The prolific musician sheds light on his new album Beams and his days in Detroit
The life of Matthew Dear is anything but black and white. Originally from Texas, the multi-faceted artist cut his teeth in the music world while studying at the University of Michigan—where he also co-founded record label Ghostly International with his pal Sam Valenti—and today calls a barn in upstate…
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Cards featuring illustrations of iconic modernist buildings in London and prints of the BT Tower by designer Stefi Ozari are now available at Dezeen Super Store as part of London design month.
The cards come in packs of six, each including graphics of the BT Tower, the Barbican, Golden Lane Estate, the Isokon Building, the Royal Festival Hall and the K8 telephone box. Each pack costs £12 and includes six envelopes.
The BT Tower prints (top and bottom images) are made with glow-in-the-dark ink and cost £60 unframed at A2 size, 594mm x 420mm.
Dezeen readers can get 10% off any Dezeen Super Store purchase (excluding sale stock and Jambox) and enter our competition to win a designer watch worth £150 by downloading this flyer and presenting it at the shop.
We will be showcasing a range of products by some of the best designers and brands London has to offer all this month – more details here.
See more products available at Dezeen Super Store »
See more stories about London »
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by Stefi Orazi at Dezeen Super Store appeared first on Dezeen.
London’s secret music venue and their livestream act
With an invite-only door policy and super secret location, Boiler Room is London’s most exclusive music venue. But elitism isn’t the premise for its clandestine nature—in fact, anyone with an Internet connection can easily join in the fun. Using a simple webcam, the crew behind Boiler Room livestreams each set for the world to see free of charge, and each month more than a million viewers tune in to see performances by artists like James Blake, The xx, Roots Manuva, Neon Indian, Juan Maclean and more.
We recently chilled out to the smooth sounds of Brooklyn’s How To Dress Well before rocking out to revered musician Matthew Dear, who brought down the house with an intense 40-minute DJ set. Keep an eye out for our interview with Dear, but for now you can get a little more insight into the underground music scene’s most talked about livestream show by checking out our interview with assistant musical programmer and Boiler Room host Nic Tasker.
That is quite an important aspect of it, purely because it means when you do shows you don’t get a lot of groupies, pretty much everyone in the room is either a friend of ours or one of the artist’s. It helps to create a more relaxed atmosphere for the artist and I think they feel less pressure. They’re also just able to chill out and be themselves more rather than having people in their face with iPhones. It’s about artists performing in a different environment to that of a commercial gig or anywhere else. If the artists are relaxed usually you get the best music.
It’s definitely a social place. All the people that come down, most of them we know and they’re all our friends. So they come down, hang, have a drink and just chill out, basically. From our very set-up, we do it with a webcam, we’re not a high production filming operation but I think that’s kind of the charm of it. The main thing is people come down with the right attitude.
I guess that depends on the artist. We never say anything. Literally, whatever they want to do—we’re kind of the platform for them to do whatever they want, so if Matthew Dear wants to come and play an hour of noise with no beats, he can do that. That’s fine with us, and I think that’s why artists like coming to play for us. We’re not like a club where you have to make people dance, we don’t give a shit if people dance. It’s nice if they do and it makes it more fun, but some nights you just get people appreciating the music, which is equally fun.
No, not particularly, it’s just whatever we’re feeling. Thristian [Boiler Room’s music director] has the main say on musical direction, but it’s a massive team effort. In London there’s six of us, New York there’s two, LA there’s one and Berlin there’s two.
It definitely depends on the act and what kind of music they do. With live bands we found what works nicely is having them opposite each other because it’s like they’re in rehearsal, like they’re just jamming. Which is again trying to give them that chilled out feel that they’re just at home jamming and there happens to be a camera there. For some of our shows we’ve had over 100,000 viewers. When you think of those numbers it’s quite scary, but when you’re in the room and it’s all friends it creates that vibe that people don’t mind. You can imagine if you had all those people in front of you it would be a very different situation.
It’s never crossed my mind like that, but I can see why you think that. I like to think of us as the new music broadcaster, kind of the new MTV, but obviously we operate in the underground scene mainly. But I like to think that what we do is as revolutionary as what they were doing. We’re always growing into something new.
We’re looking forward to doing more with the visuals and we’re starting to do breakfast shows with some high profile DJs, we’re going to be doing that regularly. Each will have an individual format. The next step is progressing the US shows, we’re alternating weekly between New York and LA, so the next step is to take Boiler Room to America.
Photos by BHP
Dans le cadre des JO de Londres 2012, retour sur cette sculpture et installation de l’artiste italienne Monica Bonvicini. Un mélange et travail entre miroir, transparence et éclairage LED. Intitulé sobrement « Run » en partenariat avec la société Zumtobel, elle mesure près de 9 mètres de haut.
Explore the city’s emerging microbrew culture through a carefully curated iPhone app
As a city that created many of the world’s greatest beers, London has seen its brewing industry take on somewhat of a downward spiral over the last 25 years or so. This is quickly changing, however, thanks to a number of curious individuals throughout the capital whose newfound interest in the brewing process is leading to a huge craft beer renaissance.
To fully navigate the Big Smoke’s microbrewery movement beyond the three we highly recommend, check out the new iPhone app Craft Beer London—your geographical guide to nearly 30 craft breweries and the pubs and shops serving them. Using your current location, the app’s map allows you to see what’s nearby, while carefully considered reviews offer valuable insight on which beers you might like to seek out.
From Hackney, the hub of it all, to breweries south of the river Thames, Craft Beer London has it covered with a selection sure to impress any beer nerd. Casual sippers will also delight in the list of pubs, a thoroughly rated guide to some of the city’s finest drinking dens.
Updated regularly, Craft Beer London sells for for £2 (about $3 USD) from iTunes.
Dezeen Wire: plans to develop the London 2012 Olympic Park after the Games end in September were unveiled by mayor of London Boris Johnson yesterday, including the transformation of the press centre into a technology, design and research centre, and the creation of up to 8000 new homes in addition to the athletes’ village (+ movie).
The area will be renamed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the first phase, the North Park, is set to open on 27 July 2013, exactly one year after the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
The second phase, South Plaza, will open in spring 2014 and include the main stadium and Aquatics Centre, which will open for public swimming.
Five new neighbourhoods are planned for the next 20 years, including schools, health centres, playgrounds and 102 hectares of open space.
Read more on the project website, see a 360 degree tour here or the Olympic Park Legacy Company’s brochure here.
See our interactive aerial photo of the Olympic Park here and see all our stories about the London 2012 Olympics here.
Here’s some more information from the Mayor of London’s office:
“A golden Games to be followed by an incredible legacy” says Mayor
After delivering what are expected to be the best Olympic Games ever London is now set to deliver an incredible legacy that will set the benchmark for future host cities to follow, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said today.
Even before the world had witnessed London’s incredible opening ceremony, followed by impressive organisation of the competitions, it had hit all its milestones on the road to the 2012 Games on time and budget. It had also secured the future of six out of the eight venues on the Olympic Park – something that had never been achieved before, with serious and credible plans on the table for the Olympic Stadium and the Press and Broadcast Centre.
Speaking at his London 2012 Legacy Press Conference he was joined by some of the major investors inspired by the opportunities the Games and the regeneration of east London are providing. This includes ICity who outlined their proposals for transforming the Park’s media centre into a technology, design and research centre with the potential to generate more than 4,000 jobs. This will build on the 10,000 jobs being delivered by Westfield Stratford City whose owners brought forward their investment plans for east London by at least 15 years after seeing the potential of the area from staging the 2012 Games.
What was once an industrial wasteland is also seeing private money from around the world transforming it into a brand new district of thriving communities with 10,000 new homes planned over the next 20 years served by new schools and medical facilities. Developers Taylor Wimpey and London & Quadrant explained how it will be building nearly 8000 new homes mainly for families as well as the brand new educational academy at Chobham Manor.
But the London 2012 legacy doesn’t end at the boundaries of the Olympic Park as the Mayor is continuing to promote the incredible investment opportunities across the capital including The Royal Docks, Silvertown Quays, Vauxhaull and Nine Elms as well as in riot-affected Tottenham and Croydon where the Mayor is investing £70 million from his regeneration fund. All these areas are benefitting directly and indirectly from the £6.5 billion upgrade of the capital’s transport network as it prepared to stage the Games and with the arrival of Crossrail in 2017 London will be the best connected city for business in the world.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “The doom and gloom merchants who said our great city would implode as we tried to stage the greatest show on earth have been proved wrong. And they will be proved wrong again as we use the catalyst of the games to attract investment into the wealth of opportunities arising in London now and in the coming years. Put simply there is no other place on the planet where investors will see greater returns.”
Daniel Moylan, Chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation said: “Central London is moving east. Bringing the Games to east London has accelerated investment in an already growing area and now the world’s attention is focused on this fantastic part of the city.
“The Legacy Corporation, working with partners, will harness the momentum of the London Games to create a new piece of the city, bringing together the best of east London and the Olympic spirit to provide jobs, homes, schools, sports and entertainment opportunities to local residents, Londoners and visitors.”
Gavin Poole CEO iCity said: “We are really excited about the opportunity to transform the Press and Broadcast Centres into a world-class centre of technological innovation and enterprise. iCITY will create thousands of jobs, provide investment and highly advanced infrastructure for East London’s flourishing creative industries, and deliver a sustainable legacy for the local community, London and the UK.
Peter Redfern CEO Taylor Wimpey who were recently appointed to construct the first of five new neighbourhoods in the Olympic Park said: “We are delighted to have been chosen to deliver the first phase of new housing in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Taylor Wimpey are already one of the biggest contributors to new housing in London and our plans for Chobham Manor provide a unique opportunity to develop an exciting new residential quarter in one of the key growth areas of the UK.
Chobham Manor was designed with families in mind and will provide East London with much needed spacious homes designed by a team of signature architects. The exemplar design and sustainability credentials combined with the unprecedented transport connections and lifestyle amenities will provide a new residential address of the highest quality.
Speaking on behalf of Qatari Diar Delancey, appointed to transform the athletes village, Stuart Corbyn said “East Village will be a place for everybody to enjoy the best of city living; new homes will be joined by first class education, outstanding sports and leisure facilities, local shops, cafes and restaurants, and unrivalled connections to the rest of the capital. This will be one of the most exciting places to live in London.
East Village provides much needed homes, investment and jobs in East London, and reconfirms our long term commitment alongside Triathlon Homes to the local community, quality, partnership and sustainability.”
Transforming the Park
After the Games, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) will begin a £300m construction project to transform the Olympic site into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This will involve removing temporary venues, transforming permanent venues into everyday use, building new roads and bridges and the first neighbourhood.
» The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will be an exciting new visitor destination. Iconic venues and attractions will sit alongside new homes, schools and businesses, amongst open green spaces and pieces of art in the heart of London’s East End.
» The new Park will open in phases from 27th July 2013, exactly one year after the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games. The LLDC was set up three years before the Games in 2009.
» The Park will be 560 acres (226 hectares) in size, equivalent to Hyde Park or 357 football pitches.
Venues and Sport
» The future of six of the eight permanent venues has already been secured (Aquatics Centre, Orbit, Multi-Use Arena, Olympic Village, Velodrome, Eton Manor).
» We are in advanced stages of work to complete the remaining two (Stadium and the Press and Broadcast Centre).
» The Park offer sporting programmes for everything from grass roots community use to high performance competitions.
» Price pledge: the cost of a swimming in the Aquatics Centre or court hire in the Multi-use Arena will be the same as that of a local leisure centre.
Employment
» Up to 8,000 permanent jobs on the park by 2030 plus 2,500 temporary construction jobs
» Training and apprenticeships with a focus on opportunities for local people
» Venues such as the Press and Broadcast Centres have been developed so they can be adapted for commercial use after Games.
New Neighbourhoods
» Five new neighbourhoods developed over 20 years
» Up to 8,000 new homes in addition to the 2,800 in the athletes’ village
» A target of 35% affordable housing
» 3 schools
» 9 nurseries
» 3 health centres
» 29 playgrounds
Transport
» Best connected most accessible place in Europe.
» Direct connections to a third of London’s rail and underground stations.
» There are nine public transport lines feeding into Stratford station; after the Games this will increase to ten. This means that a train could arrive at the station every 15 seconds.
» By 2016, it’˙s estimated that the number of passengers using Stratford station each morning will reach 83,000.
Visitor Attraction
» Expected to become one of London’s Top 10 visitor destinations by 2020 attracting local, regional, national and international visitors.
» The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park could attract more than 9million visitors per year from across London, the UK and abroad from 2016.
Green Space
» Over 22 miles of interlinking pathways, waterways and cycle paths.
» 252 acres (102 hectares) of open space.
» 6.5 kms of rivers and canals running through the Park
» 111 acres (45 hectares) of biodiverse wildlife habitat on the Olympic Park, including reedbeds, grasslands, ponds and woodlands, with 525 bird boxes and 150 bat boxes.
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legacy plans unveiled appeared first on Dezeen.
Our interview with the man behind Hackney’s delicious sourdough invasion
Chances are if you’ve eaten at one of East London’s more discerning restaurants of late, you’ve come across delicious sourdough bread baked at e5 Bakehouse. Tucked under one of the brick railway arches lining London Fields, the bakery is the work of Ben Mackinnon, who built the enterprise from scratch just over two years ago. Now, he and a team of artisans bake more than 300 loaves of sourdough bread a day—from Russian rye to Spelt—and deliver it by bike to around 30 Hackney establishments.
We recently sat down with Mackinnon to learn more about the bakehouse and cafe, and some of the secrets behind e5’s distinctly tasty organic breads.
About two and a half years ago I was kind of scratching my head about what to do with my life. I was working in this job that sounded really good—sustainability consulting—and I kind of wanted to do things, and I still do, that just try and make the world a cooler place to live in. I was getting kind of bored with consulting, so I took bit of time out, and had a great summer fixing up a boat up, but it wasn’t really going anywhere.
Then I did a bit of traveling and I was in the south of Spain where my parents have this wicked little house in a village and there was some flour left in the cupboard by my mum—and I made bread in the past because I think it’s kind of cool to be more self-sufficient. So I thought, “well I’ll make some bread.” The next day I was talking to my dad and I was like, “I’m thinking about becoming a baker.” I was expecting a snort or something down the phone and he was like, “Oh, quite a good idea.” It really surprised me. Then the next day he sent me a link to a place called The School of Artisan Food, which had just opened up in the north of England. I thought about that for a little while, and then I went over to Morocco and the idea just kind of grew.
I was in fairs and I walked into this little bakery in one of the main streets, and I loved it. There was a massive oven going back, a wood-fired oven, and one guy working it with a long peel. They invited me upstairs to a tiny room above the oven so it was very warm (which is kind of good conditions for the break they were making) and I was like, ‘Oh this feels nice!’ I just felt so good in there, so I signed up for the course.
When I came back I was lucky and got a bit of freelance work in sustainability, and I arranged with a local pizza oven to use their oven. And then I just kind of played the two careers off against each other and the bread-making just kept feeling a lot better. So I signed up a couple neighbors to get bread every Saturday so that I had at least 15-20 people to sell bread to every week.
If I was going to do it seriously I needed a space. I thought, “I really love that wood-fired oven back in Morocco.” I like the concept of cooking on a renewable fuel. I asked the girl who runs Happy Kitchen next door if I could move in and build a wood-fired oven and she was cool with it. It caused chaos in that place for about two months, walking through bricks and sand. I built the oven in one place then realized in was the wrong place and we had to move it. I can’t believe what they put up with, it was remarkably fortunate.
Oh, I didn’t. My sister was around, and I spent quite a lot of time hanging out with a dude who is a medieval kiln expert, so he was into firing pottery in wood-fired kilns. He was giving me lots of ideas, but that was more the route of a domed oven. My sister and I built a domed pizza oven in my backyard, but that was never commercial size. And then she found this design for a rocket oven, which is an efficient way of burning fuel—it was developed for Africa where fuel is more limited.
We got fire bricks, and then housing bricks from scrap, we stole paving slabs from the council—it’s amazing what you find when you don’t have money, you forage. We found the sand we needed, a bit of cement here and there. I found fire cement, got loads of clay from Suffolk, where I grew up, which is traditional clay and really good for heat. We just kind of cobbled it together. It’s a bit more like a modern oven, it’s a big metal box with a fire underneath and a deck and level in between and two big trays. The gases kind of go around the sides of the box and heat up the box. It was remarkable it worked, I couldn’t believe it, really—it fucking worked. It could bake about 16 loaves at a time. But you’re not really allowed to burn wood, it seems, in a central area, although maybe in the future I’ll get permission for that. We’re now operating with an electric oven, but the rest of it is very sustainable.
Yeah, we laid the floor, and when we moved in we built this front counter. I got these lampshades from a warehouse that was knocked down on Kingsland Road, I bought this sliding door second-hand and the stained glass comes from a few doors down. We just got this posh kitchen unit built by some local craftsmen, I suppose it’s escrowing up a bit, but again we’re using more stuff salvaged from out back—there are some welders next door who throw quite a lot out. It’s just about making things a bit more durable, and also supporting guys who we really get on with and want to work with.
Hackney Wild is our most popular bread, it takes three days to make. We just use organic flour, and that bread uses our organic sourdough bread as the starter, and that makes up about one-third of the final dough. It spends about two days fermenting in the fridge, then we take that and mix it with fresh flour and water, leave it for a little while for the yeast to really get going. Then we add a bit of salt, and we fold it over the course of about three or four hours and then divide it up, shape it, and let them prove in banatons, which are kind of wicker baskets, or in a pouch that’s natural linen. Then we put them in the fridge in the back, and we leave them there overnight. That’s where the fermentation happens really well, at about 5ºC—the types of bacteria that we want to cultivate operate nicely in that temperature. These organic acids are created, and that’s why our breads taste so good.
See more photos in the slideshow below.. Images by Andrea DiCenzo.
Three small batch breweries rethink the The Big Smoke’s take on beer
Nothing goes better with a carefully constructed burger or a gourmet hot dog than an equally well-crafted beer. With London’s independent food scene heating up, a number of local producers are creating brews to match this artisanal sentiment. Born from the quest for better-quality beer, here are three we’ve found that stand out for their distinct flavor and meticulous brewing process.
Following an unfiltered brewing process, Bethnal Green’s Redchurch Brewery bottles each beer live for the most in flavor and maturation. The 10-barrel brewery launched a year ago by lawyer-turned-brewer Gary Ward, who aims to raise the bar for traditional English beers by adding more depth to the classics with big, hoppy flavors. The Redchurch range currently includes aptly titled brews like Hackney Gold, Hoxton Stout—a rich, dark beer modeled after Guinness Foreign Extra—Shoreditch Blonde, Bethnal Pale Ale, India Pale Ale and Old Ford Export Stout.
Located in South London, The Kernel Brewery also bottles their beer alive, allowing it extra time to grow and mature while in the bottle. Now three years old, the brewery is the upshot of former cheesemonger and Kernel founder Evin O’Riordain’s trip to Brooklyn, where he became inspired by the level of attention paid to both producing and consuming beer. His range has grown to include a handful of porters, pale ales and IPAs, as well as an award-winning stout based on a recipe used by a London brewery back in 1890.
Started just a year ago, London Fields Brewery reflects Hackney’s industrious spirit and artistic fervor. The 10-barrel brewery currently handcrafts five regular beers, including Pale Ale, Hackney Hopster, Unfiltered Lager, Wheat Beer and Love Not War—a nod to the London riots, which trapped the first batch inside the brewery. An integral part of the community, London Fields also frequently collaborates with their peers to create both experimental beers and neighborhood food events, like their summer affair with The Dead Dolls Club and their pop-up with Tomscoopery gelato.
Découverte de ce projet étonnant avec ce labyrinthe entièrement constitué de livres. Prévu pour les allées du Southbank Centre de Londres, cette sculpture de 250 000 ouvrages littéraires en labyrinthe a été composée par les artistes brésiliens Marcos Saboya et Gualter Pupo. Plus de détails en vidéo dans la suite.
Dezeen Wire: car brand Nissan has unveiled its design for a new fleet of black cabs for London.
The Nissan NV200 London Taxi features a glass roof for better sightseeing.
The rear has sliding doors and accommodates three passengers on a bench facing forwards plus two on flip-down seats facing backwards.
There are also anchors for a wheelchair and the rear seats are on sliders to create more space when required.
The front passenger seat has been removed to make more room for carrying luggage.
Taxi versions of the NV200 have already been unveiled in Tokyo and New York, and subject to testing the diesel version is expected to be available to London cab drivers later this year.
An all-electric version is also set to undergo trials in London next year.
Here’s some more information from Nissan:
Nissan unveils a new Hackney Carriage for the Capital
» Affordable and 50% more fuel efficient, than alternative cabs
» Complies with TfL regulations, including 25ft turning circle
» All-electric e-NV200 prototype London Taxi to be tested in 2013
» Fully backed by London Mayor, Boris Johnson, the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association and disability groups
» Designed for superior comfort, space, convenience and accessibility
» Nissan has unveiled a bold new vision for the future of the London ‘black cab’ and its 300,000 daily users – the Nissan NV200 London Taxi.
» The NV200 London Taxi will offer significantly reduced CO2 outputs compared to current taxi models – a focus in line with the Mayor Boris Johnson’s Air Quality strategy for London.
An all-electric e-NV200 concept is also set to undergo trials in the Capital. The Mayor has joined disability groups and the influential London Taxi Drivers’ Association in welcoming the launch of the Nissan NV200 London Taxi.
Taxi versions of the NV200 have already been unveiled in Tokyo and it has also been chosen as the exclusive New York City ‘Taxi of tomorrow’. The NV200 London Taxi joins an exciting global Nissan vision for the private hire industry.
Nissan has a respected place in the Capital’s taxi history – its 2.7-litre TD27 diesel engine was chosen for the iconic LTI FX4 ‘Fairway’ black cab, which introduced improved speed, reliability and efficiency to the London cabbie’s daily drive. The same engine also featured in the Fairway’s successor, the TX1.
The NV200 will build on this reputation.
Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, said: “Nissan already has a great footing in the London taxi market – the 2.7-litre diesel that featured in some of the early taxis was one of the greatest engines ever put in a cab. From what I’ve seen of the NV200 London Taxi, it ticks all the right boxes. It’s important that it looks like a cab, is comfortable with good ingress and egress and is reliable. If the fuel consumption figures are as promised, it will be a big seller.”
Designed from the inside out for the well-being of passengers, drivers and even other road users, the NV200 London Taxi is more efficient and more environmentally considerate than current ‘black cab’ models, while delivering more comfort, space and convenience for occupants. A particular focus was also placed on providing for passengers with mobility issues.
Alan Norton, from Assist UK, said: “Assist UK is proud to be associated with Nissan in the development of an accessible taxi to meet the needs of all disabled people. We have had the opportunity to bring together experts from all fields of disability to work with designers to ensure the vehicle will work for all in their transport needs. The work is ongoing and future refinements are planned after the initial launch, as many ideas have been discussed and are currently undergoing development. We congratulate Nissan for its initiative and wish them every success with their project.”
Durable and reliable, the Nissan NV200 London Taxi is based on the company’s multi-purpose NV200 compact van – a vehicle which has won many awards including International Van Of The Year. Launched at end of 2009, the model has been introduced to 40 countries, selling over 100,000 units worldwide.
The Nissan NV200 London Taxi comfortably seats five adults – three on a rear bench with two on rear-facing, fold-down seats. The front passenger seat has been removed to create space for luggage.
A stand-out feature is the taxi’s sliding passenger doors, which were developed for easy open and close. They are also much safer for pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles because they do not swing out to create a potential obstruction.
The diesel version of the Nissan NV200 London Taxi is expected to be competitively priced below the new TX4 – the London Taxi Company’s current model – and will be available through a designated ‘specialist’ Nissan dealer.
Nissan’s NV200 also delivers significantly improved running costs than alternative London cabs. The model’s frugal 1.5 dCi 89 HP EuroV, 6-speed manual drivetrain achieves 53.3mpg on a combined cycle meaning almost 50% fuel saving than the most efficient TX4 with its combined cycle figure of 35.3mpg.
Fuel costs account for around 10 percent of taxi driver overheads. Over the course of a year, NV200 London Taxi drivers would spend around 50% less – about £700 – on fuel than TX4 drivers.*
With a focus on improving air quality in the city, the NV200 London Taxi’s Euro V engine only emits up to 139g/km of CO2, compared with 209g/km from the ‘greenest’ TX4 model. As a relevant simulation, if all of London’s licensed taxis were replaced with the NV200 London Taxi, there would be a CO2 reduction across London of 37,970 metric tonnes each year – the equivalent of planting 10,000 acres, or two Congestion Charge zones, of trees every 12 months.
More importantly, the harmful NOx and PM (particulate) gases on which authorities are seeking particular improvement in ‘clean air’ legislation, would be reduced by an estimated 135 metric tonnes and 20 metric tonnes per year.
An all electric version could have an even bigger impact on London’s air quality. Having been the first car manufacturer to mass produce a 100% electric family car with its trail-blazing Nissan LEAF, Nissan could cement its place at the forefront of motoring technology with the introduction of an all-electric e-NV200 London Taxi. With running costs estimated to be around one fifth of a conventional, diesel-powered Hackney Carriage it is likely to be popular with drivers too.
Discussions with all the stakeholders will continue to try and make an e-NV200 a realistic proposition by increasing investment in charging infrastructure.
Subject to final testing, including a crash-test, the diesel-powered Nissan NV200 aims to receive full London Taxi certification later this year.
The extensive modifications to the standard NV200 ensure the model fully conforms to the regulations set in the TfL London Taxi Conditions of Fitness. These include being able to accommodate a wheelchair passenger and achieve a 25ft (7.6m) turning-circle – a legal requirement for all Hackney carriages, said to originate from the small roundabout in front of the famous Savoy Hotel on The Strand that taxis needed to round in one manoeuvre.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: “Improving air quality in London is one of the most important challenges I face as Mayor. Having taken the significant step of introducing the first age limit for taxis in London, I am absolutely delighted that manufacturers are stepping up to the plate and are responding to the challenge I set in my air quality strategy to reduce taxi emissions and improve efficiency. I look forward to when a fully competitive model comes to market.”
Andy Palmer, Executive Vice President of Nissan, said: “Nissan is proud to be delivering a 21st century vision for one of London’s most iconic vehicles. The ‘black cab’ is as much a part of the London landscape as Big Ben and, whilst there will always be a place for that familiar silhouette, the Nissan NV200 London Taxi focuses as much attention on its interior as the exterior – a better experience for drivers and passengers.”
He continued: “The design process for the NV200 London Taxi was exhaustive and will be further improved. In addition to ensuring drivers would be comfortable spending extended hours behind the wheel, we’ve had to consider every user for this vehicle – there are no specific customer profiles in the back of a London cab. Adults, children, business professionals, foreign visitors, disabled travellers – they’re all potential customers. We’ve even considered those who might never get inside the taxi but who will benefit from features such as the model’s lower CO2 emissions or the un-obstructing sliding doors.
“The Nissan NV200 is a global taxi, launching in the biggest and brightest cities in the world. Safe, comfortable, efficient and convenient – it’s a great step forward for providing a transport solution that is good for both its users and other city inhabitants.”
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by Nissan appeared first on Dezeen.
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