Who should manage design?

From a thread on LinkedIN dated 16 December 2011:

Design Management is very simple.

1)  Make a list of what design information is required to execute the contract

2)  Decide who is to produce what, particularily who is co-ordinating the design

3)  Decide when it is to be done by to allow sufficient time for procurement and construction to take place within the contract programme

4)  Decide who needs what information during the design process

5)  Do it

Architects are generally rubbish at this, which is why contractors employ Design Managers.

If Architects do not want to loose this skill set as well as having already lost Project Management, then Architects must take the responsibility as leader of the design team and effectively manage the design team.  It really is not that hard.

I am both a Chartered Architect and a Design Manager with many projects under my belt.

All the answers can be found in "Co-ordinated Project Information for building works, a guide with examples" published November 1987 (and in previous and later CPI publications).  There ain't nuthin’ new!

What UK building do you hate the most?

From a discussion thread on LinkedIN dated 16 December 2011:

Sorry, I do not "hate" any building, as I am not a 'Style Fascist'.  Why should I impose my aesthetic prejudice on others? I would however say that I am bored with flat roofed rendered buildings with a few garden sheds nailed up one side.  No, "hate" is what I exclusively reserve for politicians and bankers.

If we'd followed the "haters", the Palace of Westminster would have never been built.  Some prominent people of the time “hated” the Gothic Revival.

I admit that Park Hill in Sheffield is not to everyone's taste (and not to mine) but the point is that it is to someone's taste.  "Hate" is a very strong and dangerous word but I appreciate that this is just a bit of fun to while away the hours waiting for the economy to get better.

I am also so bored with Planners imposing their aesthetic prejudices on Architects.  That is probably why some buildings are "hated"?  Let Architects do what they are trained to do and let Planners colour in maps.

Please get my hometown Effin recognised

I love the classic IT stupidity of Facebook refusing to accept Effin as a place.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Please-get-my-hometown-Effin-recognised/187201111369125

Good luck with the campaign!

Savings Culture

Lord Hutton (Labour), him of the Pensions review, said in a recent BBC Radio 4 interview that the Government needs to encourage a savings culture.  Well here's an idea ...STOP TAXING SAVINGS!

MF Global

One more down lots more to go.  I cheered when MF Global went bust as this is very good news for Europe as they now have less money to pay back to investors.  This should be the strategy for paying sovereign deficits down.  I know this is a personal tragedy for all the people that loose their jobs.  But, it is as a direct result of these very people that I have not worked for two years and so excuse me if I do not have much sympathy for them.

See latest news about MF Global from yesterday:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15829529

People working in finance need to understand the mantra they keep forcing down their customers throats "the value of your investments may go up as well as down".  Well, they are currently going down, so get over it.

On the other side though, idiot European Governments continue to Nationalise debt.  I am talking about the recent bail out of Dexia by the Belgium Governement.  This is just going to prolong the recession/recovery process and until big investors are made to loose, the problem will continue for decades as it has in Japan.

No business is too big to fail.  If it is broken then fix it but if it is broken beyond repair, scrap it.  Anybody ever heard of the expression to "throw good money after bad"?  Well, propping up failing financial businesses is doing just that.

National Planning Policy Framework

I did a search on LinkedIN.  Is no one discussing this?   Really?

To start with, a deliberately provocative statement – “no housing development is currently sustainable anywhere in the United Kingdom”.  Before reading further, please engage your imagination and your grasp of mathematics.

We are advised by the Brundtland Report (UN, 1987) that sustainable development "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.  Sustainable development happens at the confluence of its three constituent parts: Environment, Social and Economic.  This was defined in W. M. Adams report “The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century" of 2006.  The National Planning Policy Framework is based upon the same definition of sustainability, as far as the writer understands.

Here is an anecdote:

When my father bought his first house (3-bed terrace) around 1957, the cost of the house was 1.50 times his annual salary as a post office worker behind the counter.  When I bought my first house (3-bed terrace) in about 1984 the cost was about 2.50 times my annual salary as an architectural assistant.  It was reported recently on BBC Radio Gloucestershire that the average house in the Cotswolds is now 11.50 times the National average salary.  A sensational aberration, maybe.

Luckily you can look up recent affordability data or price/earnings ratio on http://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media1/economic_insight/halifax_house_price_index_page.asp

Clearly, at 4.49 (January 2011) housing is less affordable than as recounted above.  Statistics are available going back to April 1983 when the price/earnings ratio was 3.50.

The questions we need to ask are simple. 

Can the increase in price earnings ratio continue indefinitely?  Clearly it can not and so is any housing development sustainable?  No, it is not. 

Those of you who disagree should consider the following (and here’s the maths).  With a mortgage there are two key variables – the term and the monthly repayments.  As such, there will inevitably come a point (it is a mathematical certainty), when the mortgage term exceeds average lifespan or the monthly repayments exceed average earnings.  Neither situation can ever work.  As such, the current arrangements for financing all housing development is not sustainable, because it simply cannot go on to serve future generations.  Allowing the price/earnings ratio to increase does not meet the Economic criteria for sustainable development.

This may be one of the best examples of the law of unintended consequences ever.

 

Uploaded to LinkedIN.com RIBA Group on 25 September 2011

Further reading http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/planningsystem/planningpolicy/planningpolicyframework/

Long live the cheque!

In 2009 the UK Payments Council announced the end of the cheque.  On 12 July 2011 they announced that the cheque was not going to be scrapped, as they could not find a suitable alternative for making payments.  Surely they should have had an alternative payment method lined up in 2009, before they announced the demise of the cheque?  No wonder the Banks are in such trouble.  They really haven't a clue what they are meant to be doing.

Britsh Telecommunications have lost the plot

BT have lost the plot.  I used to have an 8Mb service and telephone.  Even during the day I struggled to watch a low quality YouTube clip.  In the evenings I could not watch a YouTube clip at all.  This is as a direct result of the traffic management software that BT use and BT were unwilling or unable to fix it.

I am now with Virgin Media.  I get a 50Mb broadband service with free National telephone calls for about 20% less than I was paying BT.  No contest!

Now I watch live streamed HD content through the BBC iPlayer on my 24" screen.  Brilliant!

Snow snow snow .......

After the snow in the UK in 2010 combined with 0.5% loss in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the largest deficit of £9.2 bn in December 2010, it occurs to me that our leadership needs to remember what they learnt as children.

As the nursery rhyme says....

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Children know what is going on.....for fuck's sake buy some fucking snow ploughs!