Iris Ceramica invites AIA UK to the Architects Series at its Speakeasy Club
Fiona Mckay
Photo: While Iris Ceramica’s production team set up the event, Russell Brown and Roger Hawkins go over their notes…
Following up on our commitment to become more actively involved with AIA UK Chapter’s sponsors, we were pleased to be invited to Iris Ceramica’s Speakeasy Club on 18 Nov 2021 for this month’s ‘Architects Series’.
The Architects Series offers exclusive videos - up close and personal - with some of the most famous architecture studios around the world. In collaboration with Iris Ceramica Group, team members from The Plan – an independent production team - go behind the scenes of the most important international practices to report on the life, work, and aspirations of the architects who build our cities.
The November session was an in-depth review of Hawkins/Brown Architects with a chance to meet the principles after the video for an open discussion of their work. At circa 300 employees, Hawkins/Brown is one of the UK’s largest architectural practices. Three major projects from the many reviewed in their excellent presentation exemplified the practice’s ethos of adding social value to good design:
Crossrail’s Tottenham Court Road station, emphasising art and circulation,
Sheffield’s Park Hill Housing, bringing ‘love, life and pride back to an abused icon’,
Olympic Park’s Here East project, rescuing a ready to be demolished broadcasting shed and turning it into 1.2million sq ft of creative and digital industry units.
Photo: A relaxed atmosphere encourages face to face interaction with the featured architects.
Iris Ceramica’s Architects Series is international, and the event was transmitted simultaneously to London, Milan and Berlin with 2.0 CE credits for both the AIA and RIBA. Those of us attending live at the London showrooms witnessed the professional set up with a full production team and also enjoyed a classy after event bar (with canapes) - all imbued with high quality Italian design and panache. A relaxed and stylish way to earn CE units.
Photo: Iris Ceramica’s event was organised by The Plan, who handled the event logistics and continuing education requirements.
Another Speakeasy Club event scheduled for December will follow the same format as November’s offering and feature Wilkinson Eyre. Other AIA UK Chapter sponsors are also being considered as part of this initiative, including an upcoming lunchtime webinar hosted by Beale & Co.
Watch out for the official Announcement or check out our website ‘Events’ section for more details.
Written by: Lorraine King, AIA
