V2 World

V2 World. No not a fun park devoted to the notorious WW2 Nazi Rocket but an innovative housing design from Uncle Sam. V2 World is a company dedicated to environmentally respectful residential & commercial spaces that are efficient and repetativeutilizing prefabrication techniques on a steel framing system. This system can be stacked 4-high and suited to any configuration. Don't take our word for it visit them here http://www.v2world.net/index_main.html
Other information at the Contact magazine website http://www.contact-mag.com/issue4/feature1.htm

An old roof-top extension in Broadstairs.

Noticed this today as I parked up in Broadstairs. Quite old but the roof-top has had an extension during it past. The windows need replacing, but an early innovative idea again in my neighbourhood.

More local roof top designs!

Out for a cycle ride today and I noticed this on top of an apartment block in the Palm Bay area of Margate. It reminds me a bit of the 'Hut on a Roof' in Clerkenwell by Hut Architecture http://www.hutarchitecture.com/ except I suspect that this one has come from Home Base or some such hardware store!

Deputy PM, is he, isn't he?

From today's Daily Mirror....no doubt in other papers too, we learn of the concern that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott may have a conflict of interest since his son Johnathan Prescott runs a company by the name of Estate Partnerships. Estate Partnerships is paid by property firms to identify strategic land whose value would soar if the Government grants planning permission. Now you either believe that John Prescott as Deputy PM has the highest of integrity and is no way involved in assisting his son or he's nodding and winking his son all the way to the bank. Whatever the truth of the matter in some European countries no one would give this a second thought much the same as no one does when a MP is generally rumoured to be running a mistress off somewhere. The fact remains however that in the UK we're not too keen on that kind of behavior and integrity is the cornerstone of officaldom. I am suprised this hasn't been reported on sooner as it is well known that the DPM's son is involved in the identification of land for development and the Deputy PM has errr been at the forefront of pushing through revised planning laws to ensure housing targets are met! Read the story here:
Daily Mirror

New out of Old in Margate.

As per roof-top development in the entry below this, on the same stroll I noticed this redevelopment in Margate 'Old Town' area. This looks a bit special and I like the decorative touch on top of the building. Note the urban edge offered by local graffiti artists on the derelict building next door!

Roof Top

Strolling in my neighbourhood today I spotted some trad-build development going on above the offices of a local Real Estate Office, Clarke & Critten. I don't know if this is going to be an apartment or more office space. Interesting to see as I see a lot of commercial single storey premises that could go upwards, not really Penthouse stuff but making good use of roof-top space.

2nd Life

Maybe I'm just getting old or something but am intrigued by the real estate market in 2nd Life. 2nd Life is an online society in a 3D world, users explore, build, socialize, and participate in the online economy. This online world has a functioning world cash economy with one US Dollar equating to 250 Linden Dollars. Exchange can be made via Paypal and back again into US $.
Thousands of players have made real world money out of their Second Life businesses which include virtual clothes design, vehicle production etc. (I wonder if there is a virtual tax collector).
There are currently around 200,000 players who regularly meet or run virtual businesses, anything that involves interaction! The mind boggles! A gamer in the Entropia Universe, another virtual community, also made headlines and the record books, when a virtual space station was sold for $100,000 (£56,200).
Well, whilst ploughing through Ebay I found this. A Cornish Conversion, this former stone barn complex comes complete with scripted curtains (controllable by several dimmer switches), scripted locable doors, stone fireplace and chimney, fully fitted kitchen and even a huge mod/copy furniture pack. £7.65. I'll be mortgage free if I move in!

Prefab 50s Gas Station on Ebay

A bit different this. Modular prefabricated 1950s Ashland Oil Gas Station has just sold for $5000 US on Ebay. Looks like the seller has other stuff too. That station will make an excellent feature for a bar or somesuch. Look here: Ebay-Gas Station

Air Rights

Here is a brief explanation about Air-Rights on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_rights

Bridges and man-made islands.

BRIDGE LINK & ISLANDS FROM SHEERNESS
TO SHOEBURYNESS.

From Estates Gazette of the 29th July the following story appears. Now the reason I put this in is because I live in a place called Thanet. For all I know you might be reading this in Shanghai so a quick bit of Geography. Thanet was an island around a thousand years a go split from the mainland (England) by a channel similar to that which seperates an island called Sheppey about 40 miles west of us off the North Kent coast in south-east England. On the Isle of Sheppey is a place called Sheerness. Across the Thames Estuary, heading north is the county of Essex and another place called Shoeburyness. To get from East Kent (Thanet) (where I live) to Essex is at present a pain as it means heading into the outskirts of London and crossing via a tunnel at Dartford.

So from Estates Gazette we learn that 'Plans for a new national park, a river crossing and new towns built on man-made islands on the Thames that "tie in with future climate issues" will be presented to the government by Sir Terry Farrell next month. The plans include an ambitious 5.6-mile river crossing between Sheerness in Kent and Shoeburyness in Essex, and islands that will be developed as mixed-use communities. Eugene Dreyer, urban design director at Terry Farrell & Partners, said"It ties in with ways of coping with future climate issues. Projects on this scale cost several billion pounds. Prising that out of the Treasury would be difficult, so we add an economic benefit - namely development on the islands." Earlier this year Farrell formed a consortium with Experian, HBOS, Battle McCarthy, Scott Wilson, the Future Foundation and EC Harris.

Taken from Estates Gazette. http://www.egi.co.uk & http://www.terryfarrell.co.uk

Commercial Property Course

'The 7-Secrets of Commercial Property Success' is a 194 page course manual with Free software and audio CD authored by Don James. This manual is one of those rare opportunities for the small business investor to see how investment in commercial property works. Forget what you have learnt about residential buy to let, you will make mistakes if you apply the same rules. Commercial property is a must have now in any property portfolio and is as far as we can see a better money spinner now that BTL is. Click here:

From the web blog http://www.shimonsandler.com/?p=126
we learn care of Avi Wilensky who contacted Shimon Sandler that Google has released: Google Real Estate. We are unsure whether this is it's official name. If you do a search for 'real estate', 'homes for sale', or 'apartments for rent' a new option appears as pictured. A better view is available on Shimon's web blog (link above). Begs the question as one commentator puts it:
Google Real Estate is in direct conflict to and competitive to real estate advertisers in AdWords of which we are one. If you are going to compete with advertisers we will have to discontinue paying you to steal our customers…
That sure is a serious point! I wonder if Rightmove know about this? They must, surely?

Line of Site

I wish I could have bought this to you sooner. The Line of Site competition

from their website at http://www.lineofsite.info/

'Open to architects, architectural technicians, students, designers and engineers, each brief offers you the opportunity to stretch your creative mind to the full. The buildings, of course, are not going to be built - the aim is to see what you think is possible....'

Two of the briefs are now closed but the London one remains. Time to get creative!

Water is the New Land?

Whilst our key phrase at UK Land Solutions (aka Plotwant) is 'Air is the new Land' in our efforts to source Roof Top real estate, perhaps the next saying should be 'Water is the new Land!' It may well be if Koen Olthuis, a notable architect and one who is making waves in the new field of Maritime Architecture has his way! Olthuis' company is not merely interested in individual homes, they want it all, they want to produce entire settlements. Linked together this should not cause any particular problem and the idea behind it is to deal with lowlands which will become subject to flooding with global warming, the high volumes of rain we seem more and more to be subject to between hot months of weather and doubtless the lack of land available for development.

Read more about this topic here:


http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=26138_0_24_0_C
http://www.dutchdocklands.com/
http://www.waterstudio.nl/