progress on site despite snow and frost

Timber framed cassettes that will form the ground floor arrived on site today. These will be fully filled with insulation manufactured from recycled newspaper.

The pond in front of the Environment Centre in the Lordship Recreational Ground is currently frozen... The cafe in this building will be a fantastic place to stay warm and look out during the snowy season next year!

See more about the Environment Centre at Lordship Recreational Grounds by ATA here. 

junko reports on the environment centre

The construction work at the Environment Centre at Lordship Recreational Ground in Haringey finally got rolling after a few months break. The timber floor beams have landed on site: fifty-four piles are supporting the main structure. The floor joists will arrive this week. ATA and the design team have been busy working on the final check. The straw bale building is designed to Passivhaus standard.  

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.

photographing the pilot houses at West Hendon

The Pilot scheme for the West Hendon Regeneration designed by ATA for clients Barratt Metropolitan LLP is nearing completion and families are moving into the houses next week. A delightful day was spent in the company of architectural photographer Ioana Marinescu talking to her about spaces and capturing the site in the beautiful winter light. We can't wait to see the result.

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.

ATA shortlisted for Hackney co-housing project

ATA is one of the five practices shortlisted to design proposals for the Hackney Co-housing Project. HCP in partnership with Hanover Housing Association are looking at a site to build 15 new homes ranging from one-bedroom flats to four bedroom family houses, a common house and other shared facilities such as vegetable gardens, bike shed and kids play area.

season's greetings from ATA

new office

Our new address:

Anne Thorne Architects
iNDUSTRY
Adelaide Wharf
21 Whiston Road
London E2 8EX

And our new telephone number:
020 7749 6931/ 32

the principles of retrofit

On 4th November Bob Prewett and Fran Bradshaw did a workshop for the Flash programme on 'The Principles of Retrofit'.

Delightfully organised for the RIBA by Emma Livingston Jones, at Bere Architects inspiring Mayville Community Centre, participants were lucky to be given a guided tour at the end, and even see inside the engine room - the most beautifully neat plant room!

The participants were asked to join in and do some hands-on calculating, measuring and guessing, and what a great response! It was fun, and all learnt lots about what's most useful for architects.

Another workshop - improved on the basis of what worked best - coming in the new year.

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… 

thinking about the passivhaus conference

It's a few weeks since the Passivhaus conference, after the busy time running up to the event, I've been thinking about what was significant about it: there was a real buzz of excitement, and a great feeling that something new is really taking off here in the UK.

It was such a coming together of all the building professionals who already have lots of expertise in passivhaus, knowledge and experience of sustainable design, and lots of new people too.

The talks I heard were great, doing a call for papers meant there was a really wide range of presentations, and it was so good to hear about a range of UK completed projects, and be able to visit some.

It felt like a good successor to last year's great conference, bigger, more established, and it was really well organized event. People especially liked the light and space of the conservatory, and there was lots of opportunity to talk.

But the importance of the event seems to me to be a feeling of gathering momentum- picking up clients, planners, architects, contractors, suppliers, local authority legislators - all the people who are needed to really role out new and refurbished buildings to the standard we know will perform. When I think how much has changed over the last few years it makes me feel really hopeful.

Apologies to anyone who had to listening to me hoarsely whispering on the second day, loosing your voice at a conference is just bad planning!
Fran

uncovering centre 404

Building work is under way on Centre 404 on Camden Road. At basement level, foundation for the new garden room have been excavated and old partitions taken down, uncovering the history and timeline of the building. We've found beautiful layers of old wallpaper, decorative tiles as well as old lath and paster work… as well as some less interesting, more recent additions!

We're thrilled about watching the building work progress - connecting the building to the garden, opening up the space and making Centre 404 more accessible to all.

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.

refurbishment and extension to listed building in Stoke Newington

The major refurbishment and extension to 237 Stoke Newington Church Street has been completed. The Grade II listed building is part of the Clissold Park Conservation Area. ATA assisted Eaves Developments with all stages of Planning, Listed Building consent and detail design. Three stunning flats fronting onto the Park, and onto a beautiful garden at the rear, have been skilfully developed. Efficient boilers, internal insulation, solar panels and organic paints coexist with original fixtures on this mid-18th C house.