Eco-Hub article on low-tech / high-tech fusion

... by Amanda Birch, worth a read!

'The new building has so much potential to bring the community closer'

Some pics of the great celebration for International Women's Day held at the Eco Hub.

Thanks to the event organiser Lilly Labonte and Kaya (16) for the words (extract bellow).

Originally planned to be held on the outdoor Shell theatre, the performances for International Women's Day at Lordship Rec was moved to the newly built Eco Hub, due to the weather turning for the worst with snow and chilly winds. The purpose was to promote women in business and encourage those not already involved in business and enterprise to be inspired to do so. There were performances ranging from street dance to spoken word and music, all the performers were young women. There were workshops about how to set up your own businesses and one 2 one drop in advice sessions, from women speakers who currently organise business starter programmes, passing down their wisdom and experience to others. The atmosphere was open and friendly and as a local young person it was nice to feel embraced by my own community, as well get to know other local people. The new building has so much potential to bring the community closer, and offer a perfect place for performances, get together’s or just a coffee or lunch after a morning in the park. This was shown on International Women's Day as it opened the Eco Hub up for the first time, allowing everyone to see what a great space it is and can be. There are more events coming to the eco hub and park very soon.

Women in Architecture

Tomorrow is International Women's Day and some of us at ATA will be going to the breakfast debate organised by Women in Architecture. Lots of interesting speakers and guests and a preview of 'The contemporary face of Women in Architecture', a digital display of portraits of women in the workplace, commissioned by WiA (spot us at the EcoHub!). If you want to find out more or join the discussion click here. 

C404 raises money for garden planting

Funny and enjoyable Poetry and Music evening garden fundraiser at Centre 404, refurbished by ATA, in a delightfully sparkling hall on 10th November. We didn't win the raffle, but enjoyed ourselves. How much was raised? We are looking forward to the planting!

Two years later: Review of Lewisham self-build scheme

Project review visit at Beechmont Close, two years after completion - the project designed with and for 12 young people from the housing list, who trained in building skills at college and worked on site with the contractor for the whole construction period. The place is in beautiful condition, confirming all our hopes about the young people's feelings of ownership for the place, and the guys who do the regular maintenance have been giving it 'gold' - see picture. Of the young people, one has gone on to qualify and work as a bricklayer, and nearly all are in work although one sadly lost his flat as a result of being involved in the riots last year, which I was very sorry to hear. 

The contractor - Enterprise - site foreman is still in touch with the young people on a regular basis, and the experience has been a boost to his career development too. Overall a real inspiration!

Fran

Gearing up for Open House London

This year ATA will have two buildings open to the public during the Open House London weekend taking place on 22nd-23rd September.

Eco-hub -  the centrepiece of the regeneration and transformation of the historic Lordship Recreation Grounds, which has been designed to exemplary sustainable standards, including community-built straw bale walls, timber foundations, green roof, MVHR and natural materials and finishes.

Centre 404 (pictured) - a newly refurbished and extended Victorian villa with a non-institutional feel, taking consideration of environmental factors and energy efficiency.The centre on Camden Road is home to a charity supporting people with learning difficulties and their families.

Watch this space, more details closer to the event!
Rute

Anne Thorne on ITV news

Anne talks about women in the building industry in the last 60 years: 'Change is happening, it's just a bit slow and it needs to speed up'.
The news crew visited ATA's projects Environment Centre and Granville Plus. Watch the full movie here.

site visit

Last week I have been busy taking part in the AECB Certified Passivhaus Designer Course - and inevitably kept thinking about our Passivhaus Environment Centre. During last week the site made remarkable progress as ever - amongst other things, the cellulose fibre insulation has been injected into the roof and floor voids. Straw Works and the volunteers, who have been looking after every layer and corner of the render and plaster, were giving a final touch before they leave the site for two weeks at the end of today. Next week, the floor will be cleared to receive the air-tightness membrane. 

As many migrant birds fly over, I wonder whether they will recognise a new land mark in the reborn Lordship Recreation Ground!
Junko

happy international women's day

Drawing by Fran
(who is now back!)


Just want to say thanks to ATA for restorative sabbatical leave in south France, where I walked and painted, thank you all!  Fran

ATA in the triodos magazine

An article about ATA in the beautifully produced The Colour of Money, Triodos Bank's quarterly publication.
As Zana pointed out this issue is all about food so it's quite nice to have some fine sustainable architecture thrown in!
Triodos is a global pioneer of sustainable banking whose mission is to make money work for positive social, environmental and cultural change. It's worth checking them and their clients out.
You can read the article here.

women in practice

The AJ's January issue focusses on women in practice and features contributions from Anne Thorne Architects to Zaha Hadid.
You can have a look on line or get a copy from the RIBA bookshop.

Below is an unedited extract of the questions by Fran and Rute.

an office move, good conferences and interesting projects - 2011 wasn't that bad

January must be a  good time for reflections on 2011- skating speedily over those endless discussions about the Green Deal mechanisms and possible effectiveness - high points were enormous jumps in interest and actual delivery of Passivhaus buildings, and consolidation of Passivhaus Trust as a great UK enabling organisation, and the conference was great.

For ATA a wonderful celebration of 20 years since founding in 1991, twenty years of hard but absorbing work on community and green projects - gave the team some overwhelmingly fantastic feedback, everyone felt sky high - then a move to Industry - from gently decaying mews in Bethnal Green (pictured) to zippy regenerated new offices in Haggerston - where we are well settled in and warm at last.

meanwhile, user-friendly design inspiration from Japan

Junko sent us a photograph from her recent trip to Japan. A common site there, but certainly not around here, almost every public toilet has a child seat in the corner, even in the smaller sized toilets. If you've ever tried going to the toilet with a child (or two) you'll know how much sense this makes… 

Anne curates walk in Aldgate

Anne Thorne has curated a walk around Aldgate focused on Gender. Other walks by Muf's Liza Fior, Graham Fisher of Toynbee Hall and artist Kate Rich have looked at Faith, Philantropy and Trade taking as a study area anywhere within 10 minutes walk of Aldgate tube station. The walks are part of a much wider project done in collaboration with Publica which will see over 600 students from the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Design and The Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design thinking about this area and developing site-specific projects.

Anne's talk looked at the Aldgate Subways, Women in the Guilds, Women in the City (or lack of), Women's Library, Brick Lane (Heba Women's Project and SsBA), the Royal London Hospital (nursing, midwifery, Florence Nightingale's influence on ward design, Elizabeth Fry) and the Jagonari women's centre and the work of Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative.

Thank you!

Thanks so much to those of you that came to our party last night, it was so great to see everybody, we were overwhelmed by the lovely feeling of celebration and appreciation, and felt so lucky to have been and to be able to work with such great people - as clients, contractors, consultants and friends.

Keep us in mind for future projects, we're a bunch with wide ranging interests, and love doing something different, as well as developing our core interests.

Thanks to Ben Croxford for the photo!

Read the AJ Footprint post here.

Reflecting on 20 years of practice and new directions

Anne Thorne Architects
Reflecting on 20 years of practice and new directions
In conversation with Hattie Hartman, architect and AJ sustainability editor
August 2011

ATA have put together a small publication to celebrate their 20th birthday and the 1st of ATA LLP. Download it here.

At the AECB conference

The AECB conference was in Nottingham University this year, and we got to hear a bit about the Hopkins campus and see the demonstration houses there (and observe some of the many things that can go wrong with low energy design and how not to install MVHR).
As usual the greatest pleasure is talking to the people one only gets to meet at AECB conferences, and catch up on the years' events, but equally the workshops I went to were fascinating and the discussions were really good...
I chaired the 'does language matter?' workshop - a rhetorical question of course, people had such a lot to say and it reminded me that AECB people aren't just the most knowledgeable people around about low energy design and building, they are also incredibly thoughtful and interesting on wider political/social matters. A great pleasure - as always.
More here
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ATA Celebrates 20 Years!

Anne Thorne Architects invites you to celebrate its 20th birthday and the 1st of ATA LLP

Playtime at Harlow Fields School!

Pupils at Harlow Fields School are loving getting to grips with their interactive and sensory new playground!

ATA is working on a series of phased upgrades at Harlow Fields School and College, Essex, for pupils with special needs.   The new playground for primary children is with living willow tunnels, swings, and musical instruments. Green oak benches and a bamboo sun shelter with many planters give the playground a natural feel. The benches and bollards were commissioned Carpenter Oak Ltd to utilise the stock of off cuts. 

ATA on Ashden Awards 2010 Shortlist

ATA were shortlisted for the prestigious Ashden Awards 2010 last year, amongst a fantastic shortlist of projects and environmental groups and communities striving to make a real difference to sustainable energy solutions right across the UK and the developing world.

ATA were shortlisted for their long history and work in the field of sustainable low-carbon design with projects such as Boatemah Walk, Batemans Mews, Angela Carter Close, Granville Plus, and many more.

The judges were particularly impressed with the way that ATA have worked with building users, and also emphasised post-occupancy studies in our practice.

See here for more info Ashden Awards 2010