Christmas Steps beer

Not exactly photographic, design or architecture but worth a mention- a local brewery has made a festive christmas beer and named it after our street......tastes pretty good as well. If you are local, try it at the Colston Yard

UBIFRANCE, 28 Haymarket, London

A new project shot of HWO Architects of the French Trade Commission offices in London.






View the complete set in our image library.

Photos of the Jeppe Hein Artwork in Royal Fort Gardens

The University of Bristol commissioned a major work from internationally acclaimed artist Jeppe Hein as part of its centenary celebrations. The work is permanently sited in the University’s historic Royal Fort Gardens, which are open to the public. Jeppe Hein’s works often involve and surprise people by encouraging them to interact with one another and with the works themselves, and by playing optical tricks. His piece for the University’s centenary is no exception and invites audiences to engage with it in very direct ways.



Hein says that the work is ‘inspired by the notion of the University as a place of learning and self-discovery'. I was interested in the way the sculpture allows a new photographic interpretation of the Royal Fort House. More images can be seen on the Image Library in the Education section.

Canynge Hall wins Civic Society Award for Bristol University

The Canynge Hall Extension project was awarded by the panel for the way that it sat within the challenging Whately Road/Whiteladies road area:

‘Originally built as a hotel and later a men's hall of residence, this site at the junction with Whiteladies Road is now occupied by Bristol University's Social Medicine Department .

This £4m development includes a four-storey extension with basement, situated in the space immediately behind the existing structure between Whatley Road and Clifton Down Railway Station car park.

The extension was built to supplement the administration and teaching facilities with a lecture theatre and additional offices.

The society says: "An elegant example of modern infill fitting well with an older style for the university's Department of Social Medicine. The detail on Whatley Road creates a fine rhythm."

The project can be seen on the fotohaus image library here.

Award winning fotohaus photography: Liz Eve wins Regen SW Green Energy Photograph of the Year

This summer an architect I work with asked if I had an image to enter into the Regen SW green energy photo award. This award particularly interested me as images depicting the idea of sustainability regularly struggle to avoid cliché and often find it difficult to be interesting or enlighten viewers about the processes happening within them. I was also keen to be involved in creating images that would excite people about renewable energy.

I decided to approach the competition inspired by the way that architectural firms enter competitions to compete for work. I took apart the brief and used it as a basis for some research, exploratory visits and speculative photo shoots. Competitions are highly subjective so I needed to be happy that I produced images that would be valuable in themselves whether or not they caught the eye of the judges.

The brief for the Green Energy photo award called for a new and unique image that would illustrate the human element of sustainable energy. I had this in mind as I researched sources of renewable energy accessible for photographic exploration.

I had already photographed the Clifton Lido for the developers who had carried out a project to restore the old Victorian lido that had existed on the site. Although I had some striking images that captured the architectural features, the lighting at night and visitors enjoying the ambience of the place, I had not concentrated on the solar tubes that heat the water in the pool.

One way of creating an outstanding image is to think of ways of getting to a place that others can’t or finding an angle that other people cannot easily see. This is part of the reason I love climbing around on roofs. It looked like the place the most dynamic images of the tubes and the swimmers below would be found. The aim was to communicate simply the function of the solar tubes.

I had pre-visualized the image as being very simple. In actuality, on site I had to deal with other elements such as blinds and a safety railing making it harder to get a clean simple image. The sun also decided to start hiding behind the clouds so in the end I spent an hour up on the roof catching images when the sun was out and when swimmers were passing through the part of the image that looked right.



Other visits to investigate renewable energy generation took me to Gants Mill in Bruton, Somerset and the Geneco Biogas digestors at Avonmouth. The Hydropower installation at Gants Mill interested me as I wondered how I would convery the idea of power being produced by the running water. I had an idea that would involve a bit of work and the cooperation of the owner, luckily Brian Shingler is a keen promoter of Hydropower and was extremely helpful to me. I decided to produce a dusk photograph of the mill, giving the idea that running water was producing power that in turn would light up X number of light-bulbs. The main challenge was in getting enough light onto the water and outside of the building to show what was going on there. I ended up painting in detail during a long exposure using a high power torch.



At Avonmouth I was privileged in being taken around the site by the operations manager who explained how human waste is brought in and ‘digested’ by bacteria in order to produce gas for combustion in order to create energy. I find industrial structures fascinating and was lucky enough to get some good autumnal sunshine so I ended up shooting a huge number of images picking out different aspects of the structures and processes there. Another great off-shoot of the project is that Geneco picked up on the images and are now using some to show people what it is they do.

I was delighted to win the competition, but it was just the icing on cake as the experience of doing the research, taking the photographs, meeting some interesting people and coming out with some fresh new images was fantastic in itself. I plan to carry on the project and hope that people will contact me with innovative and interesting green structures and ways of producing energy. I really hope to be able to promote positive change and transformation with my camera and hope that the images will encourage decision makers to find out more about and choose sustainable solutions.

Images from top: Clifton Lido, Gants Mill, Avonmouth

Lens Culture

Always worth a look - Lens Culture - the online photography magazine.
A new online issue just updated with a preview of the upcoming Paris Photo.

A recent project appearing in the architectural press...

Nanoscience at Bristol University which I was commissioned to shoot by Capita and Bristol University has appeared in the Architect's Journal, Building Design and Building Sustainable Design magazines. The links will take you to the articles where you can read about the project. Capita also profile the project on their own website here.

Technique: Panoramic photography

Panoramic images offer a different angle and perspective. It is a great method of highlighting space or to showcase the wider location view of your projects. We use two different techniques depending on what outcome is required - stitching (combining a series of images seamlessly together) and rotating camera (the camera rotates to capture the complete field of view required). Both methods can provide images up to 360 degrees. Used sparingly and in the right situation panoramic images are a fantastic way to highlight a space or structure.

Above (top to bottom) are from these projects -

Marks & Spencer Simply Food, the More, London
Ashcomb Children's Centre, Weston Super Mare
The Capitol Arts Centre, Horsham
Terex Factory
Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol

Sign up for the fotohaus quarterly newsletter

Sign up for the new fotohaus quarterly newsletter and also get access to our price guides, shoot checklists and guides to commissioning - all automatically available online. To find out more go to our portfolio website and select 'price guides and newsletter' from the main menu.

Images of Peoplebuilding Hemel

Project name: Peoplebuilding Hemel

|| Location: Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead

|| Description: PeopleBuilding Hemel is located 26 miles from central London, on Maylands Avenue Hemel Hempstead. The project was developed on the former Lucas factory site. After demolition of the existing factory, Phase 1 of this development comprised a four-storey office building, a sports complex, infrastructure works multi-storey car park and extensive landscaping.

The office building comprised 100,000 sq ft in total. The building was fitted to Cat A standard, providing flexible layouts for future tenants. The building comprised a 9m structural grid post-tensioned concrete frame. The cladding was unitised full height glazed panels with a responsive Brise Soleil on three elevations. This entails automatic sensor/motor driven adjustments to the external blades. The ceiling and floor voids provided displacement air-conditioning. Fit-out was carried out to the entrance reception and toilet areas on all floors.

The sports centre was constructed to shell status, with subsequent fit-out by others. 320 parking spaces are provided on a post-tensioned concrete multi-storey car park and grade level.

|| Architect: Fletcher Priest
|| Developer/Client: Stanhope PLC
|| Main Contractor: Mace
|| Project manager: Mace
|| Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon
|| Structural Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners
|| Services Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners
|| Landscape Architect: Charles Funke Associates
|| Property Consultant: FPDSavills & Freeth Melhuish
|| Project Value: £24m

You can view all the images of Peoplebuilding Hemel here:
http://imagelibrary.fotohaus.co.uk/

Sports and leisure projects added to the Image Library

Added today to the Image Library are 4 projects in the Sports and Leisure category. These include the LC leisure centre in Swansea, the Spyglass and Glassboat restaurants shot this year and images from the Clifton Lido including some new views of the solar tubes that are used to heat the swimming pool. The Sports and Leisure section and these projects can be viewed here.

Our online image library has been just been updated to display work by sectors and projects; making it far easier to browse the images. Searching using general terms is also a major feature if a specific image or project is being looked for. The sector categories are Cities & General views, Construction, Cultural & Heritage, Education, Industrial, Healthcare and Science, People, Public Sector, Residential, Retail, Sport & Leisure and Workplace & Office. You can take a look for yourself here.