Architecture and interior design thread

My wife found that with her very basic German it was much easier to listen in on conversations in Berlin than Hamburg. Too much Danish and slang I guess?

zugezogenen i.e. people from everywhere in germany in berlin hence speaking quite clean german.
berlin accent itself is quite amusing and difficult to understand if youve learnt hochdeutsch. actually aching quite to dutch my mothertongue.

example:
BERLIN: ick koof bei lehmann
NL: ik koop bij lehmann
DE: ich kauf bei lehmann

with regard to getting a job in the more creative phases i.e. competitions/HOAI 1-3 its either contacts or "initiativbewerbung", open application.

with regard to the language; its quite a big plus, but there are enough offices where the spaniards, greek and portuguese are exploited in competition sweatshops and they generally don't speak german. i.e. you generally get not so ok conditions.

there are a couple of offices which are big and do international projects; gmp, dudler, barkow leibinger, etc. an american guy i know got a job at the latter recently and his german is minging.

i have a list somewhere of offices for you to check out if you want to.
in my office generally either german or french is needed, although we had a couple of guys who didnt speak either of the languages.
alas, we're not hiring. pm me if you want (to pass) some deets, and if a suitable spot becomes available i could give you a nudge.

Cheers man, I figured that might be the case in respect of the more competition / internationally focused practices. I've got an important project finishing in August and fancy a change of scene after that, so I'll drop you a PM when I get a minute. Would love to work at somewhere like Barkow Leibinger, but I'm sure they can be very picky.

You can always join forces with Stonehedge (see AQA). :)

huh, thanks!

So I'm building a couple of modest 3 beds with my Dad, I was wondering if anyone had any feedback on the layouts? (I'm currently modelling things in SketchUp to see what the space actually feels like.)

Look nice. What's driving PassivHaus? Planning requirement? Historically it's been an expensive standard to build to but that may be changing.

Are the solar panels for hot water? If not, you might be better doing the roof in integrated PV instead.

Disclosure: I am not an architect.

PassivHaus appeals solely for the challenge and standard of build required, it doesn't make sense financially really (in the short term at least). It has helped with achieving planning for a marginally larger build, but the plot already had permission for 2x 2 beds.

I'm currently looking into the ST panels/thermal store a bit more... it looks as if PV panels and a SunampPV "battery" will be a better solution than ST. We want to keep to as few panels as possible (the neighbour behind and Dad dislike the appearance of large arrays).

Fair enough. I think a proper integrated PV roof looks infinitely better than a stick-on array, but each to their own. Well done for going PH. What will your heating be (backup that is, I know with PH it is minimised). Solar water makes sense if you've got no easy alternative for hot water (I.e. if you were off gas grid).

A couple of thoughts - If you're looking at selling to families, you'd be better off trying to fit a bath into the middle floor as a family bathroom, with a shower over or something like that.

The thing between beds 2 & 3 - is that a heat recovery thing...will it be noisy there?

Looks good otherwise. (IANAA)

A bit over my head but totes jelly of the project.
I'd chuck in a balcony, everyone loves balconies.
I'd also be tempted to raise the lounge/lower the other areas to give a slight feel of separation without creating physical boundaries (walls).

Oh... you could also align the front windows and make them one massive near building height window. Thats prob a budget blower though.

Yep, heating will be extremely minimal (currently modelling at 12 kWh per m2), but we'll have underfloor heating downstairs (good for even solar gain distribution) and a combi boiler as gas will suit us for the next 20 years. ASHP would've be ideal, but we felt there was no need to overcomplicate things given access to gas... the panels are primarily to bring our primary energy demand down (in line with the PH principle).

(If it was just me I'd have put PV on the whole of the south facing roof too...)

Agreed, bath/shower on first floor probably makes sense... the kitchen/bathrooms are pretty indicative for now.

Yep, MVHR and nope: it's meant to be whisper quiet by default, we're then oversizing the unit (for low fan speeds), sound proofing the plant room and will use minimal trunking between vents. The Germans have got MVHRs down to a fine art now really...

Passivhaus isn't just some bolt-on standard that you can achieve by adding PV's and a MVHR unit though, you need to be completely rigorous with your detailing - eliminating thermal bridges / maintaining air tightness and ensuring build quality on site. It's hard to achieve but I applaud you for trying. Using ecojoists etc will make it much easier to run the ductwork you need for your MVHR.

Yep, thermal bridge detailing is complete: insulated slab and timber frame. Air tightness will be an ongoing battle, but in theory we have the bases covered...

combi boiler as gas will suit us for the next 20 years. ASHP would've be ideal, but we felt there was no need to overcomplicate things given access to gas... the panels are primarily to bring our primary energy demand down (in line with the PH principle)

Good stuff. So in the interests of keeping it simple PV > ST

A good series of pictures taken during construction of the Barbican Centre:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/feb/22/building-the-brutal-barbican-peter-bloomfield

My wife Sadie made the front page of wallpaper!

http://www.wallpaper.com

For a Warehouse conversion in old street..

that's properly good

Ah I've seen that recently, nice project and great use of materials. Out of interest, what was the finish on the steel? Must have been a good budget if Diapo did the staircase :)

old street

It says Clapton in the article.

Its clapton, i was getting it mixed up with another one in shoreditch..

She says, 'Acid washed' - whtever that means?

From what i heard, there was a lot of work went into that staircase: both for the fabrication and the installion.

Dbl post

Barbican is bloody amazing, such a shame there are not more places like it, although I wonder if it would HAVE been such a grand project if it wasn't for the Germans so kindly clearing the space for it.