05 Mar

Posted at 22:11h in architecture
A PUBLIC architecture competition should be held to give Island firms the chance to design the new Les Quennevais School building, says an Islander who practices in the UK. Nick Socrates said that inviting companies to show how they would design the building in an ‘ideas competition’ would lead to a range of approaches to the £40 million project. In September the Education Department revealed three possible sites for the school, proposing that it could be built on land next to the sports centre or on fields off Rue Carrée. An eight-week public consultation followed and the Education Department recently announced that Education Minister Rod Bryans was due to make a final decision on the location of the project before Christmas.

05 Mar

Posted at 22:01h in Art
It's London but not as we know it. This artist's impressions of a future London was a shortlisted winner of a competition launched by estate agent Cluttons and property news magazine Estate Gazette. Will the metropolis of tomorrow be a land of aquacities, sky gardens and huge alien-looking domes? “A great dome construction of vast, interconnected mega-structures: a city above the city, a city in the sky. The Dome would provide mixed-use city infrastructure, able to exist above any city, with offices, living and retail spaces. Inspired by the harmonious, closely integrated communal living of bees, the Dome comprises of hexagonal structures which allows for a column-free, curved formation enabling the building to span further distances. This curving provides a natural, flowing counterbalance to the Dome’s geometric, hexagonal structures.”

16 Sep

Posted at 20:07h in architecture, Art and design
Delighted to announce our LED lighting innovation 'Light Emitting Concrete' has been shortlisted for DESIGNBOOM's 'Happy LED Life' competition and it has been selected for the prestigous exhibition at Gwangju's 2015 International Design Biennale, where the winner will be selected. This competition was about discovering new ways of experiencing the familiar and realising the potential of design on a social, cultural and environmental level through LED lighting. The brief was to explore smart lighting ideas and products for public and private spaces seeking to improve our lit environment through LED technology, while raising awareness around low-energy consumption, developing sustainable and imaginative LED lighting solutions for production by Korean technology companies, supporting the local design community and the greater Asian economy. The theme of the 2015 Biennale is 'Conviviality with Design'. It seeks to portray the way in which good design is not only functionally outstanding, but how it accompanies our lives in a way that improves our existence; adding energy and pleasure to our daily activities through tangible and intangible values. Gwangju International Design Biennale 2015 aims at getting the public to rediscover the essence of design, and the power it can bring to individuals and corporations in contemporary times, particularly in relationship to the growing presence of standardized technology.

25 Jun

Posted at 20:11h in architecture, Art and design, Jersey, jersey architects, British Land
We have been selected to appear in The Architects Journal (AJ) 'The Architecture Tomorrow Gallery' for our project Park Bridge in the Bridges category at MIPIM UK this year (2015). The AJ had a huge volume of entries this year, the quality of which were of a very high standard so being curated is a superb achievement. This is Fantastic news!

25 Jun

Posted at 19:26h in Cities, architecture, Cardiff
Cardiff's Customs House Street residential tower featured in CPS Homes' Cwtch Magazine; "So much of Cardiff would today be unrecognisable to a resident from 1985 – more so perhaps than the city in 1985 would be unrecognisable to a citizen from 1955.
[In Cardiff] There’s an air of excitement, a sense of momentum and trajectory about the place these days. A dynamic, young capital, Cardiff is set to undergo massive changes as it expands and key areas of the city centre experience major redevelopment."

25 Mar

Posted at 16:37h in Design, Culture
The Billion Oyster Pavilion An installation on Governor’s Island for Summer 2015, that will become a Permanent Contribution to NY Harbour as Oyster Reef. FIGMENT’s City of Dreams and The New York Harbour School’s Billion Oyster Project to create an immersive art space that will ultimately help restore New York City’s waterways. The City of Dreams Competition is organized by the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA), the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) and FIGMENT NY, a non-profit arts organization. The competition brief asked architects and designers to propose a pavilion with the theme “the city of dreams” that would employ recycled or recyclable materials. Out of hundreds of entries, BanGs Billion Oyster Pavilion was chosen as a winner.

02 Dec

Posted at 14:19h in Education, architecture, Cardiff, cardiff architects
It has been six months since the last consultation on proposals for a new Welsh medium primary school for Grangetown and Butetown. To say it has been a long process is an understatement.  While when and where it will be built are still uncertain, a local architect has put forward some speculative designs on how it could look. Nick Socrates says he envisages a beautiful building for local people to get excited and optimistic about, a design which can help with the regeneration of an area. He's not been appointed by the council - this is just one architect's vision from within Grangetown. Nick has deliberately made his design location non site-specific but thinks Channel View could be redeveloped and still include leisure. Consultation meetings were held in June with controversy over a proposal to build the school on the Channel View leisure centre site, and redevelop community leisure facilities within the school. Another site in Butetown was suggested, while there has also been a call to rethink other potential sites, including the old gasworks site off Ferry Road - which is earmarked for future housing.

30 Nov

Posted at 18:47h in architecture, Cardiff, cardiff architects, Jersey, jersey architects

One Cardiff Architects dream of how Cardiff Bay's skyline could be transformed

Nicholas Socrates has come up with an idea of what could fill the empty space next to the Senedd, in Cardiff Bay
Nicholas Socrates' Cardiff Bay Tower design
This is one urban designer’s dream of how the skyline in Cardiff Bay could be transformed – with a tower some 20 storeys high. Cardiff Architects Socrates Associates has come up with an idea of what could fill in the empty space next to the Senedd with his vision for a tower that would dominate the skyline. The plan envisages a mixed use building, with retail on the ground floor, commercial space on the lower half, and homes in the top half offering views over Cardiff Bay and Roath Basin.

23 Nov

Posted at 19:04h in architecture, Cardiff, cardiff architects
Socrates Associates’ Cardiff Bay tower proposal situated on a small parcel of undeveloped land next to the Richard Rogers’ Welsh Assembly ‘Senedd’ building in Cardiff Bay. The tower is mixed-use – retail on the ground floor, commercial for the lower half – where the floorplates are the largest, and residential for the top half offering unique dwellings with incredible views over Cardiff Bay, Roath Basin and Cardiff at large.