Posts Tagged: london
Build to Rent with the ULI 2 April 2014
At the launch of the ULI’s design guide for Build-to-Rent.
It’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?
Low cost housing at the House of Lords 13 March 2014
From the terrace of the House of Lords, our man Mike De’Ath launched the Housing Forum’s report into how to better provide low cost housing.
As he talked about it I was thinking ‘what’s more important than this?’. A society that has some making huge capital gains on rising house prices whilst others can’t afford to either rent or buy is a divided society heading for disruption.
http://housingforum.org.uk/knowledge/publications/making-place-low-cost-housing-report
The night before I stayed locally and bumped into some folk from the Berkeley Group in a bar on the Thames, beneath some unashamedly unaffordable housing. I knew Berkeley were ahead on customer service, but nice of them to go to the length of filling the pub in their development with their own friendly staff. The characters of the people matched their brand differentiation too.
The train home from Brighton after the CIH conference after talking about institutional private rent, a part of the answer.
This my view of London as I arrive. It’s the capital of the world now, or so I’m told. About 80% of the new jobs created in the UK in the last few years were in the south east, but I’m sure a good proportion of the other 20% is people servicing the London economy from the rest of the UK, like we do. If a twin track housing market with the majority priced out is divisive, a twin track economy is equally so.
Allsop CPD 15 January 2014
Doing a Private Rented Housing presentation with Paul Winstanley in the bar of Wigmore Hall in London.
PRS is a hot topic so we had a good turn out and the Allsop guys were engaged. The same questions around the relevance of our US visit to the UK market remain: why rent it when you can sell it to an overseas investor for a pile of cash? Mostly though, I think they were interested to see how he’d wangled a cracking trip to the US.
Citizen M 15 January 2014
Citizen M in Southwark: contemporary modular hotel. Nice lobby, nice people. Stay there next time.
The friendly barman is also a clothes designer.
Hanging on for Christmas 2013
Everything changes in the week before Christmas: travel is less predictable, work is what happens between nights out, there’s loads to finish and there are things to reflect on. 
Santa was in the departure lounge when my plane was on time… …nobody quite so interesting when it was delayed, in Bristol.
We won a couple of cracking jobs in the last week, setting us up nicely for next year, and adding an extra level of excitement to the Christmas party. 
We need to learn from those we know who are doing things well around us, like Argent at Kings Cross. They work hard to keep the place busy and bustling whilst construction is going on all around. 
A few of the buildings are really attractive too. This has different proportions to most office structures you see, and attractive cast columns.
It’s all really busy, but if you want to spin your talents into a successful business career you could do worse than look to Jackie Stewart for inspiration. This is his Tyrell 003, in which he won the Formula One World Championship 40 years ago this year.
Then Alison, a few days past her due date, came round and we talked about far more important events all together.
A 360 Degree Appraisal of the Board. 11-12-13
Appraisals are a colossal waste of everyone’s time, says Forbes magazine. Everyone gets one in HTA, except some of the board. I don’t think they should miss out, so I did one.
It’s not quite 360, but why would you put yourself through that?
My friend the 225 who I see a couple of times a week these days.
Life’s Too Short at Urban Design London – 21 November 2013
I spoke at an Urban Design London event about the fun we’ve been having designing for how people live, with Fizzy. Life, Places, Buildings, as the Scottish Government says.
This is Fizzy’s Mark Allnutt combining a provocative presentation with a pitch for some land. James Pargeter and Rosemary Slater are listening. I’m listening too, but that’s a cracking view across the reservoir back to the city. It’s the long horizontal strip window that makes the view, but we don’t do them in housing anymore, everything’s vertical. Why’s that?
It’s time we got on with PRS, and maybe it’s time we got over the Georgian window.
Boom or bubble? 12 November 2013
The economy has changed: we are flat out busy. A mood reflected in a marketing presentation from Bryan Sabin of Higgins.
For balance, a man in orange specs reading Tory paper speculation on another housing bubble.
Sketching in the Olympic Park
Walking round the Olympic Park with HTA Sketch Club admiring the set piece buildings and retreating to Hackney Wick for a pint and review of our work. I didn’t get much drawn but for other people’s super views of the velodrome and other sites go to:
http://www.hta.co.uk/news/posts/september-sketch-club
Steve Tomlinson of the London Legacy Development Corporation showed us round.
Back at Stratford International a week later enjoying it’s Futurist drama.
Reunion 12 October 2013
A long, relaxed walk around London with Ali Stephen, Campbell Reid, Duncan McKinnon and Kevin Allsop. 25 years since we all went to college together. It was just like I remember it: a day spent looking at architecture, getting a few drinks, arguing about politics and ending up looking out of place and unpopular in a disco.
Whilst I’m not sure the sketchbook helped my disco credentials, the benefit of the twenty five years is that I no longer have to care.
Looking forward to doing it again in another 25 years.
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