Posts in Category: Places

Amsterdam with HTA Design – October 2017

220 staff, partners and kids from HTA Design went to Amsterdam for the weekend.

Amsterdam 1 171006We toured the beautiful city by boat and bike.

Amsterdam 2 171007

We all stayed at the friendly and stylish Hyatt Regency.amsterdam 3 171007The focal point was Saturday night dinner for everyone in BAUT.

amsterdam 4 171007

I spent the weekend before with some of the same people at Rosie and Martin’s wedding.

Gormans 1
170817 - Sketch 1The amusing speeches started at the ceremony, and continued.

Gormans 2

There were as surprising number of jokes at the PRS Forum, though they were all delivered in six minutes by Iain Murray.

171012 - Movers-Shakers1

After that it was a serious discussion about the effort local authorities are making to get this form of housing moving. Mike Galloway pointed out Dundee had granted planning approval for two sites, and both in less than three months.

171012 - Movers - Shakers2

I’d been there for one of them, Studio Dundee. We are looking forward to getting it on to site.

170817 - Dundee Planning Committe

 

 

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.

Carrbridge – July 2017

A week in Carrbridge

carrbridge terraceIn a wooden lodge by a pool.

carrbridge terrace2Covered outside space: essential for the Scottish summer.

muckrach lodgeA Scottish highland summer is exceptional food…

landmark pavilion…great places to visit…

horses…a taste of horse riding for the kids…

duck…long country walks and bike rides…

cagiva…and admiring the exotic vehicles that tour through sleepy Scottish villages.

 

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.

Nice things to do: Part One

stewart brewingBrewing our own beer, HTAle, at Stewart Brewing.

hairy haggisRecovering after the Hairy Haggis relay, with HTA.

jupiter art landLooking at art: Michael Sailstorfer at Jupiter Art Land.

forth bridgeLearning about the third Forth bridge, with the Beavers.

DerbyTaking the time to sketch Derby’s old Co-op.

bloke on a train

Tom and Laura’s wedding (a bit I’d missed from before).

grand day outBeing at home.

 

gardenlawnmowerAnd using sketching as an excuse to avoid doing all the jobs in the garden.

The Hebridean Isles – April 2017

With HTA sketch club looking at one of Edinburgh’s successful incidental spaces.

Rodney Street 30 March 2017After that, island hopping in the Hebrides in the spring sun.

MV Hebridean Isles 04 April 2017The whole thing is great. The islands are beautiful, the weather is dramatic and the ferries that sail between them come in all shapes and sizes.

MV Catriona - 03 April 2017The smallest is on the five minute crossing to remote Jura.

eilean dhura 7 april 2017The biggest on the sail to Arran.
caledonian isles 02 April 2017julie 8 April 2017Most of our time was spent on Islay, which is a much softer variety of the Hebridean harshness I’m familiar with from time on North Uist, and mixed with an astounding world class whisky industry.

ardbeg 5 April 2017Bownore 04 April 2017goose 6 april 2017

It’s a short cycle between Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig. Time to look out for the wildlife. Buzzards, stags, golden eagles. And geese.
Port Ellen 7 April 2017Islay came up with this and a few islands further north they invented Harris Tweed. A tiny number of people producing products that are renowned the world over. In beautiful surroundings.

loch ranza 3 April 2017It was a great place for Fraser to recover from his minor, but fairly dramatic, head injury.

fraser 01 April 2017fraser 02 april 2017For contrast, Kings Cross.

kings cross - 170326

Washington & New York – November 2016

Off to Washington and New York to learn a little more about how Americans live.

to-america-30-october-2016

People deserve better places to live and there’s lot’s to learn from America. At it’s best there are bigger flats and a higher standard of lower cost accommodation.

upstairs-at-bethesda-31-october-2016

anthology-1-november-2016Washington to New York.

arsenal-1-november-2016It’s never enough to look at the housing: what else can you do if you live here?

brooklyn-2-november-2016In New York people are leaving Manhattan for ‘neighbourhood living’ in Brooklyn. They are choosing streets, corner shops and cafes rather than specced up apartment blocks. We learned a lot.

rememberance-13-november-2016Back home at the Remembrance Parade in Davidson’s Mains.

 

Vehicles & holidays – 12 October 2016

Waiting in China Town and sketching delivery bikes. You can’t finish them because they keep racing off at the standard speed for ‘L’ plate food deliveries: flat out.

delivery-bbike-6-october-2016

Faster: a turntable ladder at Crewe Toll fire station. This is the highlight of Fraser’s trip with the Beavers.

fire-station-2-11-october-2016

I’m here because he’s been a bit ill, so I’m checking he’s alright.

fire-station-1-11-october-2016They do an entertaining routine, the fireman. “Kids, the more yellow helmets at a fire, the more chance everyone gets out alive. The more white helmets, the more chance it all burns to the ground”. The bosses wear the white helmets.

tube-12-october-2016On the tube,  absentmindedly sketching the guy who happens to be opposite when I realise he’s wrapped his hands in a scarf so I can’t see his big tattoos. Didn’t mean to make it awkward, wish I knew what they said.

soft-play1-10-october-2016

Back in Edinburgh we are moving office. I find myself in kids soft play parties looking at how they’ve done the services install. Time for a break.

donald-campbell-17-october-2016On the Windermere ferry sketching a Mazda MX5 and a Renault. Imagining (well copying) Donald Campbell’s celebrated K7. We went and had a look at Coniston Water where Campbell was killed on 4th January ’67 in an attempt to break his own world water speed record.

borrowdale-16-october-2016The holiday had begun in Borrowdale Youth Hostel. I love youth hostels: we all get in one room, the foods good, the people are friendly and the prices and locations are great. Citizen Rambler.

islas-bike-19-october-2016Next stop, Center Parcs. It shows how you can make the world around you much nicer just by replacing cars with bikes. Everyone seems to go for it.

fi-15-october-2016The boys on the tablet, though most of the action was in the ‘subtropical swimming paradise’. hut-19-october-2016This is the ‘hut’. J & I got ill here. Being ill at Center Parcs is about as expensive as checking in to a BUPA hospital, so we didn’t make a big deal of it.

HTA Paris 2016

To Paris with the office, partners and kids. About 170 of us.

paris-2016

I love Paris, and looking out from our hotel bedroom window, you’d think nothing ever changes here.

paris-hotel-october-2016But it does and we are here to learn. Two ‘Fondations’. The first is the Fondation Le Corbusier in the stripped back austerity of the beautiful Maison La Roche.

le-corbusierThe second, by way of contrast, is the Fondation Louis Vuitton. As excessively opulent as Versaille but anyone can come in and enjoy the spectacular roof terrace views back to Paris, for a few Euros.

louis-vuitton-2-october-2016These are the exceptions. The character comes largely from the distinctive eight storey blocks that line the Haussmann boulevards.

hausman-elevations-3-october-2016Paris might have a bit of catching up to do as a cycle friendly city, but we still did almost all of it by bike. 30 miles and two days of interesting places and buildings.

pompidou-3-october-2016None the less, I’m as happy watching the characters of Paris life as I am looking at the buildings.

cheminade-3-october-2016Two highlights: talking to a smoking portrait artist in brown cord jacket and burgundy roll neck, outside the Pompidou. A Presidential candidate canvassing the Sunday morning Metro goers at Place d’Italie. Street life.

Second Home – 20 August 2016

This is Second Home, in my second home.

second home - 25 August 2016

It describes it’s self as a  ‘carefully curated community’, and a ‘creative accelerator’. It’s certainly an interesting environment to do some sketching in.

leaving do - 18 August 2016

A leaving do for Andrew, Massimo and Cheng, all returning to further their education. This is Massimo’s third leaving do. I pretend to be upset but I’m mostly glad they want to come back.

Alice Fraser - 20 August 2016

“Any story told long enough becomes a tragedy” said Alice Fraser at the start of her emotional ‘comedy’ The Resistance.

LEXI - 17 August 2018Back home, we’ve been sharing with a cat.F&I - 20 August 2016 Isla drawing a (mechanical) dog.