星空传媒

Season鈥檚 greetings

鈥淣ew kid on the block, The July, set to tear up the rulebook in London this summer bringing its soulful, design-led spaces for work, play, and everything in between to the heart of Victoria.鈥� It鈥檚 a hotel that actually launches in London in June. Anyway, it鈥檚 been designed by the brand鈥檚 in-house design team and a London interior and design studio called Fettle. But why is it called The July? Allow the blurb to explain. 鈥淭he July is inspired by the transformative energy of the month itself 鈥� a time when the shift from work to play occurs, embracing freedom and spontaneity.鈥� Who knew?

A mysterious portal

Apparently, the Minecraft Movie 鈥� the film that millions of parents were forced to endure over the Easter holidays 鈥� has inspired an upsurge in people wanting to be builders, architects and designers. There has been a near 150% increase in searches for 鈥渃onstruction career鈥�. Good to know, then, that for many the one hour and 40 minutes spent watching it wasn鈥檛 entirely in vain.

星空传媒鈥檚 journo thought he would have to keep his support of Liverpool quiet but it turned out nobody else around the site cared much for City either

Fans united

My hack was up in east Manchester last month poking his nose round the Etihad construction site. It happened to be a big day for the Blues, with the stage set for a crucial Premier League clash with Aston Villa. 星空传媒鈥檚 journo thought he would have to keep his support of Liverpool on the quiet but it turned out nobody else around the site cared much for City either. The contractor鈥檚 comms man was a United supporter, while a rather senior figure in the club itself turned out to be a Villa fan. City still managed to win though, 2-1.

Fatal attraction

The 星空传媒 team were intrigued to hear about Mace operations director Steve Hawthorne鈥檚 budding side gig as a stand-up comedian. Steve made his on-stage debut at a comedy club in the West End in March, drawing a rapturous response from the audience with a series of self-deprecating gags about his life as a single man. My personal highlight: 鈥淢y hobby is metal detecting. I鈥檝e been doing it for five and a half years now. And coincidentally I鈥檝e been single for five and a half years.鈥�  I did chortle.

Lost in translation

Here鈥檚 a little peek behind the curtain of 星空传媒鈥檚 sister title 星空传媒 Design for readers. BD鈥檚 recent interview with this year鈥檚 RIBA Gold Medal winners, Japanese practice Sanaa, came very close to disaster. Our hack had not been forewarned that Sanaa鈥檚 two co-founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa did not speak a word of English. 鈥淒on鈥檛 worry, we have a translator,鈥� he was told. The translator did not speak a word of Japanese, it quickly transpired. Naturally it was also the hottest day of the year so far and in an attempt to air out the oven-like room RIBA had opened all the windows, adding a deafening roar of road noise into the mix. Heroic work from our writer to cobble a feature together given the circumstances鈥�

Fifteen minutes of flame

Architects may be pleased to hear that the newly appointed chair of the City鈥檚 planning committee, Tom Sleigh, is a champion of beautiful design, sustainability and heritage. All sounds promising, although some readers may recognise him as the councillor who accidentally set fire to his notepad during a virtual meeting in 2020. The video of Tom battling the conflagration, caused by a botched attempt to light a candle, went viral after reports in the BBC, the Daily Mail and the Sun. Here鈥檚 hoping his time as chair of the planning committee is less heated.