koisty cassels

Seriously. Sustainability is not a real word. It is common sense re-packaged as a buzzword and sold off as the latest earth changing idea.

That just about sums up the over consuming attitude of human beings in the twenty first century. Here, have a bottle of water for £1.50!

Sustainable design is a phrase invented by a generation of guilt ridden people, digging themselves out of their previous gullible adoration of a bunch of crazy egotistical ‘modernists’ who selfishly indulged in creating bigger than life artworks, loosely disguised as buildings, urban sprawl, and townscapes that didn’t make any natural sense.

I was born in Britain in the late 80’s. This means that I grew up in this ‘sustainability’ retrofitting, oh-the-high-rises-were-awful, lets all learn from our mistakes era. Sustainability has become this key word that is supposed to explain how the world can change for the better and how we can right all the wrongs. And yet, my generation quite simply just accepts that this is common sense. No need to feel guilty, no need to invent phrases and re-package the obvious into a grand scheme to end all problems. Sustainability is just common sense.

If people want to live more effectively, healthily and joyfully - grow your own vegetables, or get them from nearby; be near a source of water, have greenery all around you; build buildings with lots of light but enough shelter, that keep you warm or cold depending on what country you’re in, but passively; provide outdoor spaces, parks, places for people to enjoy and relax; provide a systematic transit system or walkable distances, and well thought out infrastructure.

There’s a reason why there are several ‘zero carbon city’ schemes cropping up. It’s because it’s easy, simple, we have the technology and it makes common sense. Not because it’s ‘sustainable’.

Do you want to live/work/socialise in a building that is overshadowed, has no views, faces north or requires an obscene amount of electrically run technology just to heat, light and ventilate it? No, didn’t think so. Stop calling it sustainable design then. Just call it common sense and human nature.

I wrote this blog a couple of months ago, but for fear I’d come across as a ranting feminist I put off finishing it, and put it on the back burner.

With the recent success of the Architects’ Journal Women in Architecture Awards last month,  the outrage over the 21 all male speakers at the RIAS Convention this month and stumbling upon Parlour archiparlour.org – it made me remember and revisit it. Hope you enjoy my insight into how I’ve found femininity in the architecture profession.

The more I learn about architecture the more I realise and accept that my designs are actually quite feminine.

In my five years of studying and working I have been pretty cautious and somewhat scared of designing what I like - organic shapes, curves, ornamentation, soft colours, delicate designs, subtle and elegant details. I’ve tried to train my brain to think and design along the lines of my co-workers and fellow students. Tutors always claiming the concept isn’t bold enough. It’s taken time, and trust in my self and my own opinion to understand that what I like and naturally aspire to design isn’t wrong, it’s just different.

Near the beginning of this term in a lecture about Adolf Loos I realised that being a modernist (of which we are all victim to, given our time) is to degrade ornamentation and reject nature. He was responsible for training generations of budding designers into thinking that clean and simple was the answer. Nature represents femininity. Nature is delicate, pretty, organic and subtle. It could be argued that abolishing ornamentation is to get rid of the feminine.

Without ornamentation, buildings wouldn’t have personalities, would they? Even Adolf Loos created a fairly ornamental bedroom for his wife despite being the man that proclaimed that ‘ornamentation = crime’. Is this because ornamentation is a feminine attribute or is it because architecture should be free from ornamentation, in order that personality can be injected into it by each of the individual occupiers?

My analogy is this : I have never dressed prettily, flowery, girly or frilly. I like my staple clean cut items, my mono block colours, my simple pallet. But I always always brighten this up, funk it up, or punk it up for whatever the occasion requires or my mood takes me with jewellery and accessories. I inject my personality and ornamentation into the outfit.

As a society, generally speaking we no longer express our wealth and status through our fashion. Sure, clothes can still be more expensive and of a higher quality, but there are no longer detailed, delicate folk dresses. Men no longer wear inner coats, outer coats, jackets, belts, suspenders, waistcoats and a pocket watch. We have modernised our fashion, throwing out the ornamentation to some extent.

This is a similar situation within architecture. We no longer spend extortionate amounts of money on a gold leaf and intricately carved marble lobby. It’s simply constructed and then interior furnishings are purchased to ‘jazz the place up’.

So do I have a right to criticise modernism, blame it for the lack of feminine ornamentation and suggest that the industry is more masculine when I myself walk around wearing examples of modernist design and the effect of de-ornamentation?

Perhaps the conclusion is that architecture can be the vehicle for expressing my feminine side?

I was really moved by watching KONY 2012 this week, if you haven’t done so already you can watch it here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

In summary it’s a short film just under thirty minutes created by a charity organisation called Invisible Children. It aims to raise awareness for the No 1 War Criminal in the world known as Joseph Kony. His crimes against humanity include murder, enslavement, sexual enslavement, rape, cruel treatment of civilians, intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population, pillaging, inducing rape, and forced enlisting of children into the rebel ranks.

By making his name known worldwide Invisible Children hope to remind the American Government to continue their support of 100 military personnel who are helping the Ugandan government find Kony. This is a humanitarian issue. Not a political one. The American government will only continue to support this mission if they know the people of their country care enough to demand it.

Of course something like this, is encouraged to spread worldwide. If nothing, that’s what the Internet is for. Sharing.

The reason it struck me hard, wasn’t necessarily all about the cause but about the how, millions of people having the power to have their voices heard. And are doing something about it. Through the Internet and the ‘Facebook’ generation we have an opportunity to change the world. To affect politics. It’s incredibly empowering, after all is that not what democracy is?!

Wikipedia defines a democracy as ‘an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation together determine public policy, the laws and the actions of their state, requiring that all citizens have an equal opportunity to express their opinion’.

Of course ‘in practise, “democracy” is the extent to which a given system approximates this ideal, and a given political system is referred to as “a democracy” if it allows a certain approximation to ideal democracy.’

Are we entering a new age then, the age of Interocracy?

I went to the KONY2012 website to purchase an action pack, I feel strongly about what they are doing, and want to support them. After a few minutes I decided I wouldn’t buy the action pack, as I wasn’t sure whether I would actually be canvassing my town with the merchandise. Plus, there was a lot of (expected) negative chat on Facebook and Twitter about the merchandise and that the money wasn’t actually going to the victims or the people affected by Kony but just to fund this awareness campaign.

That’s fine I thought. I’m under no illusions. They’ve done a good job, and the Freedom of Speech and Power of The People is worth supporting.

However I decided I would just purchase a bracelet, something I could wear that would show my support and express my opinion. The bracelet was $10, which was acceptable, but then there was an additional $20 International Shipping charge. I’m sorry, but thirty dollars for a piece of string!?! I’ll make my own thanks.

There’s always moral implications of creating a mock version of charity merchandise. Going to the local Sunday Market and buying a knock-off just doesn’t seem right. People do it, it raises awareness. But it’s never quite justified is it?

BUT this isn’t about the charity. The money doesn’t benefit the victims, it benefits the campaign. The campaign is to raise awareness, so why can’t we do that in our own way?

Cue Scottish take on supporting the KONY2012 awareness campaign. Credit to my friend Mark Hogg, who wrote it on Facebook - ‘Kony no dae that’ a quick witted spin on the Scottish saying ‘Gonnae no dae that!’ for references, please look up http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gonnae_no

So without further ado, I give you the Scottish KONY2012 campaign. An individual response to support a good cause, and hopefully a sign of a more democratic world and a generation for change!

KONY NO DAE THAT :

My good friend Frenchie @Frenchieonair is a Radio Presenter for WestFM @WestFM in Ayrshire and is relatively new to twitter.

Over dinner one evening I managed to convince him that twitter was a valuable tool from a professional point of view. We agreed : Facebook is for friends and family, Twitter is for your career. The problem is, once convinced, he wasn’t entirely sure how to continue. He had signed up to twitter, but now what? Would it take a lot of input and effort to get it to go anywhere?

A lot of our peers have recently graduated and embarked on new careers, so the advice I was starting to think up was probably applicable to most young professionals. I decided to write all this information down on how to get the best out of twitter for creating new contacts and friends, networking and learning from more experienced members of your chosen profession.

These are my Young Professionals Guide to Starting Twitter Rules :

Rule #1 : Start tweeting. People will follow you if you have something to say.

Rule #2 : Follow people in your industry. Hopefully they’ll follow you back. Engage with them, thank them for following you.

Rule #3 : If they tweet something interesting, comment on it or re-tweet (RT) to your followers.

Rule #4 : Don’t go straight for the big guns. You want to follow people you’d actually meet and connect with in real life.

Rule #5 : Follow similar people, young professionals with a similar job description. You can interact and learn from each other.

Rule #6 : Tweet about your job (views are your own) but keep it professional. The actual day-to-day tasks and observations are far more entertaining and interesting that the official company tweets.

Rule #7 : Remember at all times, everything is public, keep it professional (albeit with your own personal touch) respect each other, be as politically correct as you can be - everyone is entitled to their own opinion but ranting strongly about a hot topic may lose you followers and respect.

Rule #8 : Try not to tweet your friends too often, and keep it simple. We don’t want to know when and where you’re meeting for the cinema next Tuesday.

Rule #9 : Get your company to start you off, for example a quick tweet from @WestFM “Our morning travel presenter Frenchie is now on twitter, follow him @Frenchieonair”

Rule #10 : Join in on #FridayFollows. Every friday you suggest to your followers people worth following. Always try and give a reason as to why you would want to follow them, for example “#FF for interesting links and great musical suggestions follow @Frenchieonair” Use this link as a good guide to Friday Follow rules.

Rule #11 : Give it time. 6 months on and you’ll have learned the ropes, made some excellent contacts and friends and hopefully gained a few hundred followers.

I hope this has been of use. Go forth and jump into the world of twitter, happy tweeting!

This Monday marked the launch of a new UK wide student body - The Architecture Students Network (ASN) which looks to replace Archaos founded in 1999.

The ASN will be an independent network of student representatives from the schools of architecture within the United Kingdom. They will focus on supporting and promoting architecture student events, harnessing student opinion, and engaging with both national and international relevant educational organisations.

It has taken over from and will continue the positive work that Archaos had been doing over the last decade. A statement from The ASN explained, ‘Building upon the positive work that Archaos has been doing over the last decade, the ASN would like to thank all of the students from Archaos, for their efforts in instigating fairer student working conditions and making a perceivable impact in clarifying information regarding the architectural education system in the UK.’

The ASN will be hosting a series of events this summer in partnership with various schools, and will be running the second Architecture Students Assembly, an opportunity for students of architecture to meet on an annual basis.

The next meeting of the ASN will be held at the University of Greenwich School of Architecture, Design and Construction on Friday 9th March 2012 and they would like to encourage students to represent the opinion of their respective schools at this meeting to contribute in the formation of an exciting new organisation.

The network is part of the easa010 (European Architecture Students Assembly) legacy and has grown from a generally shared desire for the establishment of a viable network that promotes communication between students in UK schools.

Visit The ASN website here.

Click here for more information on the EASA.

My thoughts in response to Arch Daily’s blog posted on the 30th January 2012 ‘Practice 2.0 : Championing the young architect’s career, a lesson from technology startups’ by CASE (written by David Fano and Steve Sanderson)

http://www.archdaily.com/203841/practice-2-0-championing-the-young-architects-career-a-lesson-from-technology-startups/

Firstly, as true as most of this is in both the US and the UK, I’d say on the whole it’s a rather negative view of a young architect’s career path. 

I have been finding more and more blogs that are either individually expressed views of people partaking in this venture themselves, or by a collective number of late thirty somethings who have passed that stage but can still remember and care to comment on the painful uphill struggle of getting to that point of ‘making it’.

It is probably easier to write negative views on a flawed system than look for the good in it, so I’m not knocking anyone’s blogs. In fact I enjoy reading them and I appreciate everything everyone has to say.

While I don’t disagree with the points made on the Arch Daily blog, and I know this is how the majority feels, I just thought I’d take the time to reply to this, as I have had such a great experience in the industry (so far) with the way I have approached my studies.

I want to give my positive spin on it, especially for those still in the process, or for the architecture students of the following generations, or perhaps even to let the more experienced architects out there feel a bit hopeful that it could still change!

Looking at CASE’s blog and their opinions on the intern experience in the US, I’m not sure whether the UK education system has any particular advantage over other countries? 

After the first three years, a compulsory year-out in Practice is required. You cannot achieve your RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Part 1 qualification if you haven’t proven sufficient evidence of working within the industry. Granted in the last few years, what with the economic turn-down, they have relaxed the rules slightly, but that is only to ensure that they do not hinder students in their educational progression. Once you complete this year out, you are then expected to go back to university and do either a Diploma or a Masters (it all really confuses me, to what kind of qualification and where) but something that is RIBA acreddited and will get you to pass the RIBA Part 2 exam.

This is when you are required to go into Practice and work on a full project from inception to completion, so that you understand the process and when you sit your final RIBA Part 3 exam and interview you are quizzed on the various problems that came up during the project and how you dealt with them.

I’m not sure how this compares with the American System? Does anybody want to comment and let me know?

Secondly, my solution to how it could work; may be obvious to me, and to those who know me, but has anyone considered an internship/apprenticeship approach?

This means that you don’t leave school without many of the practical skills necessary to work on aspects required by the Intern Development Program but rather pick them up as you go along. Yes, you do get assigned to one particular phase and yes you do have to tolerate it, but it teaches you a lot and it doesn’t waste a further three years as you’re combining studying with working at the same time so it becomes a part of your education.

Another argument that the CASE blog puts forward is that the process doesn’t give young architects the tools and experience needed to run their own practices. I would argue my case for internships/apprenticeships as you are able to learn everything you need to know about how to run a Practice without actually handling any of the reponsibility or stress. I pick up on everything that goes on around me, and over the years (in conjunction with my studies) I have built up an excellent view of what to do and what maybe not to do and the problems you face and how difficult it can be to run a Practice.

As an apprentice from the very begining, I’ve not been exposed to the full creativity of university, where you can let your imagination run wild, and then the consequent let-down when you start your working life as an architect and experience the everyday mundane tasks, stressful time constraints, limited budgets and unimaginitive clients. It seems it has been a let-down for many of you.

My career has been quite the opposite in fact. I’ve known since day one that the real world and university are different. I’ve listened to the Architects around me moan about the job. I’ve witnessed every work experience school child we’ve had with us being told ‘don’t do architecture’. Even if it was said with humour, they’ve been fair warned!

Perhaps that’s why I take such a positive view on it. Such negative views from the very beginning has only meant I find things better than they were first envisaged, rather than the other way about : When I grow up I want to be an architect - and then it’s all downhill from graduation, dreams of drawing all day and creating masterpieces dampened by reality, budgets and experience.

It’s a tough world this architecture. And if we’re going to encourage further generations with Mattels new Architect Barbie and Lego’s famous architecture buildings, then maybe the key is to let them know what they’re in for from the very begining. Guidance Counsellors - we’re looking at you!!

My blog requires I end with a question in order to allow replies, so without further ado - any questions?

With no idea what to expect I pulled up to Newton Primary School with a homemade consulting board game and a powerpoint prepared to give a short presentation to an unknown number of primary school children about Architects and what we do.

Of the small class, only a few turned up for the presentation but the computing suite With no idea what to expect I pulled up to Newton Primary School with a homemade consulting board game and a powerpoint prepared to give a short presentation to an unknown number of primary school children about Architects and what we do.

Of the small class, only a few turned up for the presentation but the computing suite was full of other children who were very interested in the buildings too. 

Far more informal than I expected I sat down on my child sized chair with my lime green tumbler of water, asked the boys their names, chatted to them for a few minutes and then began to flick through the presentation. They asked a lot of questions and I got a lot of feedback and interaction.

They wished they could attend the colourful schools and were surprised at the scale models and how detailed they were. The boy’s latest project was to build a bedroom in a shoebox so we discussed the importance of scale and measurement and how they had designed theirs. There was also a section on structure and how that too was important for keeping things up.

The architecture that absolutely killed though was the futuristic buildings of Dubai. I showed a video of the proposed rotating towers in Dubai and Moscow and images of the floating cities. The sleek, futuristic, shiny buildings held their interest the longest and they were extremely enthusiastic asking a lot of questions before going off on a tangent about guns, cars and base jumping off the top of the Burj Khalifa…

It was only a short presentation followed by a little video I came across on YouTube called The Three Little Architects :

It’s based on the well known story The Three Little Pigs. They really seemed to enjoy it, and I was thanked several times from the boys for coming before they ran out the door to play football…well, at least they have their priorities in order!

Big thanks to @innovusdecors @architectming @benjaminmurdoch and @colorcoat for project suggestions and @55n for loan of the consulting board game.

Building Analogies

ARCHITECTURE is like the Human Body, there is a structure, internal services and an external skin.

INTERIOR DESIGN is like clothes, dressing up and creating personalities.

LIGHTING is like a pair of glasses or contacts, helping to see.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE is like the hairstyle, needs to be kept trimmed but can enhance the external appearance.

Building Personalities

Brutalist concrete buildings are like Body Builders, solid and heavy but not particularly pleasing on the eye to the majority of people unless you appreciate the effort.

Renaissance architecture are like Shakespearian Actors, replicating an ancient language while using modern techniques.

Housing Estates are like Festival Goers, trying to fit as many as you can into one field with services such as water supply, sewage treatment and amenities required.

Modernistic minimalistic buildings are like Catwalk Models, not much to them but serve as a blank canvas for dressing with art.

- - -

After inspiration from Miss Arielle Schechter (@acsarchitect) and a couple of tweets on Building Analogies, my brain started twirling as I thought of some more.

Can you think of any others?

Tweet them to me at @koistycassels

I figured I should probably put up my brief before launching into sketches of my work. Have cut it down quite a bit, the GSA have long briefs.

In its heyday Penicuik was at the centre of the paper making industry, not only within its Scottish context but as a worldwide leader in the production and distribution of this vital commodity. The town’s location was fundamental in its development as a paper making centre, with an abundant supply of water and power from the River Esk, a supply of rags from Edinburgh, and a position in Scotland close to the coast for international trade. Its location now is also influential in its evolutionary development, that of a dormitory town for Scotland’s capital city. 

Unlike many rural communities which are suffering from the endemic social and economic problems of depopulation, lack of investment, an aging community and low local employment opportunities, this is not the case with Penicuik. The town’s population has grown and the demographics are not untypical, but has this growth been too rapid and great over a relatively short period of time? 

Several major supermarkets have moved into the town, but away from the retail core, and local services and places for community gatherings such as the library and associated community venues; have also moved away from the town centre.

The impact has been a slow erosion of the core of the town, which now houses a few eateries and public houses alongside the down market retail stores. A realignment of the main road has allowed the creation of a pedestrian precinct that extends from the High Street. The streetscaping is banal and anonymous and Penicuik past identity seems now to be lost. The once self sufficient community has now gone and a different town has gradually emerged. A new identity for Penicuik is vital if it is to remain strong and individual and find its way forward into the 21st century. 

The town study has opened your eyes to the past, present and possible future of Penicuik. The next step is to bring these ideas together in the design of a small public building that will have a sustainable agenda in the context of Penicuik and its surrounding context, and will have the role of catalyst in the rebirth of its ailing town centre.

Designers of public buildings are compelled to improve the quality of the external public realm in terms of townscape and in the internal public realm of the public facility provided. Accordingly you are offered the opportunity to situate a proposed literary venue within the town context of Penicuik, with the possibility of contributing to the ‘rebirth’ of this settlement. It will engage with the ‘Slow City’ movement in its ambition to provide an enriched public realm, reflecting on the past, engaging with the present in both a social and physical sense and providing an enriched town environment for the future.

The program should focus on creating a viable concept for a ‘literary center’ that goes beyond the idea of a library or performance space. 

Embracing the town’s past and complementing the proposed ‘museum of paper making’ at Bank Mill, the existing library and public venues; your proposal will provide a place for reading, writing and performing and will celebrate the town’s past history through books. The proposal will have community spaces for weekly book clubs and recitals and be the public link for writers.

Your proposal should extend beyond the perimeter of the proposed building, extending into the public realm and create positive and vital external rooms for the people of Penicuik to inhabit on a daily basis, but also during special community events held in the town.

Your proposal will transcend the notion of a ‘library’ and activate a space that has an innovative and flexible public program and one that reinforces the social, cultural and economic status of Penicuik and the surrounding locale. It will be the ownership of the project by the community that will engender success and longevity of the project. 

The facility should be designed to become a venue for the community with events such as book clubs, children’s story telling, and perhaps a writer’s guild, and could also include, paper making and book binding workshops, a print studio, and a café? And all the necessary support space required by this type of program should also be considered and designed for. Spaces can be flexible and it may be that they ‘overlap’ in terms of their designed program.

While the basic technical and experiential aspects that support this type of public venue should be acknowledged, the thrust of the project is the social, cultural and economic regeneration of Penicuik, rather than an exploration of the technicalities of the design. The emphasis should be on the townscape argument that conditions individual interpretations of the building programme.

The restriction to the selection of one building/site is intended to sharpen the argument for the particular selection over all other potential choices, and to inform the architectural intent of the individual proposal. 

It is important that when considering the programme for your building that you remain connected to the scale of the venue and its appropriateness in Penicuik. Your proposal should be primarily an ‘accountable resource’ for the community as well as a visitor attraction. Think about external public space, scale and materials, utilisation of existing buildings, traffic and pedestrians and possible external realm that you wish to develop. Consider performance/gathering space both internal and external, and what facilities you intend to include in your proposal together with the necessary support accommodation. You should think about the wider aspirations you may have for your intervention.

Our world is constantly increasing at such a fast pace, everything is expected at the touch of a button. People expect more and more reading material, photographs, fashion, movies, TV programmes, youtube videos, podcasts, music, and they expect them almost immediately after they’ve savoured the last piece. 

It has occurred to me that Architecture has got to be the most patient of all the creative disciplines. Everything else, photography, fashion, art, music, interior design, graphic design, product design, can all be produced in a relatively short amount of time. You get the end product and proof of your work so quickly. From a matter of seconds to maybe a year or two, at most?

It can be slightly frustrating designing as an architect, anybody else agree? It takes such a long time for our creations to come to life (if at all!!) and in that amount of time designing under another creative discipline could have produced masses of work. Architects are always telling me they would have done something differently, or they’ll do it differently next time. It requires a lot of patience to stick to a design, when the creative side of your brain is constantly churning out new ideas.

Perhaps this explains why most architects have a passion for something outwith architecture. We all need to express ourselves, and need an additional outlet for our creativity?

We’ve been taught a lot at Art School these past few years about ‘slow architecture.’ I mean to me the statement at first seemed silly. Of course architecture is slow; it can take years to see your end product! But I think their point is a backlash against, pre-fabricated, mass produced buildings that do not exude any architectural qualities but rather provide shelter in the most basic, quick and cost-effective way.

No matter how mass-produced and technology-driven architecture can get, I think the slow design process should continue to be retained and savoured, however frustrating. I mean all the best architecture was built over a long period of time. Some architects weren’t even around to see their works completed.

I think learning and practising architecture has actually helped to slow me down as a person, making me more patient. I appreciate things more. I always wished my life away when I was younger, but since studying and practising architecture I think it has taught me to carefully calculate decisions, plan ahead and appreciate life and its influences.

I can still get frustrated at my own designs and how slowly they form, but I feel like I will learn to appreciate the slow process over time.

Here’s to anyone working in the Patient Creative Discipline! Stick in.