EU Referendum: A letter to our members

Dear Members,

Following the news of the historic referendum, and forthcoming withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, we must remain patient and hopeful. Brexit will require time before we understand the full effect of the country's decision on our industry. My former boss in Chicago once told me that architects need to be eternal optimists otherwise we feel constant defeat. This may not feel a time for optimism, but at least we can hope.

Undoubtedly our membership is concerned about the impact of the UK's Referendum on EU membership to their practices and personal lives. Many of our members are expats living within the UK, with projects that have teams and supply chains spanning multiple borders. As we have witnessed with previous political changes, the uncertainty itself can cause both clients and practices to adjust their strategies. We must engage this change, and follow the developments as we begin to understand what it will mean for us. The AIA UK will do its best to keep you informed as we ourselves learn how it will unfold.

We look to the political engagement and advice currently offered by our friends at the RIBA. We will do our best to support the political discourse, and encourage you to voice your concerns and express your thoughts. If there is interest, we’ll be happy to host an evening of discussion specifically for this purpose. Brexit will certainly continue to be an important topic of discussion, as it is historic and will have a lasting impact on our future.

Kind Regards,

Frederick Grier, AIA UK President

On behalf of the AIA UK Board of Directors

Excellence in Design Awards Gala 2016

The AIA UK Chapter hosted the Excellence in Design Awards Gala 2016 on 18 April 2016 at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London. The impressive elegance of the Nash & Brand Rooms provided a warm and welcoming reception to the guests who arrived from different parts of the world to celebrate creativity, design and architecture.

The AIA UK sets an open awards platform in order to minimise restrictions and provide more opportunities for architects and designers to submit their projects. This year the AIA UK set 3 categories (Student, Young Architect and Professional) to balance the competition so younger architects do not compete with larger, long-established firms.

The jury's review process involved a full day of long, ardent debate over the anonymous submissions, clearly indicating the high quality of the submissions received, and confirming evidence that the UK is a leading centre for innovation and design. As an outcome, the jury decided to award three commendations for the Professional category.

Frederick Grier, President of the AIA UK, paid tribute to the late Dame Zaha Hadid, sharing the highlights of her involvement with the AIA UK chapter from inception both as a juror and as an award winner, in addition to her involvement in other AIA UK events.

The members of the jury included: Armstrong Yakubu, Charlotte Skene Catling, Michel Mossessian, Alex Lifschutz, Amy Frearson, Frederick Grier and Adrian Evans. On the evening, the jury was represented by Amy Frearson who announced the winners by elaborating on the jury comments for each winning project.

The 2016 AIA UK Excellence in Design winners:

Noel Hill Student Travel Award       
Tonderai Prince Maboreke - Ravensbourne University
Southbank Pavilion

 
Young Architect
Merrett Houmøller Architects - Analogue Boathouse

© Alan Williams

Professional Commendation
John McAslan + Partners - Sacred Heart Cathedral of Kericho

© Edmund Sumner, Sumner Partnership Ltd.

Professional Commendation

Allies and Morrison - Rambert

© Allies& Morrison

Professional Commendation

Duggan Morris Architects - Richmond Adult Community College

© Mark Hadden

Professional Award Winner

Zaha Hadid Architects - Messner Mountain Museum

© Werner Huthmacher

 
The 2016 AIA UK Jury:

• Armstrong Yakubu - Foster & Partners
• Charlotte Skene Catling       - Skene Catling de la Pena
• Michel Mossessian - Mossessian Architecture
• Alex Lifschutz - Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands  
• Amy Fearson - Dezeen
• Frederick Grier - UHA London - AIA UK President
• Adrian Evans - Huddersfield University

AIA UK Mentorship 'Meet & Greet'

As part of AIA National’s commitment to advance the standards of architectural education, training and practice, our chapter evaluated how we serve the UK community of students architectural designers and young architects alike. Following on the success of the AIA UK Student Design Charrette at Roca Gallery and its Noel Hill Travel Award to exemplary year­ out or final year students, the UK Chapter felt more could be done to assist young architects and designers as they enter the work field and face the challenges of the real world. Thus was born the AIA UK Mentorship Meet­up.

Several chapter members brought together their experiences of participation in other programmes, such as AIA Chicago’s Bridge Program and AIA San Francisco’s Mentorship Program. Based on the success of these programmes, Katharine Storr (new AIA UK Board Director and Architectural Assistant at Foster+Partners), organised the first “Meet and Greet” for the chapter. Armed with colour ­coded name tags and various experiences, 25 chapter members shared their career paths over drinks.

Conversations quickly started up and ranged from the differences of taking AREs when they were on paper versus the newest computerised versions; the experiences of moving to the UK from the US; the adjustment of life in the professional world abroad; and the differences between architectural education in the US versus the UK, among many other topics.

We were happy to see so many new faces and to welcome several recent arrivals to the UK. The enthusiastic turnout has meant that the mentoring programme will become a part of the chapter’s agenda for the future. The next event will likely take place in mid ­June. If you are interested in participating as either a mentor or a mentee, please get in touch with us at chapterexecutive@aiauk.org

AIA UK Building Tour - Crossrail, Canary Wharf

The tour was led by Jonathan Rabagliati of Foster + Partners who worked on the project for over eight years since its inception. Foster + Partners were asked by Canary Wharf Group to create something different from the steel and glass buildings which define Canary Wharf. The architects developed the project around a park – elevated over the dock and partially sheltered from the harsh surroundings. The use of heavy timber and ETFE inflatable cushions for the roof structure brings a sense of nature and lightness to the park.
 
Jonathan explained how the arched ends of the roof structure reference the nearby Canary Wharf tube station also by Foster + Partners which features two similarly shaped canopies (of glass) and a park on top. The form of the new roof structure was originally designed with a more expressive shape, but was simplified through value engineering during the 2008 world financial crisis.
 
Parametric modelling was essential to the design and fabrication of the complex roof structure, even with the simplified form. Scripting was used to document and validate the thousands of unique steel nodes which were fabricated through an automated welding process. The laminated timber members were fabricated using a scanning technique to ensure structural and visual consistency through each member. ETFE cushions and aluminium copings were detailed to protect the timber structure from exposure to UV and moisture.
 
Beneath the roof are housed three levels of retail and restaurants, and four levels of train station below grade. Several architects worked on different areas of the project including Adamson Associates on retail, and Tony Meadows Associates on the below ground station which was under construction, and is due to open in 2018.
 
The tour concluded with drinks (and dinner for some) beneath the arched roof at the Big Easy.

AIA UK Building Tour - The Alphabeta Building

The 2016 Building Tours kicked-off with an exploration of Studio RHE’s Alphabeta Building in Finsbury Square. The building was alive with the creative activity the architects had envisioned. Coincidently four separate events were under way in various parts of the building during our visit.
 
Dickon Hayward (project architect for the project at Studio RHE) led the tour, beginning in the building’s vibrant and transparent central atrium. The architect pushed the developer client (Resolution Property) to change their initial thinking about the project. Rather than gutting and rebuilding the entire interior structure to a standard office module, the architects envisioned a lighter touch which could make use of the building’s existing quirks to create office space with a unique character.
 
Working with the existing structures created several challenges. The architects chose to leave ceilings exposed to maximise height where the existing structures had low floor to floor heights. Additional steel structure was added around the perimeter of the atrium to create more floor space and to form the delicately cantilevered projecting volumes with full-height glazing to maximise light and visual connectivity between the spaces.
 
A unique approach to programming was taken at ground level. The financial benefit of the building’s signature cycle ramp – suggested by the architect – had to be considered carefully by the developer, as it used prime street frontage. The developer also took a gamble by using the majority of the basement to house a co-working space open to all visitors. The building has been a financial success – fully-let months before opening, while other new buildings in the area still sit with vacancy. The developer and architect are taking many lessons from Alphabeta to future projects.
 
The tour concluded with drinks at Flight Club – a popular new pub in the building featuring darts!

AIA UK Member News: When in Rome……

This article has been written as part of the AIA Newsletter’s commitment to up-to-date member news.  If you are aware of UK Chapter members’ involvement in other newsworthy projects or events, please bring them to our attention via a “comment” follow up note at the end of this article and we will endeavor to publish further feature articles.

The AIA UK Chapter first became acquainted with Mark Kelly in 2010 when he was awarded the Noel Hill Travel Award Scholarship as a student at Glasgow’s Mackintosh School of Architecture.  With the aid of his scholarship, Mark visited North-East India on the Tibetan border to study indigenous building design and construction with experienced carpenters, masons, artisans, stone-layers and adobe plasterers for the Tibet Heritage Fund.  You can read about his experience in Asia in the AIA UK Newsletter Number 62 (page 6), December 2010.    

Mark is no longer a student, but is now an architect with Gensler here in London and is active on the AIA UK Board of Directors.  But as many architects have discovered before him, one never really ceases to be a student - although it is probably true that some pursue their continuing education with far less diligence than Mark.  In 2015, recognising that “there are experiences which cannot be read or taught, they must be experienced first-hand”, Mark applied and won the annual RIBA Giles Worsley Rome Fellowship organised by the British Academy.  

This Fellowship (described in more detail here), is awarded annually to architects or art historians to spend three months (October to December) at the British School at Rome (BSR), studying an architectural topic of their choice.  The Fellowship includes accommodation in a large, centrally located artist studio, complete with a generous travel and materials stipend and access to the Academy’s world-class facilities.  Additionally the BSR staff can obtain special access letters from Rome’s Archaeological Superintendent to private buildings and active archaeological sites that are usually closed to the general public. 

The Fellowship holders are expected to follow a self-regulated course of study, and Mark’s successful application expressed a particular goal to investigate Roman concrete construction means and form-work for “cross and barrel vaulting in ancient and modern architectural domes and arches.”  He was not only able to visit multiple surviving examples in Rome itself, but also to investigate Renaissance and Modern buildings and venture outside Rome to the Bay of Naples, Veneto and Umbria.  

Visit to a working travertine quarry in Tivoli, outside Rome.

Mark’s unique study methods involved first sketching in pencil as close as possible to the original building, then preparing orthographic drawings based on-site measurements.  Many of these preliminary efforts were later fed into studio-based hand and digital drawings.   In his 54 days in Rome, Mark completed 197 hand-drawings and scaled up 14 of these into large, measured orthographic drawings. 

Drawing by hand on the roof of the oldest surviving concrete dome in the world – the  Temple of Mercury, Baiae, Bay of Naples (late 1st century BC) - built using pozzolana from Mount Vesuvius 30 miles away.

Measured drawings made at the BSR of San Carlo  alla Quattro Fontane, Rome - December 2015

Early in his stay, Mark set himself a challenge to see something new every day and meticulously recorded his finds in his personal diary, and this informal diary remains a lasting legacy of his stay.  A few drawing examples are included below, but the full scope of his activities and drawings can be found in Mark’s Rome Video Diary (which is well worth the viewing here  (just scroll down to start at week one)). 

Mark returned to the UK in January 2016 “bright and refreshed,” having found Rome a “jam-packed shortlist of sights … a true inspiration.”  Clearly the Rome Fellowship in Architecture was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  As he explained; “I believe that during your time working in practice, it is healthy to think and reflect on why you are doing what you are doing. Taking a focused research trip to an inspiring city brings you back to professional work in a positive frame of mind, to use the knowledge you learned constructively.”

Shortly after the Fellowship work, Mark held a one month solo exhibition in Gensler’s London office. The ‘GenslerOn’ journal publication (available here) engages the theme of “Why Architects Visit Rome in the 21st Century.” 

After seeing the opportunities Mark found in Rome, the rest of us have no difficulty in understanding WHY we might all benefit from visiting the city.