£40m Renaissance Scheme Progresses

A EUROPEAN developer has announced major progress on a key £40m development at the heart of a Yorkshire regeneration scheme.

Anglo-Dutch TCN UK said the progress it had made with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council had enabled it to reach agreement on several aspects of the company’s 10.5 acre town-centre Rotherham Renaissance programme.

TCN is to purchase the Council's 5.5 acre civic site once the Council relocates from it in 2012, enabling a new retail store to be located there.

TCN is also involved in a regeneration project in the Manvers area of Rotherham, where its Waterfront development is creating  400-plus homes, a retail centre and a business park on a former coalfield wasteland.

Sky Wellness Gym

For anybody that hasn’t previously been convinced that going to the gym is worth doing, this might start making you think otherwise. As a daily gym enthusiast myself I love anything to do with them however being a designer makes me more excited about this gym than any other I’ve seen. It is evident to see that the sweeping city and river views out of the 150 metre glass windows would cause most to get lost in them rather than focus on the intense fitness regime they are doing - a selling point in itself.

The Belgrade landmark originally opened as a restaurant in the 1970’s and was constructed 15 metres above the river. Now, the Belgrade design studio 4od7 has recreated the space into a high end gym and spa in the city’s centre. Visitors enter Wellness Sky through the central core (the sole support for the structure) which contains two lift shafts and a double spiral staircase. The faceted ceiling is comprised of backlit semi translucent triangular panels creating an idea that visitors feel as though they’re exercising outdoors in the clouds but also within a Technogym. The main volume of the building is triangular in plan however it is intercepted by 12 metre cantilevers to again reinforce the feel of levitation and floating in the clouds. The resin floor finishes also add to this concept as reflect a lot of the daylight therefore supporting the airy feel.

Interior Design

http://www.sovibrant.co.uk/

"Render! Render! Read all about it! "

Hi everyone,

Here at SoVibrant we are always looking at new technologies and new ways of streamlining our workflow. I have recently had many lengthy discussions on the various commercial renderers available today, particularly Vray, Maxwell Render & Mental Ray. My discussions have been revolving around the best renderer for use in the architectural Visualisation industry.

After all of these debates, I have decided that  I would like the opinions of the masses!  I would like to open up a discussion on the differences or pro's and con's of the renderers and get other points of view on their uses.

I personally hold the opinion that Vray is the renderer of choice for architectural visualisation. This is mainly due to the speed of the render engine and easy setup of Vray within a scene. Admittedly Maxwell Render is more than capable of creating 'better' and more 'visually stunning' images than Vray when used right. The problem with Maxwell Render is the speed of the render engine. In this fast-paced, commercial environment we all love, you just don't have the time to render images which, although look much better, take an unrealistic amount of time to render. The very well known saying "Time is money" comes to mind on this occasion! I personally would place Mental Ray somewhere as a middle ground between Vray and Maxwell Render. MentalRay is capable of producing stunning results but unfortunately requires a lot of tinkering to get right. The user-friendliness of MentalRay is, in my opinion, somewhat lacking also, with far too many options to fine-tune to obtain good results.

For the above reasons I believe Vray to be far superior for keeping on top of those tight deadlines while still maintaining a very high visual quality.

Of course all of the above is my current opinion and I really would like some points of view from everyone out there who have preferences on any of the above renderers. At SoVibrant we always welcome the views and opinions of others and thrive on debates such as this to further our knowledge on technological and artistic matters.

Let the debate begin !!


Mo Akhtar (Media Director) - SoVibrant

www.sovibrant.co.uk

Park Your Car Without a Scratch

The new BMW 5 Series Saloon is the first BMW to be offered with optional Park Assist.

When the driver has activated the system, and as long as the vehicle is travelling below 20mph, Park Assist scans for parallel parking spaces.

When a suitable space has been located, The BMW 5 Series does most of the work itself; all the driver has to do is accelerate or brake.

Clear instructions in the display, backed up by audio signals, inform the driver about the progress on the automatic manoeuvre.

Interior Design
www.sovibrant.co.uk

With books in mind...

A New York based design company (Front Studio) was commissioned to re-design and inspire McNallys bookstore with a unique twist on book associations in a brand new cafe.

The cafe’s curved wall is plastered with recycled open spine books which look and act like wallpaper. At first glance it would appear there aren’t many tables however around the walls you can find a series of folding single wooden tables. These resemble a folded book when closed and when opened up they act as a stable surface for food and drink – a really lovely feature unique to this cafe. From the ceiling the public sit beneath a scattering of suspended books held on metal poles. These interspersed with lightbulbs therefore making the books become more of a decorative statement. This feature was taken from the idea of throwing books into the sky and frozen.

With the injection of book inspiration, the cafe has followed through the redesign into its new food menus which are made up of food related quotes dedicated to many editions of one single book. This design has certainly been researched cover to cover!

Interior Design

http://www.sovibrant.co.uk/

New Charge Levies for Development Pipeline

The region's development pipeline could face increased pressure from today when local authorities across the region become empowered to implement a new charging system on future developments, according to experts.

The Planning Act of 2008 made provision for the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which is a charge to be levied on new developments, payable when a development with planning consent commences.

The charge relates to residential and non-residential buildings and will be based on a formula accounting for the size and character of the development. Charges will expressed as a price ‘per square metre’ of floor space relating to different use classes and will be linked to an index of inflation.

From today, local authorities have the power to implement this new charging system and utilise money raised from it to pay for sub regional infrastructure.
 
However, experts believe the process of preparing the framework required is likely to take 12 months or more.

Will this be viewed as an additional tax on development and will it severely affect an already struggling sector?

Workplace Consultancy
www.sovibrant.co.uk