Free Live Courses on AIAU this September

Live Course: Holistic Firm Management: Operational Insights in Service Toward a Work-Life Balance

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be defined and implemented to guide you toward both professional and personal success. If you can’t measure it, you can’t track it, and you won’t know how to improve it. This fast-paced session will share with you the KPIs that reflect your progress and guide your future for these six essential components of every successful firm:

1. Strategic planning

2. Human resources

3. Business development and marketing

4. Architectural deliverables

5. Operational and financial systems

6. Work/life balance

As managing partners of their respective firms, both presenters have deep experience, understanding, and respect for culture, structure, discipline, data, and technology that are crucial in order for firms to remain competitive and profitable.

Date: September 23, 2020 at 12 PM EDT.

To Register, click here.

Live Course: Guidance from the Front Line of COVID-19 Care

This course presents the results of a study conducted with front line COVID-19 healthcare providers and subject matter experts in emergency medicine, intensive care, anesthesia, infection control, hospital operations, virology and research-based design. New design guidance for health care facilities was developed by translating input from clinician interviews and current literature that reveal urgent and essential adaptations to healthcare settings in order to reduce the risk of transmission to care providers, staff, patients, and visitors. The results are summarized in a checklist of design considerations and solutions that may be applied in a myriad of healthcare \and built settings. The value of translating subject matter expertise is clear as it supports informed decision making in response to the unique challenges of the novel coronavirus.

Date: September 22, 3:00pm EDT

To Register, click here

Your Vote Counts!

It is clear from recent elections that every vote is important in political elections!  If you are an American citizen and live outside of the United States, you can still vote in US elections.  

Voting from abroad is an easy 3-step process.  You need to:

• Request an absentee ballot (you can register as a new voter at the same time)

• Receive your ballot (Your state will send out ballots at least 45 days before the election)

• Return your ballot before the deadline.  Deadlines vary by state.

   Go to votefromabroad.org and follow the instructions to get started

As President Obama reminded us at John Lewis' recent funeral - "If you don’t do everything you can to change things, then they will remain the same. You only pass this way once. You have to give it all you have....We cannot treat voting as an errand to run if we have some time. We have to treat it as the most important action we can take on behalf of democracy. " 

Virtual Building Tour – London Bridge Station

London Bridge Station - Ralph Hodgson

On the 18 Jun 2020, the AIA UK Chapter held its first in a series of virtual building tours to replace live building tours currently curtailed as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic.  Grimshaw Architects’ Stuart Grahn, Associate Principal, and Mark Middleton, Partner, led an informative and inspirational virtual tour of the London Bridge Station upgrade, completed in 2018.  

The main line station is the oldest railway station in London Fare Zone 1 and one of the oldest in the world having opened in 1836.  According to Stuart Grahn, “operationally the project creates a unified site that includes extended platforms, integrated new street entrances, three new through tracks, fewer terminating platforms and convenient links to onward travel.”  

He also noted that the “dynamic canopy ribbons ripple to allow natural light into the concourse below.  These ‘eyebrows’ denote the centre of the concourse below, creating a clear identity for the station.  From above, the station reveals that it is as long as the adjacent  Shard – one of the tallest buildings in Europe - is tall.  Together they form a complementary urban sculpture and a symbol of the revival of that part of south London.”

The redevelopment of the station began with a consented master plan by TP Bennett and Alan Baxter Associates in 2000.  Grimshaw Architects was appointed in 2010 to design a world class station suitable to its location and status. Construction began in 2012 and the station was opened in 2018 - the entire transformation undertaken with minimal disruption to usual station operations.

London Bridge Station (C) Paul Raftery

Instead of limiting the experience of viewers unable to physically visit the building, the virtual tour offered a variety of digital media formats - including videos, drawings, diagrams as well as still photography – that generally enhanced it.  The format not only afforded the presenters the ability to eloquently highlight graphically major planning concepts of the buildings, it also allowed them to explore in depth the design development of technical elements of the project, such as the skylights; structural supports for the rail tracks and platforms; and heritage continuity.  

Time lapse photography then allowed participants to experience in a few minutes a construction sequence that lasted 6 years.  The virtual tour also enabled a much wider audience both by distance and by numbers.  A live building tour traditionally generates about 25 participants; the virtual tour had upwards of 40.

The London Bridge Station not only stands in the forefront of design, but also redefines the modern definition of a train station.  The project has been well received by the public and professionals alike and was shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2019.

The AIA UK Chapter will continue to host virtual buildings tours throughout the year to offer architects the opportunity to visit notable buildings that have particular design interest in London, around the country as well as beyond the shores of the UK.

Written by Gregory Fonseca, AIA

Webinar // City as Verb: A Hybrid Territory- Switzerland

In partnership with the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, AIA International invites you to the next 'City as Verb' Wednesday webinar scheduled for  Wednesday 29 July 09:00 (BST)

The lecture is: A Hybrid Territory – Switzerland as a Laboratory for Contemporary Urban Design and Beyond

The featured speaker is:  Prof. Michael Jakob (HEPIA- Geneva School of Engineering, Architecture, and Landscape)

Members can receive 2 CES/HSW Learning Units. To verify attendance, please email me your name, AIA member number, and a screenshot of the lecture. To qualify for credits, please join in real-time.

Youtube [English] live stream https://youtu.be/aRGK0s9f5Gg

More info on AIA IR website: https://www.aiainternational.org/online-lectures-calendar/2020/7/29/city-as-verb-a-hybrid-territory-switzerland

CLC COVID-19 Task Force: Future Proofing, Record Keeping and Summary Guide

Dear AIA UK members and friends,

Please see this timely article from chapter sponsors Beale & Co, regarding the legal implications of the potential coronavirus pandemic. 

Don’t forget, if you have any legal questions, Beale & Co offers a free legal help line for AIA UK members.  Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0400 (please quote “AIA UK Helpline”) Email: aiauk@beale-law.com

On 14 July 2020, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) COVID-19 Task Force published further key guidance to address the contractual challenges presented by the pandemic, including guidance on future proofing contracts, guidance on record keeping and a summary guide.

In this article, Andrew Croft and Emily Hunt explain the guidance and summarise how to make use of this new guidance. 

To read the full article please clicks on the link below:

CLC COVID-19 Task Force: Future Proofing, Record Keeping and Summary

AIA Film Challenge

AIA Film Challenge 2020 is open!

Design has the power to solve some of the biggest issues facing cities today. We believe these stories are among the most important stories we can tell. The AIA Film Challenge is a film contest that amplifies these stories—architects partnering with communities and civic leaders to design a healthy, sustainable, just world that improves lives. 

The challenge is open to everyone. Use your smartphone or computer to produce a 60- to 90-second mini documentary. You could win up to $7,000! Learn more from AIA Film Challenge website.

Important dates

• Films due: August 24

• Public voting: August 31-October 4

• Winners announced: late October

Sample video

Check out this 90-second sample video from Dan Hart, FAIA, to see how it’s done.

Register from here