The Future of Architecture?

OK, so it is coming up to the end of 2012, and not to get caught up in the sentimentality of the numbers changing from 2012 to 2013, this post is just taking an opportunity to reflect on the story so far in terms of this exploration of what goes on beneath the surface of what we refer to as Architecture. The main thread has been about the legacy of our work, taking the city as a found object, New York, London,  and in some cases revisiting to build up a sense of the evolution of those places; East London from the construction of the Millennium dome to hosting the Olympics for example.My last few posts have been focused on Birmingham, the UK's second city, it is a city that I have come to know well, I have lived most of my adult life in Birmingham, over the course of 17 years Birmingham has become into a city that I am proud to have called home.

The experience in training as an Architect in the city has shaped me, and more specifically my direction towards what we refer to as Architecture. The city has changed dramatically in the 17 years, which is why I have started at 1993 which is the year that I first arrived. Throughout my architectural education there have been numerous projects set on the city, mainly on sites that are not easy and not obvious choices for development, which is probably why they are left as they are, vacant lots, derelict buildings or in some cases active buildings and complexes that nobody knows what to do with.

In conversations with friends and colleagues the subject of the purpose of Architecture inevitably comes up, or more to the point where do I see it going. The truth is none of us know how the future is going to pan out and it is becoming increasingly evident that it is unlikely that things will be the way they were before 2008.

For me it is about how we as Architects evolve to become ‘valued’ by society in the future. Experiences of analysing the built environment and in some cases the natural environment through student’s eyes then later dealing with some of the issues and viewing through professional’s eyes begin to set up a context and that context is Architecture.In this context everything built and man made in terms of environment is Architecture, it has been built by man for the use, enjoyment and in many cases non-enjoyment and eventually abandonment by man. Not that everything was built by Architects, much of what we live with is built outside the control of Architects. As a profession we were not responsible for the for the factories built during the industrial revolution for example, or the pollution caused to the air, rivers and ground contamination or the countless products that are discarded to litter the environment, but we are the only construction professionals with the knowledge, understanding and vision to deal with the legacy in a positive way.

In the post industrial plane we are capable of steering huge projects through the minefield of bureaucracy and address the social, cultural, economic issues to make a project a success. Architecture as a process is a hugely collaborative one, gone are the days when we could concentrate on one masterpiece and follow it through from initial sketch to final built product. Projects are far too complex to be driven by one person, today it is a team of specialist consultants whose specialist knowledge contributes to the overall vision under the leadership of the project leader. In many cases the project leader is not an Architect but could be from any construction related field and assumes the role of Project Manager.

That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing where the management of stakeholders and balancing conflicting requirements is a full time occupation. In many cases though projects are led by cost consultants with Architects relegated to positions where they have less influence. Over the past few years with the developed world in financial crisis and projects stopped and Architects being put out of work or continuing to work for ever diminishing fees it feels as though the profession is doomed to extinction. That is until you look at the world and the changing emphasis of economy, moving from a consumerist economy towards a growing understanding of carbon economy there is a greater need for Architects than there ever has been before. Who else in the design team can develop the strategic vision to achieve projects that are sustainable on all levels, with social and cultural relevance and have the leadership and knowledge to follow it through and pull all the elements together other than the Architect?

The Two Towers - Birmingham 1994

With Tolkien's Legacy back firmly in the public eye with the premier of The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey in New Zealand this week, it seems appropriate to share a connection related to the landmarks that inspired some of the imagery that makes the story so compelling.

6AM, the water is still at Edgbaston Reservoir, not that it should have been anywhere else but it is still, like a millpond. The willows that surround the reservoir are reaching like fingers over the reed beds, coots and moorhens swim in between the rushes, whilst ducks and geese are still asleep, that is until my crew and I take to the water in a Janousek racing 4... A warm up row towards the dam then turn, and a racing start, blades dig-in hard and we get moving with a thunk-slide-thunk as the rhythm picks up and there is a bubbling hiss as the boat gathers speed, 700 metres down the course and we run out of water and slow down after the burn. A brief recovery before turning about to repeat the exercise, and a brief chance to scan the horizon.

Tolkien’s two towers are silhouetted against the shifting gold and blue of the dawn sky not Orthanc and Barad Dur, but the Waterworks Tower and Perrott’s Folly, said to be the inspiration for the second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. A bit of research reveals that when Perrott’s folly was built in 1758 it was set in open parkland  and is now surrounded by not industry but homes and businesses that have grown up as a result of industrialisation and not too dissimilar from Orthanc at Isengard in that respect. The Waterworks tower is an elaborate chimney of a pumping station that was built to supply the city with water and would likely have been pumping out smoke to blacken the sky during Tolkien’s childhood, so could well have been  visualised as Barad Dur.

Another course and recovery and the sun begins to rise into the sky emerging from the left side of the cluster of towers that is the city centre. Perfectly reflected in the mirror like surface of the water, glinting in the mirror glass of the Hyatt Hotel, silhouetting the white concrete Alpha Tower that define the end of Broad Street. The slender BT tower appears the tallest with a s succession of residential towers and office blocks towers marching down the hill towards the Rotunda, strangely seeming to be the shortest from this vantage point. The city, so peaceful from this distance gradually awakens as we put in more laps. The boat is lifted out of the water, hosed and wiped down, returned to its rack in the boathouse. A quick run around the reservoir to warm down after the rowing, the path meanders its way through the trees of Rotton Park, past the sailing club and up onto the wall. A view down to the turn in the canal that is fed by the reservoir and the steadily increasing traffic on the Icknield Port Road. A golden spire, a stupa at the end of the wall marks a Buddhist Temple. A turn back beneath the Tower Ballroom towards the boathouse, the surface of the water takes on the ripple of a steady breeze as the day gets underway. Walking back towards the two towers the aroma of bacon and eggs fills the air issuing from the Reservoir cafe. Good morning Birmingham!

Beneath the concrete...Birmingham 1993.

Taking the canal towpath East towards the city centre, a different city presents itself as I ride slowly along the water’s edge under the bridges leading to the NIA, ‘new ‘ housing circa 1980s mimicking 1880s faces onto the canal on one side whilst the original canal side warehouses stand crumbling under the onslaught of British winters, neglect and industrial decline. To the right the canal opens up to become Cambrian Wharf, immaculately kept houseboats moored against the quayside with a crane at one end and the Flapper and Firkin, a good venue for live music, student nights and ‘Dogbolter’ at the other. The whole scene standing against a backdrop of ‘60s residential towers in parkland and mature trees. Passing beneath Farmers’ bridge carrying Summer Row the canal descends beneath the city in a series of locks, cycling becomes a lot slower as the worn brick cobbles that provide grip when ascending make for a bumpy descent. A burned out warehouse dominates the right hand side of the canal, rusting cast iron beams, fading green paintwork, blackened timbers and the ever present dark brickwork bursting with plant life and pigeons. At the head of another drop this time beneath Fleet Street is Birmingham’s Science Museum, a glimpse through the dusty windows reveals a huge steam locomotive, one of Sir William Stanier’s beasts that led the LMS’s quest for speed in the 1930s looking every bit like Rodney Matthews’ ‘Heavy Metal Hero’ in its close surroundings although I guess its fire went out long ago.

A forest of concrete columns sprout up from the canal bank and from the water of the pound next to the lock to support an office block that sits over the canal. On the opposite side the base of the BT tower, an elegant landmark when viewed from afar meets the ground amongst a scrum of grey transit vans in a secure compound behind steel fences. From one dark space to another, brick walls line the canal side, as the descent continues, a cavernous space opens up beneath Snow Hill where a mainly derelict railway spans the canal. In the damp world below pigeons dominate, roosting on every ledge that is available. It is easy to see where Tolkien found the inspiration for Isengard in Lord of the Rings. A longboat chugs its way between locks making the climb into Birmingham with glum faces on the fifty-somethings experiencing the less picturesque side of a relaxing canal boat holiday....’More canals than Venice’??? I guess quantity is not everything.

As daylight permeates the gloom and sky becomes visible again, the cinder track is smooth and cycling becomes easier. A metallic tang fills the air as machine shops are busy producing nuts, bolts and washers and the ride moves from city centre to what remains of the industrial heartland. Trees begin to appear on the right side as the canal widens out at Aston Junction, and the canal enters a more recently developed area, Aston Science Park, decaying brickwork gives way to steel, glass and aluminium composite panels set among trees as 1980s industrial architecture takes a hold. In the background the vast brick building that is Aston University with its ‘Eiffel tower’ communications mast. Brick cobbles, cast iron plates, deeply scored by years of tow cables line the entrance to Ashtead tunnel, a narrow track and another cyclist waits patiently at the other end. Out into daylight and more canal pounds lined by old brick buildings, some occupied, some vacant some crumbling, a flash of blue as a kingfisher darts across the water. A turn in the canal and what a tangle of viaducts! The railways that link Birmingham to the rest of the country converge at different levels as trains wait to enter New Street Station. At the bottom of the pile a very grand stone bridge that carries a line to a cement works. With a brick bridge built on top of it. The Cement works all that remains of the entrance to the original station at Curzon Street that was the first route linking London. The Greek temple like structure that was the original ticket hall now standing as a monument surrounded by tin sheds. In the distance a gantry crane works relentlessly unloading shipping containers from the trains onto trucks to carry the cargo for the final leg of its journey.

Proof house junction, an elaborate building known as the Proof House and centre piece of the ‘gun quarter’ looks out across the canal to a scrap yard where cars are crushed into cubes and stacked awaiting disposal. Under the bridge carrying Fazeley Street and into Typhoo Wharf, overgrown with weeds and feeling distinctly forgotten about, as blue tin sheds turn their back on the waterfront. A quick u-turn and a ride along the Grand Union Canal towards Solihull, warehouses line the right side and the scrap yard to the left gives way to another junction completely walled in by brick buildings.

A few miles past more scrap yards, industry, gas holders, St Andrews football ground sitting at the top of the hill. The canal meets the Gravelly Hill Interchange better known as ‘Spaghetti Junction’ the whole evolution of Birmingham can be seen in one spot. The River Tame, being bridged over by the canal network where the Bordesley Branch canal meets the Fazeley Canal and the Tame Valley Canal, with all the associated locks bridges, toll houses needed to make the canal network operate. The Local roads of Gravelly Hill, Nechells and Witton converge at Gravelly Hill Circus. The M6 and the A38M meet on concrete legs high above, with feeder roads linking from all directions, whilst the railway threads its way through the middle. A lake surrounded by trees and green spaces sits alongside the canal at Salford Park giving a small impression of what life may have been like before the onset of industrialisation.

Beyond the Concrete Jungle...Birmingham 1993

Heading West from the Rotunda the traffic gives way to a completely pedestrianised street, New Street. New terracotta block paving and trees in cast iron gratings define a new urban space, mime artists draw the crowds, while a pavement artist draws...Well very large pastel drawings, very good ones. At the top end of New Street the pristine fountain with cascading water and bronze statue known as the ‘Floozy in the Jacuzzi’ as the rush and gurgle of the water and the chiming of a bell announcing the hour sets a very different scene to that of the rush of the traffic at the bottom of New Street where it meets the Bull Ring, this feels like a city centre. Steps climb up to Victoria Square giant stone balls define the southern edge of the and the newly restored Council House, not a council house but the offices and chambers of the City Council. Anthony Gormley’s Iron Man sculpture stands at a jaunty angle against the backdrop of the Neo-Greek temple that is Birmingham Town Hall. Queen Victoria stands proudly on her podium in not quite the centre on the square which is actually well almost square. Heading onward between the Council House and Town Hall another urban space reveals itself, Chamberlain Square, which is more of an amphitheatre with the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial as its centrepiece. A miniature Gothic tower in white stone in set in a fountain. Winding up the ramp that cuts through the steps of the amphitheatre with freshers sitting amongst the statues taking their new surroundings. The building that accommodates the Council House also houses the Museum and art gallery which fronts onto Chamberlain, a venetian bridge leaps across Edmund Street to the Gas Hall. At the top of the ramp the pedestrian route disappears beneath the fantastic concrete sculpture, a kind of inverted ziggurat that is the Birmingham Central Library. McDonalds defines the entrance to the Paradise Forum, a kind of plastic stage set that continues the neoclassical flavour of the civic spaces outside. McDonalds is joined by Baskin and Robbins Ice cream parlour along with a Fish and Chips restaurant, along with other shopping centre favourites like Tie Rack, and lots of people. A Glance upward and colourful sails hang down from the steel and glass roof light that caps off the courtyard to the Library.

Continuing westward through a giant revolving door two patent glazed book ends define the route through to Centenary Square, passing by the Grapevine a wine bar that tucks in under the library. Flower beds line the street when passing through between the bookends and if you were not looking for it you could pass by unaware of the ring road passing below. Centenary Square, a long rectangular space with Civic Centre and Birmingham Repertory Theatre on the right, Alpha Tower an elegant white angular tower sitting above the Central Television studios. A splash of colour as an Indian wedding party emerge from the registry office to pose for photographs. At the far end  a mirrored glass tower, the Hyatt Hotel with faded blue steel structure spanning across Broad Street to connect with the giant white stone and mirrored glass of the International Convention Centre, (ICC) the flow of people walking west heads into the ICC, below the blue steel and glass canopy the red block paving gives way to polished granite and fig trees in an internal street that connects the Symphony Hall with the numerous halls of the convention centre linked with bridges and escalators.

Steps and ramps thread their way down to a plaza that stops at the waters edge, well actually it is the canal. In the centre of the Plaza a green cloud like sculpture is drawing the attention of many students as they are walking between the two halves of the cloud which are like copper moulds, taking photographs, trying to figure out what it means. park benches line the canal side, and some of my fellow students are sitting on them looking at the other side. A Victorian brick building the Oozells Street School is perched on the top of a shear wall of mud, whilst excavators continue taking away more of it. In the distance the National Indoor Arena (NIA) home of the TV show Gladiators. A walk along the canal towpath towards the NIA, a tall curving brick wall with the Brewmaster’s house sitting on top, a grey and white arch a kind of hornby railways bridge spans the canal to connect with the mud bank. Passing beneath the bridge, the mud bank gives way to green, a lush green mound of grass and clover behind a brick and stone wall with blue steel fence and light poles giving a seaside feel to the place. Derelict industrial buildings line the canal side heading towards the ICC along with original canal bridges and traffic island where the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal meets the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Red brick and render apartments occupy a triangular plot between two canals trying to give the area a feel of Amsterdam. Standing on the green mound old and new meet at the edges, shiny glass against blackened brick with weeds growing out of the parapets, canada geese occupy the green taking advantage of a landing spot before the development of Brindleyplace gets underway. 

Reasons to be optimistic.

Continuing with the Olympic flavour of my recent blogs, and my recent visit to the park, well the fence outside the park and the viewing gallery in John Lewis’. I have been watching for signs of what is going to happen next. Three sporting events that I know about on the back of London hosting the 2012 games are: Rowing World Championships at Eton Dorney in 2013, World Athletics Championships at Stratford in 2014 and the Rugby World Cup in 2015, probably centred on Twickenham, but the Olympic Stadium is listed as a potential venue, exciting times ahead. I have been watching a series of documentaries by the Landscape Institute who are holding up what is now known as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as an exemplar of what can be achieved in terms of sustainable design and when environmental impact is leading as opposed to cost cutting and so they should! This should set the benchmark for masterplanning of large projects in the future, and demonstrates what can be achieved when designers take the lead.

This has also been a big week on the world stage, America have voted Barrack Obama in for a second term, which in my view was the only sensible decision, although like others I was worried for a while. Watching the news from a vantage point in the Middle East during the campaign it was obvious that Obama has earned the respect of the global community. What I found significant in the result is the demographics, and people in the media talking in terms of two Americas: states with the main cities and industrial areas voted Obama whilst the deep south voted Romney and it is no secret that the most diverse populations live in the cities. In terms of architecture with the trend towards growing cities becoming more dense and diverse in the future the notion of looking after the wealthy i.e: Corporate America is no longer valid, just my view that is all.

In Saudi Arabia, a royal degree has been published to commit to moving away from powering the Kingdom on fossil fuels, investing heavily in solar power, there is no set time frame but I am interested to see how it develops. In contrast there is more news from Amazonwatch, who are following the story of the indigenous populations that will be displaced if the Belo Monte Dam project goes ahead, in addition this involves clearing vast areas of rainforest that the planet needs to continue convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which raises a question for me, is hydro electric power sustainable? In this context it is a resounding no! There are far more effective ways to generate power, in-stream turbines, wind, solar...energy wastage in cities is a huge contributor to the need for more power. As architects we do not have all the answers, but we are very good at assembling the best teams of experts so that we can find them, it just needs clients, corporations and governments to trust us, I guess that is the tricky bit. Just to finish on the Olympic thread, with Rio host city for 2016 the eyes of the world are on them, and the time to make the right decision is now.

Into the Concrete Jungle...Birmingham 1993

With the reorganisation of Birmingham New Street Station well underway and in the press this week, it seems the 'modernist' centre of Birmingham that earned the name 'Concrete Jungle' has ceased to be, leaving only a few fragments of Manzoni's masterplan. I first came to Birmingham in 1993 to start my journey in Architecture, and what a city to choose, it became home for the next 17 years! The city was already undergoing massive transformation following the unsuccessful bid to host the 1992 Olympics had put Birmingham on the map long enough to demonstrate the potential of Britain's second city to host international events. This blog is written from some of my first impressions of the city centre around the Bull Ring, describing a city that now no longer exists.

Starting out at the base of the Rotunda, formerly known as the Coca Cola building, its graphic in huge red letters at the top of the 22 storey black and white striped cylinder as seen on postcards from the 1980's. At street level, Lloyd’s Bank in green letters along the top of the white podium, vertical slots march their way along the podium above an array of cash points and disorderly queues of people waiting to get their money out of the hole in the wall, the aroma of fried chicken and KFC wrappers lay in corners on the ground like some snow drift as deposited by the wind. The door into the bank which takes you up to the banking hall after a ride on an escalator, the vertical slots direct natural daylight onto the most amazing abstract concrete relief sculpture reminiscent of cubist painting meets Mayan sculpture, which floats above the counters. From the calm of the banking hall the harsh light and the city in its gritty form, the interface between fragments: the chink of classes and the intermittent sound of raised voices from Bar St Martin, litter on the steps taking you down into the network of pedestrian subways, dark blue and silver double-decker buses groaning their way through the traffic overhead, murals on the subway walls showing 'The Shambles' at the centre of another city called the Bull Ring, red and beige ceramic tiles, blackened paving slabs, Argos in the underpass between the Rotunda and the Bull Ring Centre. The busker playing Rod Stewart songs on the acoustic guitar, with shaggy bleached hair to complete the illusion. The overly large woman in a news stand belting out ‘get you mail’  sounding much more like a beached whale. The tramp walking around with his possessions in a carrier bag, wanting his photo taken to put in my project. The blackened spire of St Martin’s church, the remaining fragment of the old Bull Ring in the mural. Framed by the large concrete slab with large red plastic letters that reads ‘Bull Ring Centre’ and the abstract representation of a fighting bull on one side and the sheer face of the Nationwide Building Society on the other.

The journey to find the spire of St Martin's is beneath the moving wall of blue and silver past the Argos in the underpass, the bookmaker, who does not actually make books but takes bets from punters standing in the doorway watching the racing on TV. A glimpse of sky and green, a flower seller outside a glass door and the entrance to the Bull Ring Shopping Centre. The green belongs to Manzoni Gardens, rows of empty benches empty lawns, London plane trees are clustered around the outside of a walled garden The Rotunda stands proudly above the scene giving all the impression that it is set in the green landscape.

The shopping centre frames the garden with its rhythmic panels of concrete set against dark brick majestically marching off towards Smallbrook Queensway, on the Inner Ring Road. A gap in the tree belt, a multi coloured mosaic adorns the side of the wall that holds up the blue and silver stream of steel and exhaust threading its way through pathways between cars, cars, and more cars. A white wing of the shopping centre reaches into the garden from the main block like an armature forming a backdrop with picture windows displaying cut price womens’ clothing under the plastic lettering that reads Mark One Fashions. No sign of the spire from the garden which is completely walled in with the only way out being though the small gap next to the flower seller. Into the darkness where the flower seller is calling out his prices: two bunches for a pound, dim flickering flourescent lights give the place a wintry gloom, a short walk past shops selling cheap looking plastic goods, and bursting out into the daylight, a sea of heads with green and red canopies popping up at regular intervals, the aroma of cheese, mixed with frying fish and chips hangs in the air, a surging mass of people carries you down a long ramp with the calls of market traders emanating from beneath the canopies, the black spire is visible from behind more dark blue and silver continuing the ever present stream of traffic moving on top of the wall at the bottom of the ramp.

A gap in the wall, a tunnel beneath the traffic, the wares change from brightly coloured polished apples to brightly coloured garments on hangers, the black spire belongs to a black base, with arched windows, tracery, steel barriers, gates, trees, litter, and a door that takes you through to a different world, an empty world, gone are the sounds of traffic, sights of blue and silver replaced by pink and yellow as light streams in through stained glass, figures are picked out in the windows, in the stone depicting stories from a different city, a different time, words carved in stone telling of the founding of a different town called Birmingham.

Post Olympic Blues? London 2012

October 2012, first visit to London following the Olympics. When I was last in London it was June and very much a city in anticipation, riding on the tube, the maps had all been updated with purple zones identifying the venues for the games, the O2 had been renamed North Greenwich Arena and around Royal Victoria Dock the sense of anticipation was palpable as the commissioning and testing of the cable car, The Emirates Air Line was under way, the Crystal was nearing completion and the security fences started appearing around the Excel Centre. Over at Stratford, the view across the park seen from the viewing gallery in John Lewis' revealed the Olympic Stadium, Orbit and Aquatics Centre ready and waiting. Throughout the country the torch relay is underway and the media seem to have stopped criticising for a while and actually getting behind people enjoying the moment.

During the games I was in Bahrain, tuning into BBC World news, watching the sun rise over the park each morning, and catching up on events later in the day or following on the live feed on the internet. The view across the park was stunning, and the view beyond over what was the most industrialised part of London revealed a city looking distinctly green, not talking about wind turbines on the skyline although there are a few, but with all the trees in full leaf and the green spaces that have been created. The coverage on the BBC revealed London as a city that was absolutely buzzing with Olympic fever, with the exception of shop and restaurant owners moaning about parts of the city being like a ghost town, and a few occasions where local transport services were compromised for locals as operators were in event mode. The whole world witnessed the 'Greatest show on Earth' with the opening ceremony and events that took place in parts of London that the world has not noticed before, and for sixteen days London was the centre of the universe, and as Brits we could be proud of our nation once again.

A visit to Stratford reveals a city that is still buzzing, on arrival at the transport interchange, and onto the huge pedestrian bridge that spans the railway station below, the bridge is well populated and the air filled with excited chatter. The bridge leads to a 'street' that runs through the Westfield Shopping Centre, lined with designer shops, sports shops and restaurants to define the route to the Park. The park, is a construction site once again, I had thought that it would be possible to walk around the park, or at least the parts that did not involve disassembling of temporary structures, but sadly the whole park is cordoned off, with gates that say 'Authorised Personnel Only' and patrolled by an army of hi-vis jackets and JCB diggers. Behind the fences a new street is emerging with bus stops, benches, trees creating an arrival zone to visit the park when it does reopen. A quick chat with a security guard reveals a slightly different view, it's all closed for 'demolition...will take two to three years'. Good for employment, I guess not everybody got the message about temporary structures, I had heard that many of them will be packaged up and transported to Rio for 2016, I understand that there is a lot of negotiation under way to make that happen. I just hope that is does.  In terms of Architecture this process echoes Peter Cook's work with Archigram in the 1960's, with Sir Peter on the team it should stand a good chance.

Returning to London and reading the local press, it seems that the media are back on the hunt for white elephants, last week's target being the Emirates Air Line the new cable car, running at 10% capacity is the claim. My first ride was during the week, alighting on the North Greenwich side, there is steady trickle of people making the walk from the O2, very few cabins are running empty with some completely full. As the cable car makes its gentle journey across the Thames people wave from passing cabins with happy and smiling faces, you never get that on the tube.

The ride itself gives some impressive views on East London, Olympic Park to the North, the Thames Barrier to the East, to the West, the an uninterrupted view of the Dome, with an army of ants trekking over the newest visitor attraction, 'the Skywalk'. a climb to an observation deck at the top and 30 degree descent to the other side a journey taking two hours. in the background the towers of Canary Wharf, with the Shard, Gherkin and the City beyond. The ride takes five minutes, and gives a sense of how far London has progressed at the same time as revealing the enormity of the task ahead. A giant hole in the ground and cluster of cranes and tunnel section demonstrate work in progress on Crossrail, probably London's greatest infrastructure project linking up all the nodes that will allow you to travel from Canary Wharf to Heathrow on 39 minutes without having to lug suitcases from DLR to tube, change on tube, to Paddington to board the Heathrow Express taking anything up to two hours. Probably hugely expensive and undervalued.  Over west Silvertown Way and the DLR line, the Tate and Lyle factory to the East and over the vast Royal Docks with the Excel Centre and City Airport and descent over the new gardens to the 'Crystal' an Exhibition showcasing future cities and how we can be sustainable, into the corner of the dock. It is easy to see how this formed a vital lifeline during the games linking all the gymnastic events.

Having observed the cable car running over two weeks it is particularly busy at weekends, there are corporate events at the Crystal bringing large numbers of visitors to the dock, interested visitors taking photographs of everything, from cranes to buildings and the new gardens, to wake boarders playing on the dock. The RNLI demonstrate how they conduct sea rescues as part of an emergency services exhibition at the Excel. It seems that the combination of the Crystal and Air Line have injected life into the dock that will grow over time. The cable car must have cost a fraction of the equivalent length of the Jubilee Line extension and likewise the Crossrail link that is underway, it is difficult to see why the media are being so negative.

The North Greenwich Arena has become the O2 again. Sitting in one of the many restaurants inside the vast Dome presents a good opportunity to reflect on the legacy of hosting great events, the Millennium experience is a distant memory, the Olympics has been and gone and a steady flow of people arrive to see the dome each day, whether attending an event, climbing over the top or just to go for some food or a drink. The lesson here? These things take time, legacy projects need time to mature and for interest to grow, Stratford has already been revitalised, there is significant regeneration of the town centre, rehabilitation of the Lea Valley and major transport improvements that enabled the hosting of the Olympics that are a very real legacy for generations to come, and for my daughter and her friends a major event that they will remember in a positive sense, for them the British flag is not called the 'Union Jack' it is called 'Team GB'. Post Olympic Blues? Not a chance.

Look no Elephants! ...London Docklands 2011

It is 2011 it seems that the public have forgotten about the struggle that resulted in the Dome, the media are busy criticising the preparations for the Olympics. Back on the ground the Millennium Dome now known as the O2 is still doing exactly what it says on the tin, it is a landmark an integral part of the landscape of East London.
I made the same approach that I made 11 years earlier, into the very blue world of Alsop at North Greenwich underground station, and up the escalator into Foster’s bus terminal now happily buzzing with the ubiquitous red London Bus. Gone is the sea of red tarmac and turnstiles, in its place a dramatic promenade that gently curves its way towards the entrance on the Dome. Incidentally the dome is not a true dome in structural terms, and the best description I heard was by Paul Finch of CABE at the annual conference of my then employer, Geoffrey Reid Associates. ‘ A cable stayed shell structure.” Which would have been quite a mouthful, and in today’s culture of texts and acronyms, maybe the name the O2 is as appropriate as any other. The structure is still as impressive as it ever was and a walk inside the entrance reveals the space to be even more breathtaking than it was before, the body zone is replaced by an open space, the legs supporting the shell are fully visible in a kind of covered plaza.

‘The O2’ itself is the central arena a 20,000 seater state of the art entertainment venue where Peter Gabriel’s Circus show used to be. A smaller venue the ‘Indigo2’ hosts events with a capacity of up to 2,400. The ‘O2 Bubble’ hosts the British Music Experience.  The array of entertainment pavilions that lined the circumference of the dome have now been replaced with more permanent facilities in an artificial street known as Entertainment Avenue that links all the venues including an 11 screen cinema, exhibition spaces including a vast flexible event space known as the ‘London Piazza’, with life size Tyrannosaurus Rex standing guard and a car seemingly climbing up the outside wall of the O2 Arena, the street is lined with countless bars and restaurants making it the ultimate urban entertainment centre, probably bringing it closer to the Architect’s vision. Further around the street is the colossal backstage area, a vast open space where all the trucks can park under cover giving the army of riggers, sound technicians, road crew freedom of movement to erect the stage without getting rained on when Iron Maiden comes to town.

In a sense the Dome represents a reversal of the trend that has been prevalent in the UK for a number of years which is the development of out of town shopping centres with the obligatory multiplex cinema and chain restaurants and vast car parks. Here the public transport connections are so good that there is very little need for car parking.
Outside the Dome there is life on the Greenwich Peninsula, the environmental walk is still in place, as are the exhibits giving the history of the Thames estuary. The habitat for birds on the reed beds and mud flats is more established and the sense that an area of industrial decay can be restored is very real. New mixed use blocks occupy the site that was the venue to the Blackadder experience, a street takes you down to Greenwich pier where a river boat service the ‘Thames Clipper’ is quickly becoming part of the public transport network, having the advantage of bringing large numbers of people to the events. A distance away, well a 10 minute walk, Erskine’s Millennium Village is very much part of the landscape, and its ecology park has matured.
The car park for the Millennium Experience is now occupied by the David Beckham Football Academy, a series of covered pitches that allow the sport to grow at grass roots level. New communities are being established as more residential developments near completion, the masterplan is still evolving although at a glacial pace as Hugh Pearman puts it in the July/August edition of the RIBA journal.

Walking Eastwards along the Thames footpath from the millennium village industry is still alive and well with conveyors spanning out over the Thames ready to receive gravel brought in from barges. Moving back inland the Sainsbury’s Energy Store is partly hidden by trees and vegetation as the landscape has matured around it. Out front the original dramatic white sentries with their solar panels and wind turbines have gone to be replaced by less strident vertical axis model. The site is now an integral part of the community, and what felt like rushed work in progress 12 years ago feels as though it has always been there. The roads to nowhere long since connected up and linked to the continual traffic flow through the Blackwall Tunnel passing directly under the Dome.

Green spaces that are not exactly parks, the left over cleared spaces between developments give is a sense of a tremendous amount of work still to be done,  that is not underestimating the significance of the change that has been achieved. To my mind this is the result of the vision, drive and tenacity of the Architects who looked at the long term legacy of hosting events and convinced a government to back it. This is Architecture!

What of the other ‘white elephant’ the Docklands itself? Back on the Underground for two stops and the escalator takes you up beneath the glass whale that I mentioned earlier that is Foster’s canopy at Canary Wharf. Beneath the canopy is a whole other world, the ticket hall with its automatic entry gates activated by touching in and out with an ‘Oyster’ card and an orderly flow of passengers to and from the trains. A guitarist plays at the foot of the main escalator bank, making a very good instrumental metal interpretation of John Lennon’s Imagine. Both sides of the ticket hall lead directly into below ground shopping centres that run between the towers. Towers? yes Cesar Pelli’s tower is no longer alone, a ride up the escalator to a plaza in front of the glass canopy, which is now located in a lush green park known as Jubilee Gardens, with rolling lawns, scots pine trees and raised water feature that threads its way between the canopies. At the perimeter of the park, the sheer glass facades give a sense of protection and enclosure without being overbearing. Glass pavilions form entrances to the shopping level below, a huge contast to the other elephant (& castle) earlier in the story.

On the south side of the park, the winter gardens an elegant glass atrium between two office blocks and a route through to water where Chris Wilkinson’s footbridge is once again on one piece spanning across the dock known as Canada Water to a quayside lined with apartments, health centre and floating gin palaces. The DLR that I travelled on years before now threads its way between buildings at Heron Quays. Before making its way towards the Cutty Sark, now passing beneath the river and terminating at Blackheath. Turning back towards Canary Wharf the quayside forms a lively pedestrian environment, where the rush to Underground or DLR station passes by bars and restaurants, where people sit outside and do lunch or drinks after work, a far cry from the deserted wasteland  of 1999. At the end of the plaza another entrance to the shopping centre and a flight of steps up to street level. Minimal traffic, mainly buses, taxis and delivery vehicles passes slowly around the park in a one way system, whilst the London Philharmonic Orchestra warm up for their summer evening concert, many people are seated on the grass enjoying the atmosphere as the music usually associated with Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter are belted out from the stage at full force, hairs on the back of the neck stuff!

London 2011

Sleeping Village...Bahrain Bay 2012

This weekend I am approaching 1 year spent living between Bahrain and London and it seems fitting to write a bit about Bahrain. A huge part that has made the experience possible is technology, I am in Bahrain whilst my family are in London,  little over 14 years ago 'Google' was born...this is after the time that I was commenting on a cyber cafe in New York City, see earlier blog (Full on and Flat out in New York), now we speak every day using 'Skype', and with the time difference I get to read a bedtime story to my daughter every night. She is into princesses at the moment and over the past two nights we have been reading about Princess Aurora and the evil fairy Maleficent and the whole kingdom being put to sleep.

Much of Bahrain has the feel of a kingdom that is sleeping, glass towers twisting their way out of the ground at the Financial Harbour stopped mid-way, leaving a huge sculpture of dusty glass, topped off by an exposed concrete frame complete with static tower cranes, a monument to the insanity of the financial crisis perhaps? Jellyfish swim in clear blue waters of the dormant harbour, whilst kids jump off one of the many empty road bridges into the tamed sea below.  The whole harbour did not exist when Google was born, now thanks to Google Earth we can see the whole process of change from coral reef to slumbering island in only a few years.

A family ride in a speedboat from a neighbouring new island to marvel at the monument. At the base of the monument  the only sign of life is a small waterfall on the quayside and the hum of a pump, the towers’ life support system, labouring to keep the basement from being reclaimed by the sea. The pristine dockside gives way to piles of discarded timber, deal palm trees, site cabins. Pools of pink liquid lie undisturbed in the flat sand plain beneath the immaculate development road, one of three concentric rings that link all the parts of the new island to the main island.

Following the azure blue sea through a canal beneath the bridges, completed towers appear above a sand dune giving all the impression of a city abandoned in the  desert. A climb up the ridge of the dune reveals another concrete structure being fed by a constant stream of trucks whilst tower cranes lift materials up to the level being worked on by a small team of labourers. A giant not sleeping but growing.  Having seen the masterplan for Bahrain, known as 2030 Vision it is clear that the vision for Bahrain Bay is taking shape at a much slower rate than planned.  I have to say looking around at the empty towers and abandoned schemes I am left with the question ‘who is it for?’. Meanwhile the work on the flyovers and intersections connecting the development to the ever expanding main highway continues relentlessly.

Manama October 2012

Why be an Architect?

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 winning. 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 amateur level, it is easy to draw comparisons between the motivations for entering a half marathon say, or choosing to qualify as an architect, in one sense it is about self realisation, the proving to oneself 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 ‘monstrous’ egos from time to time, 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? or the project manager for late delivery, but everybody knows of Richard Rogers and the Millennium Dome and the often misquoted seven hundred and fifty million pounds for a tent.
The truth is little was publicised 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. Here we are in 2012 and after five years of negative publicity and London hosting the most successful games ever from a Team GB perspective, widely regarded 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 recognised that the Games could not have been hosted without it. So what did we do? some members of the public may associate Architects’ names with the  design of the buildings, Cook: Olympic Stadium, Hadid: Aquatics Centre, Hopkins: Velodrome. for example. Countless other nameless individuals worked 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. So why be an Architect? I cannot speak for the entire profession, but for me it is to make a difference, a positive contribution to the built environment in which we live.

Does Exactly what it says on the Tin...Millennium Dome 2000

It is December 2000, after eleven months of hearing how the ‘Millennium Experience’ had attracted far less visitors than anticipated, the project is making a loss and so and how we the public with our voluntary contributions are having to pay £750M for a tent. So it is time to go and experience it for myself, well actually with a friend, more a partner in crime, fellow Architect, Darren Staples whose impressions on the day gave me the title for this piece. The approach to the Dome is via the official route, public transport, train from Birmingham to London, then the Underground to the Dome, via the Jubilee line extension and its architectural stations, notably by Michael Hopkins as you enter the line at Embankment, underneath Portcullis House, the new government offices, (also attracting negative press for reasons related to cost.) The journey down to the Underground line is through a series of escalators taking you down through an immaculate concrete and dark grey steel void, with up-lighting so effective that you constantly feel like it is daylight overhead. The station itself is clean and well arranged like a modern station should be. The train journey takes you through the world of Foster (Canary Wharf) before terminating in the very blue world of Alsop at Greenwich with its diagonal columns, and suspended concourse inside the void.

The escalator journey takes you up into more of the world of Foster in the trademark white steel and glass with grey panelling arranged in the form of a serpentine bus terminal, somehow lacking in buses. The sea of red tarmac leads you to a huge bank of turnstiles and ticket booths under a white tent canopy on yellow steel columns, but strangely no queuing, is this because the negative press has scared everyone off, or is it because the system of crowd control is so efficient that everyone is filtered through without a hitch, the crowd control mechanism directs you to a large temporary cinema, which invites you to spend twenty minutes or so watching a specially made ‘Blackadder’ episode, where Edmund and Baldrick build Leonardo da Vinci’s time machine, and it all gets a bit messy…anyway enough of that. The short film itself introduces you to the Dome, and you get to see the first view of what is inside, following the secrecy that has been surrounding the ‘Millennium Experience’ for the whole year. We have heard so much about the Dome itself, either related to size, it is big, or its cost to the public, or the lack of people visiting the attraction.

The first thing that struck me as on entering is the sheer volume of people supposedly not visiting, I cannot move for people, in fact I don’t think you could get any more people in here, it is absolutely packed! The next thing that struck me was the size, big does not cover it, it is a city in here. The Body Zone, the much publicised sculpture of a nonsexual recumbent embracing couple, the organisers did not want to offend anyone, so here we are with an embracing couple of bodies probably about four stories high, who can tell in this space? With an escalator entering the elbow, with an extremely long line of people, mainly children waiting to enter.

The red tarmac surface is constant and the space has the feel of a trade fair, with stands and striking exhibition pavilions curving their way around the outside of the main path. The Pavilions themselves are designed by signature architects, Zaha Hadid, Eva Jiricina were probably the most prominent. Some of them are stunning, three to four storey buildings that would seem large in an urban situation, but here they are dwarfed by the sheer volume of the Dome. The entry to each of the exhibition pavilions is based on the concept of queuing, (a Belgian friend of mine once referred to it as our national sport) you stand in line on a ramp that is lined with images to get in. The exhibitions themselves are mainly images stuck on the walls of the pavilions, there are a few interactive exhibits. There are refreshment pavilions punctuating the spaces between the exhibition pavilions with hospitality areas on their upper levels, strangely not crowded, but this is a Saturday, maybe all the corporate hospitality takes place during the week.

On the inside of the curve are exhibitions that hug the event space in the centre of the Dome, the event space hosts two shows a day, we have arrived too late to see the first show, and the later show will start too late to get back to Birmingham (the benefits of using public transport and timing of events not being publicised), so will have to give the show a miss. The show is in progress at the moment, the press reviews have been reasonably good, the show directed by Peter Gabriel, is a kind if circus by all accounts. On walking around the Orange exhibition, on its many levels looking at the advances in technology and communications over the past century a deluge of people spill out of the show arena, raving about how good the show was, and that their friends back home don’t know what they are missing.

I have heard a lot of people saying that they did not think very much of the exhibition. On considering the exhibits from the politically correct Body Zone, Cool Britannia, a parody of British culture, The iconic London bus advertising the Great Exhibition of 1951, The intriguing Mind Zone to the Spirit Zone, being renamed as ‘Faith Zone at the last minute, as a result of pressure from church groups. The result being a cone shaped chill out space with blue light flowing in from overhead, makes a tranquil space. Around the outside are images depicting the main religions, interestingly giving the year that each one will be celebrating when the numbers changed to 2000.

Does the exhibition sum up Britain at the turn of the century? Yes, I think it does the political correctness that dominates society shows in the style of the exhibition, watered down so as not to offend anyone. The media scrutiny seems to be unjustified, and the notion that the exhibition should be removed at the end of the year seems a total nonsense. The central arena could easily host all manner of concerts, to attract specific crowds as opposed to trying to appeal to the whole population at once. Outside the dome, it is good time to look around the environmental walk, a deck that follows the tip of the Greenwich Peninsula,  a lot more static exhibits telling about the local environment, local wildlife habitats, and how the project has cleaned up some of these and is safeguarding it for future generations.

Having a beer the at one of the outdoor bars, the place is filled with lots of kids playing in the playground on various swings and roundabouts, one of them is a structural model of the dome, with the twelve masts, chains for cables and a bouncing platform on the centre for the shell. It struck me that there will be an entire generation that will remember that the millennium experience was brilliant, the Body Zone, the ‘Blue Peter’ pavilion and yes it is made of cardboard, the play zones, the show at the circus inside a huge, huge tent.

As architecture? The Dome forms an icon that signifies the beginning of an urban renaissance in one of the most rundown areas of London, it does exactly what it says on the tin. The decision to host the exhibition at Greenwich resulted in the architectural intervention that we now know as the Dome to protect the exhibition from the extremes of the British weather and allow it to be enjoyed throughout the whole year.  Had the exhibition been held at the NEC in Birmingham, which was an alternative proposal, there would have been no Dome and no focus of attention on Greenwich and no impetus to spark regeneration. The cost of the exhibition would have been the same, and I doubt that there would have been the number of visitors that did make it to Greenwich.

AMAZON WATCH » Urge Brazil's Chief Justice to Maintain Suspension of the Belo Monte Dam

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ARC Middle East 2012 Abu Dhabi Part 2

I guess a few of you that have been reading my blog are already getting the impression that for me Architecture is concerned with far more than aesthetics, at the start of the afternoon session Saleh Mubarak. Head of Civil Engineering and Architecture Qatar University claims just that, well not just that, he is talking about Construction Project management: Characteristics and Challenges. Starting off on the premise that Architects and Engineers come to a project with completely different goals, mutually sharing the ‘Architects vs Engineers, can’t live with them, can’t live without them’ mentality, and to illustrate the differences made the statement that Architecture is concerned with Aesthetics whilst Engineering is about safety, which was met with some skepticism from the audience, and the statement was modified along the lines that Architecture is concerned with everything. Moving on the differences between Engineering and Architecture were illustrated not to oversimplify but to emphasize that one is an art one is a science and although Architecture does cover everything and there are no right or wrong answers, meaning that opinions are subjective and making it an Art. Engineering on the other hand, deals in answers are more absolute, meaning that opinions are objective,  it will either stand up or it won’t, making it a science. In project management terms the type of project will influence who takes the lead: Vertical projects i.e. buildings are Architecture led whereas horizontal projects i.e. roads are Engineering led.

Having come to the middle east from the background of construction projects in the UK I can relate to a lot of situations in the discussion. Time management for example, it is actually not possible to manage time, but the tasks that you have to get completed in the time available, and the notion that when busy you don't have time to get 'organised' but spend far more time in being 'dis-organised'. Key challenges of the project management process in the Middle East Region? much of it has to do with the mentalities of individuals involved: Unknown decision makers and the ‘what to do Yanni?’ mentality. The resistance to change, the ‘been doing it this way for 25 years’ mentality. ‘English is not English’ we joke about English and Americans using the same words but meaning different things, program, programme, schedule, for example; the problem becomes magnified when there are so many nationalities involved. Risk management is influenced by different priorities: labour costs are low, the workforce is mainly unskilled, climatic conditions mean that there is lower productivity during summer months.

All these factors serve to make the process more challenging, and I think the key tactic is about flexibility, being able to act differently in given situations, flexibility to deal with different perceptions and to address different priorities. In summary there are challenges to maintaining the team managing the project that are not necessarily unique to the region but are certainly more prevalent which makes the emphasis on teamwork all the more important.

First thing on the Sunday morning James Bannerman, Lateral Thinking for Principal Architects' brings a wealth of experience from a variety of fields, starting out in the music industry, from being a cartoonist for Punch magazine, working with BA, Orange, Starbucks, NASA, Mission to Mars. Teaching at Warwick Business School on the MBA programme and currently a senior Academic at Oxford Brooks University, and author of ‘Genius’. If the talk was anything to go on, I would say that the book is well worth a read. The talk ranged from anecdotes of using the cliche ‘it’s not rocket science’ to a room full of rocket scientists, to the story of the Wright brothers ignoring the notion of what will not work and replacing with the question why will that not work? ...and success!

The expected groan when we were all asked with the interactive exercise involving nine dots and connecting with straight lines? What do you see? nine dots that can easily be connected with four lines without taking the pen off the paper: and to achieve the exercise with three, and continue working at it until you link the nine dots with one line will take a little thinking outside the box. Demonstrating that nothing is impossible it you are prepared to think a little differently, what was surprising is the amount of ways that is is actually possible. The discussion moved on about why for many of us thinking outside the box is an effort, where thought processes are likened to the mountain stream with the water taking the path of least resistance and defining its own channels and in some cases experience not being an advantage.

There are many examples of a simple change of emphasis or asking the question differently (simple with the benefit of hindsight). in the 1980's how to break Wham! in America...answer go to China. Seems obvious in hindsight, don't tackle the problem head on, playing China made them a global sensation overnight, by making news. One example of creativity that sticks in my mind is where a negative is turned into a positive…Guinness! Not just because I enjoy a pint of Guinness on occasion, but, 'What is wrong with a pint of Guinness?'…the time taken to pour, and those fantastic adverts based on the notion of time ‘all the time in the world’, ‘good things come to those who wait!’ with the surfer waiting for the perfect wave. The reality was not changed, it was the way that we look at it, and turning the negative into the positive is often what we do as Architects. One last word on creativity, avoid  ‘But’ the No.1 Idea killer, as the word that kills creativity.

The last speaker, Alberto Treves, Section Director of Design, Abu Dhabi Educational Council (ADEC). tells of ADEC’s vision of educational reform through Architecture,and the experience of project delivery.Starting out with the vision that all new schools will be developed in designs that enable students to create knowledge and understanding through exploration and experimentation. Taking us through the new school designs to promote an integrated learning environment based on the notion of the central hub a flexible break-out space at the heart of the school. The aspirations for the designs with integrated sustainability features that earned the school building an Estidama Three Pearl  rating. (The UAE's Environmental Design assessment tool that deals with environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability). Three pearl being the highest. Having worked on similar programmes in the UK I can relate to some of the challenges of developing an architectural prototype that is rolled out across multiple sites, and judging by some of the comments from members of the audience it seems that this programme is not without its challenges.

As an Architect relating to local context is a strong priority, however, when working on a national programme the reality is that some of these priorities become compromised in the interest of project delivery to facilitate the building 100 schools in the Emirate. The project was procured through inviting architectural practices in an international design competition, what cannot be controlled by the Architects is who is selected at the end of the day. Going back to my opening comments about architecture being concerned with aesthetics it seems that we can not avoid assessing the perceived success of architecture from an aesthetic viewpoint. I suppose it stems from the notion that we could do better, and in my view that is healthy!

The seminars gave a number of perspectives on what we do from how we work to facing the challenges ahead, the one to one meetings had a number of benefits of getting to see some ‘cool stuff’without the interruptions of holding meetings in the office, and the opportunity to talk about work in a broader context. At the same time having the opportunity to talk with such a range of suppliers and fellow Architects at one time meant that advances in technology, materials, developments in processes are a lot more noticeable.

Abu Dhabi has the feel of a city undergoing significant change with high hopes for the future, with a number of projects to look out for from the ongoing growth of Masdar City, the world’s first zero carbon city to planned works such as Nouvel’s Louvre and Gehry’s Guggenhiem this is very much a city to return to in the future.

Abu Dhabi September 2012

ARC Middle East 2012 Abu Dhabi Part 1

This is a blog in two parts that is an account of a flying visit to the the UAE's Capital. There is not much sight seeing as much of the activities are centred on the ARC conference. Arrival into Abu Dhabi International Airport takes the traveler into a space resembling the Jedi Temple, a cluster of drum shaped sculptures with flowing roofs that become the walls before heading out into the main terminal. On leaving the airport it appears that work on Masdar City has ceased for the weekend, the red terracotta sculpture of the Masdar Institute, sits within its dense cluster of buildings on a concrete podium surrounded by tower cranes as the next phases get underway.

‘Please slow down, you are crossing the speed limit’ says a polite female voice as the Nepalese cab driver works his magic through the contraflows. Sheikh Zayed Mosque is grand, very grand shining white domes surrounded by minarets. The highway is green, very green, more like driving through a park than along a tree lined boulevard even the Gas/petrol stations are completely surrounded by trees. Signs of wealth are everywhere, Officers Club, Sport City, Convention Centre with sinuous glass tower and shading device that morphs into the roof of a grandstand apparently for people to watch the traffic. The skyline is dominated by glass towers, some with imaginative shading devices as the city becomes more energy conscious. Along the side of the road air conditioned bus stops announce the first part of the integrated transport system and the city's aspiration to encourage people out of their cars.

The sun sets behind the Ethiad Towers with shadows and colours changing by the minute, the water becomes still in the Intercontinental Marina and people pack up after a day’s boating on their motor cruisers talking about the weather getting better and the best time of the year being October, November what would the Brits talk about if there was no weather? Mooring charges, a group of fifty-somethings discuss mooring charges and how Intercon is as bad as Yas Marina, to the untrained eye, these boats are huge representing a small fortune, or in most cases a large fortune, drinking huge amounts of fuel, and they complain about mooring charges…I guess some people are never happy.

The format of the event is based on one to one meetings with suppliers punctuated by a series of short seminars given by a group of engaging speakers, a bit like a years worth of CPD in two days. From the keynote address of Saeed Al Abbar, vice Chairman of the Emirates Green Building Council, there is a real a sense of the enormity of the task ahead of us in addressing the increased population demands on cities whilst reducing energy consumption.

The headline Issues are that the population of the UAE set to double by 2030, and energy security is a serious issue. Power is heavily subsidized meaning that the population has no appreciation of the amount of energy they are consuming. Power stations are gas fired using the depleting reserves of natural gas in the emirate with moves being made towards nuclear to cope with increasing demand along with renewables (Masdar). As energy demands increase the imports of gas will increase along with LPG and the use of oil at eight times the cost even Saudi Arabia is expected to become a net importer of energy by 2030. Water security, the UAE receives very little rain and demand for water is met by desalination plants which are a heavy user of energy, meaning that if there are issues with energy security, water supply is affected very rapidly, makes you wonder about all those trees! As Architects we are acutely aware that buildings consume vast amounts of energy, to put it into perspective, in the 1920’s a building in Abu Dhabi would consume absolutely no energy. The 1970s following the discovery of oil saw a massive increase as the use of air conditioning became the dominant means of cooling buildings, I suppose it is not really so surprising that energy usage to cool buildings has increased exponentially over the past 40 years when we consider the amount of glass towers that have been built like those I was looking at earlier.

Rob Watson, founder of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) says that Mother Nature does not care which label you use on your building LEED, BREEAM, Greenstar… just that a label is used, or more specifically that the building is designed responsibly and is assessed in terms of environmental performance. LEED registered buildings and certification is on the increase despite the economic downturn. Environmental trends show data supporting a positive view of environmental performance improvement for LEED projects, emphasizing that there are emerging economic benefits of sustainable design.

With the emphasis on 2030 remaining a constant, targets are set and revised on a year by year basis from data collected from projects. Some of the big picture numbers include: Energy saving estimate 11% in non-residential energy through the construction of LEED buildings and 13% reduction in commercial water use. The increase in the reuse of existing buildings will make an energy saving equivalent to 200million barrels of oil. As more site area data becomes available from USGBC savings in terms of 'location efficiency', the placement of projects in close proximity to transport routes is showing tangible benefits based on the current trend a reduction of 70million vehicular journeys by 2030 will save the equivalent of 30Billion gallons of gasoline a year. On 'Indoor Environmental Quality', reports are associating an economic value to good design that results in increased productivity and reduced sick days. Green labeled buildings command a rent premium of 3-6% and an increase in sales value of 11-19% meaning that not doing LEED is no longer an option. In NYC For example, tenants are demanding green buildings and it is now difficult to let buildings that are performing badly. 

I can’t help feeling that we are not doing not enough, and that there is still a long way to go to meet the targets of 2030, what is encouraging is that the trend is moving in the right direction and is beginning to gain momentum, and we are gaining access to data that can help convince clients to go green. Green building is here to stay!

As the day moves into the one to one meetings there is a sense that there is a long way to go on the road to 2030, at the same time there is a sense that everybody is on board and doing what they can, whether it is about the recycled content of materials, longevity of products so that recycling happens further down the road, or about developing more intelligent tools enabling us to facilitate good design.

Abu Dhabi September 2012

Elephant Hunt...London Docklands 1999

As an architectural student in 1997 I remember being angered by what felt like continual negative publicity surrounding the Millennium Dome and the association with the term ‘White Elephant’, this was not the first time I had heard the term associated with Architecture, I had also heard it associated with the Docklands in the 1980’s. With the benefit of hindsight this may be a symptom of a greater problem. The public mistrust of spending what is perceived as public money on ‘Architecture'. In the summer of 2011 I returned to the Greenwich Peninsula for the first time in nearly over a decade, the Millennium Dome, renamed the O2 and heralded as a runaway success, currently known as the North Greenwich Arena and venue for gymnastics in the London 2012 Olympic Games.  My first encounter with the Dome was at Interbuild 1997, the model was on display and the Architect Mike Davies of the then Richard Rogers Partnership was giving a talk on architecture being fun, with some interesting insights into the genesis of what became the Dome. The first time I saw the Dome for real was in the summer of 1999, a visit to a family friend in Camberwell presented the opportunity to make a visit.

The sun begins to set behind the twin wind turbines of Chetwood’s Sainsbury’s ‘Energy Store’,  a quick change of plan and a quick look around the project, timber strip and glass plank facades, aluminium roof, dynamic entrance, lots of natural light (even at dusk). The project seems to be popular with the locals. From this vantage the Dome becomes visible, although strangely in this light, it does not seem so impressive, the white Teflon seems to be grey. The area is still awaiting the completion of its infrastructure, a sea of tarmac, footbridges that lead to nowhere, well not exactly to nowhere, but at this stage a fenced off area at the back of a housing estate, signs directing nonexistent traffic, railings and pathways also leading to dead ends. Finally after trying various dead ends, the Thames footpath presents itself as being one and three quarter miles from the Cutty Sark, so it’s off through a narrow alleyway between what seems to be a petroleum plant and a chemical works, to the bank of the river. The water is flat calm with just enough movement to distort the reflections of the riverside buildings, under a yellow-green sky. The air becomes still, civilisation begins to light up in the distance as the sun makes the city towers become a silhouette as it disappears below the blocky horizon. With the acidic stench of the chemical works firmly in the air, the Thames path meanders its way past rusting iron half built barges and the remains of London’s waterside industry. Cesar Pelli’s off-the-shelf Canary Wharf tower seems awkwardly divorced from Manhattan, but with its pyramid roof illuminated, has a greater presence in dusk than in the daylight.

The Dome, in a view downstream, looks far more impressive than it did half an hour before. The red lights on the yellow masts with their own up-lighting, the cool glow of the Teflon and the bright lights in the twelve circular pods that line the circumference, give the whole area the impression of a space ship landing as the industrial decay disappears into the shadows. Civilisation again, the welcome sound of people laughing and chatting outside the Cutty Sark tavern, along with the chink of glasses as the night warms up. The path leads its way past the neoclassical naval buildings, as the small green dome atop the foot tunnel marks the end of the trek. The Thames Walk finally reaches the Cutty Sark, a magnificent tea clipper, sailing ship whose claim to fame is its role in the establishment of the tea routes to Sri Lanka, sitting proudly in her dry dock, looking every bit ready to put to sea, just some two hundred years late. The lift down into the Greenwich foot tunnel is out of action because we have arrived too late in the evening, so it’s off down the spiral staircase that coils round the lift shaft, worn concrete treads, black painted iron handrails, white glazed bricks line the descent into the river bank. Through the central iron cage parts of the workings for the lift are visible. A tube lined with glazed bricks makes the journey below the Thames, to what appears to be a rusting white painted cast iron sewage pipe though which you must enter to get to the corresponding lift shaft to make the ascent to the ground making the previous journey in reverse.

On the North bank there is a fault with reality. the spiral steps bring the visitor out into a park with the Thames behind, sense of direction from previous visits leads us to a hole, a great big hole, fenced off and looking every bit a building site where Island Gardens Docklands light railway (DLR) used to be. Not a particularly spectacular station if memory serves, the railway was elevated above the street, a blue steel and polycarbonate circular tower mimicked the cores that led to the foot tunnel. A spiral staircase coiled around a central lift shaft in a cobbled courtyard. Small shops occupied the spaces below the two arms of the railway, in pretty much the same way that Victorian viaducts have their arches occupied by all manner of activities. A series of signs indicate that a replacement bus service would take us a couple of miles to join the working part of the DLR. Apparently Mudchute Station had also been removed to make way for an extension to the railway to bring it in touch with the Millennium Dome and Village. The shuttle bus dropped us off at Cross harbour and soon enough the train arrived to take us on our way through the Docklands although not much to see in the darkness.

As the DLR threads its way past apartment blocks, the London Arena, office blocks, strong lighting announces the arrival at a deserted Canary Wharf, strangely the Dome looks larger from here than it did from the energy store, in fact it looks stunning as the last traces of daylight fade into night and the lighting takes over. In the docks, Chris Wilkinson’s dynamic bridge comprises of one section leading to nowhere, stuck on its own little island, the second section lies on a barge as this young urban fabric morphs as the tide of events changes its direction. Foster’s Canary Wharf underground station bursts out of the ground like a beautiful glass whale coming up for air in the middle of a park, isolated from the dockside by mounds of sand, stacks of sheet piling, tractors and diggers as the race for the millennium breaks for the weekend. Beneath a glass canopy spanning the chasm between Cesar Pelli’s mantle-piece and an anonymous office block, activities seem to have been suspended for the weekend. Outside the canopy, what resembles a snake slithering across the water among the barges, glowing green on its belly and white on its back, Future Systems’ floating bridge, leading nobody from the nothingness of Canary Wharf and deposits them in front of the concrete blocks and mounds of sand and the tower cranes of the dormant East India Quay development. The DLR goes to ground to link into Bank underground station.

Another disorientating tangle of tunnels and escalators leads up to the surface to be confronted with James Stirling’s last work in Lego with its clock face that looks more like the EU flag. A scan round reveals the city as being deserted, the former Natwest Tower, now known as Tower 42, shyly disappears in to the night, Sir John Soane’s Bank of England disappears into the background as the whole area is saturated with ornamental columns, capitals and pediments. At the end of the street a violet-blue glow issues from the doorway of one such façade by Sir Edwin Cooper, the façade is all that remains of the original building, whilst the current configuration of Lloyds of London’s Headquarters proudly supports its business behind. The paved street edge meets an elegant stainless steel balustrade as the ground drops away to a cobbled shelf with a single tree. A steel ramp curves playfully round the tree at a higher level, linking the street with the main entrance, although reading as an emergency exit. On the shelf the source of the violet-blue glow is directed up to pick out different areas of activity. The shelf slopes gently into the site where giant concrete columns disappear into an unseen netherworld, as though this unique jewel was planted a long time ago and has been recently excavated. A café sits on the shelf, although strangely its doors are closed at night, but there again in this ghost town, why should the doors remain open? The café appears to be at the centre of the site, the shelf continues to form a terrace, whilst stainless steel ducts occasionally puncture the cobbled surface. To the left of the tree four glass elevators sit idly in their tracks, each with two red lights at their base. Scanning round to the right the Cooper façade gives way to the distinctive staircases, unclad at this level, following the staircase up the façade the stainless steel cladding curls round to enclose the escape route. Above the café, stainless steel pods plugged into their concrete framework whilst glass panels give a hint of what might be going on inside. Following the street to the corner, the blue to the right and what appears to be a good copy of Mies’ Seagram building to the left. At the turning of the corner, the entrance to the site reveals itself, a broad flight of stairs ascends majestically to meet the building beneath an exquisite curved glass canopy. The violet-blue lighting washes the details in a cool glow, the canopy sails straight through the heart of the building whilst taking care of business manifests itself on either side whilst the concrete structure confidently holds all manner of pods panels and ducts in place. Further down the street, the cobbled shelf gives way completely to the underworld and the cables and guide tracks take the glass lifts down into the ‘dig’. Bikes are chained to the concrete framework although the owners are nowhere to be seen. A walk back through the stillness with the glow of Lloyds behind, between the decorated facades to rejoin the underground.


There is something about football results and alcohol that makes people think that they can defy the laws of physics. England, in the Euro 2000 qualifiers have beaten Poland 6-1. Whilst travelling upward on the escalator from Marylebone underground to Marylebone mainline station, the underground is a deep station, and hence long escalators. There were two guys on the downward escalator, celebrating England’s win ‘six one, six one…’ with a third guy thinking that it is a good idea to slide down the stainless steel division between the escalator and stair…on his feet, in surfing position. It was going pretty well up to a point, until he caught one of the signs on the division with his foot…surfing pose becomes aerial cartwheel, then a messy tumble, over and over he went, down, down before landing in a giggling crumpled heap at the bottom. So there you go…beer and high spirits = failure of the laws of physics.

Becoming an Architect

Lego, the beach and Iron Maiden

A few weeks ago a friend asked me what you needed to do to become an Architect, which got me thinking, not so much about how, but why did I become an Architect?

As long as I can remember I was always going to be an Architect, from growing up in Paignton on the English Riviera, the place that visitors pass through to get from Torquay to Brixham. Much of the summer of 1976 was spent on the beach, playing in the sea, building not sand castles, but entire cities in the sand. Looking across the bay to the white blocks, Imperial Hotel, Coral Island, Kilmorie and other modern apartment blocks nestled amongst the trees in the limestone spit that accommodates the more affluent areas of Torquay, then trying to replicate them in Lego, never enough white bricks though. At the time that view represented a complete contradiction to the experience of actually going to Torquay, which mainly involved walking around the shopping streets in the rain, being frogmarched into Marks and Spencer for school uniforms with all the signs saying ‘Back to School’ and the inevitability of the end of the summer holidays. Put me off Marks and Spencer for life.

Back on the Beach, Paignton Pier majestically marches out into the sea on steel legs for no other reason than to give visitors the experience of being out over the water. Except to play on the amusements on the way through to the end of the pier, slot machines, bingo and boat trips around the bay. There are in fact two towns named Paignton, one in the summer, and another in the winter. The promenade is a prime example with wooden cabins selling fish and chips, candy floss and toffee apples in the summer; and the bare steel support frames in winter, and trying to walk along the whole length of the beam without falling off in the winter, I seem to remember doing more of the falling off. Surrey cycles thread their way through the sea of people walking along the promenade in summer, with people sitting on deck chairs watching the youngsters playing on the beach; old people sitting in their cars along the promenade eating sandwiches and drinking tea from Thermos flasks in winter watching the seagulls flying over the waves. The highlight of the year is Regatta week where the Anderton and Rowlands fairground would materialise on the ‘Green’, the Red Arrows would appear from over the horizon to give their amazing aerobatic display, and then there is the fireworks where the whole town would converge for one night.

1980, my father began a project to build a boat, a yacht in the back garden, I helped him lay down the keel beam and cross members on the lawn and watched in keen fascination as the frame began to take shape with me helping to carry members from the workshop to the construction site, holding members in place whilst glue was applied, then clamps and finally brass screws driven in with a pump action screwdriver. Come 1984 when the finished yacht made its way out of the garden and to the harbour, the expectation was that I would be excited about finally getting out on the boat, for me it was something of an anticlimax, and sadly for him I was not a natural seaman. I had what Architects sometimes refer to as 'coming down' after completing a project. The excitement was in the making, not the using, I had lost interest.

1982 I had not achieved the academic results to get into the grammar school and with it the expectation of going to university. In careers lessons career my focus always seemed to return to drawing or constructing things, I wanted to be the next Isambard Kingdom Brunel, him of Great Western Railway fame, a vision of an integrated transport system linking London to New York, yes New York, train to Bristol to link up with the first steamship line across the Atlantic, and the great station roofs, bridges, tunnels the construction feats that enabled it to happen.

1986. Still at school I contacted an Architect in Brixham for work experience, two weeks in the office of Malcolm Chapman RIBA, and there was never a chance of me doing anything else. 1987 on leaving school I had been accepted at South Devon College of Arts and Technology on the BTEC Building Studies course, and joined a small firm of Architects in Paignton as a trainee. Over the next five years I qualified as an Architectural Technician and felt like I had made it. In the office the IT department was an Amstrad PCW8256 word processor linked to a dot matrix printer, there were also two instantaneous word processor/printers called typewriters, the office comms was a single grey Bakelite telephone with a dial and a very loud bell ringer, the fax machine was at Prontaprint, reprographics was a dye line printer which you fed ‘negatives’, ink line drawings on tracing paper, to make copies for submissions...and of course  ‘production’ was drawing board and ‘T’ square. The practice did everything...Urban design, masterplanning, construction detailing, site supervision, project management, even cost control.

However in the back of my mind was the beginnings of a notion that has constantly been growing, ‘There has to be more to it than this!’ We were working on house extensions, conversions of hotels into residential homes for the elderly, and the occasional one off houses or apartment block. I was more interested in the heyday of W.G. Couldrey, Son and Partners, these were the town’s architects, from 1890 they had built the Victorian town centre, Palace Avenue, Torbay Road, Queen’s Park Mansions, Dellers Cafe, Hyde Dendy’s Picture house where I watched Star Wars the first time round. Later planning the housing estates as the town expanded in the 1950’s. Iron Maiden? in 1987 I got hold of the Somewhere in Time album. The combination of Maiden's lyrics and Derek Rigg’s artwork for the album cover, opened up a whole new world of science fiction, history and stories of ancient civilizations, and is probably the single greatest influence in my making the transition from Architectural Technician to Architect.

Events started to conspire to make it happen in 1991. I joined Paignton Amateur Rowing Club to find a way to get fit and channel my energy, which quickly became a desire to compete, absolutely loving the buzz of being in a race; becoming Captain in 1992 and discovering that I had fanatical devotion the cause that inspired and motivated others resulting in a hugely successful season. Work started to dry up and I started looking at other opportunities, even leaving architecture to get into coaching, then came the inevitable day where I was handed my notice and my boss reminded me that I had been talking about going to University. The rest as they say is history, well almost. I immediately phoned Plymouth School of Architecture, my nearest Architecture school, thinking I could just go and attend the course to qualify as an Architect, I am already qualified as an Architectural Technician, that’s five years, so I have to do another two to top it up to being an Architect right? Err...No it takes three years to get a degree, another two to get a Post Graduate Diploma and then another two in practice, and your qualifications might exempt you from the A level entry requirements to get into University...oh bugger!

Throughout my life I have regularly been criticised for doing everything the hard way, so why should this be any different? I had to go through clearing and quickly learned the difference between having A Levels and not, the top schools at the established universities were not interested, it was only the Polytechnics that were inviting me to open days and interviews but not for 1992 term start but 1993. So 1993 I joined what was Birmingham Poly the year previously, rebranded as University of Central England in Birmingham.

So boys and girls, if you are thinking of becoming an Architect, you really have to want to do it, and if you are still fixed on the idea don't let anything stop you.

The Final Approach -...New York Part 5

I looks like most of you figured out that my last post 'Wedding Cake Convention' was the fourth installment of 'Full on and Flat out in New York', so here comes the fifth and as the title suggests final part...Enjoy!


The museum of modern art forms an oasis in the desert of skyscrapers, the only problem being that I would need a week view all the fantastic artwork along with the exhibition of the works of Alvar Aalto: Dali, Mondrian, Miro...

Mc Donalds? top food in contrast to McD in the UK. The burger tastes like it contains beef, the fries actually contain potato and the regular meal is too much to finish in one hit. The view over Manhattan from the Empire State building at night: too hot for ice now so the observation deck is now open. Reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s invisible cities where the city of Irene when viewed from the plateau in the distance, is a different city from the one you would stand within. From here the places with reputations for being ‘rough’ Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, are looking pretty, fed by the constantly moving lines of flux, ignited in the darkness by the car headlights and tail-lights, painting white and red streaks through the cityscape. Whilst planes streak their own lines across the sky, like fireflies as they are flying in and out of JFK and Newark Airports, that’s a serious amount of people arriving and departing the metropolis.

Legendary New York rockers Kiss are immortalised in plastic at F.A.O. Schwartz’s. The Lincoln Centre, home of the New York Symphony Orchestra and its own slightly overweight statue of liberty is strangely deserted during the day, nearby Columbus circus at the East entrance of Central Park forms one impressive entrance to the subway. The Walking City has made its way to Chinatown, at the Storefront, an architectural gallery to be exact, which in itself is a dramatic intervention into the cityscape, with doors and windows that are rotating panels set so that they offer fragmented views of the city. Inside, the walls are covered with a complete fragment of the Archigram exhibition as viewed in Manchester earlier in the year. Here the exhibition is made up of the work of Ron Herron, best known for walking cities, but here the exhibition also concentrates on the work of his practice since Archigram. The work of the other members of the group are exhibited elsewhere in the city, at the Architecture schools at Columbia University and Cooper Union.

Battery Park City to the south, or is it Southend-on-sea, Brighton or Bournemouth with its pier and sea front pavilions. Walking between the wedding cakes of wall street, the spaces narrow and dark, is this really the financial centre of the world? On the return, travelling beneath the Hudson river and into New Jersey. Manhattan in the rain quite fitting that the city that has been home for the past nine days, signified by Empire State and the Twin Towers fade in the mist as they fade into memory.

NYC 1998