Ron Sidell will be speaking at the NLA’s conference ‘London’s Workplaces:  Remaining competitive in a changing world’, on the subject of office design and management.

With a back-catalogue containing some of the most inspiring Central London offices built in the last 20 years, Ron has plenty of reference material!  More recently, the masterplanning of the Paddington Central project, the Snow Hill redevelopment in Birmingham and finally One New Change, one of the most historically strategic and comprehensive redevelopments completed in the City of London.

London is consistently ranked as one of the leading cities to locate, invest and do business.  It is the engine room for the UK economy and a key driver of innovation and growth.  London’s workplaces must adapt and develop to remain competitive by developing a more sustainable approach to energy use, accommodating advanced technologies and creating improved working environments which allow business to attract and retain the best talent.  The conference will be looking at the challenges ahead and the ways in which the sector is responding.

Further information at www.newlondonarchitecture.org

London’s One New Change building has won the Building Excellence Award of the London District Surveyors Association.  The development was awarded the Best Commercial Project in the City of London at last night’s awards ceremony.

Designed by Sidell Gibson Architects in collaboration with Ateliers Jean Nouvel, the £300 million building opened in October 2010 and represents one of the largest consolidated retail spaces across central London.  The mixed-use development, adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral, is one of the most historically strategic and comprehensive redevelopments in the City of London.

One of three projects nominated  for these awards, it was considered One New Change provides a prime example of how it is possible to honour the City of London’s past whilst also forging its future.

Speaking on behalf of Sidell Gibson, Sanya Tomic, Partner responsible for One New Change, said, “We are very pleased that One New Change was nominated by the City of London District Surveyor’s Office and are delighted to be the winner in the Best Commercial Project category.  We will continue to build on our excellent working relationship and partnering approach with the City of London District Surveyors Office to deliver challenging and innovative projects such as One New Change.”

Sanya Tomic, partner at Sidell Gibson Architects and Matt Perry from Land Securities, collection the RIBA Award for One New Change. (photo by Steve Speller)

London’s One New Change building, designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel in association with Sidell Gibson Architects, has won a RIBA Award.

Opened in October 2010, the £300 million building, which represents one of the largest consolidated retail spaces across central London, has already won several prestigious awards.  The mixed-use development, adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral, is one of the most historically strategic and comprehensive redevelopments in the City of London.

Speaking on behalf of Sidell Gibson, Sanya Tomic, Partner responsible for One New Change, said, “To win a RIBA Award is a remarkable achievement founded upon a collective effort; Jean Nouvel’s creativity consistently pushing the boundaries of the design, and our aspiration for quality, collaborative approach, lateral thinking and attention to detail at every level, delivering this innovative yet timeless design.”

Following the Open Call for Ideas on the future uses of architecture issued by the Royal Society of Arts and The Architecture Foundation earlier this year, Sidell Gibson Architects has been shortlisted as one of the seven ideas to be presented for interrogation and debate by an expert panel and before a public audience at The Resourceful Architect Day of Ideas on 18^th May.

The practice’s idea, Mashup, was proposed by Richard Brearley and Uli Kraeling and explores an electronic microsite connecting social and personal needs with derelict pockets of land and buildings in London.

The six other shortlisted ideas, chosen from 56 international entries, include The Redundant Architect Recreation Association (RARA) by East London Design Bureau; 72-hour Urban Action by Alison Killing, Killing Architects, Amsterdam; Space for Exchange: A Sustainable Return to Srebrenica by Vernes Causevic, London Metropolitan University; School of Architecture for All (SCHARCHA), led by Maria Theodoru, Athens; Pavement for Las Lomas by Bara Safarova, London Metropolitan University; The Architects Adhocracy by Mobile Studio and Yesomi Umolu, London.

The public Day of Ideas will take place on 18^th May in the RSA’s historic Great Room auditorium, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2.  The expert panel will include property developer David Partridge, Brazilian architect Fernando de Mello Franco, design and environment consultant Peter Bishop and educational entrepreneur Sophie Haworth and will be chaired by architecture professor and participatory planning pioneer Nabeel Hamdi.

Tickets to attend are free, but must be reserved in advance via the RSA website – www.thersa.org/projects/design/theresourcefularchitect

Partner at Sidell Gibson Architects, Sanya Tomic, was invited to give a presentation on award-winning building One New Change at the Spring Members’ Meeting of The Centre for Window and Cladding Technology in Central London.

The one-day event was titled “Trends in Building envelopes”.  Building envelopes are fundamental to buildings in terms of appearance, performance and sustainability.  The event discussed likely trends in building envelopes as these drivers of envelope design change.  The other speakers from Theis & Khan, BRE, Allies & Morrison, CWCT, Sir Robert McAlpine & King Shaw spoke about buildings of different types, new materials and the challenges ahead.

Sanya described in detail the façade treatment of One New Change where different coloured matt and smooth surfaces echo the surrounding stone and brick buildings and highlighted the complex glazing treatment which changes from opaque to transparent using a coloured frit pattern with a white etch frit pattern printed on exterior panes of glass. She also explained their very close collaboration with Jean Nouvel and the expertise, experience, and attention to detail that Sidell Gibson’s team brought to the projects to deliver this exceptional building.

For Sanya’s full presentation, please click here

Sidell Gibson Architects are undertaking a major conversion and extension of the vacant 3 storey Grade II Listed Victorian Board School Building in Kentish Town, London. This dynamic project aims to serve the needs of the French speaking community by imaginative and sensitive reuse, together with essential development of the existing buildings, to create a New French School serving 700 pupils ranging in age from 5 to 15 years old.

The design, as far as possible, makes use of the existing spaces and is organised within the grain of the original layout, but with significant qualitative improvement throughout. The essential elements of adaptation relate to meeting modern legislation for schools, including disabled access, means of escape requirements and improving environmental standards and sustainability to attain a BREEAM rating of Very Good.

Having now achieved Listed Building Consent and Full Planning Permission, construction work has started on site with completion programmed in July 2011.

Phase 2 of the project involves a new 3 storey teaching block and a single storey Infants school integrated into an existing single storey Listed outbuilding.

We are delighted to learn recently that 7-10 Old Bailey has won one of the International Architecture Awards for the Best New Global Design 2010 given by the Chicago Athenaeum. There were only 95 awards worldwide and only three for UK schemes.

Snow Hill Building 1 received the Innovation Award at the British Council for Offices Regional Awards evening for the Midlands and East Anglia, which is a great recognition in itself for all of those who worked on the scheme and also gives an automatic shortlisting for the national awards.

When the Boxing Day tsunami so tragically overwhelmed coastal areas throughout south and east Asia in 2004 Ron Sidell was holidaying in a beach house near Galle in Sri Lanka. As the waters surged in to the fortunately quite robust house, Ron managed to get to the tiny upper gallery and safety.

Countless others in the area were not so fortunate losing their houses, their livelihoods, their families and, in many cases, their lives. It was against this background that the Tsu Trust was born to help in the huge task of rehabilitating southern Sri Lanka, raising money in the UK, and particularly within the construction industry, to invest in small businesses, to help local schools, to build and equip fishing boats, to set up a new nursery and to set up a clinic. Designed by Ron, the clinic provides ayurvedic care free of charge for local people.

If you would like to know more about the vital work of the Tsu Trust please contact

karen.mckenzie@sidellgibson.co.uk

and you can see more about the beach house and the clinic at:

www.beachhouseandspasrilanka.com

Each year the practice gives a travel bursary of £1000 in memory of Maria Tindall, a fine architect and much loved colleague who died ten years ago.

In the past winners of the award have travelled in Egypt, Cuba, Venice, the USA, South Korea, Tokyo and China, and have always given fascinating accounts to the rest of the office of the exciting and relatively little known buildings they have visited.

We are delighted to say that out of a list of seven very strong submissions for this year’s award we have chosen the one by Urszula Kijek who will be travelling through Japan by train to study both the ancient and contemporary architecture of the country. We will look forward to hearing the full story of what Urszula has seen on her return.