Posts in Category: Places
Greece – July 2018
The Parthenon. We walked out onto the apartment balcony and there it was. The view of Europe’s most famous ruin wasn’t mentioned on Air B’n’B which made for a nice surprise.
Athens is a brilliant city. The government let villa owners develop their plots with six storey apartments and the resulting streets, built to a consistent height on lots of small land parcels, looks great I think.
To get up to the Acropolis, you queue for a ticket in the raging heat and chat to your fellow queue-ers, including sketcher Geoff. I’ve been randomly sketching for seven years and this is the first time I’d come across someone sketching me.
The Agora was the most interesting place I thought: wander through the ruins on paths once walked by Plato or Socrates.
Before Athens we stayed in Milies, on Pelion, for a wedding.
The wedding was as different as these things always are when you travel abroad for ritual you think you’ll recognise. A different culture with a different emphasis on a familiar ceremony. A lovely, friendly, welcoming experience. We love Europe, we thought.
The wedding wasn’t the only cultural shift we had to get used to: we’re too noisy at the pool…
…in the afternoon.
Still love Europe though.
Morar – April 2018
Some sketches, in chronological order (unusually).
Dragging the boys round the shops in the car, making last minute preparations for a holiday on the beautiful west coast of Scotland.
On the beach at Camusdarach making the first of many sand castles.
The local port is Mallaig.
Over the sea to Skye. Skye is home to a disproportionate number of beautiful, subtle, architect designed homes.
These two are by the inspiring Dualchas.
An uplifting community centre with a nice cafe, a cracking view and great hall. By Will Tunell. I love what a community development trust can achieve: remove the profit motive and make something great.
The train journey from Mallaig to Fort William is amongst the most scenic in the world. And very popular with Harry Potter enthusiasts. We took the (cheaper) local service.
The highlight of the trip is the Glenfinan viaduct. It looks out towards the memorial to Bonnie Prince Charlie. Arrived 22nd June 1745. Made it to Derby. Routed 16th April 1746. Back to Europe 20th September 1746.
Eigg, Rhum and Isla in the same picture.
Sailing back from Eigg.
There’s some cracking domestic architecture on the mainland too.
I do work too (though sometimes this all looks like holiday). Back home and waiting my turn to talk at a Scottish Government seminar on Build to Rent.
My sister’s brilliant fundraising book sale in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK. With excellent help she raised £1,700.
Back to the cold. Fraser and Isla sheltering from the elements at our local community football academy, Spartans.
Nairn – February 2018
Back in February: at the beautiful (and somewhat hidden) Ardclach Bell Tower. We stayed in Nairn. I loved running on the beach in the dark and the snow, then retreating back to this cosy flat to warm up.
Culloden Battlefield. The line of the Red Coats and the line of the Jacobites, in the snow. The bothy on the left was a field hospital, the battle was over in an hour. There’s not much in the sketch, but standing here and looking gave me the time to consider what had happened.
The aftermath: the impressive Fort George. The Victorian splendour of Nairn.
Back amongst the sculptural shapes of the city.
Chatting to the architects of EH4 and listening to a theory about how the spaces we make and the patterns of ownership contributes to the loneliness that afflicts society.
At the Devil’s Cut to celebrate Craig Jone’s Rowley’s 50th. Craig is trying out fifty a wee bit before me. I’ll check how he gets on, if he doesn’t like it maybe I’ll not bother.
Some folk on the tube. I used to be shy about drawing people on the tube but now I realise we are so close together that everyone is pretending there is nobody else here.
Jennie & Steven Got Married – 24 March 2018
A great ceilidh to end a lovely day celebrating Jennie & Steven’s wedding. 
Sketching the three beautiful bridges while listening to three good speeches. Family weddings are so much easier than when I last turned up at them twenty five years ago. This is mostly because I’ve decided how many cheeks to kiss and nobody asks me if it will be my turn next.
At the lovely ceremony in Dalmeny Church. The four guys in front of me are Andreas, Ruari, Marc and Douglas: three boys and their dad. As the register was signed they played a brass medley that ranged from Wild Mountain Thyme to Star Wars. It was amusing for everyone and moving for some of us, a memory of my dad. A very special event.
That was undoubtedly the main event of the last wee while, but here are a few other sketches of recent events. Above is Fraser at World of Wings. We learnt about how the vulture is really a good thing, despite the reputation. He cleans up after animals have already died and gets disease out of the eco system. I liked the red tailed buzzard as he was happy to pose for a sketch.
Watching a film about the housing crisis: dispossession. We need more subsidised housing, across the country.
My old flat.
Trying to get planning to put new homes on brownfield land, but people make it difficult so don’t expect all our housing to come through this route.
It’s not easy. You might need a barrister. He turned up with his suitcase of papers. Another reminder of my late father.
Duff House.
Some travel.
At a talk about the excellent work of architects Reiach & Hall.
Staying at the Culpeper. A London pub with five bedrooms.
A small businesses being creative and making the most of every inch of space in our cities. The opposite of bland hotels with long corridors and a smell concocted by an expert in user experience. Loved it.
London to Cannes in 6 Days – March 2018
I rode to Cannes in aid of children’s charity Coram. Our team of 4 raised £20,000 through very generous donations from friends and colleagues. Many thanks to everyone who donated. It’s a good cause: you can still donate here.
I rode the whole 900 miles, as I expected to do. I also expected to sketch the whole journey but I didn’t really get close. This is my bike in the hotel the night before.
This is the rider briefing on the morning we left. After that I hardly managed anything. Everything moves too fast and actually requires a fair bit of concentration; there’s no time left to think about sketching.
Some people eating snacks on the bus inside the train that transfers you through the tunnel. Cycle to MIPIM is a bit like I imagine the army might be: you have a job to do and people shout at you when you don’t do it, and even when you do (though there was less of that this year).
I drew some riders.
And some ride captains.
I even managed one lunch stop (but there were six).
After six days and nine hundred miles I arrived in Cannes for a good round of interesting lunches and meetings, and some parties. I enjoyed the chat and learned a fair bit, but at the back of my mind was the feeling that I need to go back, concentrate harder, cycle less, and draw the whole route.
Maybe next year.
Indoor Month – January 2018
I do go outside, you just wouldn’t know it from the drawings. New Year’s Day with the family.
Drawing in the sketching friendly Design Museum. Looking at beautiful Ferraris. Enzo Ferrari was neither a great driver or a great designer but he created the world’s most desirable brand. 
Beautiful old cars…
…and the process by which they make them. And some racing cars, Ferrari’s only form of advertising.
Fraser missing football, because it’s January and the pitch is frozen.
Isla waiting for gymnastics to start, and me waiting for Isla.
Listening to a planning committee.
I like the trend towards open kitchens and seats where you can watch someone make your dinner. They provide some entertainment for travelers eating alone. These friendly folk were in Paso.
Travelling, by tube and plane.
Some work.
Sketching is quite popular these days and the nice guys from Meinhardt invited me along to their thriving sketch club at the British Library. It was great,, but I’m looking forward to drawing outdoors again.
You Stand Watching – December 2017
The last drawing of the year, at Hugh & Murray’s house
The party is over there. I’m watching from the far side of the table.
The Kerrs watching Elizabeth II (trad).
Watching the panto-esque Arabian Nights at the Lyceum.
Fraser watching the TV football chat before going to watch the Pars beat Falkirk 2-0.
Watching Innes work through two days of Lego building.
In London, by the office, I choose to sit in the not so nice cafe in order to watch the diners in the nice one on the far side of the street.
Ruari, watching the events of a family Christmas.
That’s Entertainment – December 2017
Fiona and Paulina sleeping on the way to the HTA Design London party
Recovering the next day on the long trip home.
Earlier in the month I’d gone to Islay with the guys I began studying architecture with 30 years ago who are still architects.
We got thrown out of the pub and the police were called.
This sort of thing didn’t happen 30 years ago. That’s middle age for you.
By the time we flew home we knew just about everyone.
Recovering in London, trying to understand the detail of our new office. You don’t learn that much in 30 years.
It’s the time of year for shows: Fraser in his school Scots Night.
Brother in law and nephew excelling in panto.
A Christmas lunch or two, though this is the only one that made me cry. It raised money for charities So Precious and CHAS. Click on the links for more information on these excellent organisations.
It’s time for some time at home…
…chatting to friends…
…recovering…
…and thinking about some new design challenges.
November 2017
Public Service Broadcasting at the Barrowlands.
Some life drawing with HTA
Listening to comments from a design review on some of our work.
Flying
At the Davidson’s Mains war memorial.
10×10 Stratford
My drawing of an afternoon in Stratford
is in a charity auction here
The charity is Article 25, an architectural charity delivering projects in developing countries around the world. There are another 99 art works for sale if you click here. One of the sketches for the drawing:
It features some of the local life of Stratford and an attractive tower called Stratosphere, design by architects StockWool for developer Telford Homes.
The rest of the month was talking about PRS and modular design, this time in Edinburgh. Katie’s talk on custom build seemed a bit more relevant.
Spending Saturday mornings on the touchline.
Helping the local Scouts to sketch.
and not plucking up the courage to chat to a familiar looking Geoffrey Palmer.
(love is like a butterfly)
and meeting my new niece.
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