Posts Tagged: meetings

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.

Training at HTA – 17 December 2015

Over the last year, we’ve had Mike Hopkins coming in to train our management team in a few useful techniques. We’re a business run by designers so it’s good to hear how the professionals do it. Contrary to popular perception (big egos/ sensitive souls) designers don’t really need to be treated all that carefully but they are good at questioning the conventional route. Mike has a straightforward style, telling our creative team what he thinks, and this is going down well. 

mike hopkins - 17 December 2015

Getting a great guided tour around the first bespoke build-to-rent building in the UK, for be:here.behere- 9 December 2015

Fraser and Isla have expertise too. Here they are showing two year old Ellan some advanced present unwrapping skills.

ellans party - 20 December 2015

A man in a stripy jersey watching his kid at swimming lessons.

stripy spectator - 13 December 2015

Julie watching the tennis and working out how we’ll get the boiler fixed. We moved into a house in the winter and the boiler burst. It now appears this happens to pretty much everyone.

julie at tennis - 6 December 2015

Maybe the 25% of the population who’d consider buying a new house have got it right?

The PRS Forum – 8 October 2015

Talking to the PRS Forum about the differences between placemaking for Private Rent and placemaking for sale. There are more than you’d think, so I had to be selective in my ten minute slot. PRS FORUM 1 - 151008I listened hard to the session before, trying to work out what the most relevant things were to talk about. I noted down “the IRR will ring the bell at 7” but mostly so I can ask my more financially fluent colleagues what that means.

PRS FORUM2 - 151008Sketching on stage. I’ve not done that before. I’m happy listening and drawing, so I think that’s ok.

PRS FORUM 3 - 151008

Afterwards, listening to the summing up. Regulatory uncertainty outweighed by confidence in the concept I think. Thanks to Grosvenor and Movers & Shakers for asking me along.

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.

All Duck & Waffle – 5 February 2015

With my colleagues for breakfast at Duck & Waffle 40 storeys up the Heron Tower. Planning the future of our business.Duck & Waffle - 5 February 2015 Impressive neighbours peer in the window.

Taxi - 3 February 2015Work is busy. The weather is cold and grey. Sketching will remain an indoor activity for the next month or so. This limits any outdoor views to what’s right in front of the coffee shop window as I eat breakfast. I think this is called a TX4, from the London Taxi Company.

Sleeper - 5 February 2015The weirdest way to travel remains the sleeper. In the bar at the start of the journey you can just glimpse the romance of rail travel from bygone days. Seven hours later you join the rest who’ve hardly slept to queue for a shower in Euston station.

Urban design Panel - 28 January 2015At the Edinburgh Urban Design panel in the City Chambers. Former Provosts watch over the group to remind us to do the best for this amazing city. I’m a back seat driver on this one, so I watch David H doing his professional presentations in Edinburgh… 6 Grosvenor Street - 15 January 2015 …and on Grosvenor Street in London.

Alan Hamilton - 31 January 2015Alan Hamilton in Hemma at lunchtime.

A conference day – 24 June 2014

People should get more information to be able to compare the homes they’re considering buying: space, cost in use, broadband speed etc. The Housing Forum are pushing it and I went along to hear Ben Derbyshire talking us through how it would work.Performance labelling 24 June 2014

It seems like a good idea, there’s more about it here:

http://www.mindthe-gap.info/

I was at a conference, so was quickly on to a new topic, a debate on Regeneration and particularly the accusation that it’s a process of gentrification. We need to improve the physical place but we need to improve the lives of the existing population, not just displace them. No disagreement there, but different ideas about how that can be achieved and how the approach in the south isn’t going to work for the rest of the country.Regeneration Round Table 24 June 2014Then some football watching followed by a meal with Crestel. This was generally relaxed but interspersed with some emotional discussion of the upcoming referendum.

Crestel 24 June 2014I feel fortunate to be taking part in a vote that arouses this amount of passion, a marked contrast to the parliamentary elections and the main stream parties.

It can all be beautiful – 10 June 2014

One frustration of being an architect is the fact that the main thing that stands between you and consistently great output is your own lack of talent. Mostly that’s not a noticeable problem as my contemporaries suffer similarly, but every now and then I end up somewhere and the exceptional surroundings remind me of my own inadequacy.

St Peter's 11 June 2014

Without realising where I was, I ended up in the crypt of Sir John Soane’s St Peter’s Church on Walworth Road, for some consultation on Aylesbury. The consultation was the start of a process aimed at achieving a great new place, the surroundings were a reminder that everything can be exceptional, even when it’s underground.

Perhaps for balance, I spent the night in Stratford. A different reminder: just because everything can be brilliant, that doesn’t mean it will be.

Stratford 10 June 2014

Mind you, last week I had breakfast in the Brunswick Centre. It used to be pretty bad, but seems well loved now, so perhaps everything will turn out ok for Stratford, and for Aylesbury?

Brunswick 3 June 2014

Drawing and Painting at the Architecture Club – 28 April 2014

These people are talking about how important drawing is for designers.

Architecture Club 28 April 2014Will Alsop and George Saumarez Smith did some actual drawing.  I enjoyed the stories from James Stirling’s office and the extracts from Ken Shuttleworth’s sketch book of the month.

will allsopWill Alsop was quite late, but was the most comfortable with an anecdote. Inspired by such high achieving company, I popped round the corner to bona fide starchitect Renzo Piano’s colourful Central St Giles. It’s not the best thing I’ve seen from Piano, but big, mixed use and see through, perhaps he was warming up for the Shard.

Central Saint Giles 28 April 2014

The Yard, Bristol 6 February 2014

Listening to the engaging Jackson telling us about this community of self build homes. It’s an inspiring story about what can be achieved when housing is designed by the people who’ll live in it.

JAckson 6 February 2014We’d like to give people more choice over what they live in without having to overcome the obstacles that these guys did. We spent the afternoon discussing how to do this in the setting of our own Hanham Hall project. A very different approach, but significantly innovative.

www.ecomotive.org

www.hanhamhall.co.uk

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.

HTA Board 11-12-13It’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.225