Posts in Category: Places

Locking down: March to August 2020

COVID 19, Sketchbook 62

This sketchbook was all about lockdown one and the easing we had after it. I stopped updating sandysdrawingroom during that time: there was a lot on I think, and the website stopped working. I’ve fixed that, and for the sake of continuity I’ll add them all here. I’m writing this in October 21, now on sketchbook 67, so there’s a lot to catch up on.

The sketch above is on Leith Walk, a couple of days before lockdown one was announced. I’d just been on the phone to my partners discussing what might happen and looking at the sketch brings back all the feelings of uncertainty.

The next day: people are working from home and the pubs are shut.

24th March. The remaining food rescued from the HTA fridge and the first day in fifty years that HTA hadn’t made lunch for everyone who was in the office.

Time to get used to working from home: straightforward enough as it turned out. The sketch shows our first go at producing face shields for the NHS, the government having found itself short of suitable PPE. Eventually this grew into quite a collaborative effort and my colleague Richard Foxley won the British Empire Medal for his work.
Time to be at home. There was a lot less time than I’d imagined, but the weather was fantastic and I broke the days up sketching the following from my surroundings.
Paying attention to the garden, in this case one of the rocks that sits to the north of the house.
The sketch below is annotated to show where the above plants are located in my garden.
It was a period of being outdoors when ever possible.
Fixing the bike.
Eventually we were allowed some visitors again, outside.

In the house, it was like this:

My workspace.
The hall.
The garage.
Hanging out with the family. We were aware that we were lucky to have company.
Fraser
Isla
Julie
Julie
The boys doing Scouts and Cubs on line.
Isla, in a mask our neighbours were nice enough to make for us.
The new way to visit the shops.
Lots of time working at home, and drinking coffee.
Keeping up with colleagues online.
The end of the day. After a while we were allowed out again. I’ll cover that in the next one.

Sketchbook 60

January to early March 2020

These are my sketches from the period before the COVID 19 lockdown.

Not a sketch, but a portrait of Architect Richard Murphy. Richard kindly helped me raise sponsorship for children’s charity Coram, who I’ve cycled from London to Cannes in aid of every March for the last five years. I finished it in early March. I didn’t do the cycle, of course.
Things looked pretty normal at the start of the year: here’s Innes watching TV on 02/01/20.
Time for all the usual stuff: a trip to Melrose.
The ususal sketches of commuters…
…family members…
….work colleagues….
… and an epidemiologist. I was about to hear a lot more from them.
Sketches from a trip to Dublin.
A talk about saving the planet, rather than simply ourselves.
Haircuts for the kids.
Kids parties and presents.
A crowd. 4th February, crowds were perfectly normal then.
This sketch, from 16th March, is when I (finally) realised it was all going to change. I was trying to be colourful about it.
An ominous sketch of the house, where I was about to spend the next few months. That’s in the next book, which for some reason I haven’t got round to scanning despite all the extra time people imagined lockdown would bring.

Sketchbook No 59

November/ December 2019

November is charity art auction time with Article 25. I sold one in the auction and bought one too.

Flying to London for the auction.
The painting I sold. It’s of a building on Blackwall Basin that we are designing for The Canary Wharf Group.
The auction.
Sticking with the art, we ran a life drawing class in the London office.
We us the board room for the life drawing. It’s normally in use for meetings, and, if you’re careful, you can spend some time drawing fellow partners.
Some design team members, elsewhere.
Innes getting ready for training at Spartans, one of a number of excellent local community football set ups.
His sister at home.
I drew the people either side, Isla filled in the middle.
Commuters
Mostly the commuters are in London.
All the people on the train….
I think I’ve drawn some of them before.
A trip to Dublin
Edinburgh travelers on their way to the London Christmas Party.
The London Christmas Party
The fire station being refurbished on Macdonald Road.
The Clockhouse in the former Greenwich Dockyard. Henry VIII built his ship here but you’d never know.
Twelve Triangles cafe, off Leith Walk.
A tuesday Talk on Gender Equality in Public Space.
Another on Mikhail Riches outstanding Stirling Prize winning homes in Norwich.
Grumpy on Christmas Day.

Sketchbook 58 September ’19

Craig Jones Rowley
Craig Jones Rowley making lunch at HTA Design in Edinburgh. The sketch ended up in a cook book we’ve made that celebrates our culture, our work, and the food we’ve being feeding everyone for 50 years.
This is the London office lunch queue.
Some drawings of the family. This is Michael, or ‘Grumpy’ as the kids know him.
Julie
Isla sitting in a box
In the livingroom
Watching the kids skiing at Hillend.
I cooked 50 burgers for the kids, undercooked a couple for the adults.
I went to Knockhill to watch Michael Crees.
Local man Rory Butcher won.
Nic Hamilton’s Ford Focus being prepared for the final race.
Speaking in Glasgow City Chambers to an interesting audience of German and Scottish construction professionals. I was talking about off site manufacture, and how it’s changing everything.
I learned some basic first aid with the Scouts. One of those things where you wonder why you didn’t learn it years ago.
With HTA Sketchclub in Leith. We sketched a few things: I liked this SuHuHa project and it’s proximity to different neighbours.
Ben handing over his RIBA Presidency to Alan Jones after an excellent two years.
Listening to Phil Jupitus interview David Mach.
Getting the bike out around Perthshire with Balfour Beatty and our hosts Synergy Cycles.
The HTA team round the coffee point. A good spot to catch up on wha’s happening.

Sketchbook 57 – July 2019

In Leiria with Eva and her family.

Making paper by hand in a mill refurbished by Alvaro Siza.

Grandad’s house….

Jose, from the Leiria urban sketchers.



In Lisbon, and on the beach in Estoril. The water is three degrees cooler than off the Hebrides.

Our flat, and a lady on a train. she came and sat next to me so I hid the drawing.

Isla on the train.

Fraser on the train.

Lunching

Dunfallandy House in Pitlochry, with the family.

Andreas on the piano stool.

Steven building a rocket, Gran doing the crossword.

Pitlochry dam. It’s the fifth time we use get power from the same water and the least effective, but it’s impressive to look at.

In London, in Caroline’s garden.

In Edinburgh, in Matt & Mina’s garden.

On the train

Ronni & Lewis at the Edinburgh Festival

Sketching St Philip’s Church, recovering from the office summer social

May 2019 – Sketchbook 56

In my tent, ready to get up and tackle day three of this camp.

Day three is the last day, and it begins round the flag pole.

I’ve been helping some Cubs and Scouts get their art badge.

It’s a team effort, well organised by Dylan with the support of many D’Mains volunteers.

Travelling.

At Glasgow School of Art, looking at what Hilmi and Mo have been up to.

The project work is great. I like looking closely at the buildings around us too. This is just round the corner from the Edinburgh office.

It’s a warehouse: a well designed bay is repeated and some parts are elaborated, some played down.

Beautiful and unconventional urban design in Edinburgh at Shaw Street.

With some of out HTA Design team winning the “Clients’ Choice” Award at the AJ100 Awards.

Eating with Rettie at the Scottish Homes Awards, and talking about the prospects for Build to Rent in Scotland.

Working on Build to Rent with the Edinburgh Park Design team.

The project is for Parabola. Here it is being reviewed by Architecture & Design Scotland.

Travelling

Travelling, and dinner with the helpful Specifi team in Edinburgh.

Travelling.

An LSE talk on peoples’ attitudes to living at high density.

At home: Fraser & Innes playing on my phone between football and swimming lessons.

 

 

Music, Design & Travel – Sketchbook 54

The sketches are (pretty much) all on Instagram now at @sandysdrawingroom so I’m not posting them here so much. I like the immediacy of Instagram: draw them, photograph them post them. Quick. Here are some of the drawings from my 54th concertina sketchbook. Music at a fundraising dinner in the Grange Cricket Club.

Nice dinner, better music.

Members of the Royal High Pipe Band.

Discussing design at a Planning Appeal Hearing.

Discussing design with partners and staff at HTA. We review our projects in every Monday afternoon. Over the course of a few weeks we try to get round them all.The other guy is on a train. I love drawing people on trains now.

The passengers are captivated by their phones and don’t seem to notice. I miss out everything except the person to try and draw them more accurately.

Ali Germain on his way to the HTA Christmas party in London.

Isla

Innes and Fraser

Innes (?)

Some training with the Scouts.

And a great night watching Deacon Blue’s 30th Anniversary Tour, 31 years after I last saw them. Loved it.

 

September to November 2018

Drawings of people I know and people I don’t.

The London Underground is a pretty unpleasant place: too busy and too hot from from April to October. I avoid it when I can but you can’t use a Boris bike for every trip so to pass the time I’ve plucked up the courage to draw people i don’t know who’re sitting four feet away.

They get off, of course, so I’m quite often left with incomplete faces, but I quite like that anyway.

No negative reaction from any of the subjects so far.

Drawing people I know is more straightforward.

Innes waiting for Fraser to finish swimming.

Fraser & Innes watching football on Tv & Ipad.

My niece Anna.

Julie in Heathrow. Easier to draw people at events.

Watching the Proclaimers in London.

My mum, and others, celebrating 40 years since she became minister in Townhill Parish Church.

The traditional church hall cup of tea afterwards.

Peter Murray & Richard Rogers introducing the NLA’s exhibition on offsite manufacture in construction, which features a number of our projects.

The Cubs doing a craft project at their camp.

Kenneth Williamson guiding us through an illuminating talk on Edinburgh’s suburban railways. I live right on top of one, so i’m very interested.

At the RIBA Stirling Prize in the Roundhouse in Camden.

Fraser, Isla and Innes at the Armistice Memorial.

The kids watching the fireworks next door.

Listening to a moving talk from Hannah Graf, the UK’s highest ranking transgender army officer.

At Coram, for the launch of Cycle to Mipim 2019.

And finally, a small number of drawings focused on buildings, rather than people. This is Market Street with HTA Sketch Club.

Ludgate Hill in London.

At Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, a really beautiful place.

 

 

Performance

glasses on the tube august 18On the tube, I sat opposite this chap with his one legged glasses. He was reading Oliver Twist and making hurried notes. In his black tie and black suit I imagined he was off to a funeral, to give an address.

eugene sept 18

Eugene has told me a story or two. He’s on the streets and he’s had what I think you a call a chequered past.

circolombia august 2018It was a summer of performances and this was the highlight: CirColumbia at the Edinburgh Festival. Great fun to draw.

rambol fireworks august 2018The festival closing fireworks from Ramboll’s fifth floor Princes Street office were spectacular.

hearts august 2018A table topping performance from Hearts.

canela 3 sept 2018Watching food being prepared; a bit of a show.

17 august 18 Scott grantIt’s the end of the summer, so there’s quite a high turnover in the office. The students go back to uni and the next lot arrive.

douglas mcgowan august 2018I took Dougie down to Derby and wore him out.

Talton House – August 2018

Talton House August 2018

Talton House in the Cotswolds with my mum, my three sisters and all our families. Busy, but 2018’s weather meant life was mostly lived outside in the garden.

Catriona & Marc on the sofa 9 August 2018Some time with the people I’ve known the longest.

Hidcote 7 August 2018Gardens were the theme of the week. Hidcote.

Compton Verny 9 August 2018Compton Verney. 

Compton Verny 9 August 2018-2The kids drawing on the wall. That was allowed.

RSC for afternoon tea 10 August 2018In Stratford-upon-Avon with the family. Isla says none of these people look anything like themselves.

Isla in Stratford 6 august 2018But that this is  much worse.

travelIn between times I did some travelling.

Malawi Kev - July 2018And we started a competition to design some accommodation for a school in Malawi. Without safe accommodation many of the kids, particularly the girls, don’t make it through school. Education is a route out of poverty so we’d like to help. Deadline mid October, winner goes to Malawi to help build it.