Hearing some exciting live pitches for solutions for vacant shop units from Feix & Merlin, and Piercy Connor Architects…
Feix and Merlin live pitching
More to follow.
Very informative conference, dealing with many pertinent issues for architects in the UK today. I will edit and add full stories over the next few days, there has been a lot to take in today!
Bompas & Parr - Jelly Barajas
Fantastic session from three young designers, employing architectural skills in a diverse range of situations.
More details to follow…
Engaging Communities
Angela Brady kicks off this session on how to engage with your local community and involve people with design and the built environment.
http://www.bradymallalieu.com/
Reading Situations
Liza Fior presents some of muf’s work, demonstrating how to encourage involvement, rewrite briefs and use architectural skills to reveal existing situations and what is possible.
An Alternative Belfast
Mark Hackett discusses the need for discussion and engagement with the built environment, and presents his practice’s work which acts as a critique to planned developments and proposes alternatives.
Belfast provides an interesting situation, where developments such as the Westlink urban motorway, and cul-de-sac housing, has had a divisive effect on an already polarised city.
Jane Duncan opens this discussion on the long running issue of architects’ fees. With the recent removal of the fee graph as mentioned by Ruth Reed earlier, it is suggested that the fee graph has been holding the profession back.
Navigating client relationships
Stephen Davy shows the conference how he has changed the way his practice calculates their fees, away from the RIBA scale. He suggests architects need to look more closely at their own costs in order to produce accurate fee proposals that work for both client and architect.
In establishing costs, Davy identifies the following areas:
Chaired by Chris Foges, editor of Architecture Today, this session looked at examples of architects diversifying their practice into development, community engagement, and international work.
Doubling up as developers
Trevor Horne presents his map of diversification, with spin off projects resulting from the development of the practice’s own studio.
Cultural Interpreters
Daisy Froud of AOC explains the development of her practice’s work in the field of consultation.
The Shop Window
Neil Deeley from Metropolitan Workshop talked through the practice’s experiences of working abroad and the opportunities emerging from competitions.
More details to follow…
Session 2 Panel
Ruth Reed, President of the RIBA, opened the conference, discussing what she has discovered in her visits to practice since taking her position. The removal of fee data, the challenges of lobbying politicians, the issues of public procurement (particularly for small practices) and the inability of practices to provide sufficient experience for Part 1 and Part 2 students are all pertinent areas for practices in the UK at the moment.
The first session was chaired by Vicky Richardson, editor of Blueprint magazine, and looked at the benefits of collaboration with other architects, professionals and organisations.
Collaboration is the ideal state of architecture
Richardson’s opening address discussed the collective effort involved in producing a building, and how architects can be the leaders of collaboration in the design process.
With reference to small practice in particular, it is suggested that there is now no real advantage of being a large practice - smaller firms now have as much of an opportunity to work with a multitude of professionals and agencies. We are reminded that a collaboration is only ever as good as the people involved, and sometimes there may be a tendency to try to find the most extreme collaboration, or perhaps for the sake of including it as a box ticking exercise around the latest buzzword.
http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk/
Serendipity
Paul Monaghan explains how his practice (AHMM) produced a series of RIBA exhibitions in the early 90s, leading to potential routes for collaboration and diversification of the sectors that the practice was able to find work in. By putting on an exhibition entitled ‘Design for Doctors’, inviting other practices to submit, along with presenting one of their own schemes, AHMM were then asked to design a series of healthcare projects. The production of a design for the ‘Classroom of the Future’ led to further work in the education sector.
There is an emphasis on needing to be in the right place at the right time, and by embracing opportunities for collaboration, maintaining contact with architectural peers, taking initially small jobs and not always working with the easiest of people, bigger opportunities will emerge.
Unintended Consequences
Simon Foxell discusses the process of public procurement with particular reference to the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in Birmingham. He discussed the seemingly large number of architects that can be involved in the process (architects producing a reference scheme, design managers, CABE enablers, bidding architects, the CABE review panel). The benefit of this number of architects in such a variety of roles is that they are all passionate about design, with the emphasis of the BSF programme being on “what design can do for education in Birmingham”.
Appearing bigger than you are
Andrew Waugh presents the story behind Stadhaus (a housing scheme in Hoxton, London), the world’s tallest timber building, a collaboration between Waugh Thistleton Architects, Techniker Structural Engineers and KLH Timber.
By working closely with the engineers and manufacturers, the possibility for an alternative to a concrete framed tower was explored and presented to the client in a convincing manner, with relation to the cost, environmental and time benefits of the cross laminated timber panel method. The team produced a sketch for the client, comparing the construction methods, making the benefits apparent in terms of density, weight and programme.
Working with the local authority, it was established that by using the timber structure CO2 savings equivalent to 210 years of alternative sustainable technology (solar panels resulting in a 10% saving of the buildings emissions) could be achieved, and this would meet the demands of legislation whilst saving the client additional expenditure on sustainable technology.
http://www.waughthistleton.com/
http://www.techniker.co.uk/
http://www.klhuk.com/site/
Session 1 Panel
James K Thorp - Conference Live Blogger
Today I’ll be providing live coverage of this year’s Small Practice conference, Guerilla Tactics.
Following yesterday’s CPD seminars, today we will hear presentations from several high profile figures in the architecture world, with three sessions this morning covering ‘Creative Collaboration’, ‘Dynamic Diversification’ and ‘Navigating the Maze: The Future of Fee Negotiation’. The afternoon sessions are ‘Community Catalyst’, ‘Fringe Benefits’ and a ‘Live Pitch’ session from two small practices.
I hope to provide a record of the day and useful links and information for both attendees of the conference and for small practitioners who aren’t here today.
Having worked in a small practice in London during my year out, I’m hoping today will provide ideas and information that I can compare to my practical experience, and perhaps take forward into my next architectural role.
Please check back throughout the day for updates from the conference. The full programme can be found at www.architecture.com/guerrillatactics
