THING OF THE WEEK
HAIR-RAISING… Could the Hairy Bikers be cooking up some chip barms this Sunday when they come to Liverpool for its annual food and drink festival? The weekend pop-up event in Sefton Park will transform into a foodie’s dream as over 40 local bars and restaurants group together for the giant feast. The festival includes sushi demonstrations from Liverpool’s Izakaya and Pho’s Vietnamese food, among others. Adult entry prices are £6 if booked in advance or £7.50 on the day. We’re off to the gym now to prepare…
FILME… Famed for its two regenerations, Hulme’s story is now being told on film by those who lived it. Funded by a Heritage lottery grant, project founder Tracie Daly teamed up with housing provider One Manchester and community media company REELmcr to produce ‘HULME: the documentary’. The film features archived footage, unseen photos and real-life community interviews. The film covers the 1950s clearances, when residents were forced from their homes to either other estates across the city or ultimately failed social housing experiments. It also explores the residents’ fight for the right to remain in the 1980s as a second regeneration dawned. A public screening will take place at The Whitworth Art Gallery in October, and those interested should call 07931 234890 or email reelmcr@gmail.com to book a place.
STRIKE A POSE… Work is where we spend most of our time and it’s the main source of stress in our lives, so it makes sense to bring some wellbeing to your workplace. In this occasional series, Robin Ellis from Yin Yan, Place‘s favourite health-at-work yogi, shows you how to stretch your hamstrings without leaving your desk:
Step One: Sit on your chair with a straight back, sit as far forward as you can without falling off – try holding the arms/sides of your chair for balance
Step Two: Bend one knee, stretch out your other leg and plant the heel on the floor – if you’re already feeling the stretch then great – you might not need to go any further
Step Three: Now for the tricky bit – keeping your back STRAIGHT, tilt your whole spine forwards until you can feel the stretch down the back of your leg.
Step Four: Hold for at least 30 seconds and smile – the more relaxed you are the better the stretch
Step Five: Repeat on the other leg, or else you’ll be walking round in circles
Loosening tight hamstrings is great for runners and cyclists, and it also helps to reduce stiffness in your lower back – bonus!
BUDDING COMEDIANS… The City of Trees annual seminar is to be held at Manchester’s Great Northern on 19 September, and readers are loving it. The City of Trees is a movement which aims to plant three million trees, one for every man, woman and child across Greater Manchester, within a generation. One Place reader said of the event, which has now sold out: “Hopefully the speakers won’t be too wooden” and another commented that it was “good to see that they have turned a new leaf and are branching out”. A third, seemingly keen to get the scheme moving, said: “Hopefully they get to the root cause of the problems, and stop this from happening”.
COLOUR CATCHER… Cor-Ten cladding is being fitted on M-One Central scheme’s Oxid building. The site, on Manchester’s Great Ancoats Street, was previously a car park before being acquired by developer Factory Estates in 2013. Architect IDP designed the building, and the 119 apartments in the 13-storey building are due for completion later this year. The building is being clad in Cor-Ten’s triangular pre-weathered steel for its external elevations, and once metal panels have been oxidized, the colour of the cladding will change to a rust red. Think mood-changing rings, but on a bigger scale.
TWITTER SPOTLIGHT… When he’s not being managing director of Calderpeel, Ewen Miller is making a name for himself on Twitter with his daily architecture sketches. From concept designs, to scribbles of existing buildings, Miller makes our absent-minded notebook sketches look like child’s play. Miller uses Concept, a design app on his iPad Pro, for most of his drawings.
Fridays #sketchoftheday #architect #sketch #design #concept #architecture #buildingdoodle #apartment #Birmingham #iPadPro @ConceptsApp pic.twitter.com/TMN6FBiNIY
— Ewen Miller (@EwenGMiller) September 15, 2017
WEEDING OUT… Over in the US, the property industry is moving fast to capitalise on the latest trend in occupier requirements. Cannabis real estate experts are being established to take advantage of the new legalisation laws. Canna-Hub is a California-based development and property management business, helping to secure suitable venues for those retailers now allowed to sell Marijuana. Canna-Hub is billing itself as “the CBRE of Marijuana real estate” (the Big Green Machine must be a fan of that association), and says it can find properties which are compliant with state requirements for testing, product quarantine and taxation. According to Canna-Hub, several sites have already been identified which will be able to accommodate hundreds of licensees. But the question is, Cannabis-ness like this work?
STRANGE BUILDING NAME… Where has 1 Example Avenue gone? Or 29 Obvious Square? Nowadays, building names are becoming more confusing than they are clarifying. The latest residential addition to the Northern Quarter is Fred Done’s SYNQ, although no doubt the developer would prefer it to SWYM, and on Mosley Street, refurbished office Hyphen is due to open later this year. As the scheme connects two offices together, the concept makes sense, but doesn’t give much guidance when written on the front of an envelope. Perhaps a return to the more traditional number and road names would be best for everyone.
