End of stamp duty holiday encourages first time buyers. UK in recession as economy slides. The UK is now in recession for the first time since 1991, official government figures have confirmed.
Gross domestic product fell by 1.5% in the last three months of 2008 after a 0.6% drop in the previous quarter. That means that the widely accepted definition of a recession - two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth - has been met. It represents the biggest quarter-on-quarter decline since 1980, and a 1.8% fall on the same quarter a year ago. The worse-than-expected contraction sent sterling to a 24-year low against the dollar, with one pound buying $1.355. Meanwhile the FTSE 100 index fell almost 2%, below 4,000 points. 'Broad-based decline' The figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed that manufacturing made the largest contribution to the slowdown, contracting by 4.6% despite hopes that the weak pound would help exporters. With the exception of agriculture, all elements of the economy shrank from the previous three months, the ONS added. 'Sad commentary' Wolfgang tillman, at hammer museum, los angeles & hirshhorn museum, washington D.C.
Richard Wentworth - Lisson Gallery. Thomas Demand: photographs. Nigel Shafran - 5 of 13 - Charity shops / Car-boot sales / Market stalls [2001/2] How I built my house for £4,000 - Green Living - Environment. James is passionate about eco homes and deeply proud of the cottage, which huddles by a loch near Dumfries.
His kitchen is made from a cedar that blew over in a Glasgow park. His sink came from a skip. To one side is a Moroccan marbled shower room, to the other are sofas and a log-burning stove. He sleeps in a galleried bedroom. A compost loo and rainwater filtration system complete the picture. The total cost: £4,000. His home is strong, warm and utterly watertight. James, 52, a software engineer, took 10 months to build his house, finishing it in November last year. The benefits run much deeper than simply wanting to save cash and the planet. Straw bales can be used to make all kinds of buildings. But it's not hard to do it yourself, he says. Steve James's website is at www.envisioneer.net 1. I made a solid, 2ft-high base from rocks. 2. You need a wooden frame on which to lay your flooring and build the walls. 3. 4. I used 200 oat-straw bales to make my house. 5. Anne Hardy - Building.
Anne Hardy. 1970 Born in United Kingdom Lives and works in London 2011 Federica Schiavo Gallery, Rome, Italy 2009 Maureen Paley, London, UK 2008 Bellwether Gallery, New York 2006 Maureen Paley, London 2005 ArtSway, Sway, UK 2004 Laing Solo, Laing Gallery, Newcastle Interior Landscapes, Quicksilver Galerie, Berlin, Germany 2010 Party, The New Art Gallery, Walsall The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place, 176 / Zabludowicz Collection, London 2008 Untitled (Vicarious): Photographing the Constructed Object, Gagosian, New York, US Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK (c) Greetings from Thingland, Friends of Helsinki Biennale, Helsinki Biennale, Helsinki Design Museum, Finland New Photography in Britain, Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy A Stain Upon The Silence, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, UK The Brotherhood of Subterranea, Kunstbunker, Nuremberg, Germany.
