koisty cassels

FAREWELL, BUT NOT GOODBYE

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 12:04:00 +0100

It’s amazing what you can achieve in half a decade.

I started at Lawrence McPherson Associates when I was just 19 years old. I’d stayed on at the University of Paisley until the summer in order to finish my year and obtain some type of qualification, in case I needed it to fall back on. Forensic Science. That was a laugh.

I started on the 11th June, just a week after moving home and back in with the parents. A small symbol of defeat for many, but not for me, I had this fantastic new opportunity to work in a creative industry, learning practical skills and earning some money. I was extremely pleased and excited. Always one step ahead of my friends and peers, I now held a full-time position in a ‘real job’ and absolutely loved it.

The Practice back then was in full swing. There were three partners, two town planners, four senior technicians, five technicians, a secretary/receptionist, finance administrator and myself - a trainee architect. Over the following two years the Practice grew further taking on another trainee architect, an associate, two more architects, three technicians and opened an east coast office hiring four additional technicians.

The opportunities for me to get involved with every aspect of architecture was available. Surveys, planning drawings, detailed drawings, on-site visits, site meetings, building regs and CAD standards. It was all there for me to get involved with and soak up like a sponge. I had responsibilities, I contributed to the office, both with my own daily and weekly tasks and socially - arranging team building events and encouraging the monthly ‘guys games nights’. Yes. I was one of the guys!

Early on Steve got me to learn how to use Google Sketchup, it was something they’d just started to utilise as a design and presentation tool when I started. I very quickly picked it up and in no time at all became the resident SketchUp expert. It was a fantastic feeling to have a skill that not many could do and that I could pass on and teach to other members of staff. SketchUp Queen.

In the first three to four years I was given small design tasks but nothing too strenous. I wasn’t that confident about my design abilities and preferred to use the Art School to test these skills while learning more practical skills within the office. I have since discovered that I love picking out colour schemes when the technicians hate it = win win!

Something in the summer of 2009 suddenly clicked (see my blog ‘From Space Planner to Architect’ for further explanation) my confidence in designing grew and I was given the opportunity to design a Premier Inn at Newton Mearns. I think I did a grand job if I do say so myself and the clients were extremely pleased with the outcome.

As has been a general trend throughout the UK over the last few years, LMA had to downsize on several occassions losing staff and eventually closing the east coast office. A ‘core’ team of staff members still remained and I was lucky enough to be a part of that. Never underestimate SketchUp skills!

Having grasped a lot of the creative and practical skills undertaken in an architects practice when everything is running smoothly, I was then thrown in to the world of procurement, advertising and trying to win jobs and clients to bring in work. Steve and I attended workshops on PQQ writing and for most of 2010 and 2011 I filled in a lot of these forms, getting to grips with the business side of the Practice.

We joined Twitter and quickly formed a group of contacts and acquaintences online. We started a weekly newsletter and wrote the occassional blog as well. All this was fundamental in bringing the Practice up to speed with Social Media and created contacts from all over the world. It inspired me to get involved with other members of the industry and share experiences.

In my time at LMA I’ve done a bit of everything; I’ve learned the fundamental ‘how to’s’ - how to draw, how to do a survey, how to use linetypes, how to use different computer packages, how to number drawings; I’ve had on-site experience - that first time when my hard hat flew off my head and over the side of a three storey bulding!! - no one was hurt; I’ve gained design inspiration, and been exposed to styles and different opinions; I’ve learned unique skills and how to use computer aided packages to a high standard, pushing myself and the Practice’s presentations to a higher level; I’ve learned how a Practice is run and what is required from everyone to keep it working; and I’ve learned about procurement, fees and the costs of running a business.

Considering the alternative was three years full-time at university and a year making tea, drawing door schedules and folding drawings, if I even managed to secure a Part I placement at all, then I think I’ve achieved an incredible amount of irreplaceable experience, knowlege, skills and support in my time at Lawrence McPherson Associates.

I have everyone at Lawrence McPherson Associates to thank and wish to sincerely thank them for everything they have done for me.

ARE YOU GETTING THE MOST FROM LINKEDIN?

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:37:09 +0100

With Su Butcher (@Su_Butcher) coming to Glasgow this Autumn to give workshops on LinkedIn, I caught up with her to ask her a few questions and get my head around LinkedIn :

So Su, you started Just Practicing last year with the intention of helping architects and members of the construction industry. When did you get connected with LinkedIn, was it before Just Practising came in to being?

I started my consultancy last year, it’s named Just Practising after my blog which is three and a half years old. But I’ve been using LinkedIn for about eight years.

Wow! Eight years, I hadn’t even realised it had been around for that amount of time. Did you meet any contacts through LinkedIn that inspired the Just Practising log? Was it through networking with people on LinkedIn that you realised people needed some direction?

Yes. LinkedIn was founded in 2003, and the UK is its second biggest country. Interestingly most of the people in construction who have been influential to my blog, I met on Twitter first, and after that became connected on LinkedIn having met ‘in the flesh’. Paul Wilkinson (@EEPaul) for example, he thought up the name ‘Just Practising’ during a conversation half a dozen of us were having on twitter - what should I call a blog about architects?

LinkedIn is special because it was always about your ‘real life’ network, not a virtual one. Which is what makes it so much more useful for those who work with people in other organisations ‘in the real world’. LinkedIn is a way of helping those contacts more effectively, and helping them help you.

So the contacts you have on LinkedIn, have you met most of them ‘in the flesh’?

A large proportion yes, but not all. A sizeable chunk of my connections are overseas, particularly in the US, and I haven’t been out there for fifteen years! The advantage of LinkedIn is that people can do a great deal of checking up on you before they get in touch, so they ‘self select’. Most of the people I know are really useful people…whether I’ve met them or not!

Ah I see. It sounds like a bit of a background check, or an informal reference checking system! Do you feel then that members of LinkedIn aren’t using their contacts as effectively as they should, or that more inactive members need to know how to get more involved - what is it that has inspired you to give a series of LinkedIn seminars?

That’s one of the reasons - people checking up on you, a great reason to have a good LinkedIn profile.

I started with LinkedIn as my first training platform because :

1. So many construction people are already on it - at the moment over 350,000 in the UK alone.

2. Most of those people have no idea what they can do with it - you can use LinkedIn to save so much time if your role involves having any sort of interaction with people you don’t know well, and particularly if you have to network to generate business (as we in the construction industry do all the time.)

3. I’d heard some rather scary stories about people being caught out by LinkedIn. For example, people who were checked out for a job and their profile didn’t look very professional; or a construction tender where the team were looked up by the tendering body and found that the team leader’s profile in the tender was ‘somewhat different’ from the one on LinkedIn. These stories show how important it is to use social tools, and use them properly.

So the training workshops I’ve been giving in London, Manchester, Leeds so far are based around three things :

1. How to use LinkedIn as your ‘Public Home Online’ - it is so well indexed by google that if you do it right, people searching for you on google will find your LinkedIn profile, so you can make it the place from where people find everything else, from your phone number to your website.

2. Whom to connect to, why and how. Many people using LinkedIn don’t connect to the people they know, so they miss out on the real value of the tool, that is to make your network visible so you can use it, and so people can find you and see how credible you are.

3. and…what to do next!

As you know yourself Kirsty, social tools work best when you have an objective and work towards it. But who has a LinkedIn strategy? Very few people. Those who do whom I know have done very well out of it. So I help people start thinking about what their strategy might be and how they can use their network proactively to achieve it.

I certainly don’t know much about it myself and don’t know where I’d start to figure it out. These seminars seems pretty vital especially in this climate where jobs are scarce and it’s down to whether you make that good first impression or not.

Have you considered it would be something worth being taught to undergraduates on university courses? I know many people my age who are either studying and thinking ahead, recently graduated and looking to the future or have been working and don’t quite know how to get the most from their existing LinkedIn accounts. If this is the way forward in employment, it would seem like a good idea to introduce it as early in a career path as possible so that individuals are thinking about it as they grow professionally.

That’s a very good idea Kirsty, no I hadn’t thought about that, but there is certainly a need for it amongst graduates and postgraduates. LinkedIn is a very good platform for larger organisations too - it is often the only social network their firewalls allow!

One of the problems enthusiasts have found with LinkedIn in the past was that people thought that if you have a LinkedIn profile you must be ‘looking for a job’ as there was thought to be ‘no other reason’ for having one. But I think this is changing as the size of the network grows and people realise what can be done with it.

Having a good LinkedIn network is in my opinion a very good reason for employing someone. One of my contacts in the US had a client who employed a young person with a very good localised LinkedIn network. They found out only after employing her that she was very well connected to one of their major prospects in their city…just think of the opportunities that are being missed.

Six degrees of separation!

Exactly.

So would you encourage employees of larger companies to take part in the workshops? And in particular long serving employees or partners/directors of companies? I’m assuming they may think they have no need for it if they’ve been with the company so long.

Yes I definitely think it is very important for employees of larger companies to use LinkedIn, and their well established seniors too. One of the things that older senior people are going to find is that many of the conversations and introductions they had on the golf course will be in part happening online, particularly on LinkedIn. And as they probably have a good network, many of whom will be on LinkedIn, joining isn’t too onerous. All this ‘it’s just for youngsters’ rubbish is just that, as far as I’m concerned. After all, the average age of a LinkedIn user is 43 - that’s the average!

The LinkedIn workshops then, what format do they take, and how interactive are they?

The workshops are workbook based - each participant gets a workbook with the notes and illustrations from the workshop in it. They write in it during the event, and take it away with them afterwards as an aide-memoire.

Interactivity is very important - we do discussions in pairs and in the whole group, brainstorming sessions and individual work, demonstrations and Q&A.

In my experience learning how to do something takes a bit of time, so we make the session as varied as possible and give everyone plenty to work with - at the back of the workbook is a checklist you can work through after the event to get things going.

I also invite every participant to my closed LinkedIn group where people who have done the workshop can support each other and ask more questions. The group shares things they find useful with each other, and ask each other (and me) if they get stuck. It is proving very useful.

The closed LinkedIn group sounds like a great support system after the event, everyone always wants to ask questions that they hadn’t thought of at the time, and the network of previous workshop attendees sharing their knowledge will also be extremely beneficial.

Yes it seems to work really well. I’m also thinking of doing webinars and recording them and making them available to the group afterwards so people can ‘watch them back’.

We run through a lot of stuff about settings in the workshops - LinkedIn settings are quite complex, but are very important to get right.

Thanks very much Su for taking the time to talk to me. I think it gives a deeper understanding of what the LinkedIn seminar will include and what to expect from the workshops.

The workshop will take place in Glasgow between late August (20th) and mid September (7th). Places will be limited so please get in touch if interested via the entry form below and we’ll send you further details. Both Su and I hope to see you there!

Express your interest in the Glasgow Workshop here

FALLEN OUT WITH SUSTAINABILITY

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:47:30 +0100

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.

This is my final drop-down pinned up at this years GSA Degree...

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:12:59 +0100

This is my final drop-down pinned up at this years GSA Degree Show and marked as my final studio grade of my BArch Degree.

The top project is an ARThouse, an artist’s retreat for up to seven people situated in the grounds of Mount Stuart Estate on the Isle of Bute.

The bottom project is the insertion of a BOOKfactory in the town centre of Penicuik on the East Coast. The aim is to try and restore the town’s identity of paper-making and to try and regenerate the town centre.

ARCHITECTURE & FEMININITY

Mon, 14 May 2012 09:57:25 +0100

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?

KONY NO DAE THAT

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:13:46 +0000

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 :

The Young Professionals Guide to Starting Twitter

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:37:39 +0000

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!

THE ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS NETWORK

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:04:00 +0000

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.

THE YOUNG ARCHITECT'S CAREER

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:02:06 +0000

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?

STUDENT BECOMES TEACHER

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:51:49 +0000

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.

Looking at the wider context of my BOOKfactory and how I wanted...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:45:57 +0000

Looking at the wider context of my BOOKfactory and how I wanted it to interact with the buildings and streets around it, I looked at inserting a one story building into the middle of the High Street reducing it from one unused inefficient large open space to two narrower streets. I wanted the buildings and businesses to use these narrower streets to spill out on to and provide a better interaction with the public.

However I realised that it may not actually be doing much more, and started to question what benefits of public space do I get from creating two streets? (see previous post for diagrams)

I had problems with the existing building as well, it wasn’t addressing this feeling of community that I felt it should, or providing ideal interaction with the pend on its left and new street to its front.

My tutor asked me, what is it that you’re trying to achieve by inserting a BOOKfactory into the centre of Penicuik? I answered that I wanted it to be a place of interaction where people could come and learn, socialise or just relax. Like a giant living room, I said. BINGO. I needed to create a new more useable efficient public space, a square of some kind. The centre of Penicuik. A hub.

There was previously a square to the south of High Street but has since been cut up by a road and new housing that it is hardly even recognisable as a square anymore. So, a new public square would provide a sense of community, a meeting place, a performance space, could be used for markets, town events, and businesses to spill out onto, and my BOOKfactory gets split into two buildings. One pretty dominant public building with a Bookshop, Cafe and Internet area. The other set back in line with the rest of the buildings, housing paper making workshops, indoor performance spaces, storytelling areas and Wild Hawthorn Press, which is higher and with the two stories provides views up to the hills and down to the valley.

Right, game on…I’m off to draw up some proposals!

So after misinterpreting the views and suggestions at my Interim...

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:56:55 +0000

So after misinterpreting the views and suggestions at my Interim Crit I have gone back to the drawing board, or iPad as it were!

I had thought my move to push the building out from the street frontage was quite bold, but as it was pointed out to me, it was a) too tentative and not actually bold enough and b) didn’t serve any purpose and I couldn’t justify why I’d even done it. Apparantly “but I wanted to think outside the box’ is not a valid justification! Ha.

So here marks my second attempt. What I want to achieve is to create useable outdoor space and encourage the public and visitors in to the buildings in the High Street by pulling them in.

I think this can be achieved by creating two narrower streets. The High St is currently one large open space, with no identity and I think it would benefit from being split up, encouraging social interaction, defining the streetscape and landscaped areas and providing a focal point.

With this in mind I plan on inserting a single storey, transparent building in the centre of the open space and using this building for the Cafe, Coffee Shop and Bookshop which will be able to spill out into the newly pedestrianised High Street on one side and provide a frontage and focal point to the existing B6372 on the other side.

Sharing my experience of the AEC industry, working full-time...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:03:20 +0000

Sharing my experience of the AEC industry, working full-time for Lawrence McPherson Associates whilst undertaking a part-time course at the Glasgow School of Art.

See how I have benefitted from this unique situation and how social media is helping young members of our industry connect with each other.

Building Analogies & Personalities

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 01:26:45 +0000

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

As you can see a few posts further down the page, I have already...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:57:03 +0000

As you can see a few posts further down the page, I have already outlined my approach to the site on a wider context, and the extent to which I will be investigating using refurbishment and hard landscaping.

Moving on from this, and looking now at the building in more detail (please see below for a copy of the brief) The building will block the pend and redirect the route of pedestrian traffic by positioning the building at the end of the pend and pushing it out into the High Street. This creates a new pend, which will run through the middle of the BOOKfactory encouraging activity on both sides.

To push the building beyond the existing street edge is rather bold but can create a balance between the position of the new building and the materiality of it. Hopefully the rather dramatic position of the new building will be balanced by the sympathetic selection of materials. The materials will reflect the surrounding existing buildings.

This is a quick sketch for a tutorial. Not entirely sure on materials or window placement etc, but it got the idea out of my head and onto paper as it were. Exploring what the streetscape would look like with a protruding building.

BOOKfactory Brief

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:34:08 +0000

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.

Architecture : The Patient Creative Discipline

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:02:43 +0000

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.

The progression from Space Planner to Architect

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:48:00 +0000

I purchased a fantastic new book while in NY this summer, from Urban Outfitters of all places. It’s called ‘101 Things I learned in Architecture School’ by Matthew Frederick.

#13 states ”A space planner creates functional square footage for the office workers; an architect considers the nature of the work performed in the office environment, its meaning to the workers, and its value to society. A space planner provides spaces for playing basketball, performing laboratory experiments, manufacturing widgets or staging theatrical productions; an architect imbues the experience of these places with poignancy, richness, fun, beauty and irony.”

This has been a turning point in my education. We are all told at the beginning of each academic year, that we will all ‘get it’ at different times. From first year at university, right through to Part 3 exams or even once practicing as an Architect. There is a point at which it all comes together. You love architecture and no longer do it because you have to make it through the course, or because you’re working on a project in the office. You actually love it. It all makes sense. You love learning new things. And you are eternally enthusiastic.

This summer was a turning point in my education. Having being told for three years ‘Kirsty go mad, you’re at the Art School’ and ‘Part-timers are always thinking about the reality of what can be built, and not just letting go’ I feel like I finally understand, and I’m ready to be bold, make decisions, justify things, create ridiculous explanations, and above all have fun!

To be fair, you may not actually notice the difference in my work…but the important point is that I feel I get it now. Ha.

I’ve missed out on the ‘studio’ atmosphere by being part-time at the art school; the influences, the chats, peer discussions, being pushed out of your comfort zone and the community feeling surrounding the studio. In a way, I feel like that is what Twitter and the ArchitectMap community has provided me with this past 6 months. It’s a wealth of information, inspiration and above all like-minded peers ready to discuss, suggest and share.

Is it a leap forward from ‘ye olden days’ when your architect peers were your competition? Is the world moving forward to create more collaboration and team efforts? I bloody hope so. It’s much more fun!

So there we go, I think there is an informal qualification that we should all be issued with when the penny drops : From Space Planner to Architect.

Architect Map

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:13:32 +0000

Architect Map:

ArchitectMap provides members of the AEC industry with a community whereby great content can be shared and discovered, whilst giving you direct access to this content through the powerful tool known as Twitter.

ArchitectMap is open to anyone and everyone in the AEC industry. Whether you are a Graduate just starting your journey in our industry or an experienced professional, we want to engage with you so come and join now.

Be a part of something bigger! Also you can join the AEC Graduate Map.

"Until recently, the received precepts of modern curatorial practice favoured the exclusive use of..."

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:43:39 +0000

“Until recently, the received precepts of modern curatorial practice favoured the exclusive use of artificial light in all art galleries. It has perhaps been insufficiently recognized how this encapsulation tends to reduce the artwork to a commodity, since an environment must conspire to render the work placeless.”

- ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism : Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance’ by Kenneth Frampton

I like this. It’s a good quote for my ARThouse project.