Posts in Category: Work
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.
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.
Amsterdam with HTA Design – October 2017
220 staff, partners and kids from HTA Design went to Amsterdam for the weekend.
We toured the beautiful city by boat and bike.
We all stayed at the friendly and stylish Hyatt Regency.
The focal point was Saturday night dinner for everyone in BAUT.
I spent the weekend before with some of the same people at Rosie and Martin’s wedding.
The amusing speeches started at the ceremony, and continued.
There were as surprising number of jokes at the PRS Forum, though they were all delivered in six minutes by Iain Murray.
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.
I’d been there for one of them, Studio Dundee. We are looking forward to getting it on to site.
Nice things to do: Part Two
Collecting the Business Breakthrough of the Year award at the AJ 100 dinner.
Listening to provoking debate organised by the Architectural Workers in Cressingham Gardens, designed by Edward Hollamby.
Sketching with HTA.
On holiday. Meeting the uniquely engaging Monsieur Girod.
Lauris
Standing where Cezanne stood, in Aix.
Sitting where the Romans (or at least their subjects) sat, in Orange.
Pont du Gard, falling at 1:16,000.
And enjoying the Lord’s hospitality, in Cambridgeshire.
Listening – May 2017
People I’ve spent time listening to in the last month or so:
My mum, of course.
J. Willgoose Esq, singing.
Joelle Mae David and others in Barking & Dagenham.
Ashton, entertaining.
Laura, discussing graphic design.
Hermione (birthdays)
Mel & Scott, debating.
another Mel, educating.
Martyn, challenging.
Ollie & Paul.
Mike, provoking.
Tom & Laura
at Tom & Laura’s wedding
and a building.
MIPIM 2017
25 miles out from Cannes, the first chance in the last five days to get my sketchbook out. 
We’d started in London 875 miles away. Here’s the pub the night before the off. 
It’s for charity, and there are speeches on the last night to remind us of this. 
Here’s a link to the charity page, if you are able to donate: https://race-nation.com/sponsor/e/64891
On the flight home, I have to face up to getting back to real life. 
Some yellow roses. 
New Year 2017
In Derby for work, but holiday habits are hard to kick so I popped in to have a look at Ayrton Senna’s ’93 McLaren at Donnington Park, scene of it’s finest hour.
Before that Christmas holidays and birthday parties.
For three year old Ellan…
… and my 89 year old dad. He’s forgotten a lot but we all sang songs together.
Christmas Day: mum showing her grandchildren photos of the old days.
Grumpy in traditional post lunch pose…
…and talking planes with Fraser.
Janice and Alison
Back to work and ideas about the future of London.
Time to get on with winter training for my 1500km cycle down to Cannes in March. New year, new regime.
My Partners – November 2016
My business partner Ben Derbyshire is to be the next President of the RIBA. That’s quite an honour so the partners went out for a quiet dinner to celebrate.
The next day: November board. Back to the business of running a business.
People deserve better places to live, so we’ve made an organisation that tries to combine to skills to deliver this: architects, graphic designers, planners, landscape architects, cooks and others.
We don’t have all the pieces yet, but we are moving in the right direction.
Back home: the life partners: J,F, I & I. Watching Strictly.
I lost this sketch book so here’s a design idea for someone else’s house drawn at a relaxed summer barbecue.
And some summer tennis.
10X10 Brixton – October 2016
One side of one of my sketchbooks is just over five metres long. Here are my colleagues holding one.
I drew this one for charity Article 25, http://www.article-25.org/about-article-25/
It will be auctioned at the RIBA in a couple of weeks. As it’s five metres long, there might not be that many people interested in it (that will be my excuse) but there are 99 other drawings and paintings to bid for so if you fancy some art for an excellent cause have a look here:
http://10x10london-auction.com/lite-ui/#lots?category=All%20Lots
They are all of, or related to, Brixton. I spent a couple of sunny days there sketching what I saw and speaking to the people who were interested in what I was doing. People say the place has lost it’s edge, I had a great time.
Getting to the end of the Victoria line.
I met Lilly, a painter, with a poem pinned to his or her back.
And Bridgit and Noah, a baker and a barman.
I didn’t speak to this guy smoking and drinking his breakfast, as I think I made him feel a bit awkward.
Juhdub, Penny, Tarek. Tarek had the friendliest and tastiest food van.
Brixton, or at least the bit I was looking at, is defined by it’s railway arches. Between two of these Big Apple Brixton was building a bar you’ll need tickets for. I’d like to go.
There’s still some work going on in the arches, but not a lot.
Walled off from the vibrant street there’s an estate, so I sat there for a while too. Everyone was friendly. I could only think of one living person from Brixton, although subsequently people have pointed out a few more.
A couple of lovely days in Brixton, sketching below the railway viaducts and between the inhabited arches. The plan shows where I did the drawings.
http://10x10london-auction.com/lite-ui/#lots?category=All%20Lots
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