The new building will rise out of the park on approach with an undulating profile, making it instantly recognisable and a striking and iconic gateway to Liverpool.

Central to our idea was ensuring that the majority of rooms (whether for children or staff) enjoy park views and that gardens and terraces are equally accessible to all.

Three open fingers radiate out from the atrium concourse, the distinctive entrance space, that forms the hospital’s public hub.

Waitrose in Bracknell has won a BREEAM Award achieving the highest scoring assessment in retail category. The winners represent the leading examples of construction projects assessed and certified, each demonstrating an holistic approach to the environmental aspects of its specification, design and construction. 2012 was a record year for BREEAM registrations and certifications.

Since 1998 BREEAM has certified more than 16,000 projects, equating to over 250,000 buildings.

BDP has appointed a new chief executive. The role is re-elected by BDP's board of directors every two years and Peter Drummond, who has been in the post since October 2004, made the decision to pass the baton on, and not seek re-election.

John McManus will be the next chief executive. He will be the first architect to become chief executive of BDP when he takes up the role on 1 January 2014.

John is based in Glasgow and will take responsibility for all the day to day operations of BDP.

John studied at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and joined BDP in 1985. He currently leads the Glasgow studio and has led design teams on major commissions within all of BDP’s key sectors both in the UK and internationally.

Under Peter’s leadership BDP has gone from being a UK based practice to a major international design organisation with six international studios and current projects in 37 countries. Peter Drummond will become chair of the south region, taking overall responsibility for all operational aspects of the London and Bristol studios.

When: Thursday 6th March
8.00 – 10.00

Where: BDP, 11 Ducie Street, Piccadilly Basin, Manchester
M1 2JB

Manchester studio head, Gavin Elliott, will chair a CityCo event on the art of placemaking in BDP’s Manchester studio.

After refreshments and a welcome introduction Peter Swift, Planit Intelligent Environments, will talk about placemaking strategy on a range of transformational projects in the north west.

Andrew Erskine, Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy, will focus on innovation and the creative economy and David Partridge, Argent, will discuss the regeneration of King’s Cross in London, the largest urban redevelopment in Europe.

There will be a Q&A session after the presentations, providing an opportunity to discuss further how cities can be transformed through intelligent placemaking and the use of public space.

A team including BDP’s architects and landscape architects has been shortlisted in the competition to design the UK pavilion for the Milan Expo in 2015. The team is led by international artist Wolfgang Buttress and also includes Slow Food UK, Martin Dewey, Tristan Simmonds Studio, Clear Consultants, Professor Rudi Klein and Fleet River Music.

Landscape architect James Millington who is part of the team said: “We are thrilled to have been invited to team up with the internationally acclaimed artist Wolfgang Buttress for this

extremely exciting and challenging project. The working title for the UK pavilion is ‘Grown in Britain: Shared Globally’ which offers a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase our creative skills and help blend art and architecture to form something really special that would be seen by an expected 20 million visitors.”

The team is one of eight selected by UKTI to develop concept designs to be presented to the jury in April with the winning team announced in May.