BEALE & COMPANY HOSTS BIM WEBINAR - MICHAEL LISCHER

On the 16th of September AIA UK Chapter sponsor, Beale & Company, hosted another of their popular lunchtime webinars.  This webinar was entitled, "Taking Stock on the Practical and Legal Implications of BIM", and was co-hosted with Arup Associates.  Andrew Croft from Beale & Company and Casey Rutland from Arup Associates spoke about current best practice and the legal issues that architects need to consider in relation to BIM (Building Information Modelling).

The use of BIM has increased significantly in recent years and the UK construction industry is making progress in the adoption of BIM.  This follows the UK Government’s mandate to use BIM on all public sector projects by 2016.

Casey noted, "there are many benefits to using BIM, there are also barriers to its use".  Benefits include:

• Better communication among project team members
• Information is continually updated
• Enhanced confidence
• Barriers to the use of BIM include:
• Concerns over rights and liabilities
• Intellectual property rights issues
• A lack of case law for legal guidance

Andrew discussed the legal issues and illustrated how the concerns can be mitigated with an understanding of the risks and use of the appropriate contract.  He concluded by stating, "BIM does impact on the architect's rights, obligations and liabilities, and this must be managed.  Agreeing the basis of collaboration is key, and making certain the design contract reflects the use of BIM are the best ways to minimize the risk."  

The webinar pointed out that BIM type collaborative contracts are becoming more common and everyone should be prepared to use them!  

AIA UK members earned 1 learning unit for listening to the webinar.

BUILDING TOUR: THE SHED

On the 3rd of September, Paul Jozefowski, Project Director at National Theatre, provided an inside look into the development and construction of The Shed, by Haworth Thompkins. After winning awards and accolades numbering in the double digits, including our own AIA UK Excellence in Design in 2014, he informed us that the temporary structure’s life was extended into 2017, staying open even after the refurbishment and opening of Cottesloe Theatre. Many of us have remarked on the bright red modern re-interpretation of the National Theatre – noting the clever use of a timber slat façade reflecting the Brutalist board-form concrete of the renowned 1970’s theatre. The Shed undoubtedly stands out amongst the backdrop of the NT and revitalized Southbank area. Although our curiosity has been piqued by the exterior, perhaps not many of us have found our way inside the 225 seat dark (but not black!) box.

Mr. Jozefowski described the process behind the development and execution of such an ambitious project, given the limited budget of just over £1million. The collaboration between the architects, theatre consultants (Charcoalblue) and the many National Theatre members involved in the process brought new heights to the theatre, while still being quick (one year to design and build), cheap (in construction and operation) and environmental friendly. The form derived from the structural solution to building a temporary theatre on top of a car park, creating chimneys for natural ventilation, maximizing seating and views while providing flexible space, and a direct connection to the iconic National Theatre.

While the tour group sat in the balcony level seats, the set builders and lighting engineers below were assembling the set and suspended lighting truss for the upcoming production, Pomona. Due to the unexpected support and interest in The Shed, and the apparent need for theatrical venues of this size in London, the NT management have been inspired by its success. However, Mr Jozefowski insists that we must “say goodbye” to The Shed in April 2017. The design has inspired great performances and productions inside the theatre, but also inspires all those passers-by to stop, peak in and perhaps see a show they wouldn't otherwise. If you have not already - go see it for yourself!

Author: Frederick Grier

AIA UK LAUNCHES ONLINE NEWSLETTERS

Welcome to issue No 76 of the AIA UK Chapter Newsletter, the latest issue in a long tradition of AIA news, features, commentary and event reporting started in May 1994.

In May, we issued a trial online AIA UK Newsletter via email to all chapter members.  If you didn’t read it then, check it out now as issue No 75 from here. 

We have also added a Journal section to our website where we publish all of the articles. You can either click and navigate to Journal from the Newsletter or directly go to the Journal from our website . Do not forget to check the AIA UK Journal regularly to be up to date!
Since the trial, the feedback from the membership has been primarily positive, with general agreement that the loss of the hard copy is well offset by a new, simple format that is both flexible and interactive. As well as the built in opportunity for comment on format changes and individual articles, the online Newsletters also allow readers to search through content for specific events, names, etc.

As well as the individual email versions – which will continue to be issued on a more-or-less quarterly basis – recent newsletter articles will be maintained on the website under the heading “Journal” and will be fully accessible to a wider audience of website viewers as well as AIA members.  

With the issue of each new newsletter, a numbered copy of the previous version will also be placed on the website under the heading “Archive.” Currently the Archive contains older newsletter versions dating from 2010.  However, all earlier issues from 1994 onwards have now been scanned and will eventually be accessible on the website. 

To compensate for the loss of the “souvenir” hard copy issues, all future Member Directories will included an expanded series of photo gallery of each year’s events.

The first AIA UK Newsletter from May 1994 was headlined “In the beginning …” and celebrated the arrival of the AIA to the UK on 17 June 1993, when AIA National granted AIA London/UK (as we were then called) a charter as the first international chapter.

Leafing briefly through other past issues from just the years 1994 to 1996 is an exercise in nostalgia by which one can chart the changes that have happened in London and the architectural profession over the last twenty years.  At the same time it is clear that not everything has changed.  Many of the today’s issues and many AIA events retain the same concerns and character as their original versions.
With a view to enticing readers into the archives, a brief summary of other 1994 to 1996 headlines includes:

“AIA and RIBA Pledge Cooperation” – To this day we have maintained a high level of trust and cooperation with the RIBA, but there was a time during the middle years when cooperation reached a low point over the use of the AIA “title.”
“NCARB to Seek Reciprocity Agreement with UK” – In answer to recent members’ frequent questions, yes, the early AIA did try to push for reciprocity from the very beginning with research and analysis of the issue led by Justine Kingham among others.  But even as long ago as 1997, a second headline “NCARB Committee Set Up to Rekindle US/UK Reciprocity” indicated that all was not going to plan. It has been ongoing saga of attempts and disappointments…

“UIA Convention Mobbed as AIA Candidate Elected Vice President” – This intriguing headline merely reports that the UIA Convention was oversubscribed from seven thousand attendees to ten thousand, including our own delegate.

The range of events in those first years also matched our more recent contributions:
The first Annual Design Awards was held in February 1995 and the newsletter article featured pictures of Rick Mather, David Leventhal, Stephan Reinke and jurist, Zaha Hadid, among others. 

The first formal Summer Parties was held at Syon Lodge; the first “Buba” inspired Family Bar-B-Ques was held in Bedford Square.  Coincidentally, this year’s Summer Party turned out to be a Bar-B-Que…

The first Design Charette was held at the US Embassy, with a brief – given long before the current Timberlake design was envisioned for Vauxhall - to consider what should be the best outward expression of America on British soil.  Lee Polisano’s team won the “Best Adaptation of the Existing Building”; Pierre Baillargeon’s team won the “Best New Building”. 
An AIA conference was held in Hong Kong to explore marketing and architectural practice in Southeast Asia

For two years, the AIA was officially represented at NIPIM with circa 10 chapter members - including notably Stephen Yakeley, Stephen Reinke, David Walker, Jonathan Dinnewell and Michael Lischer - participating. The first Continuing Education “brown bag luncheon” seminars were held at KPF, HOK and SOM when CEU credits became mandatory. 

A serious and well attended AIA/RIBA panel discussion on UK and US Planning Laws and Methods included Larry Malcic, Roger Kallman and Peter Rees, then Chief Planning Officer for the Corporation of London.

A dinner at the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects curtesy of Noel Hill brought out the AIA membership in formal black tie attire. 

The first AIA Continental Europe Chapter conference was held in Paris, with Pamela Harriman greeting each and every member attending the Gala Dinner at the US Embassy.
The AIA UK Chapter first went online in June 1996 with a Home Page on Archinet…

Bike Tour 2015 - "Romney Marsh; Varied Landscapes and Architecture"

As part of its continuing education programme, the AIA requires all members to complete at least four hours of sustainable design each year. The educational objectives for sustainable design are further parceled into ten broad categories. 

Conveniently, the second sustainable design category makes the enlightened point that “sustainable design values the unique cultural and natural character of a given region” – sentiments that the Bicycle Tour played to its distinct advantage in this year’s visit.  Within our 40 mile tour, Romney Marsh, Dungeness and St Mary’s 

Bay exhibited man’s multiple responses to the natural environment over centuries of habitation.  What better way to experience this particular unique region - in depth and up close - than by bicycle? 

The Tour started in the small town of Rye, which was once one of the medieval Cinque Ports.  However, when its harbour silted up centuries ago, it settled into life as a sleepy enclave and thereby managed to retain its unique mixture of early architecture styles in lieu of progress.

Time spent in Rye also gave the opportunity for a short – very short - sketching session in the churchyard, overlooking the distant, yet to be visited Marsh. Certainly the most finished of the sketches (see below) was 

that of tour guide, architect and architecture historian, Benedict O’Looney, who came prepared as an experienced architectural observer with his set of portable water colours.

Below, Adam Draper (Seth Stein Architects) focused on the window detail as he managed to pencil sketch while standing up. Chris Kimball AIA (SOM) dashed off an ink sketch that captured the spirit of Rye’s church as well as the relaxing cycles in the foreground.  While not exactly prime examples of their craft, their quick sketches give a hint of deeper potential and act as souvenirs of the tour.

After Rye, the real biking started in earnest as we proceeded via the sleepy rural villages of Brookland and Lydd to view the Marsh’s legacy of vernacular architecture and the majestic, medieval churches that were built in those more prosperous times when the famous Romney sheep brought wealth to the area.  Given this settled, quintessentially English landscape, it was a shock to discover that the Marsh is a totally man-made environment, requiring constant vigilance against both sea and military incursions.  Land reclamation in the area has been ongoing since at least the 12th century and continues to this day with newly built modern sea defences along the coastline. Martello Towers, circular fortifications against the potential of a French invasion in Napoleonic time, dot the coast between New Romney and Hythe.  At one point, a remnant of one of the Mulberry harbour wall defences manufactured for D-Day lay abandoned off the shore.

Whatever the reasons they were developed, the flat, sheltered landscapes and the long sweeps of concrete sea walls now make for ideal biking.  Although the day was sunny and dry, the constant, intense wind – fortunately more or less in our favour – seemed to keep the rest of the world away, and the ride in lingering daylight to 

Folkestone along the strangely depopulated corniche was both timeless and surreal.  This was biking at its best.

However, this Bicycle Tour was advertised to include “varied landscapes and architecture” and – accordingly - it was not all undertaken in idyllic English countryside.  Perhaps the highlight of the Tour was the mid-way stopover in Dungeness, the UK’s only official desert.  As expected of a desert, Dungeness is flat, dry and barren – a vast expanse of unremitting, shingle beach - but it is also the setting for a variety of experimental designs. Within a small area were a few well known examples: Simon Condor’s Black Rubber House (2004 AIA Design Award); Nord Architecture’s Shingle House; and Derek Jarman’s Garden.

Although superficially similar in the photos, the black rubber and black shingle houses (in the picture below, architect Rodic Davidson’s house) represent different approaches to material selection.  The black rubber house showed the effects of the harsh environment, with sun and salt collaborating in their hostility, whereas the recent wood house still retained a pristine sharpness.

The highlight of the Tour was the visit to the Experimental Station, winner of the 2013 AIA Design Award, where we were given a special tour by architect Brian Johnson, whose practice, Johnson Naylor, in collaboration with 51% Studios, developed the site through refurbishment of existing utilitarian structures and new builds.

In the middle of Dungeness’s stark, un-English and almost unreal landscape – with its scattered array of fishing net frames; abandoned foghorn testing rigs; derelict fishing boats; kitsch holiday bungalows and caravans; superfluous lighthouses; and the omnipresent, looming (if not threatening) nuclear power station – a group of architects has created a little haven of modern design.   

The Experimental Station is also home to a superb collection of modern furniture and artifacts, a place of quiet contemplation in contrast to the intense wind and sun outdoors.

The Bike Tour participants earned 4 CEU for the day’s efforts. The possibility of a late summer/early fall Bike and Sketching Trip within London is under consideration.

Author: Lorraine King

THE WHITE BUILDING / CRATE BREWERY TOUR

On April 9th 2015 AIA UK continued our tradition of fun and educational events with a special edition of our on-going series of building tours.

The White Building, by David Kohn Architects, is a centre for art technology and sustainability.  It is an incubator for discursive and innovative thought.  It serves as a testing ground and creative laboratory for artists and creative whose work engages with technology.  It is also the home of craft brewery CRATE. The White Building was commissioned by the London Legacy Development Corporation as part of the “Olympic Fringe” – a string of small-scale projects aimed at stitching the Olympic Park into the surrounding city fabric.  

David Kohn was on hand to give us an introduction and a tour of the arts facilities and events places.  The brewery bar, occupying most of the ground floor, is build of exposed blockwork walls and steel-framed windows and was intended to act as a focal hub – to feel like a courtyard that connected to the adjacent canalside.  The arts spaces upstairs are dominated by the undulating ceiling of sheep’s wool stuffed into large red nets – crating a distinctive interior with excellent thermal and acoustic performance.  David explained that with such a tight budget it was essential to strip the design to the minimum. 

Following that James Kellow from Crate Brewery took the group on a tour of the “brew shed” and gave a presentation on craft brewing - explaining in detail the subtleties of the different beers on hand to sample as well as the process of making.  After many samples, including some direct from the giant tanks, the tour concluded with pizza and more beer back in the brewery bar. 

For those who missed it you can petition the AIA UK board to make it a regular annual feature on the calendar. Both James and David would be happy to accommodate us again.

Author: Robert Rhodes

TURNMILL BUILDING TOUR

Matti Lampila from Piercy&Co lead a wonderful tour of the Turnmill building in Farringdon, which recently reached PC and is now undergoing tenant fit out. Matti's discussions throughout the tour covered a range of topics from the buildings long planning journey to the iconic Roman bricks.

Everyone greatly enjoyed learning more about this new architectural addition to London and especially enjoyed the wonderful views over the city from its rooftop terrace. 

Author: Brianne Hamilton