AIA National Small Firm Exchange (SFx) for International Region Chapters

The 2020 members of the AIA's SFx at E. Fay Jones' Thorncrown Chapel

Three quarters of all architectural firms in the United States meet the definition of a ‘small firm’, having fewer than 10 employees.  Approximately 30% of AIA members work for small firms.  AIA National’s Small Firm Exchange (SFx) Member Group’s mission is to advance the mutual interests of architects practicing within small firms, promote leadership and professional development in small firms, plus facilitate and support small firm networks.   

One of the specific challenges facing the International Region Chapters is how to leverage AIA National’s resources such as SFx to be relevant and have their unique membership needs identified and met.  A virtual round table conversation is being planned for later this year to start a conversation with the IR’s small firm members to capture concerns specific to each region. If you are interested in joining SFx, please reach out to Lara and follow the instructions later in this article to be included in the invite.  An Announcement will also be sent to all members about the round table closer to the – as yet undetermined – date.

AIA National’s SFx Annual Meeting was recently held in northwest Arkansas on 2 March through 4 March 2020.  Representatives from the AIA’s 19 national regions, 1 international region and AIA National staff met at Haizlip Studio’s Amazeum to discuss issues facing small firms and to strategize objectives for 2020.  The purpose of the 2-day meeting was to establish goals for the coming year through focused dedicated Workgroups: 

• Practice - The 2020 Practice Workgroup aligns with the AIA national's existing document portfolio, which focuses the working group’s efforts to collect, curate, create and make accessible resources to help small architecture firms be more successful.

• Influence - Integration with the AIA national influence portfolio of information and combines efforts with the work of the national Advocacy Workgroup from a small firm perspective.

• Conference - The SFx supports the small firm architect at the annual nation conference through targeted small firm sessions, forums, events, and guides. The Conference Workgroup will continue to make the conference experience as meaningful and impactful as possible for small firm architects.

• Outreach - The SFx Outreach Workgroup will support the efforts of all the working groups to communicate with small firm architects and engage them in meaningful conversation about the profession. Leveraging the ever-expanding array of communication technology, the working group will reach out to small firm architects where they're at and ensure they have the resources they need at their fingertips.

How to Get Involved with SFx

The foundation of the SFx is to connect small firms to a curated list of the many general resources available through AIA National and to facilitate business-to-business conversations; this is especially important during the current global economic conditions where your firm might have the exact solution to a challenge another firm is facing.  

Members can join the specific AIA SFx KnowledgeNet by navigating here and once logged in, search for the Small Firm Exchange under the Communities tab. The SFx dashboard includes opportunities to join in conversations with other small businesses via discussion forums, access the available library of documents and be a contributor to this library.

Additional Small Firm Resources can be found here:

NEW! The Small Firm Compensation Report is out!

Visit AIAU Small Firm Series!  We have worked with AIAU to collect its top small firm continuing education sessions into one easy location on their website. Check it out! 

SFx continues to seek feedback on its Business Plan Beta Template for Small Architectural Firms.  Aspects of marketing, virtual practice and small firm practice finances are being added.  The results of the SFx / SPD / CRAN survey can be found here: Business Models for Small Architectural Firms.  

AIA Trust: Small Firm Programs & Resources

Written by: Lara Presber, AIA, AAA, AIBC, MAA, OAA, NCARB, 2020 National Small Firm Exchange, International Regional Representative.

Contact lara@studiopresber.com

#RocaGalleryConnects

Roca’s global channel www.rocagallery.com which shares articles on news, trends, best practice will be broadcasting new series of interviews with renowned professionals though IG live.

They will interview Fernanda Marques, architect from Brazil, Emmanuela Fratini, architect and designer based in New York, Isabel Pintado, architect based in Dubai, and Luciano Kruk architect from Buenos Aires.

Watch the talks on their instagram account here.

Five Important Tips for Managing Remote Teams

Herman Miller share their top 5 tips on how to help your teams stay productive and collaborative:

Five Ways to Help Remote Teams Succeed

1. Understand the challenges of helping everyone stay connected and engaged.
2. Use web meetings sparingly and rely on tools that keep you connected throughout the day.
3. Make sure important conversations and decisions include remote team members.
4. Get creative with ideas for socialising digitally.
5. Regularly check in with team members and establish outcome-driven performance metrics.

To read the full article on Herman Miller’s website, please click here.

Architects on the Frontline / Safety for Health Workers

Photo Credit – Hopkins Architects

A growing number of UK architects are joining the front line fight against coronavirus by using their design expertise and technology to address the safety of health workers.  It would be impossible at this fast-moving stage to keep track of all the architectural firms involved, but – just as a start – the work of a few of the early players has been brought to AIA UK Chapter’s attention by our membership. 

If your firm is working on something particularly innovative, please let newsletter@aiauk.org know and your efforts can be added to the projects below before this Blog morphs into the AIA UK Newsletter later in the year.

• HTA Design is being joined by 20 architectural practices – including HOK, Hopkins Architects, PLP and Perkins & Will – to make protective masks at the rate of 50 a week, and are publishing their design (see HERE).

• As well has donating office fruit/food delivers to NHS hospitals, Hopkins Architects is using its model shop to print PPE masks and has provided a video of the production HERE.

• Perkins & Will has multiple offices around the world and they are also adding to the story. Of particular interest is a design for a ‘Do It Yourself’ face mask from Schmidt Hammer Larsen (P&W in Denmark).

• Foster + Partners is making general-purpose visors – suitable for cleaning and re-use -  for mass production at a rate of 1,000 visors a day.  It is sharing the design to encourage investigation into the ‘potential of digital and laser cutting machines as an alternative to 3D printing technology’ (see HERE).

• As part of 3D Crowd UK, a community of over 5,000 3D printer owners who have come together to make face masks, model makers from Make Architects are producing 100 headbands a day from home.

• KPF are working with 3D Crowd UK to make visor frames and one can download the design from their press release HERE.   

KPF face shield frames. Photo Credit – KPF News.

• Hugo – the R&D group of Corgan – is looking at the longer term response to a pandemic by promoting enhanced hygiene. It has entered a design competition hosted by Bompas and Parr and the British Red Cross to re-imagine the hand sanitizer pump.  The Hugo/Corgan solution is called Pera and is planned to change behaviour at low cost (see how it works HERE).

Corgan competition submittal. Photo Credit - ©Corgan.

Compiled by Lorraine King AIA from member’s contributions plus overview input from Architect’s Journal HERE.

You might also want to check out what is happening in the US HERE.

See also the Nightingale Hospital companion piece to this blog article HERE.

Architects on the Frontline / Nightingale Hospital

While the nation rightly applauds the efforts of its carers, health workers and others directly tasked with supporting those affected by the coronavirus pandemic, architects are also earning respect and gratitude for playing their part on the frontline.

Gregory Fonseca AIA, BDP Director and AIA UK Board Director, has highlighted the role BDP Architects and Engineers has played in the  unprecedented challenge of converting the 115,000m2 ExCel Conference Centre at London’s Docklands into a temporary 4,000-bed field hospital for Covid-19 patients.

While there will be other coronavirus architectural success stories along the way, it is unlikely that any will capture the imagination as has the first Nightingale hospital.  Working under the main contractor CFES, BDP collaborated with clinicians, consultants, contractors, the ExCel Facilities Management Team and the British Army to complete the first 500 beds in just 9 days. 

According to BDP, ‘it is the scale, timeframe and purpose of this emergency facility that distinguishes it from any previous healthcare project’.   Watch the first 9 days of fit out curtesy of the BBC HERE.

Leading the design and engineering efforts, BDP Architect Director Paul Johnson and BDP Healthcare Director James Hepburn called on their experience of designing large-scale healthcare facilities and intensive care units in super-speciality tertiary hospitals.  

The key to Nightingale’s rapid progress ‘has been its clear concept and rigorous approach to procurement and construction’ requiring a team approach ‘to make rapid decisions so design and construction could take place in parallel’. All in all, it has been, ‘a monumental team effort which has been intense and exhausting’.

‘With the building structure in place, systems used to construct exhibition stands were used to form bed-heads and service corridors.  The existing electrical system was expanded and a large-scale new gas system for providing patients with oxygen was installed’.

The Nightingale Hospital is the first of several crisis centres planned around the UK, and BDP has published the NHS Nightingale instruction manual which clearly displays the fit-out strategies and processes used at ExCel.

Follow the link HERE to BDP’s instruction manual.  When it is updated, you will have access to the latest version.  

Working on the project has not been without risk.  According to Building Magazine, 9 Apr 2020, James Hepburn – who is a building services engineer - has been recuperating after a ‘fairly mild’ case of suspected Covid 19.  The AIA UK Chapter can only wish him the best of future health.

The Nightingale exemplifies the role architects can play in crisis management.  UK Chapter members are encouraged to send in their own pandemic retaliation contributions to add to this legacy via the new address newsletter@aia.org. See the companion piece to this article on how 3D printing is helping make personal protective equipment.

Compiled by Lorraine King AIA from a BDP Architects & Engineers Press Release and a BBC Health Report from 8 Apr 2020.

New Chapter Sponsors

The board is delighted to welcome two new sponsors to the AIA UK!  They are Portview Fit-Out Ltd. and Iris Ceramica Group. They join our “family” of corporate partners that also includes Beale & Co, Herman Miller, Laufen, and Roca.

Portview is a Belfast based contractor that is very active in the London and UK markets.  Founded in 1975, Portview expanded into the UK in the early 1990s. Leveraging their expertise with high end interiors and their growing retail client base, the decision was taken in 2004 to specialize exclusively in the fit-out market and rebrand the company as Portview Fit-Out.

Tottenham Stadium

Recent projects include work at the new stadium for Tottenham Hotspurs, and Harvey Nichols department store.  Portview has experience in the office, residential, retail, hospitality, and heritage markets. They are currently working with our 2020 AIA UK President Chris Musangi, on a super-luxe, prime residential Spa & Health facility, at the Southbank Place development by the London Eye. Portview has won numerous industry awards for their work.

We welcome Paul Scullion, Amy Black and their colleagues at Portview to the AIA!  www.portview.co.uk

Founded in Italy in 1961, Iris Ceramica Group has grown to be the world leader in the manufacture of floor and wall ceramics for residential, commercial, and industrial projects.  The group has 26 manufacturing plants and employs over 3,000 people around the world.

Matrix Floor Tiles

With more than 50 collections totalling over 2,500 items, Iris Ceramica is constantly demonstrating their commitment to the creation of ceramics with high technical and stylistic value.  This is characterized by the leading-edge design that has been recognized by their many international prizes and awards.

With their London showroom located on Old Street in Clerkenwell, Iris Ceramica is well placed to serve the UK market.  They are also currently working with Portview and our 2020 AIA UK President Chris Musangi, on the same super-luxe, prime residential Spa & Health facility, at the Southbank Place development by the London Eye. We are pleased to welcome Marco Corradi, Martina Terracciano, Giacomo Bertoni and their colleagues to the AIA!  www.irisceramicagroup.com

The chapter would not be able to organize such a large and varied programme of events for our members without the generous support of our sponsors.  Please take the opportunity to introduce yourself to Paul and Giacomo and their colleagues at one of our upcoming events. They will enjoy hearing from you!

Written by: Michael Lischer FAIA