Council plan to redevelop Somerleyton road/ Ovalhouse Theatre to move to the site.

[choochi]

So Igloo have been named as the developer.

Any background?

Igloo were the developers for the Bermondsey Square development where the antiques market is on Bermondsey Street.

 

[editor]

Igloo were the developers for the Bermondsey Square development where the antiques market is on Bermondsey Street.

Here's the kind of language that the people behind Igloo like to speak:

Creative Space is an award winning property management and consultancy company that operates workspaces and urban realm for clusters of knowledge based businesses including digital, creative industries, advanced manufacturing, science and technology sectors. Specifically targeted at innovation and high growth sectors, Creative Space provides managed workspace solutions as well as meanwhile use strategies to reduce liabilities for property owners and to stimulate business growth and enterprise. The Creative Space team has substantial experience of assisting asset owners and stakeholders to appraise viability, develop business plans and convert them into successful and sustainable projects.

 

[Gramsci]

So Igloo have been named as the developer.

Any background?

You can meet them this Saturday. Just got email from Future Brixton

Somerleyton Road Street Party

Brixton Come Together, Hill Mead Primary School and all at Number Six will be hosting an action-packed mid-summer event this Saturday at Somerleyton Road.

There will be a carnival parade, street olympics, live bands, art workshops, theatre and more. Between 1 and 4pm you can also meet Future Brixton's Somerleyton Road team, including the new development manager, Igloo.

• Saturday 21 June at Somerleyton Road
• From 1-6pm

I may go and see what Igloo are about.

 

[Gramsci]

Here's the kind of language that the people behind Igloo like to speak:

I went to the Somerleyton road street party.

Had a chat with the guy from Igloo. He is ok. He likes Urban and Brixton Buzz. He also knew about what had been happening to the Mansions.

Ended up having a long chat with him and OvalhouseDB

The guy from Igloo was keen on getting input from Carlton Mansions HC. Its tragic that the Council have spent the last year destroying the Coop. Residents who lived on the site and who were willing to engage constructively in the development of plans for the site.

 

[Gramsci]

I also had an interesting chat with a couple of people from UCL "Urbanlab"

They have produced a couple of pamphlets which are available on PDF here about issues surrounding regeneration.

UCL Urban Laboratory is delighted to present Urban Pamphleteer, a new series of publications that confront key contemporary urban questions from diverse perspectives. Written in a direct and accessible tone, the intention of these pamphlets is to draw on the history of radical pamphleteering to stimulate debate and instigate change. The series editors are Ben Campkin and Rebecca Ross. Issues are distributed for free in print and as PDFs (download by clicking on the icons).

Urban Pamphleteer #2: Regeneration Realities was launched in December 2013 and features analyses of regeneration, practical case studies and ideas that address questions such as "Is it possible to reclaim and rethink regeneration as a concept and set of practices?". "How can we develop ethical, evidence-based and rigorous methods of regeneration that better serve the communities in whose name it is carried out?", "If economic growth, and the supposed 'trickle-down' effects of increased land values have come to dominate regeneration rhetoric and practice, how can they be rebalanced towards the needs and values of existing communities?". The pamphleteer also includes an insert outlining a protocol for student-community interactions.

 

[Gramsci]

Future Brixton page on Somerleyton road project has piece by Igloo

Our new development management team, headed up by Igloo, came to the Somerleyton Road Street Party on Saturday 21 June to meet local residents. Igloo’s Chris Brown, explains who they are and how they will work with us at Somerleyton Road:

It’s a privilege for Igloo to be supporting Lambeth, Brixton Green and Ovalhouse to deliver the Somerleyton Road project. We are working with some great people like Metropolitan Workshop (architects and urban designers), Tibbalds (planning), Conisbee (engineers) and Social Life who have done previous work for Brixton Green on the project. Hopefully they will all blog on their specific roles here over time.

Igloo are employed as development managers so our job is to provide the development skills but without taking the developer’s profit! Our nearest project to Brixton is Bermondsey Square on Bermondsey Street in SE1 for Southwark and Aviva.


Bermondsey Square SE1

Others say we have a reputation at igloo for innovation and trying to make the world a better place and it’s a challenge to match the aspirations of the Brixton communities for Somerleyton Road.

The project breaks new ground in so many ways, not least the sharing of control of development of council land with a local community based organisation, the real and deep community led approach to the brief for the project and the provision of long term low cost funding by the council. Any one of these would be unusual and together they are unique.

We try to be selective in the projects we work on and the aspirations of the Somerleyton partners, developed from the consultations with local people, to maximise the affordability of housing for local people and make the street a better place are exactly what gets us out of bed in the morning.

We know there is controversy about the project, we know it has huge challenges (like the live railways alongside and underneath) and we know we won’t get everything right. We have started on a very steep learning curve and look forward to learning from supporters and critics alike.

You can follow Chris on twitter @chrisigloo

 

[editor]

I wish they wouldn't use phrases like, "Others say we have a reputation at igloo for innovation and trying to make the world a better place..."

 

[Gramsci]

I wish they wouldn't use phrases like, "Others say we have a reputation at igloo for innovation and trying to make the world a better place..."

I did however like the last paragraph:

We know there is controversy about the project, we know it has huge challenges (like the live railways alongside and underneath) and we know we won’t get everything right. We have started on a very steep learning curve and look forward to learning from supporters and critics alike.

 

[boohoo]

I wish they wouldn't use phrases like, "Others say we have a reputation at igloo for innovation and trying to make the world a better place..."

it is the kind of phrase that just rolls of the tip of your tongue..

 

[Gramsci]

Been reminded that there is consultation on Thursday:

Designing Somerleyton Road
In November 2014, we can begin to see what Somerleyton Road might look like in five years’ time and how it could work with the surrounding neighbourhood.

To do this, the development management team has taken the brief, that was written with the help of local people and thoroughly investigated the site and surrounding area. They’ve looked at what we’re aiming for, what is possible and how people would experience the design of the new development.

The exhibition boards below were shown at the Future Brixton Open Days on 22 and 24 November. Further thinking about the design of the road is being presented on Thursday 27 November, 3-8pm at Six Brixton, 6 Somerleyton Road SW9. Between 6.30 and 7.30pm there will be food provided for your thoughts.

 

[Gramsci]

I got this email from Future Brixton re recent consultation.

With a questionnaire to be filled in by the 8th December.

After some digging the plans/ drawings that the questionnaire is asking to comment on are here.

( Yes I did complain about all this consultation in a few weeks with Council not giving enough time for feedback. Many of the drawings/ proposals only went online in last few weeks. Was told that the Council is know working to tight timescale.)

OvalhouseDB

 

[editor]

Update:
‘Sustainability Workshop’ set up for Somerleyton Road ahead of expected planning application proposal

 

[Gramsci]

Update:
‘Sustainability Workshop’ set up for Somerleyton Road ahead of expected planning application proposal

I have just checked my emails from Future Brixton and apart from saying that there will be a "Sustainability Workshop" it does not explain what this is. So I am none the wiser.

The workshop should be an interesting evening. What isn’t so sustainable is the break up of the genuine housing co-op that existed on the site at Carlton Mansions. We still can’t quite understand why it was necessary to forcefully break up a ‘sustainable’ housing co-op, just to ‘facilitate’ another one.

I cant either.

Input at this stage from the community is crucial. Once planning has been approved, building work on the site is expected to start in 2016, with completion in 2017.

Where does the 2016 start date come from? Oh I just checked the Future Brixton website and its on there now. Thats a change.

As in the court case officers were saying the start date was mid 2015. That due to the start date for building works they would still pursue eviction even if they could not get the fire risk to stick. It was a big stumbling block for us at the Mansions. As the Judge would be minded to give possession to a local authority in that time period before works start.

So that was the Council talking bollocks in court. This was how the case against the Mansions was pursued all along.

So the Mansions is liable to be left empty for two winters. The Council are tossers.

 

[CH1]

I have just checked my emails from Future Brixton and apart from saying that there will be a "Sustainability Workshop" it does not explain what this is. So I am none the wiser.Where does the 2016 start date come from? Oh I just checked the Future Brixton website and its on there now. Thats a change.So that was the Council talking bollocks in court. This was how the case against the Mansions was pursued all along.So the Mansions is liable to be left empty for two winters. The Council are tossers.

I agree this exemplifies Lambeth's defensiveness and inefficiency.
Presumably whatever happens at the general election in unlikely to block the current proposals for a council owned rental scheme. So if there are any more hold ups its down to Lib Peck and her trusty officers.

 

[OvalhouseDB]

Some more details of the Sustainability Meeting next week:

Igloo have invited sustainability expert Richard Partington* of Richard Partington Architects (RPA) to facilitate discussion about the project's sustainability priorities.

The Sustainability Workshop:
Purpose: to look at the sustainability aspirations raised by the community (such as One Planet Living / Carbon Free) and understand the implications associated with these aspirations. The intended outcome of the workshop is a list of priorities, which will form an agreed Sustainability Strategy for Somerleyton Road.
Format:
1.There will be a brief introduction by igloo in which Robert Knight (igloo Construction Director) will briefly introduce the project, igloo, and igloo’s Footprint sustainability methodology.
2.Nick Phillips (Lead architect and master-planner from Metropolitan Workshop) will then set the scene to the discussion, by providing a brief overview of the current masterplan.
3.Richard Partington (sustainability expert) will then kick off the workshop by introducing the various topics for discussion and splitting people into smaller discussion groups.
4.Once the groups have debated the issues, Richard will bring everyone back together to feed back to the whole meeting and attempt to summarise a list of sustainability priorities for the project.

* Richard Partington: Before setting up his own award winning practice including two Housing Design Awards, a Civic Trust award, Sunday Times Best Housing Award, RTPI Planning Excellence Award and Brick Development Associations’ Best Public Housing Award) in 1998, Richard specialised for ten years in low-energy, sustainable design. Since then, Richard and his team at RPA have led a number of regeneration, housing and urban design projects. These high profile projects have demonstrated the relationship between sustainability, low-energy design, and health and well-being.

Richard is also actively engaged in policy and research work. Richard is architectural advisor to the Zero Carbon Hub, the Government and industry-backed agency tasked with enabling the delivery of zero carbon homes, and is co-chairing the DCLG Steering Group for the ‘Closing the Design vs As-built Performance Gap’ research project.
In addition, Richard has been a CABE enabler and a visiting teacher in architecture and practice at the University of Cambridge, University College London and the University of Wales in Cardiff. He is the author of a major publication on overheating (BRE-NHBC NF44) for the NHBC Foundation and ‘Designing Homes for the C21st Century’ (NHBC NF50). He has written articles and reviews for the DETR, the DTLR, the Architects’ Journal, the RIBA Journal, EcoTech magazine and the CIBSE Journal.

 

[editor]

I have just checked my emails from Future Brixton and apart from saying that there will be a "Sustainability Workshop" it does not explain what this is. So I am none the wiser.

It's the kind of buzzword drivel that touchy feely cash-scooping types like to employ and acts as an effective filter for alienating a vast chunk of the local community at a stroke. Do people on council estates (or anywhere else, for that matter) sit up at night fretting about sustainability of proposed projects?

If the council want this to be a project with true community involvement they should use language that people understand and has some sort of relevance to their lives.

 

[OvalhouseDB]

I'll point that out for the website - how would you describe the discussion? 'Energy savings and efficiency in the Somerleyton Rd Housing'?' 'Making the housing and other buildings on Somerleyton Rd cheap to run and environmentally friendly'?

Lots of the community feedback so far has come directly from people on council estates (and / or other social housing) in the area who do feel strongly about environmental sustainability and building homes that are cheap to run. But I guess that language from the outset involves those who already know about those issues.

School students know - it's in almost every aspect of the curriculum as far as I can see. My son made a cushion in DT (there's some new school jargon!) featuring a penguin, and had to start by writing about the environmental effects of our carbon footprint on the Antarctic.

 

[editor]

I'll point that out for the website - how would you describe the discussion? 'Energy savings and efficiency in the Somerleyton Rd Housing'?' 'Making the housing and other buildings on Somerleyton Rd cheap to run and environmentally friendly'?

Lots of the community feedback so far has come directly from people on council estates (and / or other social housing) in the area who do feel strongly about environmental sustainability and building homes that are cheap to run. But I guess that language from the outset involves those who already know about those issues.

If I opened up a discussion on the Southwyck House resident's association by saying "let's have a sustainability workshop!" I'm pretty sure I'd be looking at a fair number of blank faces.

It's language that ordinary people rarely use in their everyday lives, and not only should it be explained in straightforward language, but the reason why they should be interested should be explained too. Least, that's what I do if I was being payrolled to put on these things.

Has Brixton Green still got their paws all over this project? Their shady but somehow approved-from-above involvement has kept me away, to be honest.

 

[OvalhouseDB]

I'm not going to defend jargon - it was a point that was made before, and if it doesn't make sense to the people it needs to make sense to then it wants altering!

Structure of the Somerleyton Rd Project is as it has been since it was all cleared at the cabinet meeting: LBL led, in partnership with Ovalhouse and with Brixton Green. We are the steering group and the project management is now being undertaken by Igloo - I think they have put together an excellent team. BG members have been putting in a lot of hard graft / research on getting the most target rent homes etc - their board member who lots of posters here will have met at the various consultations, is very experienced in this area. BG are also overseeing the meanwhile use at SixBrixton - lots of projects there that it would be good to see permanently supported in the finished scheme.

 

[Winot]

BG members have been putting in a lot of hard graft / research on getting the most target rent homes etc

That is good news. If they said that on their website/press releases then it might help persuade naysayers.

 

[editor]

That is good news. If they said that on their website/press releases then it might help persuade naysayers.

If you did a poll around Brixton asking residents, "Do you know what Brixton green do?" I imagine you'd get an awful lot of baffled looks.

I still can't work out exactly what it is they do past some fluffy, fuzzy guff about 'community' that seems to earn them lots of public money from Lambeth.

 

[Tricky Skills]

Brixton Green was paid £4,400 by Lambeth Council in April 2014, and then a payment of £4,960 and £4,999 in May 2014.

I'm not entirely sure what for.

 

[Gramsci]

Structure of the Somerleyton Rd Project is as it has been since it was all cleared at the cabinet meeting: LBL led, in partnership with Ovalhouse and with Brixton Green. We are the steering group .

However no one was asked if that was how they wanted this project to be run. The Cabinet of the Labour administration decided that a steering group would be set up and who would be on it. It was presented to the rest of community has a fait accompli.

Its one way to run a project. But not the only way. There could have been wider involvement of the local community. ie inviting other resident groups and societies onto the steering group.

Or it could have been done with Council taking the lead with more consultation with local community. In the end its a Council project. It might have been better to have done the project more top down. As in reality the Council take final decision.

There is also a danger of being co opted by Council. I am in Brixton Rec Users Group and have advised them to keep independent of Council. Like Brixton Society they are a pressure group. Its important to be able to have a critical voice.

 

[Gramsci]

I got an email from Future Brixton a couple of days ago. There is now info on the sustainability workshop on the FB website.

Local people have raised issues around carbon free development and ‘One Planet Living’ and this workshop will help us to look at these aspirations and understand come of the trade-offs that might be required. We want to arrive at a list of priorities, which will form an agreed Sustainability Strategy for Somerleyton Road.


Workshop details
By the end of the workshop we want to have agreed a list of priorities, which will form an agreed Sustainability Strategy for Somerleyton Road.

The event will follow the following format:

1. A brief introduction by Robert Knight (igloo Construction Director) will briefly introduce the project and igloo’s Footprint sustainability methodology.
2. An overview of the current masterplan by Nick Phillips (Lead architect and master-planner from Metropolitan Workshop) to set the scene for the discussion.
3. The main discussion, facilitated by Richard Partington (sustainability expert) who will introduce the various topics for discussion and split people into smaller discussion groups.
4. Feeding back and agreeing priorities.

 

[CH1]

I got an email from Future Brixton a couple of days ago. There is now info on the sustainability workshop on the FB website.

I'm glad they are prepared to be open about their thinking on these details.

Personally I would be most interested to attend a workshop on how the finances work out (from a technical anorak ex-finance officer point of view).

However the piece de resistance for me would be an invitation to design the financial structure of the Your New Town Hall and Brixton Central Schemes. These seem much more dodgy that Somerleyton Road.

 

[Gramsci]

The whole issue of what sustainable means is a debate that could take up a whole evening.

One Planet Living covers not only energy but treats "sustainability" as encompassing social and community issues. OPL is wide ranging.

It was adopted into the Brixton Masterplan which was agreed by Cabinet.

It sounds good but so far I have not seen how it will be put into practise.

Evicting the one community that actually lived on the site is not exactly a good example of OPL.

A criticism of a model of sustainability like OPL is that its to wolly and covers to much. It give leeway to tick box some bits but skate over others.

Which is why I think words like sustainability can end up not meaning much in practise.

Passivhaus is recognised way of building houses that reduce energy consumption and are good to live in. Its theoretically possible to have a low energy house that has cold areas or is drafty. When talking about sustainable living its necessary to define what one is looking for as end goal.

Good blog here on Passivhaus

The good thing about Passivhaus is that its straightforward. A development either passes or fails.

The other industry standard is BREEAM

Its more commonly used on projects. It covers a lot of aspects of development. The difference to Passivhaus is that it has different categories. From Good to Excellent. Also its based on points. So one can get points in one area but skim over another and still pass.

So what I am saying is that a "Sustainability Strategy" can mean different things. For a building project BREEAM ( going for "excellent" category) or Passivhaus would go a long way to "sustainable" project.

And if there is to be a "Sustainability Strategy" imo there needs to be independent assessment of it by someone/ organisation that is not part of the steering group. BREEAM does this as does Passivhaus. OPL can be audited by a group like Bioregional

 

[Gramsci]

Here is one definition of sustainability by the architect I linked to in previous post

 

[editor]

Brixton Green was paid £4,400 by Lambeth Council in April 2014, and then a payment of £4,960 and £4,999 in May 2014.

I'm not entirely sure what for.

You might think that they'd want to explain that, given that they keep going on about how they represent "Brixton people."

 

[editor]

This is their latest tweet.



I don't think I'm alone in finding this notion of making a road "sustainable" rather an odd one.

 

[Gramsci]

This is their latest tweet.



I don't think I'm alone in finding this notion of making a road "sustainable" rather an odd one.

I am aiming to go to this. So will let you know.