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BHSF World Habitat Awards 2008
CNU Charter Awards for 2008
Canadian Milestone Building Needs Volunteers
INTBAU's Website Turns 7
Prince Charles Criticises London Tower Blocks
Hank Dittmar Wins The Seaside
Archive Index

BHSF World Habitat Awards 2008
Building and Social Housing Foundation seeks competition entries
Due: 1 June 2008

The Building and Social Housing Foundation is currently seeking entries for the 2008 World Habitat Awards competition.

The World Habitat Awards were established in 1985 by the Building and Social Housing Foundation as part of its contribution to the United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. The Awards seek to identify practical, innovative and sustainable solutions to current housing issues faced by countries of the global South as well as the North, which are capable of being transferred or adapted for use elsewhere.

Two awards are given annually to projects from the global North as well as the South that provide practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems. An award of �10,000 is presented to each of the two winners at the annual United Nations global celebration of World Habitat Day.

Entries are assessed by a panel of international judges and an award of �10,000 is presented to the two winning projects at the annual United Nations global celebration of World Habitat Day.

The competition is open to all individuals and organisations, including central and local governments, community-based groups, NGOs, research organisations and the private sector from any country of the world.

Stage I of the submission process requires only a concise summary of the project. Further details can be found on the World Habitat Awards website at www.worldhabitatawards.org. Please note that all entries should reach BSHF by 1st June 2008.

Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact the BHSF at the address below.

Further information

Email: wha@bshf.org
Web: www.worldhabitatawards.org
Apply online: www.worldhabitatawards.org/enter/apply

CNU Charter Awards for 2008:
INTBAU members among winners of the prestigious urbanism prize

The award-winning scheme for Michigan City from Andrews University

The Congress for the New Urbanism has announced the recipients of its 2008 Charter Awards, the annual prize honoring the best of the New Urbanism. The 14 winning professional submissions and one student/faculty submission were chosen by a seven-member jury of leading urbanists last month, with Andrés Duany serving as chair. In fulfilling and advancing the principles of the Charter of the New Urbanism, the projects reveal the power of well-executed urbanism to strengthen communities, achieve broader sustainability and create places worthy of respect and admiration.

The awarded projects are found in the U.S. and four other countries: the Bahamas, India, Saudi Arabia, and Scotland. All but one of the awarded neighborhood- and block-scale projects in the USA are built or under construction, and none are on true greenfield sites. Several projects directly address quality affordable housing design, including one HOPE VI development from Chicago and a national pattern book for affordable houses. Several projects bring well-executed, innovative housing types to areas outside the usual range of awarded projects.

Duany and other jurors said that the winning projects "demonstrated excellence, often in the face of difficult contexts or other challenges requiring ingenuity to overcome". The awards will be presented on 5 April 2008 in conjunction with the 16th Congress for the New Urbanism in Austin.

Altogether the 15 award winners included 5 INTBAU members. While not represented in the "The Region: Metropolis, City, and Town" category, INTBAU members were included in all others:

In the Neighborhood, District, and Corridor category, the Woodstock Downtown project in Woodstock, Georgia, built by INTBAU General Member Hedgewood Properties, was decribed by the jury as "a project that significantly steps up density on both sides of Main Street in Woodstock, Georgia's historic central business district and creates a natural extension of the city's urban fabric in an area of intense urban sprawl". The project was designed by Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates.

In the same section, the Masterplan for Western Harbour in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland, by INTBAU College of Chapters Chair Robert Adam's firm Robert Adam Architects, was described as "a master plan for a large post-industrialised dock area of Edinburgh, Scotland, adjacent to the seat of the re-established Scottish Parliament... [that] uses new urbanist principles to create a place with an identity specific to the locality that will complement the character and facilities of the city".

In the Block, Street, and Building category, the Vision for Marion Square in Charleston, South Carolina, by ICTP member Fairfax & Sammons Architects, was described as "an artful, environmentally minded 44-acre infill addition to a historic North Charleston neighborhood recovering from a military base pullout; it features an intricate, almost European street network, a carefully woven mix of uses and a range of housing, including affordable units as small as 600 square feet [65 square metres]".

In the same category, the Living Tradition: Architecture of the Bahamas for The Bahamas, by INTBAU General Member and Essay author Steve Mouzon of Mouzon Design, was described as a "groundbreaking pattern book... [a] new pattern book [that] not only seeks to revive the living tradition of Bahamian architecture by answering the question 'We do this because...' but also calibrates the regional vernacular to the LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] green building system".

In the Academic category, the North End Plan in Michigan City, Indiana, by INTBAU recommended Academy Andrews University School of Architecture, was described as casting "needed attention on economically depressed Michigan City, Indiana, showing it how to capitalize on its valuable urban form and Lake Michigan location". The jury noted that this "student/faculty winner [...] won unanimous praise from jurors and favorable comparisons to many of the professional submissions".

While meeting in Miami, the jury toured the Perez Architecture Center at the University of Miami and moved to recognize INTBAU Committee of Honour member Leon Krier's new building with a Jury Mention.

Jury members were:

Andrés Duany, Jury Chair
Principal, Duany Plater Zyberk & Company, Miami, Florida

Ben Bolgar
Director of Design Theory & Networks, Princes Foundation for the Built Environment, UK

Victor Dover
Principal, Dover Kohl & Partners, Coral Gables, Florida

Geoffrey Dyer
Principal, Tsix Urbanists, Calgary, Alberta

Katharine Kelley
President, Green Street Properties, Atlanta, Georgia

Peter Park
Community Planning & Development Manager, City and County of Denver, Colorado

Karen Parolek
Principal, Opticos Design, Inc, Berkeley, California

Stefanos Polyzoides
Principal, Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists, Pasadena, California

For a full list of winning projects (with location and submitting firm), click here to read more about all of 2008's Charter Awards winners.

Further information

Stephen Filmanowicz
Communications Director
Congress for the New Urbanism
The Marquette Building
140 S. Dearborn St.
Suite 310
Chicago, IL 60603
USA
Tel: +1 312-551-7300, x12
Web: www.cnu.org

Canadian Milestone Building Needs Volunteers
Supporters and Volunters Needed to help repairs

St. Thomas, a city of approximately 36,000 in Southern Ontario, Canada, is currently pursuing a multi-phased project of refurbishment, revitalisation, and renewal for the Canada Southern Railway Station at the core of the city's downtown. The station, built in the Italianate style between 1871 and 1873, is currently vacant and is in immediate need of repair.

In 2000, a multi-phased master plan was prepared and implemented to guide in the restoration of the railway station as an historic site. Both "Phase 1" (a Feasibility and Analysis Report) and "Phase 2" (a Heritage Master Plan) were prepared and overseen by Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Limited. To date, all 161 windows and 19 exterior double doors have been restored, a new roof has been installed, and false ceilings and partitions have been removed. The current objective is to raise the funds requisite to restoring the first third of the building.

It is hoped that the regeneration of the Canada Southern Railway Station will act as catalyst for the broader revitalisation of St. Thomas' downtown core. Plans for the two-storey, 354 by 36-foot (108 by 11 meters) building's re-use were outlined in 2000's Feasibility and Analysis Report, and allocate space for a seasonal market, a restaurant, a transit waiting area, an interpretation exhibit, tourist accommodation, as well as office space.

Local activists believe that the protection and restoration of the steeped-in-heritage Canada Southern Railway Station will develop the tourism industry of the St. Thomas area while simultaneously preserving a significant portion of Canadian railroad history. St. Thomas has been termed the "railway capital of Canada", and the endangerment of the source of this title therefore alludes to what is felt worldwide at local, national, and international levels when structures so imbricated in the heritage, history, and spirit of a place are threatened with destruction.

Currently the campaign to save this edifice is in need of financial support and volunteers to assist with events, activities, and fundraising ideas.

For more information and to become involved in this worthwhile project, please visit www.railwaycapital.ca or address an email to info@narhf.org

Harriet Wennberg, INTBAU Canada

INTBAU's Website Turns 7:
Seven years of reporting the latest in traditional building, architecture & urbanism

INTBAU's original website of 2001 - click on the image to go back in time

INTBAU is delighted to celebrate the seventh birthday of its website, launched with three very basic pages on 14 February 2001. You can see how it looked then by visiting the Internet Archive, or just click on the image above to be transported magically back to our first faltering steps on the web.

Today, our site has over 250 pages of information, ideas, comment, news and events. In the last 12 months we had around 130,000 individual visitors who viewed about 7,500 pages a week. That's a lot of readers. Thank you!

To celebrate, we've introduced a fresh new navigational panel that you can see on our front page, which we will roll out across the site in the coming weeks. We hope it helps you find what you want, faster. Thanks for visiting us over the last 7 years and please keep coming back for new projects, initiatives, events and opportunities in the near future.

Prince Charles Criticises London Tower Blocks:
New "carbuncle" speech asks why speculative building is allowed to damage major tourist attractions

View from Waterloo Bridge now. Image: English Heritage

The Prince of Wales has called for Britain's historic landscapes to be protected during a speech at the "New Buildings in Old Places" conference at St James's Palace, London, on 31 January.

The event, sponsored by The Prince's Regeneration Trust, The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, The National Trust and Historic Royal Palaces, was aimed to discuss the issues around new developments in historic places. In the speech, the Prince said that the UNESCO World Heritage status of historic places like Edinburgh's Old Town, the Tower of London and Westminster is being been threatened by construction of new buildings nearby.

View from Waterloo Bridge showing current proposals. Image: English Heritage

The Prince emphaisised the potential for damage to major tourist attractions by speculative office buildings, saying "For some unaccountable reason we seem to be determined to vandalize these few remaining sites which retain the kind of human scale and timeless character that so attract people to them and which increase in value as time goes by. What is it, Ladies and Gentlemen, about our outlook which perpetuates desire deliberately to desecrate such places? You would think, wouldn't you, that we might have outgrown this kind of attitude by now...?"
The Prince of Wales speaking. Image: The Royal Channel

"Thus, in chasing the corporate tenant or the buy-to-let investor, we may not only be destroying our heritage, but killing the goose that lays the golden egg for we will destroy what makes our cities and towns so attractive to tourists in the process".

The Prince continued:

"...London currently holds almost a two per cent share of world tourism and London tourists spent �7.5 billion here in 2006, according to Visit London, with visitor surveys attesting to the fact that the Tower of London and St. Paul's Cathedral are Britain's top paid attractions. Nevertheless, speculative towers are currently proposed in the environs of both the Tower and St. Paul's..."

Tourism is a major part of the British economy, with the country attracting some 30 million visitors in 2005, according to National Statistics, who spent an astounding �14.2 billion and contributed �2.5 billion a year in tax revenue to the country.

The Prince suggested the areas such as Canary Wharf was the place for high-rise blocks rather than places where they overshadowed historic buildings such as St Paul's Cathedral, contrasting London's "rash" of towers with Paris, where new office buildings have been concentrated in the La Défense development since the 1960s.

The Prince's own architectural principles, developed over 20 years, have been put into place in Poundbury, the urban extension of Dorchester, built on Duchy of Cornwall land. He explained them as follows:

"Firstly, recognition that sustainability actually means building for the long-term � 100 years, rather than 20 years;

"Secondly, because of this, it is worth building in an adaptable and flexible manner, reassessing and re-using existing buildings wherever possible;

"Thirdly, it is worth building in a manner that fits the place, in terms of materials used, proportion and layouts and climate, ecology and building practices;

"Fourthly, it is worth building beautifully, in a manner that builds upon tradition, evolving it in response to present challenges and utilising present day resources and techniques;

"And, finally, it is worth understanding the purpose of a building, or group of buildings, within the hierarchy of the buildings around it and responding with an appropriate building type and design. Doing this often implies the composition of a harmonious whole, rather than the erection of singular objects of architectural or corporate will which merely panders to ego-centric imperatives."

This kind of approach, the Prince said, "can help to achieve a far more coherent sense of harmony and civic self confidence than the alternative "free-for-all" that will leave London and our other cities with a pockmarked skyline."

The speech follows a report by UNESCO World Heritage in 2006 that drew attention to the potential for damage to World Heritage sites by tall buildings in their vicinity, and called for such buildings to be given larger buffer zones to avoid spoiling their settings. The Prince of Wales has criticised British architecture in the famous "carbuncle" speech of 1984 and the "Mansion House" speech in 1987, and again in a 2001 speech calling for moderation by British architects.

The INTBAU Venice Declaration of 2006 calls for a more nuanced interpretation of the ICOMOS Venice Charter, the founding document for conservationists world wide. Sections of this had been interpreted as favouring Modernist development rather than harmonious new buildings. The Venice Declaration draws attention to clauses in the Venice Charter itself which require the settings of heritage buildings to be preserved.

Many other cities face the same problem. Historic St Petersburg, one of the world's great classical cities, is currently under threat from the proposed Gazprom Tower that will loom over the historic skyline. Others, such as Munich have passed laws to preserve their skylines, while a recent popular vote in Turin opposed a new tower block in that city.
- Matthew Hardy

Hank Dittmar Wins The Seaside prize:
The Prince's Foundation's CEO wins top US urbanism prize

Hank Dittmar, Chief Executive of INTBAU supporter organisation The Prince�s Foundation has won The Seaside Prize, a prestigious annual award given by the Seaside Institute. The award recognises individuals who have had a major influence on designing towns and cities which promote diversity, walkability, beauty and sustainability. Past Seaside Prize recipients include Andres Duany and his co-founders of The Congress for the New Urbanism; Leon Krier (architect); Jane Jacobs (author and activist) and Vincent Scully (historian and academic).

"I'm honoured to receie the Seaside Prize, and really enjoying the opportunity given to me by HRH The Prince of Wales to help shape more human built environments in the UK and internationally. Sustainable urbanism helps to address the challenges of reducing carbon emissions and making more affordable communities", said Dittmar.

Hank Dittmar joined The Prince�s Foundation in 2005 where he leads a team of architects, urban designers and educationalists in contributing to the design of our built environment at practical and policy levels. Previously he held a number of leadership posts in the US including President & CEO of Reconnecting America; Executive Director of the Surface Transportation Policy Project and Manager of Legislation and Finance at the metropolitan planning organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr Dittmar was Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas in 2003-2004.

Hank Dittmar has been Chief Executive of The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment since January 2005. The Prince's Foundation is an educational charity which seeks to improve the quality of people's lives by teaching and practicing timeless and ecological ways of planning, designing and building. On behalf of its President, HRH The Prince of Wales, Mr Dittmar leads the Foundation in contributing to the design of our built environment at practical and policy levels both in the UK and internationally. He leads a team of urban designers and architects: a research resource that focuses on the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the built environment and a growing education and skills training programme.

Mr. Dittmar is current Chair of the Board of Directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism based in Chicago, an international membership organisation that promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities, towns, and neighborhoods. CNU is an INTBAU Supporter organisation.

Mr Dittmar will receive his prize on 26 January in Seaside, Florida.

Views expressed in articles are those of the author and not necessarily of INTBAU

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