Award winning architectural practice founded by Catherine du Toit and Peter Thomas

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Urban Birds: Nestworks 1 2 3

51% stu­dios has designed three Nest­works for the urban birds of Bank­side fea­tur­ing a series of sophis­ti­cated ready­mades: blocks, boughs and bushes as part of the Lon­don Fes­ti­val of Archi­tec­ture.

The design is respon­sive, site spe­cific and provoca­tive: informed by ornitho­log­i­cal derives with Peter Holden, locally cel­e­brated for ini­ti­at­ing the annual pere­grine fal­con pub­lic views at Tate Modern. The project was com­mis­sioned by the Archi­tec­ture Foun­da­tion, and takes its inspi­ra­tion from With­er­ford Wat­son Mann’s Bank­side Urban For­est Strategy.

Nest­works 1 2 3 are a direct response to the festival’s theme of exchange: of knowl­edge, habi­tat, mate­ri­als. We dis­cov­ered that the stan­dard hol­low block used to build some of London’s most cel­e­brated archi­tec­ture is made from con­crete with 55% recy­cled wood­pulp, a mate­r­ial that when used in nest­boxes is proven to fledge more young than any other. Syn­er­gis­ti­cally the inte­rior block dimen­sions are text book sizes for house spar­rows, rad­i­cally in decline in the area. Other species designed for are blue tits, great tits, star­lings, wrens, robins and blackbirds.

Nest­works 1 2 3 is a legacy project deliv­ered with sup­port from Peter Holden, the Archi­tec­ture Foun­da­tion, River­ford Organic and Lignacite.

Maps show­ing loca­tions of the Nest­works, some of which are hid­den, will avail­able in the Orchard at Union Street from June 19th, or to download.

A related bird­walk and a new talk by Peter and Andy Holden will take place on Sat­ur­day 3rd and Sun­day  4th July.  Pere­grine view­ings at the Tate are daily from 12 noon to 7pm, 17 July to 12 Sep­tem­ber 2010.

May 20, 2010 | Filed Under Architecture, Landscape, Public | Comments Off 

Flexible Masterplan

It may be still snow­ing in Creede, but here at 51% stu­dios we’re work­ing hard at work on the devel­op­ment of the sus­tain­able mas­ter­plan for the Upper Rio Grande Event and Recre­ation Com­plex [for­merly known as, and still encom­pass­ing, the Min­eral County Fair­grounds] which has been made pos­si­ble by the El Pomar Grant Award.

Phase 1, which included reme­di­a­tion, relo­ca­tion of wil­lows and the out­door arena, is com­plete and has affored the com­mu­nity of Creede a safe, beau­ti­ful and wind­free place to rope and ride.

For upcom­ing events and news, do also take a look at the MCFA’s newly launched web­site: www.upperriogrande.org

 

 

April 19, 2010 | Filed Under Architecture, Landscape, Public | Comments Off 

51% studios shortlisted for role as AA masterplan architect

51% stu­dios has this week been short­listed with four other firms for the role of mas­ter­plan archi­tect for the Archi­tec­tural Asso­ci­a­tion, which has recently aquired the leases of a num­ber Grade 1 listed build­ings in Bed­ford Square in addi­tion to those already held for the his­toric build­ings at 34–36.

Oth­ers on the short­list are Don­ald Insall Asso­ciates, Richard Grif­fiths Archi­tects, With­er­ford Wat­son Mann and Wright & Wright.

 

March 23, 2010 | Filed Under Architecture | Comments Off 

Urban Birds: Nestworks 1 2 3

51% stu­dios has been invited by the Archi­tec­ture Foun­da­tion to develop strate­gies and designs for bird­boxes around the area des­ig­nated as the Ban­side Urban For­est in With­er­ford Wat­son Mann’s masterplan.

The bird­boxes will be deployed as part of the Lon­don Fes­ti­val of Archi­tec­ture in June 2010.

February 2, 2010 | Filed Under Architecture, Landscape | Leave a Comment 

Fairgrounds, Mineral County

Reme­di­a­tion work on this 46 acre site was com­pleted last year, with the out­door arena being moved to its final posi­tion on the lower bench.

The for­mer sil­ver min­ing town of Creede is located in the Alte Vista Moun­tains, 10 miles from the source of the Rio Grande. The fair­ground site’s strate­gic impor­tance is its loca­tion on the flood­plain of Wil­low Creek - it can be seen for miles from the Sil­ver Thread Scenic High­way. The site makes an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to the nat­ural land­scape and could become an iconic sig­na­ture for the town.

The Min­eral County Fair­grounds Asso­ci­a­tion approached 51% stu­dios to develop with them a pro­posal for per­ma­nent all weather fair­ground facil­i­ties which could be imple­mented over time. Each phase will need to func­tion in its own right, allowing for the next with max­i­mum effi­ciency. We devel­oped a flex­i­ble mas­ter dia­gram, using reme­di­a­tion to cre­ate an endur­ing ‘func­tional land­scape’, pre­serv­ing and enhanc­ing exist­ing views to and from the site.

Facil­i­ties will include a multi-purpose all-weather arena, com­mu­nity cen­ter and pub­licly acces­si­ble land­scape where equal impor­tance is given, and clear dis­tinc­tions made, between pedes­tri­ans, the ani­mals and their trucks.

Local sus­tain­able design research has included a sur­vey of read­ily avail­able local mate­ri­als, effi­cient energy cre­ators such as ground source, solar cells etc, indige­nous build­ing tra­di­tions such as straw bale and stucco con­struc­tion, in-floor radi­ant heat, and nat­ural lighting.

The Min­eral County Fair­grounds Asso­ci­a­tion [MCFA] has suc­cess­fully secured city, county, state and fed­eral grants for the site, as well as over­see­ing the Vol­un­tary Cleanup Operation.

April 16, 2009 | Filed Under Architecture, Landscape | Comments Off 

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