David Littlefield – författare

Liverpool is one of the most famous trading cities in the world. The view of its Pier Head with the Liver Building has become iconic: it has been called the second city of the British Empire and in the 1930s it became the model for Shanghai’s Bund. The city suffered a slow decline in the latter half of the 20th century; industries closed or moved away, postwar architecture was mostly mediocre and the city’s population fell as citizens sought employment further afield. Local people even began to shop elsewhere. As Manchester’s star ascended in the late 1990s, the heart of Liverpool was in danger of becoming economically inconsequential. In 1999, the city council set out a challenge for international developers as part of an ambitious initiative to reverse this trend and encourage people to visit, live in and invest in Liverpool once again. The vision was for a reimagined and extended city centre, one that rethought the vast and under-used space between the principal shopping area and the city’s historic docks. Forty-seven developers expressed an interest and, after a rigorous selection process, the job went to Grosvenor.The result is a 42-acre transformation, a mixed-use, retail-led development that embodies both contemporary urban design thinking and a deep sensitivity to ideas of place, identity and scale. Containing more than 30 individually designed buildings – including department stores, a bus station, apartments, hotels and a five acre park – this complex project was completed within an ambitious timetable to exceptionally high-quality thresholds. Grosvenor, and its 26 firms of architects, have created an entirely new, but uniquely Liverpudlian, urban district. This book tells the story of this Herculean project, its origins, its design and its delivery.

This is your essential one stop shop for information on starting and running a practice. Case studies and advice from practitioners, big and small, run alongside outlines of all the key topics, to give you an insight into the problems and challenges others have faced when setting up a design business. Accessible and informative, this handbook is the ideal first point of reference when starting a practice.Architects have many different reasons for setting up in practice; equally, there are many ways of running your own business. This handbook helps you consider whether or not you should set up on your own, examining issues such as financing, office space, recruitment, IT and workingo ut a business plan. Some architects want to stay small, while others have ambitions to grow into large businesses. Some grow big accidentally. And then there are those who pick and choose their work carefully, and even turn down undesirable contracts, while others will grab at everything possible. This book woudl explore these different models and illustrate how different kinds of practice develop into successful businesses.Importantly, the book will stress that these issues are crucial - you may be the best designer in the world, but unless your business is well managed you will fail. On the other hand, some successful architects spend a lot of time looking for new work and attending to management issues, rarely finding the time for design work. This book would illustrate how architects have struck a balance between these two extremes.

This is your essential one stop shop for information on starting and running a practice. Case studies and advice from practitioners, big and small, run alongside outlines of all the key topics, to give you an insight into the problems and challenges others have faced when setting up a design business. Accessible and informative, this handbook is the ideal first point of reference when starting a practice.Architects have many different reasons for setting up in practice; equally, there are many ways of running your own business. This handbook helps you consider whether or not you should set up on your own, examining issues such as financing, office space, recruitment, IT and workingo ut a business plan. Some architects want to stay small, while others have ambitions to grow into large businesses. Some grow big accidentally. And then there are those who pick and choose their work carefully, and even turn down undesirable contracts, while others will grab at everything possible. This book woudl explore these different models and illustrate how different kinds of practice develop into successful businesses.Importantly, the book will stress that these issues are crucial - you may be the best designer in the world, but unless your business is well managed you will fail. On the other hand, some successful architects spend a lot of time looking for new work and attending to management issues, rarely finding the time for design work. This book would illustrate how architects have struck a balance between these two extremes.

Transgression means to 'cross over': borders, disciplines, practices, professions, and legislation. This book explores how the transgression of boundaries produces new forms of architecture, education, built environments, and praxis.Based on material from the 10th International Conference of the AHRA, this volume presents contributions from academics, practicing architects and artists/activists from around the world to provide perspectives on emerging and transgressive architecture. Divided into four key themes – boundaries, violations, place and art practice - it explores global processes, transformative praxis and emerging trends in architectural production, examining alternative and radical ways of practicing architecture and reimagining the profession.The wide range of international contributors are drawn from subject areas such as architecture, cultural geography, urban studies, sociology, fine art, film-making, photography, and environmentalism, and feature examples from regions such as the United States, Europe and Asia.At the forefront of exploring inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research and practice, Transgression will be key reading for students, researchers and professionals with an interest in the changing nature of architectural and spatial disciplines.

Transgression means to 'cross over': borders, disciplines, practices, professions, and legislation. This book explores how the transgression of boundaries produces new forms of architecture, education, built environments, and praxis.Based on material from the 10th International Conference of the AHRA, this volume presents contributions from academics, practicing architects and artists/activists from around the world to provide perspectives on emerging and transgressive architecture. Divided into four key themes – boundaries, violations, place and art practice - it explores global processes, transformative praxis and emerging trends in architectural production, examining alternative and radical ways of practicing architecture and reimagining the profession.The wide range of international contributors are drawn from subject areas such as architecture, cultural geography, urban studies, sociology, fine art, film-making, photography, and environmentalism, and feature examples from regions such as the United States, Europe and Asia.At the forefront of exploring inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research and practice, Transgression will be key reading for students, researchers and professionals with an interest in the changing nature of architectural and spatial disciplines.

The handsomely illustrated Space Craft is a snapshot of the rapidly developing subject of architectural 3-D computer modelling. Increasingly important in contemporary architecture, many of todays iconic free-form structures simply couldnt be made without the advanced digital techniques described here.Packed with cutting-edge case studies by acknowledged leaders in the field, the book explores the contemporary state of the art and hints at its monumental potential, a potential that is within reach of very small practices even sole practitioners.Readable, accessible and informative, the book contains sections on Architecture and Structure, Evolution and Emergence, Animation, Design Interrogation, Drawing, Technology and Fabrication, Modelling the Unseen, and Collaboration.The detailed case studies, many of them of recent, well-known buildings, include explanations of how the visualisations and structures were created.While the complex software supporting these advances is becoming ever more sophisticated and powerful, the smaller, cheaper packages can also provide superb results.Aimed at all architects, engineers and construction specialists with a professional interest in computational design, the book shows that both landmark buildings and modest, low-budget structures can benefit from this approach. Space Craft is an inspirational, enlightening and important milestone in the literature about architectural computing.