Author Archives: Jono Ayling

Buro Happold behind Battersea

Posted on by
Reply

Buro Happold have joined the team behind the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station.

The consultants have been involved in some of London’s most iconic buildings and structures in recent years, including work on the Millennium Dome, The Great Court at the British Musuem, and The Globe Theatre.

The group was also part of the consortium which designed and constructed the Olympic Stadium, so large-scale, high-publicity projects are very much their field.

Buro Happold principal Justin Phillips said “We are truly delighted to have been appointed to the Battersea Power Station development… We look forward to dramatically changing this significant part of central London, all within a mile of Westminster.”

Questions are still being raised over the longevity of this project, and whether or not the chimneys will be rebuilt after the owners have insisted on bringing them down in the name of ‘safety’.

The consultation held last week at Battersea Power Station outlined the plans, and showed thousands of flats to be squeezed into the small spaces around the power station.

The Battersea Power Station Community Group have raised numerous issues around these plans, a video will follow…

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

Kevin Murphy on Battersea Power Station

Posted on by
Reply

Battersea Power Station is the focus of other people’s work as well as ours; one notable example of this is Kevin Murphy, director of the 2004 film ‘Battersea: Its Past, Its Future’.

Kevin has been featured on IPINglobal discussing the history and potential future of Battersea Power Station. His personal connection to the building is something that resonates with many locals, as are his thoughts on the disrepair it has callously fallen into in the years since its decommission.

As a youngster traveling in and out of Victoria Station I was always amazed at the sight of the Battersea Power Station every time I passed by. Famous for not only its unique architecture it has also become a popular landmark with the help of movies and popular music, most notably on the cover art of Pink Floyds concept album ‘Animals’. I never thought that one day I would be creating film documentaries regarding its present condition and future…

To read the full article, click here.

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

Creative Capitalist City Online

Posted on by
Reply

Tino Buchholz has released his film – Creative Capitalist City – online for free distribution. The film covers issues of urban regeneration and housing issues in modern Western society.

After a year of DVD distribution and events in Amsterdam, Hamburg, London,
Athens, Vienna and Zurich, Bucholz has annonced the film online with a number of different subtitles.

Visit the website – www.creativecapitalistcity.org – for more information.

Synopsis: This film is more than a local documentary on Amsterdam. It
explores the latest urban re-/development pattern in advanced Western
capitalist cities. The hype around the creative city began already a
decade ago, it is global in scope and about to reach its peak. After
Richard Florida’s influential book “The Rise of the Creative Class” (2002)
creativity has advanced to be the role model of urban regeneration: The
New American Dream. What is new about this dream? What happens when the
hype is over? Housing as a job or the Right to the City”?

For interviews with Anti-Squat company managers and their tenants visit our archive here.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

Atos Protests Continue

Posted on by
Reply

New protests have been planned to force Glasgow 2014 to drop Atos as sponsors.

This news comes after demonstrations were held in tandem with the paralympics, protesting against Atos’s poor record in their fit-for-work assessments.

The coming protests still aim to bring the inferior assessments to public light and are hoping to take Atos out of the sponsor list for Glasgow 2014, where they are hoping to gain good press.

Below is a video of one of the protests held during the paralympics games


Click London Olympics for more blogs
See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

Keith Garner on Rob Tincknell

Posted on by
Reply

Keith Garner, local architect and member of the Battersea Power Station Community Group, has laid out a tyraid of questions to the chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development Company, Rob Tincknell.

In an article described as ‘sycophantic and uncritical’ by Garner, Tincknell answered a series of questions about his involvement with the new plans for the regeneration of Battersea Power Station.

Garner responded strongly to the article, posing probing questions that still need answering. For example;

Why did Treasury Holdings not complete any substantive work in the five years they owned Battersea Power Station between 2006 and 2011, when you were in charge?

Why is the river walk connecting to Battersea Park still not built when your colleagues at Treasury Holdings promised at a meeting in 2011 that this would be done?

Why are you currently carrying out a “public consultation”, when it is clear that you have no intention of responding to any of the concerns raised?

The list ended with Garner asking, ‘Perhaps you would put some of these questions to Rob Tincknell as well?’

We can’t see the Architects Journal being so bold, but are keen to have these questions answered ourselves.

If you have any questions you want answering, let us know and we’ll try to pose them to the companies behind Battersea.

You can read the article itself, and Keith’s full response here, http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/rob-tincknell-committed-to-battersea/8635755.article

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

Kulturas Diena Review Pa Stāvu Liesmu Debesīs

Posted on by
Reply

Philip Ruff’s book Pa Stāvu Liesmu Debesīs has been reviewed by Maira Asare in Kulturas Diena.

To read, click the image below for full size.

Click The Siege of Sidney Street for more blogs
Or visit our The Siege of Sidney Street project pages for more information and videos.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

 

‘Justice and Security’ Bill to Silence Civil Courts

Posted on by
Reply

A new bill proposed aims to silence future court rulings involving secrets sensitive to the government, such as British Intelligence collusion in torture.

It is claimed that the bill will allow for better disclosure within the courts, whilst silencing the coverage of discussions, but the realities of this seem to be a move towards secreet courts.

This comes after secrets surrounding the torture and degrading conditions imposed on UK residents in Guantanamo Bay were discussed openly in court, after the High Court ruled that information disclosed by the CIA to MI5 and MI6 was to be released.

The bill will mean that future hearings won’t have the publicity they once did. Yet another sheet to cover the dealings of international governments from society.

Whether or not the truth behind Guantanamo’s conditions will ever be publicly admitted to or not seems continually unlikely; giving those campaigning for Shaker Aamer’s release another hurdle to overcome in the fight for justice.

For more on the bill, read The Guardian’s article and Parliament’s Official Page

Order Spectacle’s DVD Outside The Law: Stories from Guantánamo

Click Guantánamo for more blogs
Or visit our Guantánamo project pages for more information and videos.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

Brian Barnes Skeptical of Latest Battersea Plans

Posted on by
Reply

Brian Barnes has publicly said that he’s continually doubtful of the new plans set out by Sime Darby to regenerate Battersea Power Station.

Barnes, the driving force behind the Battersea Power Station Community Group that he begun 29 years ago, has seen many plans come and go in his time and is sure the recent proposal from the Malaysian giant will be just another in a long list of failed plans.

He has also criticised the plans for not having enough affordable housing, claiming that no-one from the local area will be able to afford to live there, especially young people looking to get onto the property ladder.

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

Battersea Plans Unveiled

Posted on by
Reply

Sime Darby have released their plans for their regeneration of Battersea Power Station. This Friday (14th) 10:00am-6:00pm and Saturday (15th) 10:00am-4:00pm will see an exhibition of these plans at the Consultation Suite, Battersea Power Station (Gate 2).

These plans have been reported to involve the demolition of the chimneys, and replicas being constructed as the degredation of the current structures is said to be too much to allow a conservation effort.

Around 3,400 homes, including 500 classified as “affordable” will be built on the 29-acre site, as well as two hotels, 160,000 sq ft of offices and dozens of shops and restaurants in a new “high street”. This work is part of their 12-year development project, with a park and walkway projected for completion as early as next April.

Visit www.batterseapowerstation.co.uk for more information.
Email powerstation@batterseasociety.org.uk with your thoughts on the proposed plans.

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter

The Dark Side of Olympic Sponsor, Coca-Cola

Posted on by
Reply

As one of the world’s largest brands, Coca-Cola is drunk globally at most major events, organisations and in normal day-to-day life, but controversy is never far away from the corporation’s door as their actions are felt by all of those unable to defend themselves.

They pedal their work in communities, but always fail to mention their crippling effects on non-western countries, the drastic effects to the environment around their bottling plants and the mysterious deaths associated with their work.

The Olympic sponsor’s chokehold on the drinks market is unassailable, but as opposition to their activity grows, legal challenges will continue to bombard Coca-Cola until something drastic changes in their behind-the-scenes work.

Carmen Garcia and German Gutierrez made the following film telling the story of Daniel Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth as they attempt to take on one of the most recognisable companies on the planet using The Alien Tort Claims Act, an act dating back to the early days of the American Constitution.

Click below to watch the film on the ever-intriguing thoughtmaybe.

Wikipedia hosts a broad summary of a number of the criticisms of Coca-Cola.

Click London Olympics for more blogs
See our Olympics project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

Spectacle homepage
Add Spectacle Documentaries on Facebook
Follow SpectacleMedia on Twitter