Posts Tagged: people

Sketchbook 66

August to October 2021

A sketch of Broughton Street in Edinburgh, drawn with HTA Sketchclub. We started sketchclub about ten years ago as a response to people in the office wanting to improve their drawing skills. I realised how much I enjoyed drawing and that I hadn’t done much observational drawing since school. I’d done plenty of drawing with work, but it was generally drawing to explain an idea or to show what a place that didn’t exist might be like. Observational drawing is different. You need to understand what you are looking at for one thing. What is the spacing of those windows? How many are there? How does that chimney meet the roof apex? That sort of thing. And the action of looking and thinking makes you wonder what a space like this is for and how it might be better used. Covid restrictions have reclaimed some of the space for people but how could this be developed to make a better space here?
Sketchclub in London
Two sketches from HTA Sketchclub in London. This is our new street on the edge of a park for Pocket Living. If you draw what other people made you don’t have the complete picture of the process that led to it. Here we can look at what we made and discuss it with the team who spent years making it happen.
Looking at the world with work. This time a tour led by Lisa Williams exploring the black history behind some of Edinburgh’s familiar landmarks.
Basil Spence’s Sunderland Civic Centre. It’s an interesting building, with a rigorous geometric logic driven through the design from the organisational diagram to the floor tiles beneath your feet. Sunderland City Centre is moving North, taking up the space left by the industries that once lined the River Wear. The council are a key part of this change, and they have left here and moved to a new Civic Centre near the river.
How the basic clay tile makes a pattern that reflects the building plan. The slight difference in tone of each tile is beautiful in combination.
Top left is the building plan. I tried to draw the tiered steps/ ramp accurately, to try to understand it better. Next to the central column a man is making a plein air oil painting of the building.
I’m here for a consultation event on what might happen once the building is demolished. There’s some debate about that but not really any about the demolition principle which has been agreed locally for years, so people want to know what’s happening next.
The Edinburgh office went to see Laura Mvula at the Festival (there’ a limited Festival).
Home stuff: Scout Camp at Fordell Firs.
Scout camp fire.
Innes’s football tournament at Wardie.
Holiday in London. In Kev & Pam’s cool back garden.
We swapped houses with Rory.
It was a good arrangement for a Covid summer: make your own plans and keep it simple.
One of Rory’s lovely old cameras. I do drawings like this to try to capture the precision but my lines aren’t crisp enough to do the objects justice.
In London we walked a lot.
Off to Stamford Bridge, for a tour.
Waiting for a football match to finish in Queensferry.
A very little little bit of Stirling Castle. We are working with the MOD just now so I’m paying close attention.
Ruari back from Germany. It’s lovely to see him after Lockdown separation.
Tube passengers.
Isla waiting for a consultation.

Sketchbook 65

Second Lockdown and thereafter

We had another lockdown. I drew less than at any point in the previous nine years. I’ve included a few of them further down, for completeness, but I lost the habit really. I just worked. I got back into it when we were allowed out. This is a key worker on the tube.
A temporary Covid Test Centre, a feature of many community car parks.
And of course, vaccine roll out. This is my first. Alongside our lockdown dog.
Meeting people in gardens. This is father in law Michael.
And again.
My mum.
When we were locked down, I tried to draw the local place, the highlight was this church on our High Street.
Local bins, marginally less interesting than…
…than a local bridge. (It is quite interesting actually, clearly two bridges which you’d never realise from above.)
On the positive side, here’s Craig’s first day back at work cooking lunch. 28th April 2021.
The first work trip to see a site in York. Handy for meeting the London team, who we haven’t seen for months.
The May board meeting, the first of the year to be held in person.
Hotel view.
Running into interesting looking people as we travel again.
Me.
I’ve learned some things from Lockdown. One is how much I enjoy a cycle into work and the other is you can attend presentations anywhere. I now pass these cottages everyday so I stopped to draw them, while listening to one of our Friday morning masterclasses.
Otherwise, life is similar to how it was. Saturday and Sunday mornings involve football. This is Lochend’s scenic pitch.
Jac’s H Type Citreon in Victoria Park. Supplier of coffee to many locals and the parents watching Spartans across the road.
More classic French design, and my attempt to render some shadows.
After football: Fraser on the couch playing XBox.
Julie on the couch texting. This is one of the lonely lockdown sketches. It’s from February. I think I only drew two drawings that month, when normally there might be ten.
Isla feeling ill on the sofa, in January.
The only other January drawing.
The dug. He’s on the sofa already, and he’s only just got here.

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.

Festival Month 2017

Edinburgh Festival month.

fireworks

Fireworks

crabsCrabs (featuring Simon Brims)

comicsComics

eva and pedroGuests Eva & Pedroqueens head chris dyson

Sketch Club in London

edinburgh post officeand Edinburgh

hta management meetinga new office

170904 BenBen as RIBA Presidentjessie's funeral

and my mum taking Jessie Bowden’s funeral. Jessie was 101.

Nice things to do: Part Two

aj100Collecting the Business Breakthrough of the Year award at the AJ 100 dinner.

architectural workersListening to provoking debate organised by the Architectural Workers in Cressingham Gardens, designed by Edward Hollamby.

colonel fawcetSketching with HTA.

m giraudOn holiday. Meeting the uniquely engaging Monsieur Girod.

laurisLauris

montagne saint victoireStanding where Cezanne stood, in Aix.

orangeSitting where the Romans (or at least their subjects) sat, in Orange.

pont du gardePont du Gard, falling at 1:16,000.

at JGLsAnd enjoying the Lord’s hospitality, in Cambridgeshire.

Listening – May 2017

People I’ve spent time listening to in the last month or so:

mumMy mum, of course.

Public service broadcastingJ. Willgoose Esq, singing.

BOLD

Joelle Mae David and others in Barking & Dagenham.

ashtonAshton, entertaining.

lauraLaura, discussing graphic design.

hermiones birthdayHermione (birthdays)

green sky thinkingMel & Scott, debating.

mental healthanother Mel, educating.

martyn evansMartyn, challenging.

ollie and paulOllie & Paul.

mikeMike, provoking.

Tom & Laura - 20 May 2017Tom & Laura

tom and laura 2at Tom & Laura’s wedding

leith walkand a building.

Planning Ahead – February 2017

A day by Tower Bridge, business planning.

170203 PartnersIt’s an awayday, so there are some ‘Post It’ notes on the wall and someone’s armed with a whiteboard marker.

But how do you decide what you want to do?

170208 - MetroConsult the Metro?

170221 - SupurbiaListen to ‘thought leaders’…

170207 - HTA Talksand wise heads with a life time of experience to pass on.

170213 - albert dock

Visit stimulating places,

170213 - whapping docklike Liverpool’s Albert Dock.

17161217 Train after partyChat it through with your colleagues…
170228 Coffee… and reflect over coffee.

RESI 2016

resi-1-13-september-2016Resi 2016 launched into the bad news about the economy and the affordability of housing. If governments and voters are heavily indebted then why would you raise interest rates and if you don’t raise interest rates then how do people save for their old age? Some people alive now will live to 150 I was told. But I didn’t believe it.

resi-2-13-september-2016Far more reliable stats came from the entertaining Lucian Cook.

Interesting contributions from many others.

resi-3-13-september-2016resi-4-13-september-2016resi-9-13-september-2016resi-6-13-september-2016resi-5-13-september-2016I think the next couple of years will be about combining our off site manufacturing expertise with our Build to Rent knowledge. resi-8-13-september-2016At the end of the day I was well looked after by the Property Week team, so many thanks to them.

My Partners – 13 January 2016

HTA Design LLP employs about 140 people. There’s always plenty to consider when the board meets each month. Here are my partners, considering the issues.Board 2 - 150113Board 1 - 150113Board 3 - 150113Board 4 - 150113Board 5 - 150113

We spend a lot of time in each others’ company so it’s nice to draw them from time to time, just to see them in a different way.

Christmas 2015

In reverse:

Daddys Birthday - 3 January 2015

The last event of the break, my dad’s 88th birthday.

prowe band - 1 January 2016

New years day, a brass band in the livingroom.

Andreas - 1 January 2015

AndreasAngus - 29 December 2015

Angus visited from France.

QAHS Reunion - 27 December 2015

Catching up with old school pals in Dunfermline. The same as we were, a little more tired but a little better at communication.

christmas 2016

Innes hid behind the sofa for the Queen’s speech.

 

Fun Box - 23 December 2015

Fun box was fun.

 

plane alone - 22 December 2015

The only person on a plane to London City the week before Christmas.

Actually these are the things I did in between riding the bike and painting portraits, in preparation for cycling from London to Cannes in March. I’ll show you the portraits next time.