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We’ve been working on our latest newspaper, and it is now available to view online:

Axis Design News – issue 2 – 2012

Liz Clayton, Architectural Assistant here at Axis, shares what she’s been up to in the final year of her Part 2:

I’m due to finish Part 2 of my architectural education within the next few weeks. It’s been a long haul but freedom is just around the corner! The final year (for us part timers at least) focuses solely upon an Integrated Design Project. I chose Birmingham as my city of interest with particular focus on Birmingham’s historic metalworking quarters, where my project site is located.

My project is called ‘The Music Forge’ it contains a hot-metal-works for converting scrap metal into sheets, workshops for instrument making and performance, and practice spaces for use by the local music academies. The concept was conceived off the back of the dwindling number of metal manufactories in this once prosperous metalworking centre and the need for the repopulation of creative metalworking business in the area.

The project quickly became about two things; the process of making instruments and sound – from both the performance and the fashioning of these beautiful objects. The dichotomy of sounds that would emanate from the two building programmes drove the project to become about two interrelating but contrasting halves.

Music and Architecture have fascinating experiential comparisons. They are both constructed of moments, relationships, collision, contrast, structure and patterns. Harnessing and communicating these comparisons has been controversial as there is no universal synesthetic reaction that translates music into a visual form and vice versa. Art can provide the integral link between understanding music as architecture or similarly time as space. Famously, Kandinsky provided visual expressions of the relationships of musical tones and patterns. His work, interestingly, is easy to relate to the work of Steve Holl and his ‘Stretto House’ in Texas. At first glance the Stretto House is cumbersome, not what you associate with music, but it is in the details that the delicacy of music is materialised. The building holds two contrasting rhythms which touch, just as a flute would interject upon an oboe.

I’m not sure if I have managed to achieve this level of delicacy but this project has been about contrasting sounds imagined together as a cacophony, which I feel the building I have drawn and developed over the year has at least managed to express.

A few weeks back, we recorded Severn Partnership carrying out a 3D laser scan of one of our projects. Take a look:

This week (which is week 16 for those of you who’ve been paying attention), Rob was invited to talk about housing design excellence at the Midlands Regional office for the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA).

Organised and run by the HCA in central Birmingham, the main aim of the event was to share ideas and results about Housing Design Quality. The HCA organised the event for their delivery partners to share key findings from their recent QAIV Quality Counts report (Quality Assurance and Impact Visits).

Over the last 4 years, the HCA has been visiting tenants to get an idea of what they think of their homes. The information gathered about what could be improved and what lessons can be learned will inform the affordable homes programme over the next 4 years.

Alongside the other keynote speakers (Richard Baines from Black Country Homes and Architect Glenn Howells), Rob gave a presentation that expanded on a previous piece written for Building Design Magazine’s Housing Blog examining the impact of technology and services on the history of housing. Entitled ‘Scullery Made: Servicing the housing industry’, it proposed a return to a better appreciation of the need for greater storage and its integration with mechanical services.

The remainder of the event was made up of workshop-style discussion sessions. Workshop topics included tenant engagement, sustainability & technology, internal layout quality and external design. We were able to share our experience of sustainable design such as our Passivhaus research, along with the web-based consultation we have carried out on projects such as Hill Top in Warwickshire and the Eco Terrace project in Newcastle under Lyme.

Care of Podnosh, have a listen to Brandwood End Resident’s Group Chairman, Steve Walters, and other residents talk about the history of the Brandwood End housing project in Kings Heath, Birmingham:

We’re delighted to report that along with our team of sub-consultants, we have been successful in a competitive tender for Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s first Custom Home Building project. The former Penkhull Farm site on Newcastle Road in Stoke-on-Trent has been chosen by Stoke City Council and the design team led by Axis Design will be carrying out an initial site appraisal and submitting an outline planning application.

The outline application proposals will be designed to provide guidance to future investors regarding the key principles of the site and must acknowledge the need to create low energy homes. Our recent work around the Affordable Passivhaus project led us to develop house type models that deliver the highest level of energy performance at low cost. We hope there will be an opportunity to incorporate our PassivHaus research into this project.

In our experience the most successful housing developments are those created through a collaborative approach. As such, the Custom Home Building project will be supported in its delivery through the use of our web-based project management system to improve liaison with all stakeholders. In addition, we will be including the use of BIM as part of our service on this project.

A little more about Custom Home Building in Stoke….

The Government published their Housing Strategy paper in November 2011, and are proposing to offer financial support for self-build developments, referred to as ‘Custom Home Building’. Through this paper (pdf of ‘Laying The Foundations’), councils are being asked to assess the demand for custom-build in their area and take positive steps to facilitate it.

Stoke City Council recently launched their Mandate for Change, setting out a clear plan to make Stoke-on-Trent a great city to live in and in support of this, there is a proposal to promote Custom Home Building to assist in improving housing quality across the city. The council are hosting a Housing Summit later in 2012 and this project will be used at the event to publicise Custom Home Building to local residents and potential partners.

“It is recognised that Custom Home Building can make a stronger contribution to economic growth and a significant contribution to the number of new homes built…. In the case of Stoke, there is a desire to attract wealth creators to the city, as part of a wider regeneration programme.”

…our latest recruit: Lorna Parsons.

Lorna joined us in December 2011 and will be helping us to improve our business development and marketing as well as supporting our ongoing commitment to progressive use of digital tools and the web. We’ve asked her to introduce herself:

My career in architecture began in 1999 but over the last few years I’ve been pursuing an interest in how web-based tools and technology can help to improve communication within the industry. I may have been with Axis Design for just a couple of months but I’ve been working alongside Rob for the last 3 years having organised two Be2Camp ‘unconferences’ together in Birmingham in 2009 and 2010.

My interest in using the web for improved communication within architecture is key. It overlaps two specific areas: internal communications within the office, but also helping the practice communicate the design process externally with clients and citizens. The latter forms an important part of Axis’ working ethos, particularly as they work predominantly in social housing and community-based projects.

My skills lie in making stuff happen. So far, working with Axis has resulted in changes to their website, improved marketing techniques and the delivery of an event aimed specifically at Housing Associations. On an ongoing basis, I’ll be working in a business development capacity alongside the directors, as well as ensuring outward facing communications are kept up-to-date, helping to improve web-based organisational systems internally and finally being an extra pair of hands to assist in day-to-day running of the practice alongside office manager Debbie.

Out of hours (when I’m not at work nagging architects to write blog posts) I play the ukulele. Yes, really.

We believe our clients will benefit from Lorna’s support and input. If you’d like to get in touch with her to discuss any business to business collaborations, events or networking feel free to e-mail her at lp@axisdesignarchitects.com

Together with our project partners at Brooks Devlin, Capita Symonds and EH Smith, along with specialist product suppliers, we gathered together 17 housing associations and representatives from the HCA to share Passivhaus construction principles at a dedicated event in Birmingham City Centre on 21st February.

Our affordable PassivHaus project was initially created in response to a call for solutions by the BRE in 2011. The event was an opportunity share our knowledge with developers interested in how to design and build Passivhaus standard housing. We began with presentations from the design team to explain the technicalities and design based on passivHaus principles, followed by an exhibition from specialist product suppliers.

Responses to the presentations from our audience addressed important questions about lifecycle costings, ongoing maintenance, simplification of mechanical and electrical engineering in early design stages and alternative systems.

We’ll be sharing as much as possible over the next few weeks through the dedicated affordable PassivHaus website.

In week #5 of 2012 we’ve been talking about drawing in 2012 and how it should speak of the poetry and the data in our architecture…

Last week we took part in the WMCCE seminar on Building Information Modelling and presented a talk on how our decision to adopt BIM across the office has improved our work. We’re interested in how better use of our computer processors can help us raise our game and provide a better service, as well as helping us consider the quality of the way we draw.

Here’s a copy of the slides:

Week notes #3 & #4…

Lately it’s been all about http://affordablepassivhaus.info:

Over the last few months we have been carrying out a detailed R&D project into making Passivhaus design principles a financially viable option for social housing. Working alongside environmental designers, and certified European Passivhaus consultants Brooks Devlin, our proposals for an affordable Passivhaus were created initially in response to a call for solutions by the BRE Passivhaus competition in 2011.

We took up the challenge to develop our proposals further because we think that construction standards in the UK will require a significant move towards Passivhaus principles. We are launching the project at an event in February aimed at local authorities and housing associations in order to disprove the myths surrounding Passivhaus build costs and share our research.

If you’re involved in delivering new build affordable housing and would like to come along to our event on 21st February in Birmingham, please register your interest via the Affordable Passivhaus website, get updates from the twitter account or drop us a line on email.