Friday 9 May 2008

Des Res @ NLA

Des Res Exhibition:


In the building centre off of Tottenham Court Road is the new exhibition by the NLA called Des Res, which looks at the pressures the capital is under going to cope with the construction of buildings to cope with an estimated population increase of over 700,000 in the next 15 years. The mayor's housing strategy proposes almost a quarter of a million new homes by 2016, which is represented in the model pictured below.

The exhibition relates to my extended essay I am currently doing on new developments in the Thames Gateway area of Kent Thameside.

The exhibition looks at areas including sustainability, affordability, design, the public realm, communities, mixed use developments and previous post-war housing examples. Like with all NLA exhibitions it comes with a great supporting booklet, lots of lovely new architect models and many large print outs of photographs, models, CGI and photoshop representations of the new developments.


Each development profile includes architect, client, project manager and landscape architect! It also includes a break down of the developments density, mix of units (per no. bedrooms), retail, commercial and residential percentages, amount of public space included and the percentage of homes in that are socially rented in each development. This makes it all very clear and easy to compare different developments across the capital and see which are the most effective.

Developments I particularly liked were the narrow Monmouth Road building designed by Pitman Tozer Architects and Landscaped by Nurture Nature, which has been nominated for the Grand Design building of the year award. I also like Donnybrook Quarter (pictured above) designed by Peter Barber Architects, which has a very Spanish or Greek feel about the style of the housing. Another development I particularly like for it's strong use of colour is St. Thomas' School (pictured below) and Flats in Kensington and Chelsea, designed by Pollard Thomas Edwards architects and the landscape architect is Jenkins and Clarke.


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