Events - Building an awareness of architecture (Nottingham)

LOVE architecture? Well, between now and Sunday, June 24, the East Midlands will be hosting a series of events to encourage people to look at the buildings around them in a new and exciting way.


Nottingham will stage a festival, one of a series being organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). It will include Walking Architecture guided walks of the city's contemporary architecture, free 30-minute consultations with a RIBA-registered architect as part of a home design and planning event at John Lewis, and a talk on the heritage of Nottingham.

Here's the line-up:
Walking Architecture guided walks
West city, including the Playhouse, Nottingham Trent University and the Royal Concert Hall on Monday, June 18, at 6pm. East city, including Old Market Square, Nottingham Contemporary and Broadway Cinema on Tuesday, June 19, at 6pm.
Tickets for each walk are £5 for adults and £3 for children (12 and under) can be booked at the Nottingham Tourism Centre on 08444 77 5678.

John Lewis Nottingham home design and planning event
The event on Saturday, June 16, will feature free a 30-minute consultation with a RIBA-registered architect to John Lewis customers. John Lewis fitted kitchen and home design planners will also be on hand to discuss.
It will take place in the John Lewis furniture department on the second floor between 10am and 6pm. Appointments can be booked in advance by calling 0115 8507774 or emailing info_FK_Nottingham@johnlewis.co.uk. People can also turn up on the day, but appointments will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Building Nottingham – The making of a great city
Valeria Passetti, president of Nottingham and Derby Society of Architects, will give a talk on the built heritage of Nottingham at Antenna, Nottingham, on Thursday, June 21, between 6pm and 9pm.
Entry is free. More details are available at www.lovearchitecture.org or by calling 0115 993 2350.

The regional director of RIBA East Midlands, Mike Baulcombe, said: "It's fantastic that there are so many events happening across the East Midlands.

"Our partners, in particular, have helped to ensure an exciting and wide-ranging programme of activities to get people interested in architecture and the buildings around them, which is what the festival is all about."

A full listing for all Love Architecture events can be found at http://www.lovearchitecture.org/

From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Building-awareness-architecture/story-16364786-detail/story.html

Event - Community Planning Workshop in Worksop (Priory)

I went to the update for the proposals for the area around the Priory on Friday and was very happy at the outlined proposals - I can't really go into much detail but the ideas suggested include opening up the views of the Priory and the possible installation of stepping stones and bridges across the river and Loin Goit to improve access across the fields, priory graveyard and Cemetery Road. Scalloping of the river has also been suggested to reduce the risk of flooding on Priorswell Road and Shelley Street.

I was really impressed by the ideas and hopefully it will come to fruition and encourage people to come and see one of the most impressive buildings in Nottinghamshire if not the East Midlands.

News - Pleasley Colliery Wins EMCBE Heritage Award

We are delighted to announce that Woodhead Heritages’ £860K repair and regeneration project at Pleasley Colliery won the Heritage Award at the 2011 EMCBE (East Midlands Centre for Constructing the Built Environment) Awards dinner on 28 October 2011.

Celebrating the best of construction, the Awards are open to all involved in delivering construction and contributing to the built environment in the East Midlands. The Heritage Award in particular celebrates schemes of repair which significantly improve the aesthetic quality of a building/project. With eight finalists for the Heritage Award the competition was tough, so winning the Award was particular special for Woodhead Heritage, a Robert Woodhead brand.

As a scheduled monument, the repair of Pleasley Colliery located in the north of Nottinghamshire, was a very new and unique project for Woodhead. Simon Butler of Woodhead Heritage comments, “We’re delighted to have received the Constructing Excellence Heritage Award on behalf of all those that played a part in the work at Pleasley. It was a hugely enjoyable, challenging project, and was a real team effort, where everyone fully played their part. We are particularly pleased for the individuals that worked on the project as they really did work tirelessly to solve complex problems and ensure we followed sound conservation principles. The regeneration has secured the site for the future and opens the way for a Visitor Centre. A number of jobs have already been created in the community too.”

Simon continued, “We'd also like to congratulate the Pleasley Pit Trust for winning the Heritage Angels award for the project on the 31st October.”

Lead judge Fred Markland commented on the night regarding the winning project, ” These buildings of course, provide the most difficult challenge not only to the surrounding communities, but also in terms of intervention as in many instances they appear on a much larger scale with relatively uncommon repair elements to focus on. In the past it has been only to easy to discard much of what is now cherished and worthy of preserving from our industrial past and without attention, we may lose important links to the past which can provide much needed tourism opportunities to challenged areas.”

After the Awards evening, Fred Markland highlighted, “The submission received from Robert Woodhead demonstrated very clearly what issues and effective repairs had been carried out on the project and that the quality and execution were in line with current conservation standards with the key issue being the retention and repair of existing fabric.”

Steve Saunders, Partner at William Saunders, the Architects, commented “We are delighted to have been involved in the conservation works at Pleasley Colliery. This was a challenging and hugely interesting project for all members of the Design Team and Contractor Team to be involved with that secures the future of the Pleasley site for many years to come.”

The project was funded by East Midlands Development Agency and the Homes and Community Agency and the site is currently managed by The Land Trust.

Woodhead Heritage will now go on to represent the East Midlands region at this year’s Constructing Excellence National Awards in London on 25 November 2011.

For more details regarding the project, please see our Pleasley Colliery case study

From:http://www.responsesource.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=68211

News -English Heritage praises Pleasley Colliery restoration

Preservation work at a colliery on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border has been praised by English Heritage.

Pleasley Colliery's restoration, which has been carried out by a group of volunteers, was said to be a "great example" of how to preserve the rich industrial history of the region.

The colliery, near Mansfield, is one of 129 buildings listed on the East Midlands' "at risk" register.

See: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15367359 for a video report

News - Residents asked for views on buildings at risk (Notts)

PEOPLE in Notts are being asked to tell English Heritage which industrial buildings they think are at risk.

English Heritage wants to hear the views of owners, developers, local people, voluntary bodies, academics, professionals and politicians as part of its Industrial Heritage at Risk research programme.

People can visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/industrial-heritage-at-risk to post photographs and comment on favourite industrial buildings on a Flickr group.

English Heritage will reveal in October how much of its listed or scheduled industrial heritage is at risk.

It will also make proposals for the way forward and will form part of the launch of the annual Heritage at Risk register.

Anthony Streeten, English Heritage planning director for the East Midlands, said Papplewick Pumping Station and Ruddington Framework Knitters Workshops were among the buildings that reinforced the reputation of the East Midlands as an engaging destination for visitors.

He added: "But much of our country's industrial heritage is now at risk and the current economic climate isn't helping.

"Owners are finding it hard to look after the needs of their buildings as well as their businesses. We're determined to see what can be done to help. Our industrial past is too important to ignore."

For more information visit www.english-heritage.org.uk

From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Residents-asked-views-buildings-risk/article-3378016-detail/article.html

 

News - Nottingham city museum opens up archaeological stores

Nottingham City Museums is offering a chance to go behind the scenes at its archaeological stores, offering a rare look at its prehistoric collection.

 

Manager Ann Inscker said: "Visitors will see material that hasn't seen the light of day for a long, long time."

 

The objects include flint tools from 50,000BC and an array of axes, hammers, spears, swords and pottery.

 

Most of the items in the collection were found in Nottinghamshire or the East Midlands.

 

Many have been found on the banks of the River Trent, through dredging in the 1960s and 70s.

 

"One of the former county archaeologists refers to it as the richest river in Europe for archaeology," said the collections manager. "The richness is here but it is behind the scenes."

 

The reason for this, Ms Inscker explained, is down to space and the national curriculum in schools, which starts with the Romans.

"[This has meant] we have a lot of material that doesn't have a front end," she said.

 

The archaeological collection began life at the Castle Museum in 1878. It has been built up over the last 130 years through donations.

 

It generally has less than one per cent of its 23,000 objects on display at any one time.

 

"People don't understand how much material we have," said Ms Inscker.

 

The objects are available for research and scientific analysis and Ms Inscker stresses the importance of keeping a local collection.

 

She said: "If everything is in London it will go into deep storage and it will take six months for an enquiry for you to actually get access to that material.

"By having it here it means that it is more accessible to the public.

 

"We want to learn and understand the local area from which this material comes," the collections manager added.

 

"If we left it all to people in London - they're not going to want to come up to the provinces and learn about archaeology here, not to the same extent and with the same passion we do.

 

"We need to make sure the facility stays here."

 

Behind the scenes tours of the prehistoric collections at Brewhouse Yard, Museum of Nottingham Life, will take place on 18 February, 6.30pm to 7.30pm, and 24 February 2011, at 10.30am and 2.00pm. Advance booking is advised, as places will be limited. Telephone: 0115 915 3620

 

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9398000/9398120.stm