Merry Christmas
To all: locally in the Dorset and particularly Poole area, to our clients and colleagues in London, Dubai and Qatar. We wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 2012 has been a challenging year for ECA with a frantic frenzy of activity right up until the last. We look forward to working with you all in 2013. ECA...
RIBA talk at the Arts University College Bournemouth
We are delighted to have helped give a short talk to the architectural students at the Arts University College Bournemouth. Doug Withington (RIBA project Coordinator) talked about all aspects of what the RIBA can do for students nationally and what it does for the whole profession. We (Adam Covell from ECA and Sarah Mitchell from Bright Space Architects) were...
Poole Beaches Masterplan
We are extremely keen to see proposals for the future of the beaches at Poole. Currently Poole Borough Council are assessing the future of the beachfront as part of a supplementary planning document (SPD) due to go out to public consultation later this year. The document defines different characteristics for each of the beach areas (Sandbanks = dune landscape, Shore Road = social beach,...
The Olympic legacy
ECA have enjoyed experiencing the London and Weymouth Olympic venues first hand at full throttle. They were able to comfortably handle many thousands of visitors without their feeling crushed or disorientated. The buildings were on the whole well designed – the Velodrome a particular favourite of ours. The parks spilled over with wild flowers, contained a plethora of complex hidden audio systems and appeared...
Beach Hut sold for £170,000
Despite much doom and gloom in the property world, it appears beach huts are still a must-have. This beach hut is located in Mudeford, Christchurch – a beautiful spot but totally inaccessible. The hut has been done very well, making use of limited space and limited utilities.
Olympic Fever in Weymouth
Just when we were becoming cynical about ‘the Olympic Legacy’ we saw these fantastic new cafe pods on Weymouth Beach. Weymouth and Portland will be hosting the Olympic Sailing Competition this summer, but as Portland and the Sailing Centre itself are actually quite far away from Weymouth, it is sometimes difficult to see what benefits...
Twin Sails Bridge, Poole: opening soon
After three opening ceremonies and an enormous outpouring of civic pride, Poole’s Twin Sails Bridge is due to open soon. The bridge provides a second, modern harbour crossing for vehicles and pedestrians, whilst still enabling boats to enter the upper harbour. It will create significant regeneration opportunities: three planning applications are currently being considered by...
Gun Wharf Quays
ECA-P recently ventured to Portsmouth-based retail outlet, Gun Wharf Quays. Retail parks are not the favoured hangout for this company of architects and town planners. Retail parks are generally on the edge or out of town and kill town centres. They often make pretty unpleasant architectural environs, largely made up of tin sheds, fast food outlets and...
Durlston Castle
ECA recently visited the now restored Durslton Castle, near Swanage. It is located on the headland of the same name. The castle is not so much a fort as a 19th century folly/restaurant. It was built by rags-to-riches local chap George Burt and is a mixture of Scottish Baronial, medieval fort and Victoriana. The park contains a strange collection...
Twin Sails Bridge, Poole
The Twin Sails Bridge will be opening on 9th March 2012. ECA-P plan to take part in the opening event, either on a boat or on a bike. We are really interested to see whether this truly unique bridge (some say ‘Brunel-esky’ in its design solution) will give more priority to minority transport users, i.e....
RIBA Low Carbon Conference
ECA attended an excellent gig in Bristol given by the RIBA called The Low Carbon Conference. The day featured the RIBA dignitaries (new president and CEO) professing about the importance of the low carbon challenge. The meat of the day however concerned two case studies. One was a code 6 house/refit in Birmingham. It was amazing to see how...
OMA and The Constructivists: Exhibitions
ECA has just returned from seeing two exhibitions back to back. Firstly the Building a Revolution at the RA (Royal Academy) and secondly OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture, AKA Rem Koolhaas). The RA show was an interesting mix of constructivist drawings from the 20s and 30s: the usual suspects – Malevich, Tatlin, Popova, El Lizzitsky and Melnikov – mixed with...
The Architecture of Poole Quay
It is fantastic to see the Quay buzzing with people: an eclectic mix on this evening of bikers and sailors (!). Look a bit harder though and it is a shame that the vista of buildings in this view doesn’t do much for this superb location. Dolphin Quay, the building at the rear centre of...
Arts College University Bournemouth
ECA (and Gerald Brady from the Matrix partnership) headed up to ACUB for 2 events to mark the opening of their summer show. The first was a private view of the degree work. There was some excellent work on show. It was good to see architecture courses immersed within a creative grouping rather than part...
Development Principles for West Quay, Poole
The principles can be downloaded here: Development Principles for West Quay Debate is really hotting up on revised proposals for West Quay submitted by Neptune Developments in June. Here at ECA-P we are encouraging an active dialogue between the community and developers. Vision Group for Poole asked us to prepare a set of Development Principles...
King Cross Restoration
Whilst ECA is of course mostly about Poole and its environs, we popped into the newly refurbished and lovingly restored Kings Cross St Pancras (London) to see how this mixed use building is working out. The High Gothic terminus by Sir Gilbert Scott has always been a fascination, but mostly inaccessible for years. The hotel’s grand staircase could only be visited...
Sir Antony Caro on his Poole Sculpture
ECA attended an interview with Sir Antony Caro by Alastair Sooke, as part of Purbeck Arts Week yesterday. Caro talked about the main influences of his career which included a number of American based sculptures in the 1960s. Whilst Caro learnt the rudiments of sculpture at The Royal Academy of Arts, he learnt more from Henry Moore,...
West Quay Development, Poole
The planning application for 440 new homes in six apartment blocks between the waterfront and West Quay road remains under consideration for planning approval. The plans have been under consideration for nearly a year now (since 28 July 2010,...
ECA BLOG
We blog about the built environment of Poole and the wider Dorset area, as well as issues affecting the disciplines of Architecture, Town Planning and Regeneration in the World today. As a multi-disciplined practice our interests lie in 3D design, contemporary green architecture, community planning and renewal. You can subscribe to our RSS feed...
