UK's first BREEAM 'Outstanding' regional office building

One Angel Square opened its doors at the beginning of the year to become the new headquarters for the Co-operative Group.

Designed by 3D Reid, the building comprises the first BREEAM 'Outstanding' regional office building in the UK, offering a total of 327,643 sq ft over 17 floors.

The design incorporates a recycling system for used water as well as a rainwater harvesting system to decrease water consumption by the building. It is also designed to consume 50% less energy compared to the previous Manchester headquarters of the Co-operative Group, as well as a reduction of 80% in carbon emissions. This will lead to an overall reduction of 30% in operating costs.

The building will get it's power from rape seeds from the Co-operative farms, acting as fuel for the building's CHP (Combined heat and power) plant, with the remaining husks of the crop recycled into animal feed.

It has been designed to be future-proof allowing for a general temperature increase of 3-5 degrees and with the possibility of a 30% increase in rainfall by 2050. 

Other ground breaking engineering features include a double skinned facade, to minimise heating and cooling throughout the year, and underground concrete earth tubes that provide free heating and cooling for incoming fresh air. There are also electrical pool car charging points and an 'App' is in development to relay real time information on how the building is performing.

Sculpture from stacked chairs

For the 2012 Abu Dhabi Art Fair Japanese artist, Tadashi Kawamata, created a huge structure out of chairs.

"Chairs for Abu Dhabi" took five days to create and reached the 20 foot high ceiling of the gallery it was housed in.

It created a focal point for the event and a pavilion for people to try to escape the hustle and bustle of the fair and proved to be a popular meeting point.

Tadashi is renowned for using recycled materials or scrap, using metal, wood, plastic and, in this case, used chairs, ranging from sofas and benches to stools and arm chairs.

A stunning structure that 'pays homage to humanity’s diversity, unity and interconnectedness', according to the artist.

Images from Daniel Suarez for Reuters

Canstruction returns to New York

Although delayed by Hurricane Sandy, Canstruction is finally returning to New York City.

The event, which we have featured before on it's trip to London, involves 25 teams of architects, designers, engineers, and the students they mentor,  who are tasked with constructing sculptures out of cans of food, which are then donated to feed the hungry. The event uses over 10,000 cans of food donated by those taking part and the general public, and are distributed by City Harvest.

The event is travelling around North America, and is a fantastic spectacle for both the innovative designs made only from cans, and also the good it does to support those unable to buy food for themselves and their families, including those effected by the hurricane.

The construction of structures for the New York section will take place on the 31st of January and the finished articles will be on display to the public from 1st February to the 11th, with free admission, although visitors are encouraged to bring a donation of canned food. 

Tetra Brik Pavilion Wins Guinness World Record

In an effort to celebrate International Recycling Day, and raise awareness about the cause, the Department of Environment for the Government of Granada joined forces with a waste collection company and broke the Guinness world record for the largest structure built from recycled materials.

The aim was to encourage the public to recycle by example. By turning a common piece of packaging, the Tetrabrik, normally used for milk cartons, into a structure that was 7 metres tall, 30 metres long and 15 metres wide. 

To achieve this, they turned the packaging into a form of 'Lego brick' by clamping them together at a 135º angle to each other, which allowed for the quick assembly of the record-breaking structure.  

The completed structure used 45,000 milk cartons, collected from 100 colleges, and comprised of two major free-standing parts: the wall- a solid latticed base, and the tower- a soaring core section that linked two base walls.

The project took only two weeks to complete, thanks to the innovative method used, as well as the hard work put in by architecture students from local colleges. 

After being on display in the courtyard of the ‘Park of the Sciences of Granada’, the pavilion was disassembled and the taken to be recycled! 

See ArchDaily for more information and see more images here.