Plans submitted for new 120-bed hotel on Llanelli’s coast

The plans would see a five-storey 120-bed hotel built on land between the Machynys housing development and the Pentre Awel health and leisure complex.

Outline plans have been submitted to Carmarthenshire Council by developers Ove Arup and Partners Ltd who say the proposals would result in a “high-quality destination for visitors which would support the local tourism economy in a sustainable location and contribute positively to the economic and cultural growth of Llanelli and the wider region”.

The brownfield site was historically used as part of the Machynys brickworks and part of the sprawling industrial dockland area of the town.

Existing woodland would be retained as part of the proposals as well as some ecological mitigation between the hotel and the nearby housing.

A 140 space car park would also be constructed, including electric car charging facilities.

A hotel was first given planning approval on the site over 10 years ago in 2013, howebver nothing has been developed until now.

No information on planned operators of the hotel have been revealed.

The hotel proposals on the B4304 lie across the road from Carmarthenshire Council’s huge new Pentre Awel site at Delta Lakes. Built by construction company Bouygues UK, the scheme being delivered by Carmarthenshire County Council in partnership with Hywel Dda University Health Board, Universities and colleges is part-funded by the Swansea Bay City Deal (£40million).

The council says Pentre Awel aims to create around 1,800 jobs over 15 years and boost the local economy by more than £450m.

The development includes a new state-of-the-art leisure centre and hydrotherapy pool together with education, research and business development space; a clinical research and delivery centre; and a well-being skills centre. 

Future planned development includes 35 new homes to the south of the hotel site.

(Lead image: Carmarthenshire Council)

#Arup #Carmarthenshire #CarmarthenshireCouncil #DeltaLakes #featured #hotel #Llanelli #Machynys #PentreAwel

@peoplenature
Also another case of #Arup's incompetence or duplicity as an 'independent' assessor.
They did the SDA for #GreaterMancheter's joint plan, Places for Everyone, concluding that building on 13 sq miles of green spaces would be positive for climate.
We asked for their calculations and they publicly confirmed that they hadn't done any!
#Planning

Jellicoe Lecture
#landscapeinstitute
🌳
#jellicoe #jellicoelecture
#arup #london #chooselandscape #landscape #landscapearchitecture #landscapearchitect
#shotoniphone #iphoneography

California High-Speed Rail Station Designs Unveiled at Open House Sessions http://dlvr.it/T8tMrf #Arup #BreakingNews #CHSRA #FosterPartners

Construction giant #Arup Group revealed as victim of January theft—10% of net profit lost.

A poor peon in the finance department of Arup #HongKong got taken in by a #deepfake of the firm’s chief financial officer, who told them to transfer $25.6 million to several “secret” accounts. We first discussed the heist on February 5, when the victim hadn’t yet been named.

The local police still have no leads. In #SBBlogwatch, we ponder #Arup’s corporate governance. At @TechstrongGroup’s @SecurityBlvd: https://securityboulevard.com/2024/05/arup-hong-kong-deepfake-richixbw/?utm_source=richisoc&utm_medium=social&utm_content=richisoc&utm_campaign=richisoc

The Fitzrovia-based engineering group Arup has said its experience of being swindled out of £20mn after one of its financial officers fell for a deepfake video conference scam should come as a warning to others of the increasingly sophisticated techniques of fraudsters.

The fraud happened in Hong Kong and the police there originally made the announcement in February but did not reveal the identity of the firm involved.

Last week it was revealed that a member of staff at Arup in Hong Kong had received a message in January from someone pretending to be a senior financial officer of the firm in London asking the staff member to take part in a video conference and to be ready to make financial transactions.

The online conference used artificial intelligence (AI) to create a digital clone of the company’s chief financial officer and other senior officers who instructed the staff member to make 15 payments totalling around £20mn to five Hong Kong bank accounts, reported the Financial Times.

The Hong Kong worker originally suspected it was a fraud but was apparently reassured by the realism of the video conference.

Later the staff member realised it was a fraud, and Arup contacted the Hong Kong police to report the incident.

Last week the firm, which has its headquarters in Fitzroy Street, gave brief details of what had happened and said it was a lesson for others to learn from.

Rob Greig, Arup’s global chief information officer, told the FT: “I hope our experience can help raise awareness of the increasing sophistication and evolving techniques of bad actors.”.

https://fitzrovianews.com/2024/05/20/arup-warns-others-after-losing-20mn-in-deepfake-video-scam/

#AI #artificialIntelligence #Arup #crime #fraud

UK engineering firm #Arup falls victim to £20m #deepfake scam - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/17/uk-engineering-arup-deepfake-scam-hong-kong-ai-video "Hong Kong employee was duped into sending cash to criminals by AI-generated video call" whoops - lots more like this coming...

Cargo bikes – the companies & people who operate them – have very different needs for moving, charging, parking, and loading than delivery trucks.

Cargo bikes work well in active cities with leaders who support low emission zones and an improved quality of life.

To optimize #cargobikes in resilient cities, logistics planning is key. This #ARUP guide asks crucial questions about routes, road conditions, charging, parking, loading, and employee well-being.

#BikeTooter https://fietsberaad.nl/getmedia/9effb085-8f32-4c57-9681-e5fa27ce642b/2024_Handreiking-Ruimte-voor-Cargobikes.pdf.aspx?ext=.pdf

'And Feet Theatre'
#BlackAndWhitePhotography #PhotogSocial #Arup #Bovis #Amphitheatre #DarkTable

#Plant #trees in #cities to curb deadly #heatwaves says #Arup's #DimaZogheib

https://www.dezeen.com/2023/11/08/arup-dima-zogheib-neil-harwood-urban-heat-snapshot-interview/

Impulsreferat von Rudi Scheuermann, #Arup. Konzentriert sich auf Klimaanpassung vor allem in großen Städten. Das ist, sorry to say, nicht der wichtigste Punkt jetzt hier in #Graz. Wir müssen erst darüber reden, wie wir die Emissionen reduzieren, und zwar jetzt. Herr Scheuermann sagt, dass seine Firma (!) den Plan hat, den Verlust der Natur bis 2030 zu stoppen. Da verwechselt er etwas.

Sustainability titan Arup is working with developer Lendlease and Climate-KIC to co-curate a new ‘Perception of Timber’ exhibition, highlighting the benefits of building in timber.

https://www.arup.com/news-and-events/arup-lendlease-and-climate-kic-host-perception-of-timber-exhibition-at-mind

#arup #lendlease #climatekic #georgearzt #georgearztcommunications #GAC #sustainability #sustainable #sustainabledevelopment #construction #constructionmanagement #realestate #realestatedevelopment #environmental #environmentalsustainability #timber

@lloydalter See the #circular #building toolkit by #arup: first principle: build nothing! https://ce-toolkit.dhub.arup.com/framework

Getting ready for my residency with ARUP. First up is some trigonometry to figure out the angles in their speaker array (which is XYZ). I am really really bad at this :( #ARUP #CreateNSW #ambisonics

Just outed myself as a dinosaur on #WorldGISday having first used ARC/INFO - do so little more it was nice to do some open mapping for missing maps with #Arup

Arup’s highest timber-hybrid tower block in the Netherlands is completed

#architecture #architectureinthenetherlands #arup #residentialarchitectureandinteriors

david chipperfield designs oval shaped stadium for milan’s winter olympics

#architecture #architectureinitaly #arup #davidchipperfieldarchitects #stadiumarchitectureanddesign

BIG unveils plans for new tech neighborhood in central europe

#architecture #architectureinslovakia #arup #bjarkeingelsgroupbig

Unism reveals underground car showroom designed as a "secret cave-like space"

Dezeen Promotion: car brand KDW Automobile has unveiled an underground showroom in Warsaw, created by architectural studio Unism in collaboration with Arup to hold eight Aston Martins – the largest private collection in eastern Europe.

Named The Secret Cave, Unism's design is longlisted for visualisation of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2021, and is described as a "high-tech underground lair for an extraordinary classic car collection".

Similar to a showroom, the private collection of vintage cars take part in races around Europe. Yet, like a museum, the public will be able to book tickets to view the collection in its subterranean home.

The building is designed to be a subterranean cinematic experience that references the garages seen in the James Bond films

Inside, the showroom features curved concrete walls, designed to create a cinematic space that references the high-tech car garages seen in the classic James Bond films.

"The final proposal accentuates the utopian experience of a secret cave-like space seen in many James Bond movies," said Unism. "The concept emphasises the topic of undiscovered commonly seen in many spy movies."

The showroom's rooftop is equipped with a three-metre-wide skylight to ensure daylight enters the building.

The skylight also highlights the showroom's organic, cave-like shape. A subtle lighting scheme was designed to create a "dusk-like glow," which the studio says enhances the visitor experience.

Unism designed the geometry of the entrance (stairs, ramps, shell enclosure) parametrically in order to meet building regulations and the turning radius of vintage cars

Located under a grassy mound in Warsaw, The Secret Cave is accessed via a winding ramp.

"The column-free space hidden beneath the landscape protrudes over the surface, creating a green mound in the garden while the writhing ramp seamlessly vanishes underground," said Unism.

The showroom is heated by a sustainable water retention and pump system that collects geothermal energy. Unism and Arup identified that as the site is close to a river, it is an ideal place to make use of geothermal energy.

A lift with a green roof is designed to seamlessly blend with the garden

According to Unism, the thermal mass of the soil lowers the museum's energy consumption and maintains appropriate temperature and humidity levels for vintage cars.

The studio believes that the future of architecture is to utilise underground space.

"In the past, people had to have a knowledge of topography to plan their homes," explains Unism. "We want to go away from a modernist approach of universal design detached from nature."

By placing building underground, Unism created a park which blended with the surrounding environment

According to the studio, the site was challenging to work with due to its terrain, location next to a river and small construction plot.

To combat the topography, Unism and Arup used parametric design methods to inform the showroom's complex geometries while working within the small construction site.

Parametric design principles ensured optimal layout with maximum car parking and column-free spaces

Specifically, parametric design methods were used to ensure the ramp met building regulations and the parameters of the vintage cars.

It was also used to ensure optimal layout with maximum car parking and column-free spaces while also ensuring that the skylight's diameter and weight allowed enough light to illuminate the space.

"Through real-time form-finding processes, we created and analysed various design options and their parameters," explains Unism. "Including the most optimal column-free layout, the curvature of the beams and shell."

"This ensured the stability of the structure while calculating the size of skylight window necessary to make daylight the primary source of lighting in the underground showroom."

To read more about The Secret Cave, visit Unism's website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Unism as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership contenthere.

The post Unism reveals underground car showroom designed as a "secret cave-like space" appeared first on Dezeen.

#all #design #promotions #cars #arup #astonmartin

Esperance Bridge creates new walking route into London's Coal Drops Yard

Moxon Architects has teamed up with engineering firm Arup to install a bright red bridge across Regent's Canal in London, forming a new route into the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Coal Drops Yard.

Esperance Bridge is a pedestrian-only crossing, positioned to line up with the natural walking route from King's Cross and St Pancras stations towards Granary Square and areas to the north.

Esperance Bridge creates a more direct route into Coal Drops Yard

It boasts a folded truss form, designed by Moxon Architects and Arup to reference an old railway bridge installed in this exact location in the early 19th century.

The bridge is one of three river crossings that featured in the original masterplan for the Coal Drops Yard shopping complex, which opened in 2018.

Three years later, it becomes the last of the trio to be installed. The first was the wide road bridge – now also pedestrianised – at the southeast corner of Granary Square, while the second was Somers Town Bridge, a pedestrian crossing heading west towards the Camley Street nature reserve.

The bridge features a folded truss form

Robert Evans, CEO of the King's Cross development, described Esperance Bridge as "one of the final pieces of the public realm jigsaw".

"There was bit of debate internally about whether the third bridge would be required," he told Dezeen, "but to my mind, it was always a bit of a no-brainer."

It is designed as a pedestrian-only crossing

"With areas opening up to the north and west of Coal Drops Yard and new occupiers moving in, there is a really natural desire line to come down to Granary Square and track over a new bridge that leads you down towards the station," he continued.

"It took us a while to get to it, but we're really proud to have done it."

The structure is made from carbon steel, painted red

Having previously developed a simple, elegant design for the steel-plate Somers Town Bridge, the Moxon Architects and Arup team wanted to make more of a statement with Esperance Bridge.

The bridge's smooth truss form is created with folded ribbons of carbon steel, a material that gives the structure increased strength.

Manufactured by specialist steelwork fabricator SH Structures, the bridge is painted red to help it stand out. There is also integrated lighting designed by Studio 29.

The bridge sits in the same position as another that was on the site previously

"Inspired by the area's industrial heritage, the bridge's articulation is expressive and sculptural," said Ben Addy, founder of Moxon Architects.

"We're even making use of the existing remnants of foundations, of the utilitarian crossbridge that was there before," he revealed. "So we're actually recycling structure too."

It is integrated with lighting designed by Studio 29

Esperance Bridge opened to the public in July, shortly after the unveiling of Adam Nathaniel Furman's Proud Little Pyramid, an installation designed to celebrate the reopening of King's Cross following coronavirus lockdown.

While Covid-19 inevitably had an impact on the businesses in and around Coal Drops Yard, Evans said that the area had not completely suffered in this period. He observed that it became a popular destination for exercise, dog walking and coffee meet-ups during the pandemic.

Esperance Bridge is one of three river crossings in the Coal Drops Yard area

Evans attributed this success to the quality of the outdoors spaces on offer and hopes to continue to build on it going forward.

"The quality of the public realm has become even more essential post-Covid," he said. "If people are going to be attracted to come back into central London, we need to offer them ease of connection, and variety and choice in the environment."

He believes the bridge will bring more people into Coal Drops Yard and help to improve the overall experience.

The space beside it hosts outdoor cinema screenings

"It isn't really about how many people use the bridge," he said, "it's about the quality of the experience."

"People like to arrive somewhere where this is more than one route to explore. That's why well-connected places perform better."

Aerial photography is byJohn Sturrock. All other photography is by Simon Kennedy.

The post Esperance Bridge creates new walking route into London's Coal Drops Yard appeared first on Dezeen.

#all #architecture #infrastructure #london #uk #kingscross #england #bridges #arup #moxonarchitects #coaldropsyard