“Walkers are ‘practitioners of the city,’ for the city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities. Just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents [...]
We all have to make tough decisions. When it comes to city planning, there’s no tougher decision to make than the modernization or preservation of historic culture. European cities, like Berlin, have mustered up the courage to dismantle their historic gas-powered lamps in an attempt to reduce energy output for their modernization efforts. On the [...]
When you lead a nation in green space, what opportunities do you possess? How do those opprotunities impact small and emerging businesses, and the surrounding communities? At what point do you convert underutilized green space into a sprawling piece of revenue-producing land? In the United Kingdom, Nottingham currently boasts the Kingdom’s top green space ranking. [...]
What is the greatest invention of mankind? While some could argue, from the internet to the plane, an even more convincing argument can be made for the city. The human urban city fosters what many urban planners work tediously to build today, known as the “live work play community.” The city accommodates health facilities, housing [...]
When you think of tough neighbourhoods and burroughs like the Bronx in New York, or St Ann’s in Nottingham, you don’t necessarily equate them with energy efficient living. If you consider it living at all, it is most certainly not energy efficient living. However, it is in Nottingham England that city council has made an [...]
Capacity utilization is a key term in business and an increasingly important term with regards to sustainability. The way in which cities utilise space is becoming a far more pressing issue in today’s world. The various ways space can be used inevitably forecasts a city’s future. In the United Kingdom, Nottingham leads the top twenty [...]
As a child in elementary school, you become subjected to such plays on words as rethink, reuse, and recycle. To you, as a child, it is fascinating and mind-numbing how the words work together. As the years fade though, so does the fascination with this play on words. Your once favorite buzz word recess has [...]
Cheap labour is good, but free labour is even better. With the emergence of ever evolving social media platforms, many of the world’s industries are formulating creatively inexpensive strategies for optimal gain. However, when it comes to the tourism industry, the utilisation of platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are either non existent or tepidly innovative. [...]
When the opportunity arose six months ago to blog for Global Site Plans, I jumped at the chance. At the time I had recently finished a Diploma in Architecture at a University in the United Kingdom and was brimming with enthusiasm and ideas about the world of architecture, but was desperately struggling to find a [...]
Once again, a drought warning has been issued for those same parts of England, where ground water levels are lower than any time since 1976. Secretary Caroline Spelman said that without significant rainfall between now and the commencement of summer, residential customers will face severe restrictions including a hosepipe ban. According to Environmental Protection Agency [...]
Something very strange is happening in Liverpool, England. In a remarkable piece of urban planning one of the most recognisable areas of the city has been changed forever by one piece of modern design. Is this beneficial to Liverpool, or has this attempt at contemporary architecture within a historically sensitive setting ruined a section of [...]
The Code for Sustainable Homes is an environmental impact rating used in the United Kingdom to raise standards of house design. Essentially a tick box exercise, new developments are scored against a series of criteria, with the total points gained determining their rating, from the low scoring Level 1 to ‘zero-carbon’ Level 6. Since 2010, [...]
The government’s 50% cut to feed-in tariffs (FITs) for domestic solar installations, announced this 31st of October 2011, has incurred the wrath of the solar industry in United Kingdom. The action focuses on the recent announcement by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to cut the rate paid to householders with solar panels [...]
When the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative was introduced by the United Kingdom’s Labour government in 2004, it sounded like a very good idea. The basic principle of the £55 billion scheme was to rebuild every secondary school in England. Architects, engineers and urban planners were rubbing their hands with glee. BSF was [...]
Solid waste disposal sites are not often seen as opportunities for energy solutions. Landfill gas (LFG), a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide and trace constituents, is typically viewed as a liability because of explosions, odours, and increasingly, climate change concerns. However, LFG can be turned into an asset. Process of land-filling, LFG collection, electricity generation [...]
How much was your architectural education worth? And how much did it cost you? £5,000, £18,000, £45,000? As Universities across the United Kingdom increase their own valuation they are at risk of putting off a generation of talented, but ultimately poor students. What are the options and what are the necessities? Put simply, in order [...]
Renewable Heat Incentives are the most recently launched incentive scheme, so far announced by the United Kingdom Government in March 2011. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is designed to provide financial support, and encourage investments from individuals and communities. This is all in order to switch from fossil fuel heating to renewable energy. The Energy [...]
A big Global Site Plans welcome to our newest blogger, Ashley Roberts in Nottingham, England. Ashley Roberts is a recent graduate of the University of Nottingham, England, with a Diploma in Architecture and is now studying for his part 3 accreditation. Still living in Nottingham, but with strong links to Liverpool and London, he has a [...]
A big Global Site Plans welcome to our newest blogger, Ubaid Khan in England, United Kingdom. Ubaid Khan has over six years of operational, development, technical and environmental experience in the Waste Management and the Environmental Industry sectors in the Middle East and United Kingdom. During his career he liaised with various municipalities and undertaken [...]
A big Global Site Plans welcome to our newest blogger, Laura Paterson from Edinburgh, Scotland. Laura Paterson is a graduate of the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow and Edinburgh College of Art. She holds a B.Arch in Architectural Studies and a PG Diploma in Architecture and is currently studying for a M.Sc Architecture: Advanced [...]
