Diminished dimensional wonder
A small rural town in Scotland has a claim to fame for a piece of unusual architecture. The Star Hotel at Moffat, in the southern region of Dumfries and Galloway, holds the record for the narrowest detached hotel in the world - it is a mere 20 feet (6.1 metres) wide!

But what the hotel lacks in width, it more than makes up for in height, standing five storeys high and making it one of the tallest buildings in the town’s High Street.

A certificate in the hallway of the family-run hotel from the Guinness Book of Records testifies to its status as the world’s narrowest hotel. Walking down the slender hall, one comes to a long room with a bar in the rear. The bar backs onto a further public bar at the far end, a full 165 feet (50 metres) from the front of the building.

Standing outside on the front steps and looking right, one can see across to Syme Street, the narrowest street in Scotland. And just around the corner is Chapel Street, said to be the shortest street in the country.

The Star Hotel dates from the late 1700s, when Moffat was a booming spa town. Tim Leighfield, whose family has run the business since 1985, says, “We think the hotel was built this narrow as there was a tax on building frontage at the time.”

Leighfield told The Scotsman newspaper that they get ‘loads’ of visitors at the hotel. “They all want to see the bedrooms, expecting them to be tiny, and they all look so disappointed when they see they are quite normal!” Moffat came to prominence as a spa town from the 18th century until the Victorian era, and is still popular as a holiday destination. The rise in demand for accommodation meant that the town could support several inns, including the Star Hotel from the late 1700s when it was built.

Making stadia design look easy
A week is a short time to design a sustainable sports park and stadium, but that is what young pupils of Bristol (south-west England) tackled recently.They attended a summer school run by the University of Bristol’s Civil Engineering department, in collaboration with two regional science centres.

‘Beyond Brunel Summer School: Creative Design for the Future’ took the great British 19th century engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel - who built steamships, railways and bridges - as its inspiration. Its brief this time, though, belonged to the 21st century: to design a sustainable sports park and stadium for the first International Schools Athletics Championships to be held in Bristol in 2010.

Five teams of youngsters from different schools in the city took part, and through hands-on activities they explored the roles of civil engineers, architects and environmental designers and planners. They learned about the basic structural and architectural concepts involved in designing a stadium, as well as the environmental, social and economic factors in creating a sports park to regenerate an inner city area.Professor Colin Taylor, Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at Bristol University, said he hoped those taking part would have “an exciting and stimulating experience. It’s a great opportunity for them to appreciate that civil engineering is an interesting, creative and rewarding career.”

During the week-long summer school, the student teams produced architectural computer-designed images of their stadia using cutting-edge architectural software, and made physical 3-D models. They also put together plans and models of the sports park.The most important things they had to remember, architecturally, when designing the stadium was that spectators should be able to see all parts of the track and field; that the roof must protect the spectators from the weather; that the grass in the stadium must receive sunlight to grow properly; and that the roof should look as attractive as possible. In engineering terms, the teams had to remember that the roof was capable withstanding heavy snow; that it must not blow off in the wind; and that it should have a number of strong points for supporting large speakers and lights. At the end of the week, all the teams submitted their proposed designs to a panel of expert judges, who decided that the John Cabot City Technology College was the team with the best overall design. Other prizes were awarded for the best sustainable design, the best architectural design, and the best structural model.Prizes to the winners, which were sponsored by leading international engineering consultants, included laptop computers and digital cameras.