25 years later

Having viewed Canary Wharf from a distance, a far cry from the solitary tower and the perceived white elephant of 1989, from the high places of the city, the Shard, Dome and Emirates Airline, to standing on bridges over the Thames, and Royal Docks and viewing the impressive skyline, what does this mean on the ground?

Wandering around the glass and steel landscape in the rain, contemplating the journey that has taken 25 years. The streets are almost deserted, office workers are all inside following the morning rush, shoppers are under ground in the mall which is an environment that works very well in the rain, a few delivery vehicles circulate on the surface on the loop road known as the Colonnade, with red brake lights reflecting off glass and off the shiny road surface as drivers wait for the traffic lights to change. The setting between the vertical shear planes of the offices framing views to the docks feels a bit like scaled down midtown Manhattan albeit without the constant stream of yellow taxi cabs, as though it is five in the morning as opposed to eleven.

In the past 25 years, Taking an abandoned industrial zone and transforming it into what is now a very lively environment, a thriving employment hub for East London and a catalyst for its broader regeneration. Although it has not always been so, Richard Rogers referred to the uneven development in the London Docklands leading to left over spaces and ghettos In ‘Cities for a Small Planet’ in 1997. Whether that comment alone made a difference or whether it is just coincidence, some of the left over spaces have been developed like the apartment towers at East India DLR Station for example. There is still a way to go to integrate Canary wharf with the surrounding fabric. 

The greatest challenge being the arterial route into central London the A13, dominated by its own flyovers and intersection in addition to the elevated DLR above the traffic and getting into the right lane. Traces of high street still talk of decline and the painted sign on the brick gable reading ‘Sorry, The lifestyle you ordered is out of stock.’

The full story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris — Do We Need ARCHITECTS? A Journey Beneath the Surface of Architecture

Is Architecture Enough?

In the book Do We Need Architects? A journey Beneath the Surface of Architecture, I explored cities and urban development over a time frame of twenty-five years. Over that time I was also exploring the changing environment in which architecture is practiced. The journey does not end there, and the stories keep on coming, there are more cities that are experienced for the first time, others that have been revisited and new aspects experienced, since the publication of the book, my journey has taken me to Lahore, Pakistan where I was based for six months, working on a strategic plan for one of the largest urban development projects in the world.

During that time, my journey has also taken me back to Dubai and experienced the developing public transport infrastructure in the shape of the metro and new tram at the Dubai Marina, as well as exploring some of the developments on the ground, to London on two occasions and explored different aspects of the ever changing city, along with experiencing the first tangible evidence of the worlds largest, probably most complex infrastructure project Crossrail on the cityscape.

A later visit to Pakistan and provided the opportunity to experience Islamabad to present proposals a new major urban development project. A visit to the UK revealed Birmingham undergoing significant change, Manchester is in a similar state as public transport infrastructure is being upgraded in the city centre, there is a first time visit to Liverpool and a return to my home town on the English Riviera now being viewed not through the eyes of a child growing up in the town, but after being involved in significant urban development projects and viewing as an urban designer, planner and architect. Bahrain is continuing to evolve as more elements of the masterplan set out in 2030 vision emerge from the sand.

The journey in a sense is never ending, and as new adventures loom on the horizon, my aim is to share insights and observations of working on projects, in different environments, visiting existing cities and developing areas against the backdrop of what we are doing as a profession ,in addressing the global needs of a growing understanding of the impact that cities have on the health of the planet, the guiding question shifting emphasis from Do we need Architects? To Is Architecture Enough?

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Into the melting pot - Lahore 2014

Heading through the dust and haze towards the city, the scene is dominated by traffic or more accurately, so many motorcycles, agricultural carts drawn by donkeys introduce a new dynamic, each flatbed cart drawn by a single donkey quite often laden with fresh fruit and about five children probably aged six to eleven,  others are laden with steel bars quite often driven by single man or more likely a teenager who is constantly talking on the mobile phone.

The road becomes wider and supported on concrete legs and the urban scene is made up of industrial facilities partly obscured by the morning haze as vapour rises from the dense belts trees that line the roadside. Concrete construction is everywhere, a group of young men standing in the middle of the road one working one watching and the other waving his arms around as if to direct the traffic around the part of the road is being worked on. In UK this will involve a whole lane being closed for miles and Bahrain it would result in two. As the flyovers snake their way of what is left of the urban realm another heavy concrete structure with slow moving Bendy-Bus absolutely jammed with people moves along the top of it. Ahead is what appears to be a Railway station, with platforms, signals, and bridges that span the traffic, the bus lane is fenced off from the road, this is the Lahore Metro, a transit system that still under construction, with too few buses to constitute a rapid transit system creating urban devastation is wake.

The whole scene begs the question wouldn’t it be easier to have created a bus lane along the existing road as opposed to constructing such a heavy barrier that divides the city? To be fair is not only the Metro line that divides the city, it is the combination with all the lanes of traffic moving alongside it and the associated concrete flyovers and demolition to accommodate it that is causing the devastation looking something like pictures of the Walsall Road in the 1960s. The irony being that Birmingham has spent the last twenty-five years trying to undo the damage caused by the Manzoni plan, and here in Lahore they’re building it is though it’s a new innovation. The elevated road takes the severe turn to the left and passes over the British attempts to introduce an efficient transport system and connect the peoples world whether they wanted it or not, from this vantage, the railway passes through a wide clearing lined by trees disappearing into the haze of the distance. Passing alongside the railway, it looks relatively modern, with overhead electric catenary but seemingly devoid of trains, with people wandering across the tracks while others bump motorcycles over them, to avoid driving round and fighting through the traffic trying to squeeze through a two lane level crossing, what appeared as a belt of trees from a distance is punctuated by a collection of ramshackle buildings, concrete frame, brick infill, built right up to the edge of the railway.

The roadside is a colourful spectacle of fresh fruit on carts with the donkey patiently waiting while business is conducted behind. All manner of vehicles stop, causing chaos as others swerve to avoid them, so that the drivers, passengers join the informal market beside the road to purchase wares from an array of carts and single-storey shops situated beneath tall trees. Ladies elegantly perched on the back of the motorcycles, dressed in brightly coloured fabrics add to the vibrance of the scene. The central median of the road to wide area of grass this numerous people seated in the shade of trees surrounded by flowerbeds. This is the ultimate tree-lined boulevard only something is missing there’re no grand buildings fronting onto it, the Kot Lakhpat Railway station is understated, identifiable only by sign pointing to a narrow alley between two of the single storey retail units situated beneath the trees.

The back story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris — Do We Need ARCHITECTS? A Journey Beneath the Surface of Architecture - See more at: https://scriggler.com/DetailPost/Story/23491#sthash.lNVVNj3E.dpuf

The working environment - Lahore 2014

It is always a challenge starting in a new working environment, firstly you don’t know anybody and nobody knows you so there is a very quick learning curve as you get to know who does what on the project and where you fit in to the project. I am no stranger to working in International teams and understanding the mentalities of people from different countries. Except here 90% of the team is made up of local people and I am very much in the minority. In fact there are only three in a team of thirty who are not Pakistani nationals. 

I’m the first to admit and I’m not the best with languages and like most Brits, are spoiled by the fact that many overseas nationals will speak some form of English. This always gets interesting when working in a region where English maybe the second or third language. I have discussed previously in my book Do we need Architects, A journey Beneath the Surface of Architecture, the notion that English is not English when working in the Middle East, here there is another form of English referred to by locals as Asian English where English words are used but not necessarily assembled in any coherent order, particularly in the written form, where entire reports are essentially meaningless to anybody outside of the room, and of course nobody takes too kindly when you start trying to correct their English, and like the mentality displayed on the road everybody knows best. As with every team there are those characters that seem to turn simplest discussion into a full-blown argument except that in this office there are many.

The planning team numbering two, have to become experts in urban economics, transport, waste water, hydrology, and infrastructure as none of the team seem to be able to give a straight answer on anything. All of this means that as a team leader there is no time to stand over members of the team to make sure that they are doing their part, which opens up the possibility of things go wrong, In fact, in this environment it’s not a 50% chance of something going wrong it is more like 100% chance, except that you don’t know this at that time. What are invariably happens is after repeated attempts to delegate a piece of work to members of the team you still end up having to do it yourself.

This is a very noisy office with conversations and discussions happening at full volume simultaneously in three and possibly four languages depending on which group is having a discussion. Urdu, Punjabi with elements of Arabic thrown in along with the local version of English or in many cases English words merged with the local language, meaning that you get to overhear conversations that sound something like this: 

‘GG yum yum yum urban planning, yum yum yum tikka, yum yum G’ 

Which sounds like they are talking about food all the time. Of course they could be talking about food, as it seems to dominate every conversation, particularly when people insist on referring to different zones or individual elements of the project or indeed their workload as portions that makes the project sound as though it is chicken. Based on the fact that every meal seems to involve varying combinations of chicken and oil it comes as no surprise. 

Of course at the same time could also criticising the work of the planning team or committing the planning team to more work that they are not aware of, or it could be something else entirely, probably related to politics. All the while making it very difficult to concentrate and as a result much of the design work takes place in the guesthouse throughout evenings and weekends. 

Lessons being learned in the office are not surprisingly, mostly concerned with communication, nobody tells you when they have finished a task, neither do they tell you that they have not been able to complete the task and just sit at their workstation chatting with friends, or chatting on facebook on their phone, waiting for you to tell them what to do next. It is not until asking for at least the fourth time that you learn what has or has not been done. Everything that would be expected to be easy in a modern working office seems to be a major problem even something as simple as sending a document to the printer...

Spiral City - Birmingham 1993

Driving the Birmingham Inner Ring Road, known as the Queensway, for the first time is a terrifying experience, always in the wrong lane, not sure which exit to take and the signs always give the direction ‘All Other Routes’, which is not the most helpful. Landmarks of the city become obscured as the road dips into cuttings lined by red and blue panels to emerge once again into the four lanes of traffic, cars crossing paths, the process repeats until the landmarks and exits correspond.

The city designed for the car driver, has its own landmarks, although not exactly as glamorous as the Monaco Grand Prix. Travelling along the Aston Expressway from Spaghetti Junction high above the red brick terraces of Witton and Perry Barr. To right cranes lift members into place on the expanding steel structure that will be the new stand to Villa Park, the home of Aston Villa Football Club.

The road dips down to be enclosed by concrete walls, the traffic increases to five lanes in each direction, as the urban motorway merges with slip roads that merge to form a continuous strip of vehicles joining and leaving the main flow. In a cutting trees adorn the top of the concrete walls, and up ahead a Victorian steam pump of the type developed by Thomas Newcomen stands in the middle of Dartmouth Circus, the intersection with the middle ring road simply known as the Middleway. The outer ring road is not really a ring road, it is that collection of roads that form the number 11 bus route that is probably known to every student that has ever studied in Birmingham.

Emerging from the underpass, the route rises to pass the brick blocks of Aston University and the fire station, curving gently passing by the fire station at roof level. Dipping down again alongside Pugin’s brick built St Chad’s Cathedral, passing beneath the J.F. Kennedy Mural, the black arches of Snow Hill Station and climbing the hill with the post modern brick and patent glazing facades of the financial district on the left side, and something that resembles a war zone on the right, a product of urban blight as a result of the ring road, ruined industrial buildings stand in a landscape of rough vacant lot where buildings have been cleared but nothing has arrived to take its place. A thin concrete footbridge passes overhead, diving into the patent glazed pane of an office block. A brief glimpse catches the distorted reflection of the BT Tower, Birmingham’s tallest landmark, a communications tower.

Close to the top of the hill the road plunges down into the Queensway Tunnel, not a tunnel in the traditional sense, a concrete lined cutting with a concrete lid that passes beneath Paradise Circus and the Central Library. The tunnel is a continual curve to left that bursts out into the daylight alongside the red cage, a car park that is clad in a framework of red steel box sections and meshes, with planters, like large window boxes, with vines and climbers slowly concealing the car park between a blanket of green.

Passing beneath a footbridge with a spiral ramp, past grey office blocks to follow signs to the City Centre, exit the motorway and take the left onto Smallbrook Queensway where the Concrete Collar has been broken, block paving lines the surface of the street, trees are planted in iron gratings. Shop fronts appear at the base of the concrete blocks, on the right side the concrete block is continuous, crossing the road on enormous concrete legs, the façade a sculptural ribbon that follows the curve of the road. The façade below the ribbon reads like a high water mark, and now the tide has gone out exposing the shop fronts and a street.

The traffic light turns green and the road climbs to pass beneath the heavy white bridge of the Bull Ring Centre, past the North point in the median to enter St Martins Circus, the Rotunda on the left above a concrete wall, on the right the Fuji Film building behind the trees that are visible over the top of the concrete wall. Passing alongside the Bull Ring Centre between the concrete walls, a glimpse of the black spire of St Martins, a peculiar pub situated block on concrete legs above what appears to be a void bearing the name ‘The Ship Ashore’. Traffic is dominated the blue and silver of buses as they grow more concentrated along the array of stops that bring people into the city centre.

Passing along Moor Street Queensway, the brick and cast iron ruin of the abandoned former Great Western Railway station, that stands alongside the steel and polycarbonate sheet addition that was made when the railway was reconnected with Snow Hill in 1987 in a reversal of the Beeching plan of the 1960s. The road dips beneath the elevated traffic island of Masshouse Circus, a forest of concrete columns and wire netting fences preventing people from walking out of the car park and into the traffic. Rising once again on James Watt Queensway alongside the brick clad blocks of the halls of residence at Aston University, to the Fire station beneath the elevated Aston Expressway.

The full story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris — Do We Need ARCHITECTS? A Journey Beneath the Surface of Architecture

Birmingham with Sunshine - Dubai 2013

On driving in Dubai for the first time, there is an inescapable feeling that this is Birmingham. Those developments masterminded by Herbert Manzoni, not so much the ‘Concrete Collar’ but the spine roads that run through reconstructed areas of city, like the Walsall Road for example, a road that is dominated by flyovers, underpasses and traffic islands. Here in Dubai it is as though the Walsall Road has been super sized ten to fourteen lanes wide as opposed to six to ten.

Heading out on to the Palm Jumeira, which looks so elegant when flying into Dubai, from the point of view of the driver, could just as easily be St Elia’s La Cita Nova, Le Corbusier’s La Voisin Plan, or Nechells in Birmingham, identical apartment blocks march alongside both sides of a wide road, completely divorced from each other. Of course the sunshine and Palm Trees planted along the central median, mean that this cannot possibly be Birmingham, but the planning strategies are similar. The main difference is that the wide road is almost deserted, in the centre, above the trees is a monorail, although there do not appear to be any trains running along it. 

This not Birmingham, this is the Palm Jumeira, an artificial island formed in the iconic shape of a palm tree when viewed from the air and a symbol of Dubai’s desire to build bigger, better and more exclusive than anywhere else. This being one of three ‘Palms’ built in the sea off the coast of Dubai, the others being a complete palm at Jebel Ali and a third, emerging out of the sea at Deira, close to the Airport, to date this is the only one that has been built on.

The marching blocks cease, the wide road becomes narrower, and glimpses of sea become visible between the smaller apartment blocks and signs point to the fronds that make up the iconic shape as viewed from the air. Up ahead another iconic shape that is the Atlantis resort, a hotel seemingly transplanted from the Bahamas, with a huge Arabic arch spanning between the two triangular wings of hotel. The road dips down into the curving ’Queensway’ tunnel and re-emerges on the Crescent, an inhabited breakwater that protects the private beaches of the fronds. The crescent is another world entirely, lush planting place the hotels in a tropical setting. Groups of tourists, arrive by the coach load to have their photographs taken in front of the Atlantis hotel, behind the photographer, the sea wall and the Persian Gulf. 

The full story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris — Do We Need ARCHITECTS?

Flow of Time - Birmingham 2015

Descending from the bridge adjacent to The Cube along the ramp to gently arrive onto the towpath, and continue the one mile walking route that was established by the development of the Mailbox, the left bank of the Birmingham Canal Old Line, with its converted Victorian buildings, feels like walking through an old area of the city, looming up beyond the rooftops is the home of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), a distinctive barrel vault building, a former lead works artfully refurbished by Associated Architects. Glazed panels, stack bonded buff brickwork set in a Miesian black metal frame form the southern façade, backlit in a cool glow as it falls into the shadow of the setting sun, its ochre coloured Cotswold stone eastern façade retained from the original 1921 building, seamlessly integrated into the new build, giving the impression of an old building restored as opposed to façade retention to create a stage set.

Standing directly opposite on Holliday Street is the new Registry Office, a composition of planes in cream coloured terracotta rainscreen cladding, no doubt picking up from its neighbour, dark grey metal frames, seemingly intending to stand out from red of the urban plane. Walking along the towpath past the pubs and cafes situated in the Victorian canal side buildings gives an air of authenticity to the waterfront. On the opposite bank, attention is once again drawn to the Premier Inn, part of a national chain of budget hotels, situated in a five storey red brick imitation of its Victorian neighbours, demonstrates the banality of the 1980s approach to modern architecture, where in the era of post-modernism the approach was to build cheap imitations of historic buildings as opposed to developing an architecture contemporary to its time, and as a result feels like an object that is frozen in the wrong time period. The sense of displacement is further emphasized by the twenty one-storey white concrete and graphite panel composition accommodating close to four hundred apartments and hotel that is Centenary Plaza, designed by Weedon Architects as phase one of Arena Central master-planned by HOK. The contrast between these two developments themselves clearly demonstrates the limitations of the 1980s approach to city planning compared with the 2000s. Although a distant memory of passing through Birmingham on a canal boat holiday in the summer of 1986, the Premier Inn building was new, surrounded by industrial decay, the ICC and the Hyatt were concrete structures slowly emerging from the ground, placing it at the start of Birmingham’s canal renaissance.

Continuing along the towpath towards Gas Street Basin, and arriving at Warwick bar, that historically separated the jurisdiction of two canal operators, the Tap and Spile pub is situated in the former toll house, and the lock that prevented canal carriers from passing through without paying a toll, is now an open narrow channel, crossing the cast iron bridge and onto the Warwick Bar which is still a lively environment, with canal boats moored along both sides, although not operated by canal carriers, these are private house boats and hired pleasure craft. On the right hand side of the bar Gas Street Basin, the boarded up pub, the James Brindley, a venue of many enjoyable gatherings with my fellow students now stands as a sad monument to the mock Victoriana of the 1980s, its glazed atrium with barrel vault roof reminiscent of scaled down version of Paxton’s Crystal Palace, but with glazing bars in dark green. Ready to be demolished and replaced, or just waiting for a new operator to move in and revive its fortunes? Who knows?

On the left hand side, Regency Wharf, depicted by the retro painted sign on the brickwork of the former glassworks, giving the place a sense of authenticity although only applied relatively recently. The canal leads to two dead ends that are bridged by the typical brick built hump-backed bridges, one leading to what was the loading dock for the glassworks, its dock filled in and now built over with a buff terracotta, and grey steel construction that accommodates bars and restaurants, added in 2002, designed by Level 7 Architects, that partially obscures the dated red brick imitation Victorian plant room to the Hyatt Hotel. The second bridge adjacent to the James Brindley, leads to the demolition site where the Central Television Studios once were, and in the master plan for Arena Central would connect to the lake that would become an ice rink in winter, the blanked off bridge also emphasises the extent to which industry once penetrated the city.

The towpath continues beneath the inhabited bridge of Broad Street, completely surrounded high brick walls, and bursts out into the evening light of Brindleyplace, where the reflections are completely still, the lights on the suspension bridge, the people sitting at tables outside the Pitcher and Piano enjoying the evening, and at the end of this waterside vista, the NIA now branded as the Barclaycard Arena, and what a transformation! Blank white and grey panels have been replaced by glass augmented by vertical copper fins, and life! What once felt like the service entrance to the arena is now a promenade lined with bars, restaurants and creates another venue to enjoy life in the city. Standing on the promenade, looking back at along the canal with its traffic island on the junction that separates the routes that lead to Worcester passing Brindleyplace, and to Warwick and eventually London, heading off to the left. Remembering standing in the exact same place on a cold day as a first year architecture student in late 1993, the city is unrecognisable, it is difficult not to be impressed by the regeneration that has taken place in the past quarter of a century. The grass bank behind the promenade fencing now occupied by a completed Brindleyplace, the then derelict brick buildings now fully restored, and very much part of the life of the city.

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Paradise Shift - Birmingham 2015

The walk over the bridge that spans the roadworks on the inner ring road at Paradise Circus is a depressing one, site hoardings define the entrances to the Copthorne Hotel, Chamberlain House, gone are the Grapevine pub that was later named The Yardbird, and the Italian restaurant below the Library Theatre, graphics on the hoardings claim that the development is ‘History in the Making’ referring to the scheme as simply ‘Paradise’ as the traffic island that defined the ‘circus’ is thankfully being removed. Ahead the iconic inverted ziggurat John Madin’s Birmingham Central Library stands derelict, rain stained and despite campaigns by the 20th Century Society, the building was not listed and now stands awaiting its demise at the hands of demolition contractors. 

On the site hoardings are visuals of the scheme that will replace such an icon and surprise, surprise, more Grade A office space accommodated in the same blocks as proposed for Arena Central, it is as though the less vibrant elements of Brindleyplace are being replicated across the city, transforming the civic heart into another office district driven by net-lettable area and vacant office space, augmented by a few expensive restaurants and exclusive apartments, throwing out the baby with the bathwater perhaps? Universally loved it was not, but a destination in the civic heart of Birmingham it was, with a strong identity that personifies the design of late 20th Century. As a library it worked just fine, it needed some of the circulation elements updating, it needed a good clean, to return it to its 1973 glory, in a similar way to London’s South Bank Centre, together with some intelligent landscape improvements, this could easily retain its status as an icon in the civic centre of Birmingham. The reality is that the library has moved out to the hugely expensive Mecanoo decorated box that effectively does exactly the same thing. The question is what to do with Madin’s Library if it were retained, based on its location alone, adjacent to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Gas Hall, it would make an ideal home for modern artworks, a permanent exhibition of works associated with the Manzoni plan for the modern Birmingham, the models of the unrealized 1930s Civic Centre, that resulted Baskerville House being the only completed element, that was listed and refurbished. The unrealised Madin plan of the 1960s, with the central Library as its surviving element, would make an ideal location to exhibit the heroic visions of the future, along with all the public art that was commissioned at the time, what happened to the relief sculpture in the banking hall of the Lloyds at the base of the Rotunda? What happened to the relief sculptures that were displaced by the development of Martinau Galleries? All these traces of the identity of the city swept away in the name of commercial development. The central library could be the centerpiece of the new development, commercial drivers accommodated in a mixed-use landmark tower in the manner of Piano’s ‘The Shard’ at London Bridge. No need for costly demolition, costly in both financial and environmental terms. 

Walking through the internal street that passes beneath the inverted Ziggurat, gone are all the meeting places: Wetherspoons, Raphaels, McDonalds, that formed a central part of the lives of so many students, along with recitals at the Conservatiore or live music events at X-posure Rock Café in the adjacent blocks that are soon to be demolished. Looking up through atrium of the library that is now an empty shell, bizarre steel trusses define what were once the retail units that were added when the Paradise forum underwent a facelift removing all the plastic stage set resembling Roman ruins. Now everything is locked away behind site hoardings claiming that history is in the making when in reality it is once again being swept away, this time to become an anonymous new pedestrianized street passing between office blocks that could be situated just about anywhere.

The back story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris - Do We Need ARCHITECTS? 

Retrofitting Infrastructure - Birmingham 2015

It is July 2015 and almost 2 years since my previous visit to the city and it is a city that is largely in bits, from massive reorganisation in the centre, to retrofitting infrastructure it is a city undergoing open-heart surgery on a vast scale. Outside the confines of the New Street Station and Grand Central redevelopment, slow movement until the bus finds its allocated slot along Corporation Street, and the final lurch to a stop is no longer a way of arriving into Birmingham, still in the rain, Corporation street is closed to traffic, tram lines are being reinstated in the street surface which is a welcome sight, a sense of rediscovering what was lost in the 1960s.

Crossing Corporation street and passing the end of what was once Martineau Square, Commercial Union House still sits above a retail podium, clad in yellow concrete and blue glazing frames seemingly dominated by a singe retailer ‘Poundland’, the development branded as Martineau Galleries, replaced the rain soaked precinct, and the deserted plaza, first experienced on arrival in Birmingham in 1993, which is no longer deserted, it is dominated by a busy and now well established Sainsbury’s store in the city centre with its plaza surrounded by coffee shops partly covered by Teflon coated fabric canopies that arrived in the 2000s in stark contrast to both the concrete environment of its predecessor and in urban terms to the big box out of town retail park that is so prevalent in the UK.

Walking down the pedestrianised Union Street that crosses Corporation Street, and heading down to High Street or is the pedestrianised surface between Frankfurt’s Konstablewache and Hauptewache with a glass tower at the end resembling the Rotunda? Part of the pristine concrete paved surface has been displaced by site hoardings and cabins, notices on the cabins talk of Birmingham becoming a sustainable city, and in the trench in the ground below the surface a district heating main is being installed, part of the Birmingham District Energy Scheme, a tri-generation project producing heat, power, and chilled water, which aims to reduce CO emissions by 60%.

The back story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris - Do We Need ARCHITECTS?

The amazing transformation of New Street Station

Arriving in July 2015 and standing before a huge eye looking out over the cityscape, resembling one of H.G. Well’s fighting machines from ‘The War of the Worlds’, the eye a glazed screen set in a huge polished stainless steel ribbon, that gives the most amazing abstract reflections of the city, from the trains passing below to people moving along a new thoroughfare that threads between the hole in the city fabric that surrounds tracks and platforms and the back of the Odeon Cinema, it is a very busy thoroughfare with a green wall on the right side, where clipped vegetation in a raised planter that forms a continuous bench, creates an edge along what is essentially a huge blank brick wall turning its back on the life of the city, on the left a glass wall, giving a clear view of the constant flow of trains arriving and departing at what is the UK’s busiest station outside of London.

Beyond, the high concrete wall that for so long has divorced the station from the life of the city. Following the green wall beneath the steel ribbon and straight onto Stephenson Place! Such a seemingly insignificant addition to the city’s fabric, is having a major impact, probably reducing the walk from Moor Street to New Street by 5 minutes, which in the morning rush is a major advantage. Stephenson Place, below the steel ribbon is abuzz with construction activity, like Corporation Street, tram lines are being laid in the street surface in a move the will finally provide the transit link between Snow Hill and New Street in the first phase of the extension to the Midland Metro, joining up arrival at New Street with a quick and convenient link to Birmingham’s financial district.

Walking off Stephenson Place and straight onto the concourse of New Street Station, no more fighting your way along the McDonalds ramp and through the Pallasades shopping centre, situated where the lower car park used to be, this is without a doubt a very smart move, finally reconnecting what should be the centre of the city with the life of the city. 

The walk along the concourse feels a bit like some of the newer underground stations in London at this stage, as the atrium is still under wraps, rapidly nearing completion. High quality finishes, increased ceiling height, make a huge difference to the dispersal bridge that previously provided the route between the shopping centre above and the trains below. No longer an artificially lit corridor, even as work is still in progress this is a huge improvement, daylight at the far end signals the arrival onto the corner of Hill Street and Station Street, gone is the taxi route of Queens Drive and the sunken pit of the parcels depot and Stephenson Tower on its spindly columns above a dark undercroft, and steps lead out into the brightness of the city. No longer is Hill Street a one sided street, its life reflected back on the continuous steel ribbon, above the ribbon a curving frosted glass volume, probably five storeys high, bearing the name John Lewis, a fitting counterpoint to Future Systems’ Selfridges at the far end of the Bull Ring.

The ribbon, reflects the sky and the life of the city in what seems to be a constantly moving abstract sculpture, creating a bright centre of the city, and more importantly, the activities below and beneath the surface treatment of the waving façade, have been reconnected with the life of the city. From a theoretical point of view some of the reorganization of the activities may seem quite simple, substitute a car park for concourse, open up entrances onto the street, create a new bridge alongside the pit, but to do this on an operational station that is handling 35 million passengers a year (The Guardian 22 July 2015) is nothing short of amazing. As streetscape, this is a huge volume, and as a object in the centre of the city, indeed it is the centre of the city and the solution of wrapping a huge reflective ribbon around it is nothing short of genius, where the concrete structure beneath sucked life out of the city, now the vista looking along any street leading to the station is met with brightness, even on a dull day, it is unmistakable from anywhere that New Street Station and its partner, Grand Central, the retail concourse above, has established itself as a destination in its own right.

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The Tide of Change

Written from the perspective of arriving to Birmingham in 1993 and discovering the layers that make up the city, subsequently many more layers have been applied in the constant tide of change, and now with the opening of the new Birmingham New Street station following its epic reorganisation, this piece gives a brief insight into the urban journey.

On the sixth floor of the Central Library, is the map section, containing Historic maps of Birmingham in plan chests that do not show Spaghetti Junction, or the areas surrounding it. The earliest is dated 1732 and shows St Martins, surrounded by small buildings and sure enough the Shambles as the mural in the Bull Ring depicts. On the map Birmingham is a market town, English Market, Welsh Market, Beast Market. The greatest landmark is the manor house protected by a moat that the local histories cite as the residence, the seat of power of the landowners the de Berminghams, dating back to the Tenth Century. Later maps show the inundation of industry and workers housing, small outdoor markets, replaced by Market Hall. Then slum clearance at the railway company’s expense, a significant area of town disappears from the map to make way for New Street Station, Peck Lane and the Froggary, along with three churches and a synagogue disappeared from the city map, as the site was lowered by 25ft in 1850. In a sense, urban devastation in the name of the public good, stories tell of the public exerting pressure on the railway companies, complaining that the existing station at Curzon Street was too far out of the city centre.

During construction the project was referred to as “Grand Central station at Birmingham” in ‘the Builder’ on 25th January 1853; reporting on the erection of vast 25 Ton ribs, 45 of which make up the roof.

In addition new civic buildings were erected exuding the wealth of the city, such as the hotel that was being erected on the site by the London and North Western Railway. The hotel became the Queens Hotel when it opened on 1st June 1854, along with the station becoming New Street Station, although not actually on New Street, I suppose the name ‘New Street’ sounds more glamorous than ‘Peck Lane’, although what happened to the name ‘Grand Central Station’ went, is unknown. There are other significant events that have changed the map, from the enlargement of the station during the 1870's, to the events of World War II taking their toll on the station as the grand iron roof sustained numerous direct hits, along with the neighbouring market hall, and finally the Manzoni Plan that has resulted in the city as it stands today. On the ground, traces remain of the market town shown on the maps, the blackened edifice that is St Martins hidden among the ring road, shopping centre and numerous car parks. Four lanes of traffic now circulate on Moat Lane where the historic maps show the moat to the manor house. The site of the manor house itself is now hidden beneath the vast concrete framed enclosure of the Wholesale market. Along Digbeth High Street, car dealerships dominate the street scene, car parks, billboards, filling in the spaces between the more significant buildings: Police Station, Coach Station, Irish Centre…Away from the high street, the dark brick arches of Bordesley viaduct dominate the street scene, now detached from the railway and marooned above the rooftops.

To be continued...

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Reflections on Dubai

Dubai is an interesting one in the context of the journey, at the beginning of the journey I had no idea where Dubai was, it did feature on the BBC Television Series, Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, but never registered as a place to visit, it was simply a port in the Persian Gulf on the wrong side of the Strait of Hormuz. 20 years later it is a different story, many colleagues are telling stories about working on the city growing out of the desert. Flights heading towards Asia from the UK, often involved making connecting flights in Dubai, and passing through the airport, and seeing so many nationalities, it really does feel like a global hub. The glossy promotional videos onboard Emirates flights give an impression of paradise, with clear blue skies, deep azure seas, deep orange sunsets over the dunes and the glittering towers in a New York on steroids scenario. 

By 2008, my company at the time Aedas, was immersed in the design of the Dubai Metro, the conic shells for the stations being developed in the London Studio, the depots at Jebel Ali and Rashidiya being handled by a team in Birmingham, both backed up by a huge team in Dubai, and teams in Hong Kong and Singapore, a truly collaborative process, although not without its challenges and as often in the harsh reality of project delivery was far from glamourous for those involved. The city as a place to relocate to, has represented something of a mirage in the sand, the financial crisis of 2008 put a stop to the expat 'gold rush', the city went bankrupt having to be bailed out by Abu Dhabi and many projects stopped. In 2010 the situation in the UK caused by the halt to public spending following a change of government, the need to consider relocating abroad became a very real one, but Dubai was already a closed shop, and in subsequent years visits have always been fleeting but reveal something of a completely different city to the one in the glossy images and videos. The city on the ground being one of highways, dust, haze and major works incomplete, or still in progress, towers standing empty and the gloss contained within huge shopping malls. 

In the past 5 years the city has been one that has been consistently of interest, from analysing the planning strategies that has resulted in the disjointed artificial environments, to the implementation of the Metro in an attempt to link all of these realities together, and the ongoing retro fitting of infrastructure to an existing situation. On planning projects telling clients that they are looking at developing projects equated to the 'size of Dubai' seems to be the only way that they understand the scale of what they are undertaking. As a subject, Dubai is a great learning experience for all of us, from uncontrolled growth and the notion that you can build anything you want based on money that does not actually exist, to the city learning itself, whether working in the city or following its growth from a distance it is surely one worth watching.

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I Dream in SketchUp...

During the course of 25 years of working in the field of architecture, changes to the way we practice have changed little, that is in terms of the big chunk of what we do being administration, coordination, talking to people to ensure that the project is moving in the right direction in essence, project management. The other side of it being the design side has changed significantly in terms of the tools that are available to us and those that we are expected to use. in 1987, the tools were 'Rotring' drawing pens, tracing paper, T square and drawing board, along the way there have been different tools that involve sitting in front of a computer and not drawing at all, in the traditional sense. It is still great to be able to draw on paper, although most of the 'Rotrings' have long since dried up, and drawing tends to be felt pen on detail paper these days, it is still a humbling experience to sit with a master and watch as amazing drawings emerge from the tip of their pen.

Over the years there are many tools that have been used in the virtual world of CAD, Minicad (known as Vectorworks these days) which in my experience was completely useless, Archicad which was brilliant, Autocad which was next to useless, and it was a complete surprise to me to find that this is considered the industry standard, Microstation which was better than Archicad, then moving practices and being back on Autocad which seemed at the time to be completely useless, then in 2005 came a free software that is like making card models in a virtual environment...SketchUp!, I have been using SketchUp! for 10 years now, and this is my first impression of using it in 2005.

Is this the tool that designers have been waiting for? I think it could very well be. I have no idea what was the best thing before sliced bread, or what it has to do with architecture, but this could be the best thing since. No longer is it a process of drawing up plans in AutoCAD then having someone take them into 3D Studio or one of the parametric plug-ins that are needed to make AutoCAD anything close to usable. Here it is possible to create computer models, intuitively working directly in perspective as though making the model physically.

Fantastic spaces, places emerge on the screen where previously it would take weeks of drawing, sketching and test models to visualize a space, and those times where a whole day can be spent setting up a perspective only to discover that the view is not telling the story that you want it to. Here finding the right view takes minutes if you know what you are doing, and assembling the elements to make the view meaningful can be done in real time. It is like moving in a different world, one of an interactive drawing that can be arranged and modified at will. It is hugely rewarding and at the same time hugely frustrating, as it is so easy to use it is also very easy to cock it up! Erase one line and half the model disappears.

It is great for explaining ideas to clients that are not technically minded, and even the technically minded ones can not all read plans, but walk them through a series of spaces they get a feel for what is being proposed and can give more useful feedback. It is also something of a double-edged sword in that it is easy to give the impression that everything can be done quickly, and Clients can become less understanding with regard to the time frame required to get things done.

The problem remains that most contractors cannot build from 3D views and animations, they still need flat 2D drawings printed to scale, which invariably means that everything still gets drawn in AutoCAD, with the advantage that design can be more thoroughly worked out before going to CAD.

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The Beaubourg Legacy

There are a few threads that define the journey that makes up the story that is told in Do We Need Architects, A Journey beneath the Surface of Architecture, and like the cities that were visited many times throughout the journey a few projects that are like DNA markers on the city. The markers define not exactly a building type, and not exactly a particular 'style' as the symplistic definition of architecture is based, but in the evolving process of the meeting of two minds and the development of a team around the exchange of ideas. The two minds: Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and the team included the personalities of Mike Davies and Jan Kaplicky who is best known for his work under the name Future Systems, and thoughout the journey sometimes planned, sometimes chance encounters with some of the projects gives a very strong indication of design evolution. 

The journey in tracing the evolution began in the classroom, at college on the BTEC Building Studies course at South Devon College, probably around 1989, discussing building services and hearing about an exhibition centre in France that has all the services on the outside of the building to free up the rectangular volume for the events it was hosting. Later was the discussion about the notion of 'white elephant' and another about the relatively new and shiny Lloyds building in the City, (financial centre of London). On visiting London in the summer of 1989, and seeing the Lloyds building for real the journey of discovery had commenced although I did not recognise it at the time.

Years later, on a study visit to Paris, standing in the plaza of CNAC Georges Pompidou on the Beaubourg Plateau, discussing the project with my fellow students, a few things fell into place, firstly this was the 'exhibition centre' that was being discussed at college and somehow the description at the time did nothing to prepare me for actually experiencing it up close. The second thing that fell into place was the association with the name Richard Rogers, a name I did know from the Lloyds building, and the notion that the two projects were linked. There are many stories about the design and construction of both projects, that formed the basis of my dissertation on the Post Graduate Diploma in that resulted in RIBA Part 2 qualification in 1999, the main focus of the study was the design process, the team, the approach and legacy of such a dramatic project.

Throughout the years many projects have been completed by individuals who made up the Piano+Rogers team, some have been visited, experienced and examined from Centre Pompidou itself, to the Lloyds Building, The Millennium Dome, Birmingham's Selfridges, Heathrow Terminal 5, The Shard, the Leadenhall Building...that all give a sense of progression, evolution of a design process that is borne out of program not aesthetics, defines a language not a style, a process that is always learning, changing, adjusting to the human events, needs and environment that architecture has to respond to beneath the surface of what is viewed by the media and by extension the public. 

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Business as Usual is not an Option

This is a look at the big picture courtesy of Siemens: http://www.siemens.com/press/pool/de/events/2011/corporate/2011-10-sevenbillion/factsheet-7billion-e.pdf

Cities cover only one percent of the Earth’s surface but are home to more than half of humanity, consume 75 percent of the available energy and emit around 80 percent of all harmful greenhouse gases. The UN It is estimates that roughly 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban centres by 2050 . In the current scenario, the world population of seven billion is projected to reach 9.3 billion by 2050, in which the population of cities will nearly be as large as the entire world population today. Today, humanity uses the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. In a business-as-usual scenario, the world’s demand for raw materials (metal ores, fossil fuels, biomass, non-metallic minerals) will more than double from 60 billion metric tons today to 140 billion tons in 2050. Also, energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions would double in such a scenario.

What can we as architects, urban designers, planners do about it? In terms of technical expertise, we know how to design buildings so that they are energy efficient, we know how places should be designed to respond best to the environment, we also know that joined up thinking regarding infrastructure and urban planning is a good starting point to achieving cities that consume less energy, manage resources and above all provide good quality environments to live, to work, to be educated, to enjoy...so why does this not happen? In existing cities, there are many smart city initiatives aimed at retro-fitting infrastructure, whether is is creating new major transport links, cycle networks, district heating/cooling networks and the use of technology to make us more aware of the facilities that are available to us. In creating new cities this should be easy, and in many cases it can be as long there is the will on the part of the project sponsor(s) to depart from 'business as usual' and invest in the elements of infrastructure that are usually perceived as expensive in the short term but provide significant savings in the long term, invest in the elements that developers do not see as financially viable that make the difference between a great urban new environment and just another development.

The problem on many projects is that the key decisions regarding budget and development potential have been made before designers get involved, and subsequently those intangible elements that are to do with creating a sense of place, are very often seen as a 'nice to have' but do not earn revenue for the developer so are discounted early on, or at least render the process a struggle to build in any quality or achieve an appropriate balance between infrastructure and commercial space.

Perhaps we collectively need to redefine the notion of value and quality based on criteria that is not derived from short-term financial gain. 

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Reflections on London

London has always been of interest to me for as long as I can remember, whether is is through seeing views of London on the television, in picture postcards brought back by friends who have visited, or the memorabilia that is associated with the nation's capital, the red Routemaster bus, the black cab or the Underground. London seems to be a city that has in a sense eluded me, in terms in a number circumstances I have tried to move to London to live and work, but for one reason or another has not happened to date.

Over the time span of 25 years there have been many opportunities to visit, and in a sense there is always something new, something exciting happening in the constant tide of change, that is transforming the city. Massive infrastructure projects that are far greater than London itself, when I first visited the capital for the purposes of the story in 1989, the Channel Tunnel did not yet exist, although it was work in progress, the first phase of Docklands Light Railway had only just opened, Heathrow Terminal 5 was still in the design stages if it existed as a concept at all, and who ever heard of Crossrail? Events that seemed a distant future concept from life in the deprived city of the late 1980's in Thatcher's Britain, the Millennium Celebrations, the 2012 Olympics have been and gone, facilitated by some pretty dramatic changes to the City, the Jubilee Line, Eurostar and much later HS1 that completed the link to Europe, the regeneration of the Docklands, the dramatic transformation of the Greenwich Peninsula and what became the Olympic Park in Stratford that are still driving regeneration of the East end of London.

Projects have been undertaken and delivered, each with their own story to tell, some more controversial than others: Waterloo International, The Millennium Dome, The Millennium Footbridge, The Olympic Stadium, St Pancras International, The Shard, The Emirates Air Line to name a few, that have each played their part in cementing London's position as a global capital, signifying the constant change and growth of a living city. Social, political and cultural forces generate the need for change, and countless professionals are involved in the delivery of a built product that the public interacts with, experiences and forms opinions about. There are probably countless professionals that will disagree with me but there is only one profession that can comprehend the social, political and cultural forces into a set of requirements that form the program for what is built and that profession is architecture.

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The story continues...What is Architecture?

In terms of redefining what we do it is worth understanding what is meant by the name ‘Architecture’, and by extension establishing the term architecture when viewed from different contexts. Most people will probably share something of a view of architecture as given by the simplistic definition in the Collins Gem English dictionary, architecture is 'style in which a building is designed and built; designing and construction of buildings.'

In reality it is far more than style and construction, in terms of the built environment such as a town or city, the Architecture is described as everything that is built that defines the character of the place. Taking the architecture of New York for example, it is The Grid, Skyscrapers and Central Park. Elements that themselves have nothing to do with the style of the buildings. In many cities much of the built form may not have been designed and supervised by Architects, the built result is the Architecture.

In design terms of process: Architecture is about making interventions into the living fabric of the city, responding to physical context and negotiating the bureaucratic minefield that is the social and political context, convincing clients, local authorities and the public of the need to change and setting out an appropriate course of action to make it happen.

In production terms, it is considered differently. For some it is about the process of making buildings, in this context the expertise of architects becomes marginalized and sometimes it does feel like being relegated to giving advice on surface treatments, landscape architecture deals with everything that is outside of the building, engineering disciplines assume that they have priority over building elements such as structural, mechanical, electrical systems, there are specialisms such as façade engineering and so on, although without the architecture there is no engineering, and in crude terms all the engineering disciplines need the architectural ‘backgrounds’ to be complete before they start their work, and the process of practicing Architecture becomes dominated by issues associated with coordination, and managing the process.

Procurement processes can significantly influence the amount of control that the Architect has over the process. In many cases the concept design and production are divorced from one another, creating a disconnection between what is intended and what is built.

For some it is a question of scale, on large urban projects all disciplines fall under the umbrella of Architecture, it is architecture that sets the program for the development, and in this context urban design, master planning, landscape form part of the Architecture, and depending on the bias of the project, take London’s Olympic Park for example, the project was led by Landscape Architects, in this context it is not only the process, but Architecture forms the framework allows all the elements to interact with each other to create a unified whole.

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So, Why be an Architect?

It does seem that as Architects take the blame for any number of factors that are beyond the scope of design, time delays and cost over-runs seem to be the most popular, and are subject to media scrutiny for any number of ‘design problems’ or sometimes merely down to the fact that somebody does not ‘like’ it irrespective of what it is actually achieving for the community. It is easy to criticise somebody else’s work based on personal views of what is deemed good or bad, it is like saying that I prefer Jaguar cars over BMW therefore BMW is not good, which of course is stupid. Then there is the scenario where somebody did not install one of over a thousand components correctly and there is a problem that needs to be rectified, therefore this is a bad car, bad design and so on, which is equally stupid.

As a designer when talking with colleagues there is always scope to be able to say that ‘I would not have designed it that way’ without the knowledge of the challenges that the designer faced, resulting in the project following a certain strategy and having a certain appearance. As a critic it is more difficult to understand a project in terms of what it set out to achieve and be able to make a judgment as to whether the vision is being achieved. It is not always easy to convince clients that there are reasons not to follow practices that were accepted twenty-five years ago, particularly in regions where the perception is that Architecture is just building to make money. It is about educating clients and there is the real skill, it is not about drawing, rendering and fabrication details, specification, project schedules and so on. It is about the sharing of ideas and sharing of knowledge, taking the clients on the journey, from having a vague idea to fully understanding their requirements and the impact that the project will have on their image, and how they are perceived by the local community and in some cases, the global community.

Why be an Architect? This is why, to make a difference! Hopefully to make what will prove to be a lasting and positive contribution to society, the built environment, and the natural environment in which we live and depend on for our very existence.

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The first page - Why be an Architect?

It’s a bit like asking an athlete why train so hard to enter an event that you have no guarantee of winning, and in some cases no chance of finishing on the podium. As best summed up by Dr. Jaques Rogge in his speech at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games: ‘it is not about winning, it is about how you compete’.

Sometimes being an Architect feels a bit like competing at the highest level to secure last place. At other times it feels like it is a major achievement qualifying, and it is enough to be content with that. Having been that athlete competing at an amateur level, it is easy to draw comparisons between the motivations for entering a marathon say, or choosing to qualify as an architect, in one sense it is about self realization, the proving to that it is achievable, in another it is competing for a cause, Architecture is the latter.

As a profession we may be accused of fuelling our egos from time to time, being self satisfied, making grand gestures with bigger, better, taller buildings; making the rich even richer and so on. In reality the buildings are the legacy of an intense process of imagination, devotion and tenacity to get the project designed, agreed and delivered in time and on budget; and it is the Architects who are blamed when either of the last two are not met, even though the project is in the control of countless professionals whose sole job it is to control costs and program. Who ever heard of the quantity surveyor being blamed for cost overruns? Who ever heard of the project manager being blamed for late delivery, but in the case of the Millennium Dome and the often misquoted price tag of ‘seven hundred and fifty million pounds’ for a tent and it is the Architects’ practice name that is associated with it and the negative publicity that was generated by the media at the time. It is political and economic forces that dictate if, when or where development takes place, it is the architecture that attracts the attention, it is the lasting legacy of those decisions, and as Architects we become responsible for that legacy. Practices live or die on public opinion, the higher the profile of the project, the greater the risk taken by the Architect.

The truth is little was publicized at the time about the long term strategies for regenerating East London, I seem to remember briefly reading in the architectural press at the time (Building Design in 1997 I think) that the Dome would form part of an future Olympic bid following Birmingham and Manchester’s unsuccessful bids in the 1980’s and 1990’s respectively.

In 2012 and after five years of what seems to be continual negative publicity related to the cost of hosting an Olympic Games, and concerns about the legacy. London hosted the most successful games ever from a Team GB perspective, widely regard as a triumph from an international perspective. The opening ceremony, celebrated those human qualities that our people over generations have exhibited, imagination, tenacity perseverance, and it is widely recognized that the Games could not have been hosted without it.

So what did we do (as a profession)? Some members of the public may associate Architects’ names with the project: EDAW for the master plan of the Olympic park, others for the design of the venues, Populous for the design of the Olympic Stadium, Zaha Hadid: Aquatics Centre, Michael Hopkins: Velodrome, for example. Countless other nameless individuals as part of those teams, would have no doubt put in stupidly long hours, competing to win the project in the first place, then fighting to make the project the best that it can be against cost cutting, time constraints and the harsh reality of project delivery. So why do it? For some it is just a job, for some it is so they can say ‘I worked on that’ even if it was only coordinating the fit out of the toilets, for others it could be for the ‘experience’, whether it is about getting the big name on the CV or having the project in the portfolio.

In terms of the global view of Architecture in 2014 it seems that many feel that Architecture is a profession that is undervalued. It is difficult to secure work when you are in a practice and even more difficult to find work if you are not in practice. When in practice we have to compete for the work, and in many cases it feels like the only criteria is who can do it for the lowest fee. There are continual debates about the ethics of ‘buying work’ and devaluing the profession, there are other debates about the hijacking of the term architecture by IT professionals and the growing sense that people do not know what architects do.

The full story is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble published by Xlibris - Do We Need ARCHITECTS?