory. And architect Boehm Lynas’s The Arbour housing in Walthamstow set itself eye-wateringly difficult targets to reduce its own construction footprint, proving an exemplary shift in low-carbon thinking that will take some doing to improve upon.
#1: West Fraser Zero to Hero competition (18 September)
The Paris Olympics sealed 2024 as a year of sport and caught the public – and your – imagination. Our West Fraser competition, Zero to Hero, indulged our common love of urban sports events, challenging entrants to choose a site in London or Edinburgh as a temporary Commonwealth Games venue. One winner used their Skeet range as a chance to highlight the UK’s class-based relationship to the gun; another transformed a London gasometer into a flexible sports venue, while another used Admiralty Arch as a frame for their grandstand Colosseum. Our £2,500 winning design, parasitically attached to existing towers, totally rethought how spectators might relate to the sport of climbing. Watch out for the launch of next year’s competition soon!