Tim Lucas, a partner at Price & Myers and founder of its Geometrics team, had always wanted to design a pavilion. His ambition was realised when, as a committee member for the London Festival of Architecture, he had the idea of designing a pavilion that was formed from two intersecting hyperbolic paraboloids.

A new, faster, cheaper and efficient method to building loft conversions is now available at T Brewer.

Using James Jones Engineered Joists and Simpson Strong Tie I-Joist Connectors, you can construct loft conversions in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost and with a fraction of the disruption on site.

Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution is an inspirational illustrated handbook which no shedowner will want to be without.

The book features shedworkers and shedbuilders from around the world who are leading the alternative workplace revolution, and looks at why shedworking is a greener way of working, improves work-life balance and accelerates your productivity.

Buy here: Shedworking by Alex Johnson

Urgent Appeal – CCANW under threat of closure

After 5 years of continuous Arts Council England (ACE) support, the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW) in Haldon Forest Park is threatened with closure following an unsuccessful grant application. In April, we were planning to start an ambitious programme on fashion, textiles and sustainability, but the Arts Council has not agreed our funding bid, due to our insufficient ‘match funding’. ACE has given CCANW the opportunity to re-apply, but the charity needs to raise £20,000 by mid March.

It has been a long time coming.  Stack Studios has recently unveiled FELIX: the fastest, cheapest and most reliable rendering solution.  A new tool designed for architects, designers, engineers, and whoever needs high quality renderings in record time.  With FELIX the calculations are done in a cloud computing facility dedicating 40 to 160 cores to every user. 3D data transfers are automatic and imperceptible even during loads of geometry updates.

Designer Robert Gaukroger has completed three wooden classrooms on stilts in a forest clearing in the Lake District, UK.  Designed for the Elleray Preparatory School in Windermere, the three pod-like structures are clad in wooden shingles made of English chestnut.  The structures comprise a ribbed timber frame, elevated on Douglas-fir stilts.  A deck connecting the three rooms is made of recycled plastic milk bottles and wood shavings, and will be used as an outdoor classroom in summer.  The structure is meant to be used as a gallery and event venue outside term time.

By Rose Etherington from Dezeen

Photographs by Sean Conboy.

The World Building of the Year jury was chaired by Rafael Viñoly and included Kengo Kuma, Farshid Moussavi, Suha Ozkan and structural engineer Tim Macfarlane.

Jurors were impressed with a number of schemes, such as the redevelopment of Father Duffy Square in New York and Bras Basah Mass Rapid Transit Station in Singapore. Both schemes, they felt, responded to complex urban problems in highly sophisticated ways.

They also admired the winner of the Landscape category, by Chinese architects Turenscape for its imaginative qualities and strength of execution.

But after a lively debate, the jury conceded that the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre, South Africa, by Peter Rich was clearly the most architecturally and psychologically powerful project. ‘It carries both weight and a message of complexity to the outside world, ’ commented Suha Ozkan.

However, when the market returns there will be demand for more houses and public buildings to be completed quickly at reduced cost and to be completed quickly at reduced cost and to a higher standard. How can Timber frame construction address this challenge and how can it help you meet the Code for Sustainable Homes? What have been experiences of construction professionals that have moved away from traditional brick and block construction? How can timber frame reduce cost and risks?

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

You can register here.

WHAT WOULD  YOU DO WITH A KILOMETER OF WOOD?

WoodWorks challenges you to get your tools out and set your imagination free  for the Copenhagen International Wood Festival – the first of its kind in Denmark.

Visit the website.