Posts Tagged: events

22nd February 2018 – #BTRLon18 or Nine Hours for Nine Drawings

The Build to Rent Forum is the place where the main industry characters come together and discuss how they’re getting on. I spent a day drawing the discussions. The drawings were in aid of excellent children’s charity Coram who I’m raising money for by cycling from London to Cannes. Please donate here if you can.

I spent nine hours drawing: here they are:

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Where’s the land? Getting the day started with a bit of debate and some interesting questions.

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The Collective have convincingly imbued their business with a social purpose.

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I used to be confused by investors because they talked in jargon but now they just talk about how to make nice places for folk to live in. I can understand that.

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This might make you wonder what the people focused people will talk about? They’re wondering what lessons to learn from the huge amounts of data that are being generated by all these new residents in new buildings. What’s really going to work for people?

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To talk about this, we went for lunch.

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Iain Murray’s passionately expressed views are just the thing to beat the post lunch slump.

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The Scots are in London learning from the folk who’ve built more than we have, but there’s quite a bit in the pipeline north of the border.

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Quite refreshing view of the potential of Build to Rent to meet housing need, from Councillor Darren Rodwell.

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Finally, James Murray calmly set out the policy framework that we’ll all be working within, and why it is the way is.

BTRLon18-1So that was it. An informative day, some interesting insights and good practice listening and drawing simultaneously! Many thanks to David Jennings from Movers and Shakers for sponsoring me.

Denis Mason-Jones – 19 November 2015

Thursday: an enjoyable evening looking at the sketches entered in the Denis Mason-Jones sketching competition, in Leeds.

Denis Mason Jones Competition  - 19 November 2015I met Denis’s son and picked the winner.

Tuesday: speaking at the Residential Investment Conference 2015. It was held underground, and the lecture theatre style benches glowed red. I tried not to be too distracted.

Resi Investment - 17 November 2015

Monday night: watching ideas for getting one million more homes into the outer London boroughs, Pecha Kucha style at the NLA.

Pecha Kucha - 16 November 2015

Saturday: more relaxed time spent in Edinburgh.

KMBT_C284-20151120114546KMBT_C284-20151120114614The kids playing sport.

Cycle to MIPIM 2016 Launch – 29 September 2015

At the launch event for Cycle to MIPIM 2016.

Cycle to MIPIM - 20151450 km from London to Cannes in five days. All for good cause: children’s charity Coram. It’s in March, so bring on some Scottish winter training on the bike.

A Long Drawing of a Long Lunch – 23 June 2015

In Manchester discussing how devolving power to regions can lead to more effective and more appropriate solutions to the current housing crisis. Lots of support for this and lots of good ideas. I think Scottish devolution has opened people’s eyes to the benefits of local decision making but they haven’t yet experienced it’s overwhelming, empowering, energy.

CIH Lunch -23 June 2014Lunch over, I headed out into the warm Manchester sunshine and was surprised to see it was 5.00pm. Lunch and ideas are important, but they are a means to the end: designing better places.

Castleward - 24 June 2015Next day: Derby. We’ve started the design of Phase Two of Castleward so it’s a good time to think about the bits of Phase One that work (mixed use/ mixed tenure/ mixed typologies/ the biggest trees we’ve ever planted/ streets) and the bits that don’t. If being an architect is sometimes quite hard work, it’s all made worthwhile when you see things you imagined realised.

Making Jaguars in Coventry & Warwickshire, in the Shard – 16 June 2015

At an event in the Shard hearing about the power of a research, design and manufacturing based economy in the Midlands. Prosperity, creativity, enviable quality.

Cov and War - 16 June 2015Jaguar CEO Dr Ralph Speth gave the keynote address. Manufacturing economies are prosperous economies when the quality of product is as high as this, and we heard about the combination of education, investment and supply chain required to operate at this level. You need a good supply of great places for people to live too, and we’d love to help with that.

I’m increasingly fascinated by design and manufacture, so I’ll ask if I can sketch the factory.

A cyclist turns up at the consultation – 12 February 2015

For the first time this year, the sun has made it over the horizon in time for my morning commute. The number of cyclists seems appreciably up from the dark winter months.

Consultation 13 February 2015In the evening I popped passed Grosvenor’s smart consultation event and had a chat with a fellow user about annual Brompton mileage: 1,300 for me, 2,000 for our local green councillor. Better try harder.

Build to Rent with the ULI 2 April 2014

At the launch of the ULI’s design guide for Build-to-Rent.ULI-B2R 2 April 2014It’s a good guide. If you read it, I’d start at Chapter 6; Management as you need to understand that in order to understand the thinking in the design chapters. It’s an operator business, Build-to-Rent. There’s lots more potential investment than there is stock to invest in so there should be lots of design going on: a well-timed guide therefore.  I’ve inexplicably lost my voice and sound like the Crankies’ grandmother, which makes it difficult to describe how we’re the right people to do this design work, but I sense cracking opportunities edging closer.

The launch was in the Royal Geographic Society in Kensington. In the bits I was in there wasn’t much evidence of their fantastic heritage. Livingstone, Shackleton, Hilary, Scott: all have spoken here I was told. Maybe I could sell them some portraits?

Ian Fleming’s Retirement Lunch 28 March 2014

In Ladybank in rural Fife for Ian’s lunch. It’s a sleepy place, Ladybank, with a sense of quiet when the train leaves you standing in the station that’s reminiscent of that scene in Trainspotting. Ian Flemming's Retirement 28 March 2014The meal was fun and I enjoyed hearing about what’s made Ian’s business work well for 40 years and what it’s like to support East Fife. We started working together a decade ago on our Muirton project in Perth. It’s been a job for the famous namesakes, Muirton. We’ve had Ian Fleming, Euan McGregor, James Brown and Donald Campbell.

The drawing shows Ian talking, but looking out the window to the golf course.

Scottish Property Awards 27 February 2014

At the Scottish Property Awards with some people working on the dramatic transformation of Dundee Waterfront. It’s a project gathering momentum.Scottish Property Awards 27 February 2014As if to illustrate this, at the end of the listed awards it looked like they’d won nothing, but five minutes later there were two on the table. The transformation of the waterfront is particularly impressive as it’s only a part of the wholesale changes in the city. We often look abroad for good examples of this sort of urban renewal but there are lessons to learn closer to home. In Dundee they’ve got support for change from politicians, council officers and local investors and decades of work are coming to a conclusion.

Surprisingly radical for such a conservative looking bunch.

http://www.dundeewaterfront.com/

 

Comedy? What a laugh. 26 June 2013

A good night out in Manchester.

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