5in4: Wk00/01 – TV

I’m not really sure what I am going to do with an additional day off to make a long weekend. Right now I can think of more things that need to be done than 3 months of long weekends provide time for: After playing with Noah, DIY is very high on the list – not least ripping out my flat roof balcony and installing a new one as the last straw of a 6 year undying leak, stripping and repainting the stairs, building 3 sets of shelves, restaining the timber floors, sanding the painted in carpet fluff out of the skirting boards, insulating the spandrels throughout.

It’s about time I started getting through some of the vast numbers of books I purchase – for the most part these are large architectural monographs, reading them late at night after a hard days work [and in a general state of tiredness because of my newborn sons sleeping pattern been more than a bit different to mine] does not usually result in very much of the thought behind them sinking in. I think I completely read about 1 in 4 with the other 3 been skimmed.

Other thinsg I might do: Finish respraying/chroming the colnago and put it back together, replay Final Fantasy 7, get serious about my allotment, try not to spend more money online [I’m not making any savings at all from no commute].

I am considering trialing Friday as a non internet day in an effort to save money and get stuff done but I am not sure this can work with smartphones and potentially taking work emails etc.

5in4: Working a 5-day week in 4 – Why?

We at Bauman Lyons Architects, a small team of 10, have decided to try for 3 months to work a 38 hour week over 4 days on the same salary with the same benefits.

We will record our collective and individual experiences throughout this period and at the end review it all to see whether we wish to continue to work in such a way.

There are several reasons for wanting to do this…

Over the last 4 years, since the financial crash of 2008, parts of western society has been nudging towards a great shift of values away from consumerism in favour of a more meaningful balance between life & work. Think Tanks such as the New Economics Foundation (NEF) have developed new metrics for measuring wealth based on happiness rather than on GDP, developing a roadmap, ‘The Great Transition’, of how we might get there.

In the same period other major challenges have emerged: the real time impact of climate change, the rapid disappearance of middle class jobs, the rising costs of living – especially of energy and increasingly of food – and the loss of trust in our major institutions: politicians and financiers.

But also, in the same period, the developments in technology and social media have made working conditions more flexible.

There is a growing need to change many things and we are no longer looking towards government policy to do this. We want to test some of our own ideas about how to live better within our means.

We hope that by working as hard as we always have but in a shorter week of longer days it may allows each one of us more time with family, more time for developing individual interests, more time to grow & make and more time to enjoy it all.

We also hope that the reduced weekly commute will free up valuable time and bring financial benefits, that the longer days will enable us more peer-to-peer learning and that the culture of overtime in our profession will thus be challenged.

We expect many challenges.

Over the next 3 months we will blog about our experiences, ‘warts and all’.

Video: Designs On The Future NOW

The inaugural lecture series ‘Designs On The Future NOW’ is now available to watch online via the Sheffield School of Architecture website.

Irena Bauman’s lecture was entitled ‘Architecture of Consequence’ and took place on the 27th November.

Click here to view the lectures.

Designs on the Future NOW – Lecture series

Irena will deliver her Inaugural Lecture at Sheffield University School of Architecture on the 27th November 2012.

She will be speaking about ‘Architecture of Consequence’ which will be the second of a series of three lectures.

The other lectures in the series are by Professors Fionn Stevenson and Doina Petrescu.

Irena Bauman will be supporting the motion… ‘that London will become more trouble than it’s worth’

Irena Bauman will be supporting the motion… that London will become more trouble than it’s worth: The UK needs more than one global city: Unequal investment is undermining the true potential of UK plc

at the RIBA Building Futures 2012 Debate Series: The Future and resilience of the UK’s core cities on the 6th of November at the RIBA.

the line up:
Chair:
Andrew Carter – Deputy Chief Executive / Director of Policy & Research, Centre for Cities

Proposing the motion:
Michael Parkinson CBE – Director, European Institute for Urban Affairs, Liverpool John Moores University
Irena Bauman – Bauman Lyons Architects

Opposing the motion:
Tony Travers – London School of Economics
Deborah Saunt – DSDHA

Revisiting Utopia: The Post-Regenerate City

Owen Hatherley and Irena Bauman will be debating ‘the post-regenerate city’ at the In certain places programme of debates in Preston, hosted by
Harris museum &Art Gallery and the University of Central Lancashire.

 

Tuesday 10th July 2012

University of Central Lancashire/ Preston Bus Station

10 am – 4 pm (9.30 am registration)

Tickets: £25/ £15 students

Tower Works Ceremonial Planting

The office has recently been getting very knowledgeable about all aspects of water planting! With the completion of Tower Works, Bauman Lyons took a final trip to site to install their very own ornamental water plant feature; complete with Lilies, Water Iris’ and a varied selection of tall grass reeds. It will take around a year for the plants to become fully established but we hope that by this time next year the feature will be awash with striking colours greeting people in and out of Tower Works.

Bauman Lyons are now ISO 9001 & 14001 accredited

Bauman Lyons are now ISO 9001 & 14001 accredited
After years of slogging through PQQ forms and having to justify non accreditation by outlining full details of our systems (or course in response to slightly differently worded questions every time) we can now tick the box that says YES!

 

Other than that we think we have just bought an expensive badge as it doesn’t really change anything about the way we work. But we are hoping that it will at least make the process of filing out PQQs less onerous at least until another policy or standard becomes required.

Quote of the Month June 2012

Quote of the Month June 2012

June Quote:

Michael Birdsall

Homes & Communities Agency

Speaking about the working partnership of everyone involved in the recently complete Tower Works Project, Holbeck, Leeds.

Opening of the Waterfront Hall, Hebden Bridge Town Hall

Opening of the Waterfront Hall, Hebden Bridge Town Hall

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Hebden Bridge Town Hall Project. The official opening of the Waterfront Hall took place on the 23rd of June despite the atrocious weather. The Town Hall has not been washed away and we hope that Hebden Bridge recovers quickly from any flood damage.

Designing the Future: Climate Change Showcase

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm

London

This conference has been organised by the Technology Strategy Board to review some of the 50 research projects that investigate the potential to adapt current buildings to climate change.

Irena Bauman will be presenting two Bauman Lyons projects:

Church View , Doncaster- Research to explore how buildings can be adapted incrementally room by room and how conservation values conflict with the need for adaptation to increasing temperatures. Research was carried out in collaboration with  ARUP, Peter Latz +Partner, Creative Space Management,Estell Warren Landscape Architects, BWA (QS),Doncaster Central Development Trust, Sue Roaf Herriot-Watt University,Furgus  Nicol London Metropolitan University.

The second project Irena will be presenting is ‘Management before Fabric’ which investigates the need for  large organisations to adapt themselves before they can plan for adapting their buildings. This project was in collaboration with ARUP.

 

A breakdown of the agenda for this event can be found here:

 http://d4fcshowcaseconference.eventbrite.com/?utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=event_reminder&utm_term=event_title

 

Time to Grow!

It’s that time of the year again – We are busy planting new seedlings in our BLA Veggie Garden! We have a nice vast selection which includes squash, pumpkins, courgettes, onions, potatoes, broccoli, strawberries, and blueberries amongst many many more!

Invitation to a Design Review at the University of Bolton

We were delighted to have been invited to attend the final design review of the 2nd Year Interior Design students at the University of Bolton. The review was for their studio project on the Salvation Army Housing Association Hostel (SAHA) in Salford. There were some great ideas from the students, as well as feedback from Bolton’s SAHA hostel residents who also attended the review. We will be taking into account these ideas for the design of the new hostel facility.