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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:

And a video of the presentation by Rob Annable:

Here’s the first of a new series of posts called ‘week notes’ – an idea created by Matt Webb and Jack Schulze at BERG to see what happens when you take the time to reflect on what you’re doing and what you’ve achieved every seven days.

We’re not sure how well this will translate in the slightly slower moving world of architecture and construction, but it’s got to be worth a try…

Week note #1

We’ve kicked off 2012 with technical challenges and event planning, with some of the office working on construction details and some of us plotting ways to develop the work ideas we’re interested in pursuing this year.

Our latest BMHT sites achieved planning approval at the end of last year, so now we’re turning our hand to a few details to help guide the construction costing as it goes out to tender this month. Katie has been getting to grips with the product that I covered in my review for BD’s Envelope magazine last year – Ibstock’s Tilebrick.

Lorna has started her second month with us after spending December getting our web site back in to shape and wrestling Highrise – our CRM system – into submission. This month will be about crafting things to share with clients such as newspapers, iPad apps, bookleteers and planning seminars on Passivhaus and Retrofit. Elsewhere in the office admin department there’s a New Year tidy underway, bringing with it a decision to finally throw out many of the old magazines we’ve hoarded for years. Thanks to a twitter conversation I’m hoping they’ll be heading to Birmingham School of Architecture rather than lost forever.

Mike is busy drawing, and site layouts for more BMHT projects are filling up pieces of tracing paper. Next week we’ll need to start working them up in BIM. The challenges of creating new streets and communities in some of the city’s infill sites means once again we have to return to first principles in places and question the house type and tenure possibilities for the neighbourhood. Liz is pulling together the final pieces of the puzzles that were presented to us in BMHT’s Phase 3, coordinating levels, manipulating landscape and arranging surfaces of buildings and gardens.

Meanwhile, I’m working on our live retrofit projects, talking to builders about costs and load-bearing structures at one end; working up our first estimate with a QS at the other and trying to make sure that the more innovative products like Porotherm and Homatherm are well understood. ‘R&D’ into the new map making tool by CASA and attempting to install a time management tool on our web server is ensuring the usual levels of geek research are maintained. Oh, and the file server is misbehaving. It’s a good job I like I.T.

This week we have been mostly listening to Radio 6, although I’m hatching a plan to introduce more dubstep and see what the results on productivity are.

Happy New Year!

We thought we’d finish the year off by sharing what some of the team have been up to over the last 12 months or so…

Mike’s year:

- The tree house was completed and baptised with a summer sleepover by three grandkids, BurgerKing Whoppers & fries and watching a DVD. Also the household extension – we have lift off… windproof and watertight at least. Completion of interior…? when the architect gets the drawings done.

- The reinvented artist…. painting and sketching for enjoyment or maybe going a bit mental… Painting scottish mountains fine but drawing flowers on holiday…? Highly suspect.

- Tail end of last year’s architectural tour was two nights spent in the Duncan House (above), a reconstructed 1951 Usonian timecapsule down the road a bit from Fallingwater. Low cost, prefabricated housing for lower income families now there’s a thought… maybe not?

- Discovery of the year: Hines’ book: Architecture of the Sun, LA Modernism over 50 years. Sachs apartments already influenced one of our schemes in Birmingham, which just got planning approval.

Katie’s year:

I started RIBA Part 3 in September at BCU which included an essay on BIM which was timely given the changeover to the system at the office this year.

My biggest achievement of the year was finishing the 2011 Birmingham Half Marathon in 2 hours 12 minutes and raising £215 for Cancer Research Uk.

I’ve already signed up for the 2012 Birmingham half Marathon and another local running event. There are also plans in the pipeline to climb Ben Nevis & Snowdonia in 2012.

Rob’s year:

This year I have been mostly having a busman’s holiday and designing a house for my family. In 2012 we hope to finally start the self-build project we started planning nearly 4 years ago. The latest drawings are all available at http://home4self.tumblr.com and although there have been some dramatic changes to the design we are looking forward to barn raising party involving friends with muscles and lots of pieces of wood.

There’s been a modest of amount of writing over on the BD web site. Putting aside the time to write more often – both there and on my own blog – is a resolution for next year.

The parenting project continues and has been further complicated with the addition of a dog. She’s been a useful comfort though when dealing with the emotional turmoil that comes with an 8 year old in national ballroom dancing competitions and a 10 year old on the rugby pitch. The latter of which proved, surprisingly, to be the least violent.

My architect-by-day / geek-by-night aspirations continue with numerous side projects and tinkering online; including the use of a soldering iron and some circuit boards in an effort to learn how to do some new energy monitoring projects next year.

Liz’s year:

In September I embarked on my final year of Part 2 of my architectural education at the Leicester school of Architecture. Most recently I completed a dissertation on the ‘Architecture of Creativity’ exploring the integration and exposure of spatial and elemental relationships in school building and its possible impact upon the psyche and the development of creative thinking within the individual.

I got a dog this year! Macy, a 7 year old rescue dog (left).

I’m also looking forward to completing my house project in 2012 including installing internal wall insulation, knocking a wall down, and possibly adding a small extension – looking forward to getting rid of the old carpets! However, everything is on hold until I’ve completed my final design project for university. The project in progress is ‘The Entrepreneurs Foundry’. Based in Birmingham’s Gun Quarter, it accommodates a social enterprise that manufactures musical instruments from recycled household appliances.

Once again we’ve chosen to continue with our tradition of putting our Christmas card budget towards a charity – this year we’re supporting Kiva. Our donation has given Francisco in Nicaragua and Evelio in El Salvador (below) access to capital to improve their homes, enabling them to lead more stable lives. We’ll be following Francisco and Evelio‘s progress online – when their loans are repaid, our donation will be reinvested on an ongoing basis with another Kiva ‘borrower’, and will continue to make a difference to people around the world.

Merry Christmas from Mike, Rob and all the team at Axis Design!

Axis Design have adopted a full BIM strategy this year and all our future projects will be delivered using Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD. There are many aspects to how this will change the way we work and collaborate with others in 2012 and beyond.

As part of our ongoing to commitment to sharing best practice knowledge we have joined a new group of BIM experts organised by WMCCE and in January we will be helping to deliver the group’s first event. Rob Annable will be speaking about our experience with BIM so far and exploring its impact on smaller practices.

We hope you can join us. Here are the full details:

Breaking Down the Barriers to BIM Adoption

Date: 31 January 2012: 9:00am – 4.00pm
Venue: WMCCE, Faraday Wharf, Birmingham Science Park Aston, B7 4BB
Fee: £150 + VAT

Keynote speaker:

David Philp – Head of BIM Implementation at the Cabinet Office and Director of Tech Services, Balfour Beatty

Summary:

Would you like to learn how the transition to Building Information Modelling can make the Design, Construction and Management of your projects more efficient and cost effective?

Do you want to find out how the Government intends to drive the roll out of BIM throughout the Industry by 2016?

This is YOUR opportunity to listen to a keynote address from David Philp to hear the Government’s viewpoint and get ahead of the game. By 2016 all public sector construction projects will have to use BIM.

Bringing together leading practitioners this conference aims to showcase the benefits of using Building Information Modelling (BIM) and explain how its adoption will require changes in workflow, practices and procedures.

The event will also include case study presentations, workshops, Question and Answer session and opportunities to meet software providers.

Workshop session topics

1. Breaking down the barriers for SMEs – Diagnostic tool
2. Open BIM – Collaborative Working
3. Legal Considerations
4. Facilities Management

Who should attend?

• Engineers
• Architects
• Installers
• Manufacturers
• Design consultants
• Software solutions providers
• Project managers
• Facilities managers
• Academics

To book your place, or for more information, please contact Frankie Yorke at events@wmcce.org or follow us @WMCCE on Twitter.

We’ve been visited today by an A-level student who had the foresight to visit a number of offices to find out more about the profession before she committed herself to life as an architect. To complete her experience it seemed appropriate to ask her to blog about her experience…

When I tell people I want to be an Architect, they usually reply with one of two things. The first (usually from from my fellow A level students) is to remark on the length of the university course, the second is to decide that it’s a fantastic choice because I’m a girl. Basically, people point out the obstacles. In truth, neither of these things really phased me. Many of the architects I visit have (jokingly) tried to put me off, but it can’t really be that bad? 

I want to be an architect because the skills seem really appealing. I see buildings as a public art that everybody sees, as well as a clever use of light, space and materials. I love art and maths, and architecture seems to find the perfect balance between the two. The offices I’ve visited (Axis Design is the third) have all shown me what they do and so far I can’t complain. They’ve shown me drawings, sketches, models and how to survive on multiple cups of tea. I’ve been to client meetings, site visits and finished projects. I’ve also been shown the importance of organization, the relationship with clients and the responsibilities as a designer. Importantly for me, I’ve really enjoyed the atmospheres. Architecture involves many skills, one in particular being able to communicate with people and because of this, everybody I have met has been friendly and helpful, and although some try not to show it, enthusiastic about my future plans for university. 

The best part of my visits to architecture practices is that I’ve been shown things I already know how to do. I can’t pretend I wasn’t nervous visiting a group of new people for the first time over and over again, but I was quickly reassured by the fact I can already draw, already alphabetize and MAKE tea. I haven’t found anything boring and at certain points in the day, hours have flown by. I just need to get myself a university degree and a stronger need for caffeine and hopefully one day I’ll fit in an architect firm just right. In truth, all careers have obstacles, and for the time being I’m still going to pursue this one.

Our thanks to Phil Price and his colleagues at Ibstock for their support in supplying a memorial stone for us to include in some of Tony’s final projects.

(more here)

Welcome to Architecture Week 2007! Once again Axis Design will be taking part in Open Practice day in Birmingham and welcoming visitors to the office to talk to us about our work.

The topic this year is How Green Is Our Space? and we’ll have plenty to talk about after another year of successful project developments that continue to tackle housing sustainability. Come and see our ongoing work on innovative housing in Stourbridge, talk to us about the passive solar architecture spaces we’re designing in collaboration with Hockerton Housing Project, give us your thoughts on our latest commission to design ‘eco-terrace’ refurbishments to properties in Stoke-on-Trent.

Details can also be found at the official Architecture Week web site and you can still download the specially made podcast and Google Earth route from last year to help you find the office on foot!

It’s with great sadness that we must report the news that one of the founding partners died last month after several weeks of ill health. A memorial service was held at Highbury Hall in Birmingham where family and friends paid tribute to the lasting impression that he had with anyone he met.

We’ve set up a page to record the speeches given and the tributes sent to the office:

http://axisdesigncollective.com/tonygoodall

Thank you to all those who attended. We’re sure you’ll all agree that it was much more than your average memorial service, but then Tony was much more than your average man.