Category: Journal

It was the closing weekend of the exhibition by Renzo Piano entitled ‘Renzo Piano – The Art of Making Buildings’ this weekend.

I made the trip to London to see it and we queued down the staircase as news it was the last few days of it being on show had clearly got out! Three rooms of characteristically beautiful drawings and models of sixteen of his most important and well known projects were laid out in the newly converted Burlington Gardens building at the Royal Academy.

The centre piece was undoubtedly the giant masterplan model of over a hundred of the practice’s buildings together with a video interview given for the exhibition. Variously he candidly discussed his approach to architecture, life within the studio in Genoa and trying to never lose sight of how buildings go together ‘piece-by-piece’.

A well worthwhile visit with the added bonus of viewing the recently completed David Chipperfield extension/conversion of Burlington Gardens was the icing on the cake!

This year all of us in the ATA office made the trip down to Portland Place for Guerrilla Tactics 2018.

The theme was ‘Expanding Practice: Navigating the architecture of planning, procurement and property’ and featured many great speakers including Sadie Morgan (DRMM), Dan Hill (ARUP) and finished with a short speech from RIBA President Ben Derbyshire.

We found the section on planning to be most valuable and relevant to our current projects.

It was really useful, in particular, to see the role play of a planning committee with ‘behind the scenes’ commentary. They explained each role and the reasoning behind their comments. It provided a great explanation and insight into a process which not all of us have witnessed before.

Last year we posted about Annabelle’s visit to the RIBA to deliver a PechaKucha as part of the 2017 Guerrilla Tactics which you can read about here.

Our latest extraordinary find on site at Old Hall has been the “taper marks” revealed as the Oak has been cleaned.

On this window frame, the front door frame, one cross beam, and in the stairwell the timber has been intentionally burned by a candle flame.

In medieval times it was believed to ward off evil spirits, and protect the building from witches. People often did it during thunderstorms or when a family member was ill. Fascinating stuff!

Terracotta house is nearing completion!

Here are some pictures from a site visit earlier this year (as you can probably tell from the blue skies).

We are really excited about this roofight over the stairs, it will bring so much natural light down into the building.

This week we held a public consultation in collaboration with Property Alliance Group and How Planning for our latest exciting project; The Limes in Didsbury, a former care home left empty for several years.

We have been working with Property Alliance Group to design a scheme to provide both apartments and townhouses, restore the building’s attractive original features and remove unsympathetic extensions to make a positive contribution to the neighbourhood and Conservation Area.

Demolition of the unsympathetic 1980’s nursing home modifications and extensions would allow for the original building to be sensitively restored and extended. New contemporary townhouses would replace the rear buildings whilst a remodelled landscape and replacement boundary features would create a site more in keeping with St James’ Conservation Area.

It was great to talk to the neighbours and the local community about our proposals. We had a lot of positive feedback including from the neighbouring properties who had seen the site deteriorate over previous years.

We created presentation boards and took along models in a variety of scales to demonstrate the scheme.

 

Final tweaks to be made then in for planning!

 

 

We previously did a blog post about our experience using VR as part of the design process on terracotta house. Since then the design has been finalised, construction drawings produced and builders are on site.

 

ATA have been working closely with Manchester-based architectural visualisation company Our Studio.  The development of a VR model was integrated with the key design stages and used as a visual aid alongside our models.

A fully rendered 3D model was produced using our final drawings and interiors specification. We were able to work closely with Our Studio by viewing the progress on an online 360 pano tour. The finished model was then exported as a VR tour for the client.

With a completed set of drawings Our Studio could then render a series of high-end marketing CGI. The clients specified the furniture whilst we provided detailed drawings of bespoke items such as the kitchen and stairs.

The VR model undoubtedly helped to speed up the design process as the clients felt more confident about their decisions.

More information on the project and a selection of the CGI images can be viewed on our project page. The VR is available as an app from the Google Play Store as ‘terracotta house’ or can be viewed on the Our Studio website.

Demolition of the existing building is now complete.

We can’t wait to see Eddisbury on site!

Our project Old Hall Farm is now on site!

As part of the restoration of the Grade II listed hall, Restoration Projects have been required to carefully remove areas of the walls to investigate the condition and the build-ups under the watch of the Archaeological Contractor.

Last week, an original timber window frame was revealed hidden inside the wall of the front elevation, covered by cement render and a brick inner leaf. We are all excited to see this historic building restored to its former glory after falling into such a state of disrepair.

 

Who knows what they will find next week!

As part of her M.Arch studies Anna went to London and took part in the Central Saint Martins Megacrit hosted in collaboration with The Architecture Foundation.

The day-long event ‘The Way We Learn’ brought together students from different schools with shared interests in order to challenge institutional boundaries.

The students presented their current projects/research and took part in a series of round table discussions. The six key themes included Experimental Practice, Urban Economies, Self-generated Projects, Architecture as Civic Action, Embedding Heritage and Diversity, and Making is Connecting.

Anna’s project focuses on Šnipiškės, Lithuania and challenges the current policies surrounding heritage conservation as part of the Making is Connecting theme.

Guerrilla Tactics 2017: The Power of Small RIBA

In November Annabelle was invited to deliver a PechaKucha at Portland Place, London as part of the RIBA’s professional event for small to medium sized businesses. The day focused on how small practitioners can positively manage change and adopt new beneficial ways of working.

The event featured many great speakers including Sarah Castle of IF_DO, Indy Johar (Architecture 00) and Arthur Mamou-Mani (Mamou-Mani Architects).

As part of the ‘Top 10 Tactics” session, Annabelle was among 9 other speakers to deliver a PechaKucha. The PechaKucha was a presentation of 10 slides which were each shown for 20 seconds on their chosen tactic to benefit a small practice.

 

Annabelle’s chosen tactic of ‘having a happy team’ included the following 10 slides:

1  Beginnings

2  Nurturing Talent

3  Problems

4  The Plan

5  Pulling Together

6  Benefits

7  Fine tuning

8  Payday

9  The French

10  Nuts and bolts

 

We plan to write up the contents of the presentation and post a fuller edition – an inspiring day and an amazing event to be a part of!