Liven up learning with a lick of paint

We're delighted that the Times Education Supplement (TES) has published our article Liven up learning with a lick of paint.  The publication date is 30th May 2014 and it's in tes-professional as the Leadership article, pp40-41.

Liven up learning with a lick of paint

From colour to lighting there are many inexpensive ways to revitalise tired classrooms.

Some schools are blessed with fantastic modern buildings where every breath of air is choreographed to maximize learning potential. For the most part, though, schools have to make do with what they have had for many years: disjointed, often sub-standard buildings that are a detriment rather than an assistant to learning.

Bringing these old buildings back to life is generally seen as an impossibility - there simply isn't the cash in schools to do the crucial construction work. However, in reality, there are things schools can do to enhance the working environment without the need for mountains of cash. Here are just four of the many things you can try.

Acoustics
Acoustics can be optimised to make classrooms more productive environments. Here's how:

• Lining the walls with large display panels. These can be made from MDF with a cork face, finished in felt. Cork has very good acoustic properties and can work as a versatile pin board for display. 
• Covering hard flooring with carpet and underlay.
• Acoustic ceiling panels allow lofty classroom spaces to remain high, keeping their sense of space. 
• Acoustic wall panels should also be considered where display space is not required. They should be applied to the front or back walls of the classroom (not the side walls).

Acoustic design might seem like a black art, but there are some simple checks that can be made on the performance of your classroom. With a smartphone decibel app, measure the noise levels during class. If the readings regularly peak at 65dB or above, consider acoustic treatment.

Lighting
To help maintain the energy and vitality of a productive classroom environment, the following points might be considered when establishing an electric lighting design strategy:

• The main light fittings should be set out to give an even distribution of light across working surfaces. 
• To supplement the main lighting, it is worth considering a secondary set of light fittings that can highlight special activity areas or display walls 
• Light fittings should be selected and positioned so that they do not cause glare or shadows, with the light source as inconspicuous as possible. 
• With combinations of fittings, it is important not to create too much light contrast across adjacent areas, which could cause eyestrain, headaches or fatigue. 

Ventilation
Typical school classrooms have a high degree of glazing. Although this is good for natural light, it can prove problematic for overheating in the summer and excessive heat loss in the winter. The following points should be considered when addressing a classroom's ventilation and heating strategy:

If the classroom has an overheating problem during summer, the area of glass can be reduced and the ventilation provision increased to remove excess heat. Natural ventilation may often be the most practical solution; vents can be added, some of which should ideally be positioned at high level to encourage the air to mix before it circulates to working level. Such vents are usually part of the window glazing system.

Ventilation panels can be sized and retrofitted in to existing window openings to improve the ventilation performance of your classroom. There are several options to consider, depending upon budget and the environmental requirements of the room:

• The simplest and cheapest solution is to use the high level opening windows in your classroom if you have them.
• Secure ventilation panels can remain open over night in the summer to allow classrooms to be cool and comfortable for the following morning. They usually have a set of fixed louvres to the outside face. Schools built with a high thermal mass (i.e. made with lots of concrete and brick), might benefit from night-time ventilation
• Ventilation panels can have an insulated door on the inside, which helps retain the heat in the classroom when closed in winter.
• If noise from the outside is an issue, ventilation panels can be specified with acoustic louvres to help reduce this problem. 

Colour
Colour has a direct relationship with energy use. Black materials absorb 20 times more natural light energy than white and gains heat in the process. Light colours generally make a room look bigger and dark colours normally make a room look smaller. Choice of colours plays a significant role in the psychological balance of a classroom environment.

• Don't use white because it is too harsh. Instead use near-whites that are much more gentle on the eye and work well with lighting strategies. 
• It is recommended to keep the main surfaces of a classroom, walls and ceiling a light or near-white colour, so to keep the room feeling calm.
• Blue is the prime learning colour, intellectual in its effect. Strong blues can help to focus the mind and soft blues aid concentration. The optimum learning colour scheme might be a dominant blue with a secondary yellow, or the other way round for variation. 
• A classroom space should never be a single colour. We all need a balance of wavelengths.

There are many more strategies you can implement affordably to improve your building without knocking it down and starting again or starting a complete refurbishment. Try these four and build from there.

You can find more on this in our earlier post, 10 ways to revitalise your classroom on a budget.  If you would like to discuss a coordinated approach to classroom refurbishment with us, please drop us a line.

Your Competitive Advantage

Linda Roberts and Louise Harrison run designed2win (d2w), a consultancy focused on, amongst other things, helping Architects to maximise their chances of success in the competition process.  For many small and aspiring practices, competitions can be a valuable method to gain exposure, win new work and demonstrate specialist skills and innovation but unfortunately the market place is full of such small, aspiring practices seeking to get ahead.  Linda and Louise both have over 20 years experience of organising architectural competitions which they gained when they headed up the RIBA's competition office.  They are in a perfect position to help.  Between them they have organised and attended over 100 competition assessments – their clients include Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital, the Welsh Assembly, Urban Splash, BRE, as well as over 30 different Local Authorities.  Working with the British Antarctic Survey, they also ran the competition for Halley VI, a competition which is very close to my heart.

With this experience, unique knowledge and insight Linda and Louise can advise how you can stand out from the crowd.  They have been working with young practices, honing their skills in three key areas - open design competitions, expressions of interest and competition interviews.  Here are some of their inside tips:

General advice

Be economical, precise and focused with your workload.  Examine the tone and requirements of the brief and analyse how your submission should respond.  This is one of the key areas d2w can help with.  Judging the brief is a tricky issue.  How you interpret it can make or break your submission chances.

How you relay this to your design responses is another fundamental issue.  Is there a novel approach that will help your proposals stand out from the crowd?  Will it back-fire?  Nobody wants to spend long hours on a submission to miss the mark, which is where d2w can help.

Open design competitions

How to detect key issues in the competition brief is critical.  Then, knowing how far to develop your responses is just as important.  When should your submission be prescriptive and detailed, and when should it be loose and enigmatic?  These are some key issues d2w examine in their workshops.

Many open competitions request presentation boards and a written document.  Knowing how to manage these to convey your ideas and messages effectively is something they can help with.  How you set out your work is vital.  A combination of presentation techniques can help to make your submission stand out.  Linda and Louise have attended countless assessments and have supported the judging teams for hundreds of competitions and know how this can work. 

Expressions of interest

A key problem for small architectural practices is how to compete with the big guns when company accounts and business size are assessed against your ability to handle their projects.  One method from my own experience for Halley VI was to team up with a larger organisation as the lead consultant.  For projects of a technical nature requiring a multi-disciplinary approach this can be effective.  But this is only part of the solution - d2w can advise how to convey this arrangement as a winning working relationship which can capture the interest and enthusiasm of the client and judges.  

If you have a set number of pages to express a design response, make sure they tell your story effectively.  d2w can advise on how to convey your message in this process. 

Competition interviews

Be prepared.  Confidence is key, but to establish team confidence, the preparation needs to be effective and thorough.  Knowing what not to take can be as important as knowing what to take.  Selecting team members and knowing how to interact in the interview environment is critical.  Being sharp and slick doesn’t come without the correct practice, which is what d2w can advise on.

Summary

Overall, be economical with your work to hit the target as efficiently and as effectively as possible.  Don’t waste precious time.

This is just a taste of the areas Linda and Louise cover in their workshops.   If you need some expert help with your killer competition submission, contact d2w.

To illustrate one point, Peter Cook's sketches for the Abedian School of Architecture competition proved to be a point of interest for the submission.  He tells the story in his UCL lecture.

Accounting for Tastes

Why do we see buildings and in particular houses differently to products of other industrial sectors, such as cars or electronics and white goods?  Does society dictate the mechanics of an industry or do the limits of the industry dictate the accepted choices within society?  Yes, the life cycle of a building is longer than a TV,  but the house is the most widely adapted and altered building type.  Existing houses are altered to meet the changing needs and aspirations of society, so why is building such a messy, expensive, fragmented and often difficult process?  In addition, why do traditional references have such value?

In his book Accounting for Tastes, Gary Becker describes that everyone has a personal capital of values which people surround themselves with.  Changes to these values come as a consequence to or from changes in personal capital.  For example, the reduction of smoking in society, and increase in fitness clubs over the last 30 years have been a result of government efforts to encourage us to live more healthily.  These changes are recognised to have added value to to our personal capital, and our values have changed accordingly.  According to Becker we define our values looking for certainty and assurance of the present, and stability of the future.  He refers to Adam Smith, describing humans as creatures of habit.  Industry recognises this and acknowledges that change in a product or service can be a risk to consumer acceptance and market share, unless the change is a clear consumer requirement or it adds value to their personal capital.  Becker aligns habits to addiction.

Looking at the basic needs of people, there are shelter, food and drink, and recreation.  With food and drink, there has been considerable change since the Second World War.  Grocers were overtaken by the supermarket, then the hypermarket as society became more mobile, and then online shopping as society embraced computer technology.  All these steps were seen to add value to peoples' personal capital, and as Phil McKinney describes, each step offered a more exciting (if not better) experience which people want to explore, and peer pressure encourages.  On the other hand, the products of the grocery store / supermarket / online shop are the same and change incrementally.   They represent the stability within the sector and wholesale changes here might back-fire on sales.  By comparison, it could be argued that the building industry has not had such a dramatic evolution in either product or process / consumer experience.

Many market sectors work hard to fight our cultural urge to look for stability of the future.  Cars, electrical goods etc., become superseded with more advanced products, depreciate and eventually need replacing.  Stability of the future is sidelined by the desire for the best and the latest, and the assurance of an even more exciting future in 18 months or 5 years, depending on the product.  Again, this is about the experience.  How can the building industry capitalise on that?  Building can not really be described as a cutting edge technological process even though houses need flexibility in plan, layout and size to meet changing living patterns, and there are continued environmental performance, energy saving and ecological advances being made.  Resulting from our fragmented industry we largely have traditional procurement processes, materials and construction methods.     If the values surrounding our personal capital are driven by choice and availability on the one hand and habits, social interactions, culture and peer pressure on the other, does that mean that lack of choice from the market has driven us to consider housing in terms of size, location and aesthetics?  Have the choices presented by the building industry compounded the public desire to choose house aesthetics which are traditional or 'in keeping' - the best of an affordable choice - but when considering a car, the latest Land Rover is a popular choice?  Each item makes a statement and says a lot about personal capital, only one looks backwards and the other looks forward.  The building industry appears to have spent a long time reinforcing social norms, rather than challenging them to create a cycle of progress.  Can the building industry find ways to innovate and add value within the market place, based on the ideas given by Becker of experience, technology and explicit cycles of improvement, focused on an assured and positive future?  Its not an easy task.  Apart from tackling the fragmented professional structure of the building industry, Becker says that our public values are stamped in us and can prove difficult to change.  They act as control mechanisms on our living patterns and social behaviour.  Not easy to change but not impossible:  Becker draws on Adam Smith by saying economic processes affect preferences.  Our nature changes as we change the world.

Killer Innovations

I've recently become a fan of Phil McKinney.  For those interested in innovation (and everyone should be), Phil is a key person to know.  His public work focuses on innovation management strategies, and how to bring the best out of any company, with Killer Innovations.  As well as his web site, he also has a blog (included in our blog roll), a pod cast which he has run for almost ten years, and a book.  All of these channels are really worth exploring!  Phil also studied Architecture at college, so his thinking and approach will not be lost to the tired, fragmented mechanics of the building industry.  A starting point for me was Phil's 7 Immutable Laws of Innovation.

Phil McKinney's 7 Immutable Laws of Innovation, assembled in to a suggested work flow cycle

In this post I'd like to take a look at these laws and how they work, and discuss them in relation to previous posts here about innovation within architecture and the building sector.  The intention is to see if Phil's laws raise any areas of opportunity where innovation can be improved in our industrial sector.

1 Leadership
The MD or CEO of any business has to set the culture of the organisation to be focused on innovation, and allow a mechanism to develop where by innovation can become a core activity of the company.

2 Culture
Phil says 'Culture eats strategy for lunch!'  The culture within the business needs to be right for a strategy of innovation to develop.  Employees need to buy in to the common focus and goals of the company, engage with and take ownership of the strategy and collectively nurture ideas.

The organisational framework by which this can happen is critical.  Phil discusses several strategies in his blogs and pod-casts, and expands on how they work in his book.  These first two laws have parallels with our earlier blog post on the importance of people to innovation.  Without the right people in the right roles, working in a common direction, innovation will not happen.  What Phil offers is that all important road-map to plan your route to success.

Another point to make here is 'what is meant by innovation?'  It is a buzz-word used over and over in the Architectural press without clear definition.  Phil McKinney is very clear on what innovation is, and what a company needs to do to make incremental or breakthrough changes.  Key to this process are the Killer Questions the company needs to ask of itself.

Phil notes that departments and disciplines across any company (or collection of companies) needs to be aligned with clear lines of communication and transparent working methods, to enable innovation strategies to remain focused, effective and efficient.  This is perhaps where the Building industry struggles the most as there is not one clear instigator of innovation.  Producers, suppliers, design consultants, client organisations and governmental bodies are all focused on different priorities.  Arguably, the fragmented nature of the industry means companies innovate within their own parameters, with larger, breakthrough innovations proving difficult.  The result is that the Building Industry sits in the traditionalist innovation camp, as noted earlier.

3 Resources
Phil notes the resources vital to developing innovations are time, people and costs, with teams working with autonomy to prescribed goals and delivery gate-posts.

In architecture, by contrast work is driven by projects and innovation normally has to fit in to budget restrictions, Client requirements, risk assessments and statutory legislation.  By comparison to other industrial sectors, the incentive for innovation in building design is not as high as it could be.  The situation with producers, suppliers and some large contracting companies is different, but could it benefit from greater alignment with design professionals or with a number of strategically selected companies across the industry?

4 Patience
Phil says R&D is a risk, a bet, but it needs to be given time and the patience to allow it to happen.

Within the design side of the Building Industry, project programmes and the Client's brief with tight deadlines often dictate.  As a result, innovation normally gives way to tried and tested methods which prevent new thinking.

5 Process
Phil describes innovation as a continual process.  What you are looking for is not 'in the last place you look'.  The goal requires a process of continued searching and investigation.  This process needs to capture the full innovation sequence from idea to execution and he has many strategies to establish and manage this.  Phil adds that without innovation, a business (or industrial sector) stagnates.  This a danger for the building industry.  There is a lot of talk in the press about innovation in building design and construction but I think we are missing many key opportunities to do better.  Why can't innovation within the building industry be as dynamic as other, faster moving, industrial sectors?  It has a lot to do with its large fragmented professional structure, poor communication links, lack of alignment and, as Phil points out here, the lack of an effective (killer) innovation strategy at the heart of each company's management system.  This law reinforces points 1 and 2 above, where innovation needs to be an integral part of the culture of a company: The process provides the road-map to achieve this.

Most design practices have a QA system.  Gearing it up to take advantage of a comprehensive innovation strategy could prove very effective.  If the critical mass of practices adopted this approach, it could start to shake up the sector.

6 The BHAG
The Big Hairy Audacious Goal! Phil encourages that we should go for the long shot!  Do stuff never been done before!  With the impossible task to complete we need to find new ways of hitting the targets.  Its an inspiring and encouraging message and often the BHAG causes the innovation process (law 5) and the culture of innovation (laws 1 and 2) to be set in place.  Clear targets and goals need to align with a clear innovation strategy.

This is what architecture and the building industry needs more of.  Sometimes the architectural practice can set the BHAG by taking a competition brief and turning it on its head.  Sometimes the Client sets the BHAG with a set of goals that sends a spark through the industry.  Examples include the London Millennium Bridge and the Halley VI Antarctic Research Station.

Phil's message is like a shot of confidence: Establish the culture, set the strategy and take a leap of faith.

7 Execution
This is the translation of idea to impact.  Execution is the delivery of something of value in to the market place.  From what we currently produce compared to his laws (above), Phil asks us to rank ourselves as innovators.  He doesn't sound like the kind of guy to be too impressed with stylistic or aesthetic developments or cost reductions.   He's looking for more radical, far reaching developments, perhaps of the type listed in our 6 P's of innovation.

Take a look at Phil's work.  Establish a framework to make it as easy as possible to set these 7 laws in place, to travel from ground breaking idea to the execution of killer innovations!

The wall

The wall has developed greatly, especially in the last 100 years.  This has been to enable improvements in building performance and living conditions, giving us better thermal resistance, air tightness and damp protection.  The development of the wall tells a lot about how the building industry works and how innovation works within it.  In particular, many of the materials used since tudor times (timber, brick, plaster), are used today and innovative developments seem to add layers of processes to the construction of the wall, with every development potentially adding work to the process.

The Tudor timber frame wall is relatively simple but does not perform well in relation to contemporary building standards.  Three site processes to construct included frame, infill panel and external plaster (if required).  Thermal resistance for a wattle and daub wall would typically be 2.2 w/m2k.  It would also be draughty with potential damp issues.

Timber frame wall, pre nineteenth century
1 Timber frame,  
2 External plaster,  
3 Infill panel in stone, brick or wattle and daub

The solid stone wall was similar with a thermal resistance of around 2.1 w/m2k depending upon quality of construction and overall thickness. With internal plaster, it requires two processes with potential drafts and damp still an issue. 

Stone wall, pre nineteenth century
1 Stone blocks,  
2 Mortar,
3 internal plaster

With the introduction of the mass produced brick, the Victorians could build and build. It was also one of the first modular building components which meant less cutting on site compared to stonework, an innovation allowing quicker construction. Typically thermal resistance is about 1.5 w/m2k with air tightness and damp still potential issues. 

Nineteenth century Victorian solid brick wall
1 Brickwork pattern (eg English bond),
2 Internal plaster

The introduction of the insulated cavity brick wall addressed thermal resistance with insulation, and damp with the ventilation cavity and membranes. Thermal resistance might be 0.5 to 0.2 w/m2k depending upon the age of the insulation and Building Regulations at the time of construction. The insulated cavity brick wall represents about 6 processes including damp membranes across the wall. Although the processes increased, these additional steps did not involve heavy building work. The reduction of heavy labour might be considered as an innovation in this development.  Air tightness remained a possible issue. 

Twentieth century insulated cavity brick wall
1 Outer layer of brickwork,  
2 Inner layer of blockwork,  
3 Insulation,  
4 Cavity with ties between masonry layers,  
5 Internal plaster finish

The modern timber frame wall went some way to address air tightness. Large panels in the inner wall construction reduced potential air gaps, with the membranes over the wall surface assisting. Approximately 8 processes with thermal resistance easily able to meet 0.2 w/m2k. 

Modern timber frame wall
1 External facing panel (eg brickwork restrained back to building frame),
2 Timber frame,
3 Insulation,
4 Weatherboard to cavity side of wall,
5 Breather membrane
6 Ties, restraints or supports between outer panel and wall as required,
7 Vapour barrier to inside face of insulation and frame,
8 Internal plasterboard finish

Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) or engineered panels came as an innovation for introducing more bespoke prefabricated components to the building sequence. This has not necessarily lessened the number of processes to build a wall but does improve the performance of many areas (structural, thermal, air tightness and moisture resistance).  With the panel at the core of the wall system, all other layers need to be added. These panel often need specialised lifting plant and as before, the additional processes involve less heavy building labour. 

Wall with Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) or similar
1 SIP or engineered panel,
2 Breather membrane,
3 Supports to facing panel within cavity,
4 External facing panel, eg brick slips on backing board
5 Vapour barrier to inside face of panel
6 Spacing battens for internal cavity for balance of panel, and to allow location of services,
7 Internal plasterboard finish  

In this example innovation is hidden and the evolution of the wall as a series of layers might shed some light on the workings of the building industry, as traditionalist innovators. 

Where simpler aesthetics are appropriate and where buildings can work to larger regimented modular spacings (usually industrial units), composite panels offer a solution which can be achieved in 2 site processes (structure and panel). This alternative product is perhaps closer to the industrialised systems of other industrial sectors such as the aircraft industry.  The air cavity is eliminated because the wall panel is a single closed component there moisture levels trapped within the materials can be controlled.

Industrial panel
1 Metal faced insulated composite panel
2 Structural steelwork supports

(It's also worth making a note on the igloo. This simple structure uses only one material, needs no fixings and is completely recyclable and biodegradable. Naive as it might seem, when considering innovation in the building industry, should we keep these values in mind?)

The igloo
1 Blocks cut from ice
2 More ice used to bond blocks together

By comparison, where changes in the fuselage of aircraft take place, it generally involves a complete rethink of the materials, production systems, and assembly methods. Solutions have developed from timber frame and canvas, to aluminium frame and plywood, to aluminium semi-monocoque and stressed skin, to the the full composite monocoque.  The innovative developments are there to read on the product without being hidden.  

History of aircraft at the RAF Museum, North London

How much of this is to do with each aircraft producer being in charge of what their entire product, from design to production including material selection?  Economies of production, material resources and programme are critical, as are the performance criteria of the aircraft.  With one producer overseeing the whole process does this lead to more holistic innovations? Arguably the professional structures and lines of communication in these industries might be less fragmented than those in the building industry, demonstrating continued offensive innovation strategies.

The Boeing production line

Perhaps one day the shape of the british building industry will not look too dissimilar from this, with a single controlling business organisation taking charge of design, fabrication and production of buildings and whole building systems?  Then would we see more radical innovation within buildings as a product?

Learning from children

I was lucky enough to accompany a class from Furzedown Primary School to the Royal Academy's Sensing Spaces exhibition and architectural workshop last week.  We all learnt a lot - The children had a great day experimenting with materials, light and space, and I learnt a lot from their enthusiasm and freshness of mind.

Set in to groups for an architectural workshop, and instructed to work like an architectural practice, the children identified that that meant collaborating as a team to achieve a common goal - and they did just that!

With naive clear-sightedness and enquiring minds, their observations walking round the exhibition hit on a lot of points which I had missed.  In the Kengo Kuma rooms, they saw that in one room they surrounded the installation and in the other they were surrounded by it, highlighting the difference between a sculptural installation and a spatial one, or positive and negative space.

Kengo Kuma's installation

They understood the significance of the doorway as a transition between one space and another, and the value of materials in terms of how they make us feel and the influence construction methods can have on our appraisal of an object.

The Eduardo Souto de Moura doorways

The Pezo von Ellrichshausen pavilion was a favourite with lots of the children, partly because it drew on their energy and sense of adventure.  Ascending the tight spiral stairs and returning back down the ramp was fun (no matter how many times they did it), and being elevated in to the ceiling space registered with their sense of adventure.  They felt the difference in the quality of light at this height and acknowledged that the materials, perimeter balustrade and (ordinary square) geometries of the platform was guiding their views upwards to see the detail in the gallery's ceiling space.

Excitement of discovering a different environment 

At this level everyone notices the detail in the gallery decoration.  Before this installation, neither staff, guides or volunteers had fully realised the intricacy of the work above their heads or that each of the angels is different and tells a different part of a story.

Understanding the relationship between object and the gallery space.  It was difficult to believe that the pavilion sits in exactly half of the gallery

The Diebedo Francis Kere installation was another favourite because it immediately engaged with the childrens' sense of playfulness.  The space narrows in the centre of the installation making a more intimate space, compared to the more open and public ends.  Filled with plastic straws, it presented itself as a cave where they could plug in their own piece of creativity.

Creative adventure ground

Intricate work to make a contribution to the exhibit

The Li Xiaodong installation was another very active space.  The children loved chasing through the maze and then feel the crunch of footsteps on the stones at the other end.  The hard light from below combined with the soft light from the side through the vertical timbers, conspired to keep everyone's focus down (the opposite of the Pezo von Ellrichshausen pavilion).  Nobody realised that the installation crosses two gallery rooms, which could only be seen by looking up and reading the ceiling space.  

Lots of activity, crunching and excited chat

The ceiling space gives the scale of the Li Xiaodong installation, but nobody noticed because their focus was kept low by the lighting, space and tactile materials.  Instead, the children (like everyone else) became lost in the maze and its environment.
Also, another interpretation of a doorway through a gap in the maze to the Grafton Architects rooms.  

Although the Grafton Architects installation was possibly my favourite, this was not shared by many others.  Although the spaces are heroic, they do not require heroics in them.  Immediately entering the rooms from the tumbling Li Xiaodong maze, everyone's voice levels dropped to almost a whisper as if we were in a cathedral or a library.  They were definitely spaces to sit in and discuss - more contemplative than the others.

Sensing the space in the Grafton Architects rooms

Backstage, after seeing the exhibition, the children discussed their experiences with Harry, the group leader before beginning work in teams to crate installations of their own.  They were asked to think about light, materials, texture, scale, positive and negative space, structure and shape.  Many different types of materials were available to work and play with. The children were encouraged to discuss a design, make some simple sketches then follow up with their physical creations.  They were also encouraged to let go of preconceptions of how the standard built world works (ie doors, windows, walls, ceilings, floors etc).   At the end of the process there was a crit to review the work. (Strangely I was the only one who felt nervous at this).

Discussion of the exhibition and workshop briefing

Getting down to work.  Five teams each producing very different installations with different selections of materials

Many of the influences within the exhibition had stuck a chord with the children

Playing with space, structure and texture

Cool structures and spaces 

Playing with structures, lights and colour effects 

Playing with transparency, translucency, structure and screens

Crits with Harry - an excellent tutor

Time-lapse video of the experience

It was a very enlightening day.  The more we learn and practice our trade as architects the more we are in danger of establishing working conventions and loosing touch with the naive clear-sightedness and enquiring minds which we had as children.  It is something which is very special and which we should work to hold on to.

The Royal Academy - where Art Rules!

Metaphysics of materials

The metaphysics of materials
Can our attachments to (and dislike of) materials in the built environment be measured by their positions along the scales of these eight values?
Developed from Adrian Forty's Concrete and Culture

We attach values to everything we engage with around us.  This includes materials in the built environment.  For some reason, perhaps because the built environment is associated with a sense of permanence or because of function, people's collective values associated with materials on buildings are different from those of materials on other objects such as cars or appliances etc.

Also there is a sense of place or belonging which has evolved with building materials because of the long association of these materials in the building industry.  Glass, brick, stone, timber, render etc  are common place and have developed a recognisable presence in the building industry over a very long period.  This is backed by the economics which underlie their place in the building industry:  To establish their presence has been a long and expensive process and to alter this might prove equally expensive.

This might be one reason why we do not see much carbon fibre or GRP in the built environment, or where GRP is used, the material innovation is often hidden to look like stone for example, so not to provoke questions of it's acceptance as a new material in the built environment.  As noted in the pervious post, and in relation to Adrian's earlier book Objects of Desire, changes in the use of materials in the built environment might result from pressures in the building industry (including economic, technical, production, material resources, logistical etc.) as well as aesthetic / intellectual developments from designers.  Changes (usually) have to be understood and accepted by the public.

Adrian Forty's latest book Concrete and Culture looks at the metaphysics of concrete as a building material and ways in which it has been able to reinvent itself as a desirable material in different ways.  These transformations have allowed it to shake off associations of concrete being a 'disliked' building material.  At a UCL lecture to support this work, Adrian sets out eight sets of values to describe how materials in the built environment can be reinvented to gain acceptance with the public.  An adaptation of this is shown in the diagram above.

Adrian's work is a historical account of concrete structures in existence, but could this set of values be used as a design tool by architects to help inform how we handle all materials and choices made in projects currently in design?

The choice of materials and their place in building design does not need to be a completely subjective process.  Concrete and Culture helps to unravel the black art behind the metaphysics of materials and offers strategies for working with this subject in a more objective way, in design practice.

Taking this a step further, could it be used to help establish values for new materials to ease their path to acceptance in the built environment?  Could values be attributed to new materials which are recognisable to the public, reinforce an identity and help to overcome any resistance to change which they might otherwise encounter.

This subject highlights the issue that materials in the built environment need PR management, and it is the correct and conscious handling of this which makes any material which sets out to challenge the established rules, a success or failure.