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Chinese authorities have announced that the 55-kilometre bridge between Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and Macau is on track to open, despite concerns that parts of the structure have been washed away by the sea.

Hong Kong’s Highways Department rebuffed claims that the concrete blocks protecting an artificial island connecting the Hong Kong side of the bridge to the tunnel under Mainland China’s waters have been damaged by waves.

Named the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau (HKZM) Bridge, the structure consists of three cable-stayed bridges, three artificial islands and one undersea tunnel spanning 55 kilometres through the Lingdingyang channel. The route connects the three major cities of Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau on the Pearl River Delta.

The 29-kilometre section of the HKZM Bridge will be one of the world’s longest bridges. China is also home to the world’s highest suspension bridge, the 564-metres-high Beipanjiang Bridge.

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Once open, the six-lane bridge will cut the travel time between Hong Kong and Macau from four hours to under one hour.

The HKZM Bridge was completed in November 2017 and is due to open to traffic before 1 July 2018.

Artificial island “same as it was designed”

Following reports that the artificial island had been damaged, authorities held a press conference to reassure the public that the design was functioning as planned.

“There is nothing that we can observe that has been washed away,” director of highways Daniel Chung told press during a briefing last week.

“It is the same as it was designed and in fact the same as when it was just completed on year ago.”

Concerns had initially been raised in May 2017 when photographs released by Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Authorities appeared to show many of the concrete blocks fully submerged in the sea.

Speculation about the structural integrity of the bridge reignited earlier this month, when images taken by a local drone enthusiast and posted to Facebook allegedly showed a similar sight.

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The Hong Kong Free Press reported that the submerged sea defences look different from the bridge’s design documents and computer visualisations, which suggest the concrete blocks should sit proud of the water.

Chung visited Zhuhai to meet with the HKZM Bridge Bridge Authorities and inspect the project before holding the press conference. He said that there were no plans to alter the design of the island’s breakwater, as they were working as intended.

HKZM Bridge delayed due to design and safety concerns

Originally the HKZM Bridge was due to open in October 2016, but the mega infrastructure project has been plagued with delays, design and safety concerns, and reports of worker deaths and injuries.

The current controversy surrounds the mid-channel artificial islands either side of the tunnel, but the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities Island (HKBCF Island) has also experienced issues.

Instead of the environmentally-damaging method of dredging the marine mud to build on reclaimed land, the HKBCF Island was made using a non-dredge method where filled circular steel cells are driven into the sea floor to form a seawall.

In 2015 the Highways Department admitted that the non-traditional method of land reclamation meant that parts of the island had moved up to 7 metres.

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Then in 2017 Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) charged 19 employees of Jacobs China – a contractor of the Civil Engineering and Development Department – with falsifying concrete compression test results.

The number of officially reported work deaths on the HKZM Bridge currently stands at 10, with the number of reported injuries varying from 234 to 600.

Last year a member of Hong Kong’s Labour Party dubbed it the “bridge of blood and tears”, suggesting the number of fatalities and accidents could be even higher on the China side of the project. The Construction Site Workers General Union called it the “bridge of death” and asked government to put a stop to what it described as “mass murder”.

Reported costs for the project have been estimated at $15 billion (£10.6 billion).

Top image courtesy of Getty Images.

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British designer Tom Dixon has opened a new flagship store, showroom and offices inside a Victorian coal yard in London’s King’s Cross.

The brand has relocated its entire operation from Ladbroke Grove in west London to a group of Victorian buildings in King’s Cross. The transformation of the building forms part of the redevelopment of the area around the major transport hub in the north of the capital.

Named the Coal Office, the 1,625-square-metre complex curves alongside the Regent’s Canal near the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Coal Drops Yard shopping centre, which is due complete in October 2018.

The Victorian buildings contain offices for brand’s staff and a gallery, while the flagship store and showroom is located in seven railway arches beneath them. The shop opens on the 20 April 2018, with an onsite restaurant and cafe scheduled to open in June.

“It was time to try something new, but it was difficult to find somewhere that allows us to have the right mix of professional and retail – King’s Cross gives us that,” Dixon told Dezeen.

“Connectivity was also the other factor [for the move]. From King’s Cross you can get to the rest of the UK, straight to Edinburgh, Newcastle or Margate, and in the other direction Europe,” continued Dixon. “I say that a brand is only as good as its network, whether it is on Instagram or with its premises.”

Dating back to 1851 the Coal Office buildings, along with Coal Drops Yard, were the hub for the distribution of coal around London.

The buildings were refurbished by David Morley Architects before Tom Dixon’s studio took over the project to design the interiors.

Inside, brick walls have been left exposed and paired with patches of pale and coal-black wooden parquet. The spaces are dressed with furniture and lighting by Dixon’s brand.

“The infrastructure was in place when we got the building, but it had been lying fallow for a couple of years. We’re finishing it and making it make sense,” said Dixon.

Along with the new flagship store Dixon recently opened stores in in Los Angeles and New York, and he believes that a physical presence remains important in the digital age.

“We are just as interested in the digital world, but we have found that the digital works better in combination with a physical location,” said Dixon.

The building will also allow the studio to continue to continue to operate an onsite restaurant – like at his previous premises – and begin to manufacture on site in a building that Dixon wants to evolve over time.

“We need a great place for our people to work, and go beyond design,” he said. “I’m very interested in how food fits with design and I want a place to start manufacturing things again, like I did when I started.”

“I see the building as being at the beginning of an adventure rather than a fait accompli. I see the building evolving very quickly. I want to open up the building more, to open up our design, prototyping and interiors processes,” added Dixon.

Tom Dixon is hosting an open house for architects, designers, decorators and stylists to explore his new collection and space on 10 May 2018.

The area around King’s Cross station is currently undergoing extensive redevelopment. Central Saint Martins art college opened its doors in a granary renovated by Stanton Williams in 2011, while an extension to the station designed by John McAslan + Partners opened in 2012.

The site is still developing with Wilkinson Eyre recently completing a residential building inside a trio of Victorian gasholders, and both Facebook and Google planning to build headquarters in the new district.

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“Deficiencies” introduced during renovation works at Grenfell Tower contributed to fire deaths, according to a leaked report by fire safety experts.

Poorly installed fire barriers, gaps around window frames, and flammable cladding and insulation were introduced to the west London tower in renovation works by Studio E Architects before the fire, states the report.

The 210-page document prepared by fire experts BRE Global for the Metropolitan police’s investigation into the blaze, and seen by the Evening Standard, claims the fire’s 71 deaths could have been avoided.

The report does not specify whether fault lies with the design or the installation of the features introduced during the renovation of the 24-storey 1970s residential tower. But it does claim that had the post-war housing block remained unaltered the fire would have been unlikely to spread.

Fire would have had “little opportunity” to spread in unaltered Grenfell Tower

The fire, which was started by a faulty fridge-freezer in a fourth floor flat on 14 June 2017, instead broke through a window and spread rapidly up the building in a chimney-like effect attributed to its new cladding.

The report backs up this early speculation, citing “deficiencies” in the installation of the cladding system. It also suggests the tower would have “fully or partially” collapsed has the original structure been of lesser quality.

“Grenfell Tower, as originally built, appears to have been designed on the premise of providing very high levels of passive fire protection,” states the report dated 31 January 2018.

“The original facade of Grenfell Tower, comprising exposed concrete and, given its age, likely timber or metal frame windows, would not have provided a medium for fire spread up the external surface,” it continues.

“In BRE’s opinion… there would have been little opportunity for a fire in a flat of Grenfell Tower to spread to any neighbouring flats.”

Renovation works breached fire safety regulations

According to the Evening Standard the report identifies five key breaches of building regulations that could have contributed to the Grenfell Tower deaths.

Cavity barriers were of “insufficient size specification” – these barriers, which should have prevented the spread of fire between different sections of the building spanned only half the gap between the old and new facade, rendering them ineffective. In addition, the report notes some of the barriers were installed “upside down” or “back to front”.

Window frames were “significantly narrower than the gap between the concrete surfaces of the columns – these gaps were plugged with materials such as rigid foam insulation, which were unable to provide 30 minutes of fire resistance. The materials offered “a direct route for fire spread around the window frame into the cavity of the facade”. The construction of the window instead gave “fuel” to the fire rather than offering a barrier

“Combustible” insulation “provided a medium for fire spread up, across and within sections of the facade” – in addition, there were no markings to identify the manufacturer of the foam insulation used.

Aluminium composite cladding had a “highly combustible” polyethylene core – this flammable core “appears to have provided a medium for fire spread up and across the facade”.

“Absence of door closers” – this meant doors were left open when residents fled the fire, allowing it to spread to other parts of the building – including its single staircase.

The report also notes there was only space for “a single fire engine” at the base of the tower because of landscaping, which alongside poor access hampered efforts to fight the flames.

It states the 70-metre building should have been fitted with a wet rising main, a network of vertical pipes filled with water at all times.

The multi-million pound renovation and recladding of the building was carried out for the building’s manager, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation.

Following the fire, the UK government launched an emergency fire safety review of high-rise apartment buildings, ordering tests on up to 600 blocks found to be clad in similar aluminium-composite panels as Grenfell.

A mockup of the cladding system installed at Grenfell Tower during its renovation failed the government-ordered fire safety check. The test carried out by BRE was deemed an “absolute failure.

Cladding was stripped from many other blocks around the UK as a precaution, with residents in some instances forced to bear the brunt of the cost of replacement.

In August 2017, an interim report of a review of building regulations commissioned by the UK government found high-rise safety regulations “not fit for purpose”.

Spatial research group Forensic Architecture is currently seeking footage of the Grenfell Tower fire to create a 3D video, which it hopes will help people understand how the disaster unfolded.

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Portland-based Outside Van specialize in converting the Mercedes Sprinter Vans into comfortable and beautiful moving homes is this company’s wheelhouse. This customized Sprinter is electrifying. Beginning with the bare bones of the $60,000 stock van, the folks at Outside Van outfitted it with $24,000 worth of energy-generating equipment including battery packs, solar panels affixed to the roof, an e-bike charging station, 3 long-life extreme capacity high-output AGM batteries, and a diesel-based heating system, which also ensures Power Station’s $20,000 laser-cut stainless steel shower always has hot water…(Read…)

Alors que le festival californien Coachella a débuté depuis le 13 avril 2018, les festivaliers ont pu découvrir une installation étonnante conçue par l’artiste italien Edoardo Tresoldi. Cette oeuvre, intitulée « Etherea », se compose de trois sculptures transparentes réalisées à l’aide de treillis métalliques transparents. Ainsi, les spectateurs peuvent apercevoir un effet optique fait de perspectives et de relations dimensionnelles. De loin, on croirait presque à un hologramme. Tout son travail est à découvrir sur son site.