COMN304 Professional Practice

‘15 PROFFESIONAL PRACTICE 12 / 05 / 2015

TUTOR](S) ALONA MARTINEZ PEREZ ANDY HUMPHREYS

COMN304 BA/ARCH3

NUDGE GROUP SHANKARI EDGAR

GROUP ALEXANDER FELL TOM WAKELAM ANNABEL FIELD SAMUEL L EVANS IEUAN EVANS

‘15 PROFFESIONAL PRACTICE 12 / 05 / 2015

COMN304 BA/ARCH3

GROUP ALEXANDER FELL TOM WAKELAM ANNABEL FIELD SAMUEL L EVANS IEUAN EVANS

STUDENT NO: 10387351 10383780 10392283 10404922 10278010

Ba Honours Architecture

Editing

School of Architecture Design and Envionment

Annabel Field : Proof Reading Samuel Evans, Thomas Wakelam : Booklet Project Report

Module Code: COMN 304 Alexander Fell : Introducing the report and also Nudge Module Title :

Group

COMMUNICATION 3: Professional Practice 14/15

Interview Transcript Interview with

Module Leader : Mrs Alona Martinez Perez

Shankari Edgar

January 2015 - June 2015

Graphic Design Samuel Evans + Thomas Wakelam : Formating ,Imagery and Template

Group Samuel Evans

Acknowledgments

Alex Fell

We would like to thank everyone involved in

Thomas Wakelam

the production of the report for their generous

Annabel Field

assitance and support during the process of

Ieuan Evans

this study.

Plymouth Unviersity Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA

CONTENTS 01

02

03

INTROUDCTION TO RESEARCH

PROJECT REPORT

BIBLIOGRAPHY +NOTES

03 Foreword Aims and Outcomes

19 Alexander Fell Role of the Architect

03 Intorudction Nudge Group

23 Thomas Wakelam Pro esionalism + Ethics

05 Research Interview with Shankari Edgar

29 Annabel Field Types of Project 38 Samuel Evans Construction / Contracts 37 Ieuan Evans Practice Structures +Design teams

43 Bibliogrpahy References

01 INTRODUCTION

Introducing ..Nudge Group

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PROJECT REPORT

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INTRODUCTION

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Nudge worked in collaboration with Bristol City Council, another architecture practice and the small business incubator SETs uared to create mixed-use o ce space for start-up businesses inside the disused listed building. 1,2 The intention of this report is to investigate how, across ve facets of professional practice, the alternative approach and diverse skillset which Nudge Group employ have impacted upon their projects when compared with traditional architectural practice.

Footnotes

INTRODUCTION TEXT NUDGE GROUP + SHAN ARI EDGAR

As a group, we have chosen to structure this report around a single case study of a particular project undertaken by a particular practice. We chose to explore a practice which is not operating in a traditional manner, therefore allowing ourselves to compare and contrast alternative modes of practice with the more traditional perception of the work of architects. Having investigated a number of practices in the South West, we eventually chose to focus upon a relatively young partnership in Bristol called Nudge Group.

Nudge was founded by architect Shankari Raj Edgar, who also acts as the company s director. The practice operates as a partnership, and employs a total of just four sta . Unusually for an architecture practice, their work extends beyond the construction industry as they have the means to accept commissions in business management, graphic design, web design and marketing, as well as architecture and interior design.

As a group, we have chosen to structure this report around a single case study of a particular project undertaken by a particular practice. We chose to explore a practice which is not operating in a traditional manner, therefore allowing ourselves to compare and contrast alternative modes of practice with the more traditional perception of the work of architects. Having investigated a number of practices in the South West, we eventually chose to focus upon a relatively young partnership in Bristol called Nudge Group.

We have chosen to orientate our report around one of Nudge s projects the renovation and t-out of Isambard ingdom Brunel s Engine Shed at Bristol Temple Meads station.

The rst chapter of the report explores the role of the architect, uestioning whether the alternative approach and cross-professional dialogue adopted by practices such as Nudge signals a new direction for the profession of architecture. The discussion then moves on to the uestion of ethics and professionalism in chapter two, outlining the ways in which the profession wishes to view itself from an ethical standpoint and asking whether alternative modes of practice, such as that exhibited by Nudge Group, conform to the ethical and professional standards of the industry. Chapter three explores briefs, fees, costs and programming, seeking to understand how businesses such as Nudge may t their alternative way of working in to a framework designed with traditional architectural practice in mind. The fourth section of the report aims to understand contracts and construction within the industry and in doing so seeks to establish what type of contracts would be most suited to the unusual nature of the work undertaken by Nudge. The nal chapter in the report will explore practice structures and designs teams, underscoring the ways in which Nudge s work di ers from traditional architectural practice.

01 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group [Conversation].

02 - Nudge Group,‘Nudge Group’ Available at:http: //www.nudgegroup.com/[Accessed:06 May 2015].

Fig.01,02 - The Engine Shed , Bristol

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QUOTE

PHOTO

Fig. 01

PHOTO

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RESEARCH

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NUDGE GROUP + SHAN ARI EDGAR INTER IEW

SE : Shankari Edgar AF : Alex Fell AF : Annabel Field IE : Ieuan Evans SLE : Samuel Lawrence Evans TW : Tom Wakelam

AF Q.01

SE : Shankari Edgar

So, to start with, could you just give us a little bit of background on the engine shed project. Where to approached by someone? Who were you approached by?

01 - Okay, well I was approached by somebody from the council and asked if I would be interested because I had already done a project across the road which was temple studios. With the yellow shipping containers and yellow stair. I think the council wanted something uite gri y, so they basically asked us Nudge to sandwich ourselves into the project and get involved. There was another architecture company already involved called Childs Sulzman and they had been involved from the start via the client which was Nick Sturge of Sets uared.

If I give you a bit of background information. The Engine Shed project came about via Nick Sturge, the project manager. He set up the company Sets uared which is an incubator/extraction business which operated out of Bristol University. So the was all these really techy , intelligent people coming out of Bristol University,creating projects, technology and services that could be sold all over the world, but needed bit more time to grow , to turn into a business. Or needed help and support to turn into a business.

So Sets uared became this company that was a ached to Bristol University and still is to help develop these young people and grow their ideas, businesses products or whatever it is. So as Sets uared started to grow, because their premises were relatively higgildy piggidly they wanted to secure somewhere new and exciting. Nick worked very hard with the council and the idea became to place together a Bristol company called Inward Investment, the Local Enterprise Partnership and Sets uared to allow investment and the incubation and growth of new start ups. That was the aim.

AF Q.02 Leading on from that, what is it about the way that you practice and what is it that makes you want to challenge the traditional way of practising . Maybe you were the contrast, what did you bring to that project?

So, there was already a practice working on the project, but they were uite traditional and I had only just began practising for about 3 months so I was uite new and fresh. As they had already seen what I had done with Temples Studios, they put out a tender, I was on the tender and thats how it all started.

02 - In terms of traditional practice, I think that architecture is changing. Dramatically . I think that the traditional role of an architect won t even exist in the next 10 years. I think that architecture should be treated as an undergrad the same way geography is treated as an undergrad and you go o an do other things from it. So you should think of it as a way of learning and being creative and thinking outside the box and you should go and take that into something else. Architects aren t going to make much money, the sub contractors are taking up roles that mean you are maybe be er going into a sub contractor position if there is something you are interested in and going from there.

In term of Nudge, what I m personally interested in are projects that address social value. So it s about adding social value to peoples lives and the joy for me is creating beautiful spaces. It s taken me a while to realise that s what it is, I m now in my early thirties and I now know that the thing that drives me is creating beautiful spaces. But you guys all have to gure out what is important to you, like is it money Is it working in a corporate environment Is it working on your own Is it travelling a lot What drives you could be a whole number of things and you personally have to work out what that is.

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IE Q.03 Do you find that you maybe measure the value of your projects against how beautiful it is when you have produced it? So you say you take on projects which will add social value, if they are successful in doing that does that make them beautiful or are they more subservient to the aesthetic quality that you strive for?

03 - That s good uestion, I think it s really di cult because every project is almost like a baby that has a completely di erent personality and goes in di erent directions. There are so many complex things that a ect a project that you can t necessarily tie down. So you have to keep the vision and be really strong about the vision you are trying to deliver. The thing that I know that I have, that most people don t, is I can picture stu in my head. I can picture it so clearly, like I knew what the engine shed was going to look like in my head months and months before I delivered it. So it was just a case of ge ng it down to every intricacy.

Down to the pa erns on the windows, the pa erns on the furniture, colours and textures and picking out speci c things from the engine shed that were old and historic to go into it. I can see it all in my head and I knew what it was going to look like, it was just a case of powering through until I had delivered all the things in my head. That s the skill set I know I have. What complicates and muddies the water are clients. Or people who aren t interested, or people who maybe don t want that, or politics, or lots of di erent personalities that a ect delivering the vision you know the client wants, or doesn t want.

There is another project across the road called Rivergate that we ve almost nished for Overhead Energy and that project. . . will probably win some awards. It s almost nished but uite di erent and I m not as happy with it as I am the Engine Shed. I got asked the uestion a couple of weeks ago and I was a bit like, oh I don t know, they are all so di erent, I don t know. Then I sat and thought about it and realised, yeah Engine Shed is still my favourite because I had such a great client which was Nick Sturge as project manager. As a project manager he le me to do what he trusted me to do, whereas with Overhead Energy it was very much muddied by di erent clients and people spontaneously changing their mind and having to re-address it and change stu and it never uite being what I knew would be the right outcome. So it is really di cult to answer that uestion on social value and beauty because there are so many things that muddy the water. Does that make some sense

IE Q.04 Maybe... Relativly, could you expand ?

04 - In terms of value and social enterprise generally, that s de nitely a step we need to work towards. How do we look at public projects and measure the social environmental value over time, not just looking at the business model, but that will come as projects develop.

AF Q.05 So when you’re talking about working with a lot of other agencies on that project. So you’ve got the other architects, the client, the council, all of that. How did you find that your approach and your role I suppose, shifted from what you expected. You said you liked the client and felt quite to practice in a way that let you express yourself through that building, but did you find that you were constricted or you found your approach shifted because you were working with so many people?

05 - eah, I think there was a lot of shi ing, but the was also so many people coming from the public sector that they were all just giving an opinion to give an opinion rather than warranting or wanting a particular direction. O en there was more people than this table could hold 10+ and everyones giving an opinion because that s what they are being paid to do and then you would be kind of judging the audience. ou have to be able to judge what everyone is thinking, so being able to understand people is critical and being able to read between the lines of what someone is saying. Then sending them stu and them being okay with it anyway even though they have contradicted themselves and said something di erent. Because their is so many people in the room if you send them documentation and they agree to it anyway it s ne, and you just carry on. So in that circumstance everyone was happy with it because there was so many people involved.

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SLE Q.06 Do you think its easier working with a public programme rather than working with a private client because they are less attached to it?

06 - Yeah I suppose, but I think it really depends on personality. There is no right or wrong it just depends on personality.

AF Q.07 Your role takes on quite a human aspect then I suppose, it’s not just about what you produce, its about the way you liaise with people.

07 - Oh yeah, that is a massive part of it. I have worked with so many practices that have been sued on numerous occasions and you start to realise why. It’s because they are not listening and they are doing what they want to do, and their client is paying them and they are producing something completely di erent because they can t read their client or they are not listening to their client. They end up ge ng sued when the project is nished because they have done something di erent, they client has got upset, they haven’t communicated and it’s all gone up in the air. So yeah being able to understand your client, listen to them, communicate properly, tell them when costs have gone up, tell them the problems so that they are fully aware, is absolutely critical.

AF Q.08 So in terms of dealing with this particular building. With its association with Brunel, it’s kind of iconic in the city, how did your approach work with dealing with that.

So initially, how did you deal with that, I presume it’s listed, so how did you address structural issues, putting things inside that structure, securing the structure etc?

08 - Well from a structural perspective Brunel did uite a magni cent job of making that thing stand up, no one uite knows how it does and it doesn t meet todays standards. But it does stand up, so you can t fault that. We didn t have anything touch the sides of the walls if you started to notice, a lot of the walls and stu stop at the edges and we had a minimal amount of stu touching the edges. Everything else sits within it.

SLE Q.09 Is that because of a heritage background?

09 - eah, I mean its also the dynamic of junctions as well and being just sympathetic to the existing stonework.

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AF Q.10 Are the interventions you’ve made structural within themselves, they don’t rely on the existing building at all.

10 - Yeah there is nothing structural at all, the building stands up on its own merit. It’s got like poles running through it.

AF Q.11 Was there any opposition form anyone to the project be it public or through the council. In terms of building being developed. I guess you wouldn’t have had to worry about planning permission for example with you being commissioned.

11 - Planning permission and all of that was quite easy because it was a council project, it all just got passed through more easily than it would have otherwise. Procurement was an absolute nightmare, but we actually had a person in house in the council, which is a key thing in these kind of projects. So we had this amazing guy called Jack Allen who was kind of the middle man. He didn t really have a role but suddenly found himself in this amazing position where he helped me. For example I wouldn t have been able to pick the furniture I picked within the budget I had, it was a much tighter budget than I had ever worked to before. But, I was able to because I had Jack jumping every procurement hurdle and allowing me to pick the furniture I wanted to pick rather than having ot go through the normal processes. So without him in toe it wouldn’t be able to look like it does as far as I am concerned. This is important because for Nudge one of our most important things is ge ng as much of the furniture etc. made as locally as possible so its not all coming from China. Every pound you spend locally is something like 2 pound that will go into your economy so it’s the most sustainable way that you can be delivering a project. So local labour local materials, local furniture and we had all the local furniture made locally by local teams, something we wouldn’t have been able to do without Jack going through the procurement process like he did.

AF Q.12 Were there any other major delays, hiccups or anything, you know any really big obstacles.

12 -It was really just the procurement.

AF Q.13 Were there any other major delays, hiccups or anything, you know any really big obstacles.

13 - So, there is a S, a uantity surveyor.. The uantity surveyor basically looks at all the drawings we produce and the speci cations, all the material nishes and stu . Then he costs the entire job based on that, but o en the get it wrong and these days we o en nd ourselves doing the costing because they are picking the wrong thing and they haven t uite got it right, so sometimes its easier to do it yourself. Generally if it s a large project we will get a S but on a small refurb job we will do it ourselves.

SLE Q.14 Is there someone you go to all the time as a QS then or…

14 - No, it depends on who is the project manager, it depends on who the contractor is, it varies job by job.

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AF Q.15 So its very much, I don’t know if this a very corny architecture school reference, but its not like the head of the fountain the architect is one of a group of people its kind of your role in the project. So do you see yourself as had having a leading role or were you more just playing your part in the project.

15 - On the Engine Shed , the architecture company that got hired rst should have had the leading role, but they were very fair and sort of allowed me to take that leading role in it. But I think as an architect, though you are collaborative you need to have all the strings in your bow so you know for example like if something is going to cost to much we can change this or that. So you do have to keep your hand in all the pies, especially the money side of things. So if the S screws it up you can still deliver to your client.

AF Q.16 Is that something that because you say you have specified most of these things before you go to the QS, that you ensure is going to fall within a realistic budget, or is that just a case of experience.

16 - A lot of it is experience. Say for example we are refurbishing a load of bathrooms and disabled bathrooms on this 5 storey building on every oor and the contractor has put in 35 grand on every oor and I were to be like well that s not good enough because the client doesn t want to spend more than 20 grand, then we have to go back and see where can we save money, this can stay, this can go until eventually we have met the cost but still able to give the same impact, look or feel, it does take a while.

AF Q.17 Do you find that it is quite a battle sometimes, Do you come under pressure from other parties in the project saying you need to get rid of this or well this is really important to what we a really trying to do.

17 - eah uite a lot of the time.

IE Q.18 Is that something that is increasingly problematic in contemporary architecture?

18 - I think that really depends what practice you work for, I am uite lucky in the sense that people come to me for a look, or a feel, or an ethos. Whereas there are plenty of practices that are just riding the wave of making money. They are working for really commercial contractors who are like you can only do this or do that, so they don t have much say anyway.

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AF Q.19 Okay, well the next topic is really about this practice as multidisciplinary, so you have a couple of you guys who are architects then you have media consultancy as well. How does that work and differ from practices you may have worked with before?

19 - Well what we do is. . . Henry who is my business partner is actually an editor/publisher, but we both have the same ethos and we are both into social enterprise and he is just as into urban regeneration as I am and being an architect is not just about buildings its much, much more than that.

So, our aim, though we have only been set up a few months, is to go from brief commissioning, helping social ventures, helping with funding, helping with business models, then to go on from that and produce a physical outcome. That is kind of our dream that we are working towards at the moment.

SLE Q.20 So how do the other roles within the‌ (Interupted)

20 - So, Damien has got his own company, he does like websites and graphic design, that sort of thing. But then he also works for us on all the graphic stu for jobs. I mean I did the Engine Shed but on Overhead Energies he s done all of the illustrations and stu for all the meetings and the inside pieces. We have Ash doing our PR and marketing, we have Damien doing the graphics. So we kind of all do our bits.

AF Q.21 Okay, this one is a question about the Engine Shed so I hope don’t mind if it seems we are just moving on.

Having various different businesses who are going to be using that space how does it work for you design it. I suppose is the a kind of unknown element when you don’t know who is going to occupy it. Could you link it back to this being a multidisciplinary practice?

21 - I say it has anything to do with us being multidisciplinary. with the Engine Shed we knew who was going in there. We knew it was the public sector but we also knew that it was going to be full of tech people and digital people and start up businesses.

They just wanted a trendy place to work. It is uite di erent, if I was asked to commission an architecture school for example I would probably allow it to be uite decaying and covered in white walls so people could gra ti and play with and it would be uite a di erent thing. So it depends. If it is architects or artists going in a space they need to make it their home, so you wouldn t over design it. With this situation they needed something iconic, they needed a brand. We needed to take the name as concept from start to nish, as a brand and a logo, the icon. We had to take it all the way through to what it looks like. But that was a completely di erent think it was about creating a brand in that space.

If you look at overhead energy now, they had in house branding, they have been set up for 5 years now. Before we designed their o ces they were the 5th largest energy company they are now the 1st, according to which magazine. Their in house branding team didn t tell us anything so redesigned it all and what has happened is that we have designed it all and they have used the physical entity which we have created to do their logo, so they have kind of worked it completely backwards but it s happened and it works.

SLE Q.22 In that project did you design for that to happen, did you know that would happen?

22 - eah, I kind of expected it. I was kind of like, well we should do branding before delivery but then we ended up delivering something and then they did the branding, but the physical outcome obviously had a mental a ect on everyone and how they perceive that company.

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IE Q.23 Obviously as someone working in professional practice you are exceptionally well placed to be able to answer questioned regarding each of our topics. So if I were to say to you for example that my topic is basically practice structures, traditional, contemporary and how they differ, as someone in professional practice, what is your opinion?

23 - Okay, let use for example use Fosters as an example compared to what we do at Nudge group. Completely di erent.

Probably in essence some of our ethos might be the same at the start, but at the end of the day we are completely di erent, a lot of what they do is just architecture, it s buildings. What we do is uite malleable, it ts into lots of di erent areas, we are uite di erent in that way and obviously we want to deliver social value, that s is our driver.

IE Q.24 So designing ideas maybe, not just architecture?

24 - Yes, designing ideas and some which come into reality. Changing the way in which people think about things. Our mayor if Bristol, George Ferguson, used to be an architect and is some of the best mayors in the world have been architects because we aren t politicians, we have the ability to see the big picture and not just focus in one thing. So we can look at transport and look at public space. We can look at building and their interiors. We can look at all of those things and think about all of them at once, which politicians can t do, so we have the ability to do more than just buildings. For our generation I think that is where professional practice di ers, we have to put a political spin on things as well.

SLE Q.25 As a practice that has a sort of socialist agenda, do you think that it is key you have a good relationship with someone like George Ferguson?

25 - eah, totally. It s all about having integrity in what you do. I d say that George Ferguson has produced 3 or 4 key developments in the city over the last 20 years which have created social value in those li le pockets of areas he has put his stamp on. So similar drivers, de nitely.

AF Q.26 Do you think that because he is obviously an architect, that having someone in that position has helped, especially when you talk about alternative practices like this, has helped having some like that, who gets that. Has he and the council really sort of supported you?

26 - Totally, without him actually being my mentor, I think he has been a really strong mentor for me. The way he thinks, his philosophies and stu , adding social value, we are really similar minded. I remember this one sentence conversation we had years ago when he said. Whatever you do , don t be a slave to your sta because that is what happened to me.. What he meant was instead of going out to nd work because it s your passion and your love, you are going out to nd work to pay for all your sta and their mortgages and I was like, yeah, that is totally true. So it is about knowing what success is and what you value success as.

What drives you and what you really want to do.

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SLE Q.27 Is he one of the reasons you set up in Bristol?

27 - No it would have always happened.

AF Q.28 So then, when we talk about things such as the role of the architect, do you see people coming out of architecture school, do you see people eventually taking on roles like that, not necessarily a mayoral role but similar roles?

28 - I think more and more architects should go into public sector roles and start changing the system. What happened was I think, in the 1950’s 60% of architects were employed by the public sector, now it is something like 2%. Back then we used to create more social housing than we ever have done before, now we never create social housing, which is madness. That is very much because architects used to have the right ethos and the right thinking to create social housing, which is critical for society, instead of it all being this capitalist model. So the more architecture students, who have the right ethos, going into the public sector, the be er, de nitely.

SLE Q.29 So basically, as an architect coming out of university now would you try and set up an architecture practice or go down another route?

29 - Coming out of my third year?

SLE Q.30 Yeah, or would you go down the road you did, I mean I don’t know, are you even fully qualified? if so would you go down a different route?

30 - eah eah. Erm, good uestion. If I came out now, no, I probably wouldn t do architecture, I don t know what I d do, but I wouldn t do architecture. I mean I uali ed like 5 or years ago, I d probably go o and work for a sub contractor and do something uite speci c possibly.

AF Q.31 So when you set up Nudge and architecture being in quite a slump at the time of the recession, were you setting up around that time.

31 - eah I was uite agitated about se ng up, but I genuinely don t think there are that many good practices in the south-west, design orientated, or wanting to do the stu I was interested in. I worked in a practice for uite a while, sucked everything I could out of it, learned everything I could but realised that there wasn’t something quite right about the place, so I le , then I went to another place for a year. and le . So soon a er 5 or places over 5 or years I got enough of a handle of what was right and what was wrong to do to go out and set up.

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AF Q.32 Did you find though, that it was quite a big step to set up on your own?

32 - I didn t nd it di cult at all really, I had loads of support from friends and family. I knew what I was going to do, I had always known. The thing with architecture is, your really need to read 21 things you don t learn in architecture school. In fact there is an even be er book than that, e-myth, entrepreneurs myth. Its all about the entrepreneur, the business person and the technician, and every architect thinks that they are going to set up their own business, so does every architecture student. But you might not be suited for it, you might not be enough of an entrepreneur, or a business mind, or have the technical skills or the social skills, you might not be able to read people, you just might not be that person and you need to realise what your own strengths and weaknesses are to go into what is right for you. So many architects are technicians and they think, I can do this, I can do that, I can set up on my own and they go and set up on their own and realise that its the worst thing they have ever done in their life. Then they go back and work in an o ce. I think it s ridiculous the gure for people who have set up on their own and it fails. Like it s huge.

But that is a really good book to read because it s about this woman who is a baker and she loves making pies and enjoys making the pies as she made with her mum and she has this really nostalgic feeling about making pies. So she sets up on her own and she is literally working 20 hours a day baking the pies and making the pies, cleaning, invoicing, selling the pies, doing the branding, doing the marketing, doing everything. So the joy and the love of making the pies went out the water, she hated making pies and she couldn t get herself out of her situation at all and she had invested money in it and it was all falling apart for her. her love was making pies not se ng up a business to sell pies. ou have to be really careful.

AF Q.33 So do you think that is the reason you have been successful doing it and still enjoy doing it because you know the entrepreneurial you have taken as well a design role?

33 - : It is a huge part of it, it is all about character traits and personalities.

SLE Q.34 In that sense then do you think it helps that you have multidisciplinary practice?

34 - eah, I love working in a buzzing environment, I m very lucky to be 2 minutes cycle ride from my house and 4 minutes cycle ride from the station so i can get to London once a week and Cardi twice a week and be in an o ce lled with my best friends. I am very lucky. I get to come into my o ce every day with my friends, then I see them in the evenings. It s all, yeah.

SLE Q.35 To follow that question then, you obviously enjoy working at Cardiff do you have any influence from the education side of things that keeps it fresh in the office?

35 - eah, I think because we are all creatives, but from di erent backgrounds it keeps it very fresh . eah I ve been teaching for 5 years now and I nd it s just as rewarding for me as it is for them. I have been teaching for a long time now.

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SLE Q.36 Is that something you want to continue doing as the practice grows?

36 - Yeah, I will always do that.

IE Q.37 Even if you were to say become exceptionally succesfull?

37 -

Laughs eah I will still do that. I would still teach, even though it doesn t pay very well I would still teach.

AF Q.38 It seems like a good balance to have.

I suppose you still have that ambition from architecture school then that stops you sort of selling out or something.

38 - eah, and keeps everything really fresh, like their will be some week where you help design like 12 di erent projects at once because they are at that stage where they don t really know how to put pen to paper. So you are sketching out things and asking, what if you did this Or what of you do that So your brain is more active than it could ever be, which is really important.

AF Q.39 I guess, keeping a design head on as well, if you are getting bogged down in HR kind of stuff. . .

3 - eah, because I don t actually spend much time on CAD anymore, I spend so much of my time on site and responding to emails and on Excel spreadsheets. It is more than I am drawing, like I will sketch stu and get one of the guys to draw it up, I won t spend that much time on CAD at all actually.

AF Q.40 Do you like the fact you have all those other roles or do you ever want to get back to drawing?

40 - That is exactly where the business person, entrepreneur and technician thing comes into play, you can t do all three. If you do take on the entrepreneur role like me you can t do that, and if thats not what you want you have to change and go and work for someone else.

INTERVIEW

PG. 15

PROJECT REPORT

IE Q.41 I suppose that’s where it helps to have such a close knit organisation.

So that your vision, which might be subject to their design methods, when you hand over those sketches or pieces of paper and they turn it into a real thing you need that trust.

41 - Yeah, I mean eventually I want to get to the stage, which is why I called it Nudge Group, where we can make it a co-operative, because I think the technician has just as much value as I do as the person who takes up the business management role. So if you have 3 or 4 technicians they are just as valuable as I am as a person who goes out and gets the work in, so at some stage it will turn into a co-operative when the right technicians, the right people are there who want to do that. That is kind of the agenda behind Nudge Group.

AF Q.42 It seems having that kind of attitude is really good in terms of the success of it as well. So having that trust in the people around seems like a key part in the practice being successful.

42 - eah, exactly. I mean I will value the technician just as much as myself even though I m the one who get the work in and goes on site and we all stick to the holistic vision we try and deliver. Everyone has their role to play, it s not just one person.

SLE Q.43 Do you see yourself as the architect, as the those behind your practice, bringing the right people in?

43 eah, a lot of my friends have their own businesses, all in di erent elds, and really interestingly one of my friends wrote a really lovely article on LinkdIn the other day a er he took over a 20 year old company o his dad and wrote about how they had made some serious mistakes with the people they had employed over the last 20 years and how critical it is that you don t just have this amazing C but you have to have exactly the same values and ethos. ou have to be friendly and kind and trustworthy and want to deliver the same things that want to deliver on top of an amazing C and being exceptionally creative and talented and intelligent. It is not just the C .

SLE Q.44 Do you think then that your practice will remain quite small for a large amount of time?

44 - I have no intention of expanding. I like the exibility. If anything I would go up to people, but no more than that. I also really appreciate that sometimes people may want to go away for 3 months in the winter and that s ne, that s just part of life. I don t think that people need to have a -5 job anymore, I don t think that is the way the world needs to work.

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PROFFESIONAL PRACTICE

SLE Q.45 How do you operate then if someone goes off for 3 months, do you have to bring someone else in?

45 - eah pre y much, as long as you let us know we will bring someone else in and get them to do it. Then they come back and it is back to how it was.

IE Q.46 Sounds like the ideal boss.

46 - Laughs I don t pay people to go away for 3 months, they just choose to. But I think people should have holidays whenever they want. ou give them a task and say this is what you are ge ng paid for, get on with it. Get it done in your time.

AF Q.47 Okay then, well thank you very much for your time.

4 - That s okay guys, thanks.

02

PG. 17

PROJECT REPORT(ESSAYS) Research and critical Analysis/findings

COMN304

PROJECT REPORT

COMN3O4

PG. 18

PROFFESIONAL PRACTICE

THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT

PG. 19

PROJECT REPORT

THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT

THE EXTERNAL NETWORK

If the role of the architect in a traditional sense is dying out, is it time for us to accept a new position within the construction industry and broaden our eld of view

Nudge Group in Bristol is a prime example of a practice which is not working in a traditional manner.

The small o ce employs only four sta , yet it is able to provide services in architecture, interior design, graphic and web design, business planning and media consultancy. These professions are able to collaborate, as well as work independently of one another. Taking such a multi-disciplinary approach takes Rory Hyde s notion of the architect as one of many consultants7 even further instead of interacting solely with other professionals from within the construction industry, Nudge introduce expertise from other disciplines to enrich their projects and give themselves greater exibility.8 Shankari Raj Edgar, founder and director of Nudge, has said that what we do is uite malleable and ts into lots of di erent areas but it is all design-led, 9 with Awan, Schneider and Till supporting such modes of practice, stating that it is important for architects to move to take a collaborative approach outside of the academy and profession, and into the relationships with others .10

Jeremy Till states that the practice of architecture is a set of external networks, and necessarily dependent .15 This view further rationalises the approach taken by practices such as Nudge by creating cross-professional interdependencies and links, the practice is able to take on a greater range of work, hosting richer dialogue between these professions, and therefore becoming ever more capable and resilient. Embracing this notion of an external network, and perhaps nding their own niche branch within the network, is key to the success of practices such as Nudge it is through this network that they can nd their clients.

THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT IN THIS FORM OF PRACTICE /FINDING WORK /MARKETING

ALEXANDER FELL

INTRODUCTION The Oxford English Dictionary de nes an architect as a person who designs buildings and in many cases also supervises their construction 1. This apparently simple job description of a designer-manager epitomises the traditional view of the role of an architect. This view, however, has been complicated somewhat by much recent discourse, such as the writings of Jeremy Till. He opines that the knowledge needed to de ne the profession is di erent from the knowledge needed to e ect architectural practice .2 Chappell and Willis expound upon this with their description of architects roles beyond the design process They must nd clients to employ them, they must be able to manage an o ce and be responsible for a good deal of administrative work in connection with construction contracts, and they must know something of nance, law, the general structure of the construction industry and the organisation and re uirements of those authorities who exercise so much control over their day-to-day work .3 It becomes apparent, therefore, that the role of the architect extends far beyond the mere design and construction of buildings. Rory Hyde complicates the situation further as he notes that the traditional notion of the architect as project supervisor may also have become untrue the idea that we can be the real project leaders, si ng at the top of the pyramid controlling everybody else, has shi ed as projects become more complex now we re a consultant among many .4 He refers here to the increasing dominance of project managers as the guiding force in many construction projects.5 Chappell and Willis add credence to the notion that the role of the architect is not static, noting that architects, along with all others in the industry, need to keep abreast of all developments and tailor their approach and services in order to respond .6 It is therefore clear that a widespread feeling exists that the nature of the work of architects is in a state of change, whether the profession likes it or not. As a conse uence, we must ask the uestions of what role the architect plays in contemporary practice, how the architect s new position as one of many consultants on a project can be de ned, and how the profession can remain resilient and relevant in the face of change.

The Engine Shed, one of Nudge s projects in Bristol City Centre, exhibits the cohesion between the many disciplines working at the practice. It is clear that the media and graphic design faculties of the practice act as a driver for their architectural propositions colour, logos and graphic motifs tie together the spatial elements of the interior. This mode of spatial production correlates with Awan, Schneider and Till s opinion that space is produced through a multiplicity of forces .11 Edgar has stated that brand image has always played a big role in their work she described how, at a project they completed for Ovo Energy, the client company ended up adopting the branding established in the building by Nudge for the whole company.12 This alternative mode of practice and unusual combination of skills is allowing Nudge to carve out a niche for themselves. Edgar has opined that architecture is changing dramatically. The traditional world of the architect won t even exist in ten years .13 If she and the other theorists I have uoted are correct in their statements, o ering an almost uni ue and very exible service will allow Nudge to be resilient in the face of change. Awan, Schneider and Till support this notion, describing how niche interests can be catered for and networks created through personal contacts and overlapping interests .

14

Footnotes 01 - Oxford Dictionaries, ‘Definition of Architect’, Oxford Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2015) <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/architect> [Accessed 3rd May 2015].

02 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’ (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009), p.161.

03 David Chappell & Andrew Willis, ‘The Architect in Practice’, 10th edn, (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), p.xiii.

04 - Rory Hyde, Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture (London: Routledge, 2012), p.118.

05 - David Chappell & Andrew Willis, ‘The Architect in Practice’, p.166.

06- David Chappell & Andrew Willis, ‘The Architect in Practice’, p.5.

07 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice', p.118.

08 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation] (Personal communication 4th February 2015).

09 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group [Conversation].

10 -Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, ‘Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture’ (London: Routledge, 2011), p.78.

11 - Nishit Awan,et al, ‘Spatial Agency’, p.78.

12 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group [Conversation].

13 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group [Conversation].

14 - Nishit Awan,et al, ‘Spatial Agency’, p.92.

15 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’, p.161.

COMN3O4

PG.20

FELL

â&#x20AC;&#x153; They must find clients to employ them, they must be able to manage an office and be responsible for a good deal of administrative work in connection with construction contracts, and they must know something of finance, law, the general structure of the construction industry and the organisation and requirements of those authorities who exercise so much control over their day-to-day work. â&#x20AC;&#x153;

THE ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT

PG. 21

FINDING WORK Shankari Raj Edgar a ested to the fact that prior professional connections lead to more work in the future. She described how Nudge had been approached to work on the Engine Shed project by Bristol City Council a er having already worked on Temple Studios, another council-funded project, across the street.16 This example serves as proof that when architects are complicit in their role as one of many agencies working on a project they are able to cast their net much wider and may nd work being brought to them by one of these other agencies, in this case Bristol City Council.

Given the su ocating restrictions placed upon architects when it comes to marketing and nding work, involvement in a professional network becomes absolutely vital. Establishing a plexus of contacts and associates is one of the main ways in which architecture practices can gain commissions. When advertising in the profession is frowned upon,17 membership of the RIBA incurs a fee, 18 and the placement of advertising boards around a building site entails signi cant amounts of bureaucracy,19 capitalising upon marketing methods which re uire minimal investment of time and money is hugely important. This is particularly true for small and relatively young20 practices such as Nudge, who are not yet well-established or widely-known.

The fact that Nudge has marketing expertise in-house gives them a huge advantage. Their o ce plays host to a much broader skill set than that which would normally be found in a typical architecture practice.

Mediums such as web and graphic design are hugely powerful tools that can be used to promote the practice s work. The exibility which Nudge have to accept commissions in web design, graphics and media consultancy becomes even more bene cial when one considers the fact that any small-scale work they do in these sectors doubles as promotion of the practice as a business which can take on large-scale architectural commissions. This notion of producing work as a means of self-promotion is supported by Awan, Schneider and Till who describe how certain community projects have developed incrementally and self-promoted in order to further their own cause.21 Nudge may work in the same way, taking on small commissions in their media and web design sectors in order to promote their services as architects.

Whilst every architect must learn to liaise with other professionals from the construction industry and some practices, such as Nudge, may choose to a liate with an even broader range of disciplines, directors and lead partners of practices have an even more diverse part to play. Professionals such as Shankari Raj Edgar and her business partner must carry out the work of the practice whilst also assuming the demanding responsibilities of directorship. Chappell and Willis note that most of the problems encountered when running a practice will have li le to do with architecture .22 Similarly, Michael E. Gerber states that the fatal assumption made by most that start their own business is if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work .23 Clearly, then, a diverse skillset that extends beyond a mere understanding of architecture itself is re uired in order to succeed.

Shankari Raj Edgar explained that she spends far more time on site and on spreadsheets 24 than she does actually designing stu .25 As we further discussed the breadth of her role, she also described the need to manage not only the business but also people Being able to understand your client, listen to them and communicate with them is absolutely critical .26 This conversation reinforces the point that those in a senior position at a practice must delve in to roles far beyond architecture and design. Michael E. Gerber s notion of the entrepreneur, manager and technician27 comes to the fore here he explains that if each of these skills is present in a business, there exists a recipe for success.28 Whilst it can be problematic if all of this responsibility is shouldered by one individual,29 the diversity of expertise at Nudge allows these roles to be shared between Edgar s own diverse skillset and that of the other employees. This business management perspective further justi es Nudge s accommodation of a broad range of disciplines.

Shankari Edgar described the support which Nudge has received as a small start-up from Bristol mayor George Ferguson.30 He was himself a successful practicing architect who has a ested to the broad range of skills architects gain command of by branching out in to a prominent political position. His election by the general public of the city of Bristol31 is indicative of the breadth of roles which architects can successfully take on. Whilst it is not the case that every architect can, or should, embark upon careers in politics, George Ferguson s successful rise to a position of in uence in Bristol shows us that architects should begin to think outside of the box of the construction industry and engage their skills with the world beyond it. Ferguson himself has spoken of bridging the gap 32 between architecture and real city life. Perhaps it is time for architects themselves to heed this advice not only will this bene t their own careers, it has the potential to enrich the discourse of both architecture itself and the sectors with which architects interact.

CONCLUSION The critical exploration of the profession which I have undertaken through this essay has, I believe, revealed much about the changing direction of the profession of architecture. In response to the uestion posed at the beginning of this essay, I believe that the answer is yes the role of the architect in a traditional sense is dying out and we must reconsider our place within the construction industry and as part of society as a whole.

Practices such as Nudge serve as a positive example of one direction in which architecture could move in the future. By accepting a position as consultants working under the direction of developers and project managers, they have been able to broaden their eld of view and incorporate an impressive breadth of expertise in to their practice. In my view, liaising with a broader range of professions, as Nudge does, is essential for the resilience and relevance of architecture in years to come. By enabling itself to take on a greater range of work and opening itself up to a wider range of in uences, the profession will become more agile, host richer dialogue and produce more considered and responsive projects. The role of the architect is certainly changing, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

PROJECT REPORT

COMN3O4

Footnotes 17 -Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

18 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’ P.176.

19 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

20 - Nishit Awan,et Al, ‘Spatial Agency’, P.1 And Title.

21 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

22 - Nishit Awan,et Al, ‘Spatial Agency’, P.51.

23 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn In Architecture School’, P.150.

24 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn In Architecture School’, P.150.

25 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations From The Edge Of Architecture’, P. 79.

26 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

27 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations From The Edge Of Architecture’, P. 73-84.

28 - Nishit Awan,et Al, ‘Spatial Agency’, P.51.

29 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’, P.164.

30 - Nudge Group, ‘Architecture And Digital Media Consultancy Services, Bristol’, By Nudge Group, (Nudge Group, 2015) <http://www.nudgegroup.com> [Accessed 6th May 2015].

31 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

32 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Co

PG. 22

Fell

ESSAY ESSAY

PROFFESIONALISM AND ETHICS

PG. 23

PROJECT REPORT

PROFESSIONALISM/ETHICS WITHIN THE PRACTICE

THOMAS WAKELAM

‘The code should be central to the life of an architect, not only as a source of ethical guidance but also as a common sense indicator to the principles of good practice.’1

What does it means to be and ethical 'architect' when the professional roles and responsibilities of the architect in society are changing?

As architects continue to push the boundaries of the profession, is the ARB code of professional conduct in danger of behind left behind?

INTRODUCTION As we established in part 1, it is clear that architects are part of a mutual enterprise and they have responsibilities to other participating agencies.

Deciding where those responsibilities lie professionally and/or ethically is the line architects have to toe.

For practising architects in the U the ARB code republished in 1999 as the Architects code outlines Standards of Conduct and Practice to aid the decision.

‘The code should be central to the life of an architect, not only as a source of ethical guidance but also as a common sense indicator to the principles of good practice. 1 The code is obviously there to help but professional practice and ethical behaviour can never be understood in truly idealist terms and there seems to be a growing sense of danger in a rigid set of ways of doing, particularly if what architects are doing is changing. For theorist Jeremy Till, we lack the professional vocabulary for new roles and responsibilities and he encourages exposing and challenging the professional standards and ethical guides that e ect how we make sense of and respond to a changing profession. It is in his musings that this study nds its critical context.2

Looking at the professional conduct and the ethical position of Nudge Group and founder/architect Shankari Raj Edgar, the essay explores how the practice satis es, falls short, or exceeds the standards of the code and what that means. It uses Nudge s position at the edge of architecture to understand that ethical behaviour doesn t always coincide with professional propriety. The essay a empts to break down the tacit dialectic between professionalism and ethics and how it can be brought in to the foreground of creative conscious.

A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE Again, as we established in part 1 and the introduction, it is clear that architects are part of a mutual enterprise and they have certain responsibilities to other participating agencies. Section one/standard ve of the Architects/ARB Code particularly recognises the roles and responsibilities of the professional architect in society.

‘Whilst architects primary responsibility is to their clients , they should nevertheless have due regard to their wider responsibility to conserve and enhance the quality of the environment and its natural resources. 3

Footnotes 01 - Architects Registation Board, ‘Home | Architects Registration Board, UK’, by ARB, ARB, 2014 <http://www.arb.org.uk> [Accessed 6th May 2015].

02 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009), p.179-186.

03 - Sarah Lupton, ed. ‘Architects Job Book’, 6th edn, (UK: RIBA Enterprises, 2002), p .21.

Fig.01,02 - The Engine Shed

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PG. 24

WAKELAM

PHOTO

CODE .....

Fig. 01

PHOTO

HIM , HIM NOT HER

Fig. 02

PROFFESIONALISM AND ETHICS

PG. 25

On the one hand, Nudge group address the professional responsibilities to clients. The range of consultants that we work with enables us to be mobile enough to create uni ue solutions to restraints in development with the aim of saving our clients money in delivery and occupation. 4 But on the other, they have a real drive to create social value, which we could assign to an ethical position. For Nudge wider responsibility is raised above its secondary status. Bound up in the shi ing and uni ue movements of the people whose political and phenomenal lives will be a ected by the construction, it implicates the idea of being-for the other. 5 In projects like the Engine Shed, an incubator for small start up businesses, social responsibilities and long terms conse uences became the prime driver of the project. In addition to o ering help and support for business to grow ensuring that furniture was locally and responsibly sourced, under the pretence that for every 1 spent, 2 returns back into the economy also establishes an ethical position.

Already we are seeing two spheres or two trajectories crudely put - clients and professional conduct vs. ethics and wider responsibly in the other , which are held in tension by the architect conscious. But for Edgar, her vision for Nudge is shared by all the clients she s worked with, stating I m really lucky, clients come to me for a look, for a feel and for an ethos. 6 Here, it seems the professional responsibilities of the architect are re-examined with this new network of professional practice, encoded with cultural values rather than the economic values of the contemporary world. The architect and the client are serving an ethos as much the architect is providing a service for the client. Of course, sharing values does not exactly turn the bind between clients and wider responsibilities on its head but Nudge s part in a network of likeminded agencies poses interesting uestions about the limits of the code.

BUILDING OR BUILDING

While Edgar also claims clients can still muddy the water 7 and time and money are always going to be stumbling blocks, the model appears to expedite the negotiation between the reality of immediate demands and the long-term vision. If Nevertheless addresses the historical distance between professional propriety or ethical behaviour client vs. architects vision , in many ways Nudge and the network they belong to avoid the necessity to choose a side. At the very least, there seems to be less tension between the values and priorities a ached to the professional codes and those implicit in social ethics.8

For Edgar, undertaking work that adds social value is a prime driver for Nudge, but they have moved away from a traditional architectural delivery to ful l their vision and goals .9 Whereas Cedric Price would say the answer may not be a building 10, there's an objective to make something but that something might not be so physical, they value branding, signage, marketing and even digital media, see part 1 and 5 .

Edgar s urge to distance the practice from a traditional delivery of architecture as a building or the spirit of building , despite being an architect, is interesting. Refurbishments and temporary installations are the spatial currency of their architectural service , so there are some issues they are avoiding and some of the roles and responsibilities of the profession. It might be evasive but I don t think it is about relieving responsibility. Besides carving out a niche, their shared and social enterprise suggests it hinges on the presumption that the privileged perspective of an architect separates him/her from reality or is a removed gure of authority.11 Awan, Schneider, and Till suggest the standard histories of architecture focuses on the guiding of the individual architect, and in this excludes the multiple voices and actions of others .12 For Nudge who talks about the importance of being a collaborative and being able to relate to diverse groups of users and to really understand their needs, it isn t strange to think they might be troubled by the title architect with its unwelcome associations of detachment and expert authorship.13 Awan, Schneider and Till support Nudge s collaborative approach outside of the academy and profession, even if opening spatial agency up as a shared and more casual enterprise breaks from certain professional standards.14 For Till in his book Architecture Depends, its the idea of service to, and responsibility for, something beyond the autonomous walls of the profession that should be the irreducible core of an ethics of architecture. 15

PROJECT REPORT

Footnotes 04 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn in Architecture School’, (Newcastle upon Tyne: RIBA Publishing, 2014), p.149.

05 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’, p.179-186.

06 -Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation] (Personal communication 4th February 2015).

07 -Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation].

08 -Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’, p.182.

09 -Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn in Architecture School’, p.149.

10 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn in Architecture School’, p.76.

11 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations 12 -from the Edge of Architecture’, (London: Routledge, 2012) p.77.

13 - Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, ‘Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture’ (London: Routledge, 2011), p.28.

14 - Nishit Awan,et al, ‘Spatial Agency’, p.26-52.

15 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’ p.171-187.

16 - Sarah Lupton, ed. ‘Architects Handbook of Practice Management’, 7th edn, (London: RIBA Publications, 2001) p.21.

Fig.03 Nudge’s small Design Team

Downplaying professional standards seems to pit them against the code but there is a certain level of professional decorum in what Nudge do that complies with standard Architects should pay due regards to the interests to anyone who may reasonably be expected to use or enjoy the products of their own work. 1

PHOTO OF NUDGE MAYBE ?

Fig. 03

PROFFESIONALISM AND ETHICS

PG. 27

In this circumstance, the 'product' isn't a concrete, 'piece of something' in the way a building might be but it is o en a brand or vision that still deals with social or environmental exigencies. In particular, product(s) in the Engine Shed project, such as the development of material speci cation, furniture design, lighting layout, vision and design, are all reactions to what the people using the space wanted or needed. Speaking with Edgar, the task was to actually build a 'brand' and not a building.

IS SCALE AN ARBITRARY LIMIT ?

"They needed a brand which was the Engine Shed. As a name, as a concept, as a brand, the logo, the icons, we took it all the way through to what it looks like. It was about branding a space and creating something uite di erent. 17 On one hand the brand is obviously a static and marketable visual product but on another it is potentially the rei cation of Edgar s ethical position in aesthetic form.18 Although commodi cation is much maligned in architectural circles, it seems building a brand is an agile means to an end that promotes social value. The primary driver is still creating empowering spatial, and social relationships, Edgar states, it s about adding social value to peoples lives ... and the joy for me is creating beautiful spaces.

That is fundamental."19 Again, it taps in to Till s idea of service to and responsibility for , that other ways of doing architecture'20 or operating at the edge of architecture can put you in a be er position to make ethical decisions.

It is easy to get wrapped up in the glamour of these new empowering products, particularly the idea of brand , but I think Nudge also expose some of the ethical and professional traps of looking from the outside-in. Edgar claims adding social value to peoples lives ... is creating beautiful spaces, 21 however this casual link she draws between aesthetics and ethics doesn t sit well with Awan, Schneider and Till who think too o en ethics is associated with aesthetics, as if a beautiful thing will lead to a beautiful life. 22 Potentially there is a real danger that Edgar toying with the idea beauty=social value undersells, or even undermines the goals and vision of the group. It could be considered unprofessional or even unethical.

PROJECT REPORT

For Nudge part of what make them unique and what allows them to add social value is the exibility of being smaller and being a collective, that is able to take on board the appropriate additional individuals on a project-by-project basis.23 Edgar claims that the practice doesn t plan to grow, which suggests they are invested in the necessity and the potentials of a smaller scale.

Scale is interesting because it obviously deals with pragmatic concerns like money and time bigger more money and more time , but the decision to operate at a certain scale can be ethical. For Edgar, scale isn't just an arbitrary limit. The decision to deal with a certain size and type of project is motivated by a certain ethical position.

Footnotes We don t have an interest in jobs that have no social value associated with them, and my fear is that if you grow to much then you ll end up having to take on work that doesn t match your values just to keep your turnover. 24 The small team and small projects like the Engine Shed, Ovo Energy, or Temple Studios all explore the range and size of a brief in a similar way to architect Mel Dodd's socially engaged art-architecture collective MUF . Dodd claims scale seems to play an important part in the ability to operate in di erent modes and to promote a social agenda, which is perhaps much more di cult when you re working on a big building with lots of capital and the sorts of obligations that come with it 25 For Muf and Nudge, there is a real sense that they want to deliver their goals and vision, and having a small and likeminded team allows them to do it, and to be socially and ethically relevant.

17 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

18 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’ P.176.

19 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

20 - Nishit Awan,et Al, ‘Spatial Agency’, P.1 And Title.

21 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

22 - Nishit Awan,et Al, ‘Spatial Agency’, P.51.

23 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn In Architecture School’, P.150.

24 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn In Architecture School’, P.150.

25 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations From The Edge Of Architecture’, P. 79.

26 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

27 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations From The Edge Of Architecture’, P. 73-84.

28 - Nishit Awan,et Al, ‘Spatial Agency’, P.51.

29 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’, P.164.

30 - Nudge Group, ‘Architecture And Digital Media Consultancy Services, Bristol’, By Nudge Group, (Nudge Group, 2015) <http://www.nudgegroup.com> [Accessed 6th May 2015].

31 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

32 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations From The Edge Of Architecture’, P. 79 Fig.03 - ‘Building’ a Brand

COMN3O4

PG. 28

WA ELAM

PHOTO OF NUDGE MAYBE ?

Fig. 03

Part of sharing values and having a small team, it seems trust is important, particularly for Edgar see T/B/E/E myth in part one . I think the technician has just as much value as I do as the person who takes up the business management role. 26 It feels like Nudge also embraces Dodd s ideas of shared enterprise, something she refers to as mutual knowledge 27. To her, it is the idea that being a collective means abandoning the hierarchies embedded in most professional relationships and instead welcoming input from everyone in the spirit of shared enterprise.28 E ually For Till, it means that variables and even con icts become the crucible for exchange between a mix of professionals, amateurs, dreamers and pragmatists. 29 Though there s always a danger that Edgar slips into an autonomous or detached role that isn t ethically sustainable as head honcho30 of a small practice, for her although you are collaborative, you have to have all the strings to your bow 31 The size and mobility of the practice throws open the doors of the practice to people outside the profession in Dodd s spirit of shared enterprise .

CONCLUSION In response to the uestion posed at the beginning of the essay, I believe the answer is yes, it feels like the

role and responsibilities are changing and the standards of the code and perceptions of what architects do has failed to adapt. E ually, there is no doubt the code and the standards of professional conduct are principles of good practice but there is an element of inertia and passivity in the pursuit of a standard that sits uncomfortably with the capricious waving of professional conduct and ethical behaviour.

Nudge Group s model of practice exposes and challenges some of the ethical paucity of standards and is proof that dealing with parts of the edge of architecture can potentially put you in a be er position to make ethcial decisions. Where the code taps in to the idea Architecture is in a bind between wanting to be socially, politically and culturally relevant, and being totally strung up by the need to deliver outcomes within standard forms of capitalist funding. And you are either one side or the other, 32 Nudge have a model of practice that seems to allow them to be both. Whether downplaying the traditional responsibilities of the profession is ethically sustainable for them is unclear but I support the new wave of practice they represent. In the meantime, I believe the ethical and professional architect increasingly needs to put themselves in a position outside the profession looking-in to make sense of and respond to a changing profession from the inside-out.

T PES OF PROJECT

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PROJECT REPORT

both constructed to facilitate the daily activities of the duties needed to be undertaken within their eld, therefore playing a crucial role in managing potential risks. However, within Nudge Group, a practice with a multi-disciplinary approach that opposes traditional working manners, the programmes appear fundamentally di erent to one another, with founder and architect Shankari Raj Edgar suggesting that a design programme in a collaborative practice, o ers exible roles therefore di ering from the regimented structure in a traditional project programme and current construction programme which is in the control of the contractor. She wishes to eventually treat all employers with e ual capability, therefore enabling anyone to contribute to all stages of the design programme3 unlike the traditional approach.

However, the way the traditional programmes and particularly the construction programme functions as based on a series of strict detailed activities, speci cations, and drawings, proposes a more responsible way of managing the projects risk, as deviating from the traditional programme would have serious cost implications. 4 This suggests that reinventing the formation of a design programme to sway from the traditional structure as advised may cause some projects to become problematic.

However, in the situation of the Engine Shed project, whose clients were the two professional bodies of the Bristol City Council and local enterprise Set S uared founded by the University of Bristol, this may have been the opportunity Nudge needed to oppose the traditional structure of programmes, in order to channel the many varying client opinions into one design, therefore allowing the document to still maintain its original purpose of se ng out particular milestones and fram ing the risks created for each party 5 in the most applicable and constructive way possible that bene ts all participants of the process.

Footnotes

T PES OF PROJECT - PROJECTS UNDERTA EN BRIEF, FEES , COST , PROGRAMME

ANNABEL FIELD

Are briefs and project programmes becoming less restricted to the traditional structure of an architectural practice and h has no critical approach et been established regarding fees?

INTRODUCTION With an agenda established that encompasses the ambitions and conditions of the architectural practice as the prime driver to a ract commissions, a brief can now be realised that they are best e uipped to tackle, and a project programme including fee discussion established. Professionals across the U are steadily adapting traditional structures of practice to suit current conditions but to what extent is the architect capable of this regarding the project programme, brief and fees Using knowledge ac uired in an interview with Shankari Raj Edgar, the founder of Nudge Group, and the Engine Shed project in Bristol completed by them for the Bristol City Council and local enterprise Set S uared, the uestion above will be discussed using the learning outcomes of the COMN304 module, the RIBA 2013 Plan of Work, and alternative approaches considered by educators and architects Nishit Awan, Tatjana Schneider, and Jeremy Till, and dialogues occurring in current a airs.

IS THE PROJECT PROGRAMME ADJUSTABLE OR FI ED +LO.1 +LO. Since the shi to the RIBA Plan of Work in 2013, project programmes are now considered even more valuable and an essential instrument to be used within practice. As seen in gure 1, the 2013 Plan of Work suggests that the project programme should be prominent and continually referred to throughout stages 1 to , comprising of the se uence of signi cant activities, their durations and interrelationship re uired to plan, design or construct a project. 1 It appears that this is the area of the project where teamwork and collaborative thinking are critical in order for the project to progress as it may identify activities that overlap and create risk 2 as several smaller programmes input and take away knowledge from the programme, therefore making it an essential contributor to the projects development.

Feeding into the project programme are the design programme and construction programme which are

01 - Geoff Powell, ‘Construction Contract Preparation and Management: From Concept to Completion’, (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) p.265.

02 - Dale Sinclair, ed. ‘Assembling a Collaborative Project Team’, (UK: RIBA Publishing, 2013) p.86.

03 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation] (Personal communication 4th February 2015).

04 - Rob Imrie, Emma Street, ‘Architectural Design and Regulation’, (UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) p.222.

05 - Dale Sinclair, ‘Assembling a Collaborative Project Team’, p.93.

Fig.01 - RIBA 2013 Plan of work

COMN3O4

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PHOTO

Fig. 01

FIELD

TYPES OF PROJECT

PG. 31

IS THE BRIEF UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE ARCHITECT OR THE CLIENT? +LO.2 +LO.3

ARE CURRENT FEE ARRANGEMENTS FEASIBLE AND HOW CAN RIS S BE MINIMISED +LO.4 +LO.5

Altering the design programme to such an extent, may also be an indicator of the speci c power relationship between the client and the architect 6 that can occur during the process of establishing a brief. This situation, recognised by architect and educator Jeremy Till, is reinforced when Edgar acknowledges the Major of Bristol, Sir George Ferguson as a politically inspirational architect,7 suggesting that she sees him as not only the client of the Engine Shed project but also an enabler for the practices future.

With a project programme established to suit the particular needs of the project in hand and the practices structure, a brief can be constructed which sets out in varying degrees of detail the kind of accommodation re uired, the planning re uirements, and the o en the overall cost 8 that is expected. Edgar acknowledges the centrality of e ective brief-making to her practice model 9 as the RIBA do with the identi cation of three critical phases of the brief process, consisting rstly of a statement of need from the client, followed by a strategic brief, and lastly the project brief.10 It seems that the brief becomes a device that the client has primary control over, with the architect merely o ering suggestion to gratify that brief.

When a practice is approached to o er a design solution, as Nudge Group was by Bristol City Council and Set S uared, the statement of need identi es the objectives of the project, and can range from a broad preliminary statement of interest to a comprehensive set of technical re uirements. 11 From here a strategic brief is complied, becoming the result of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;research and development involving all the consultant team, with additional expertise and advice from commissioned specialists, 12 which in the instance of the Engine Shed project, refers to Nudge s initial collaboration with local practice Childs and Sulzmann Architects, the City Council and Set S uared to create the appropriate vision.13 The project brief then summarises all design re uirements and gets used as a point of reference throughout the project, and as a yardstick by which the completed building is measured. 14 This formal document reduces the risk of misunderstandings later by epitomising the client s proposals and identifying ambiguities. The RIBA emphasise that brief-taking should not be hurried and any temptation to rush in with preconceived ideas and solutions should be rmly resisted .15 This suggests that practices should not move away from the traditional structure of brief making and to only create a brief that responds only to the clients needs rather than their own, which Edgar tussles with when she implies that clients and particular personalities can muddy the water and sometimes a ect the delivery of a vision.16

Within the project brief, costs and fees are discussed with the project programme summarising the funding situation with estimated completion dates for a series of tasks such as the procurement of various design packages. 17 Once the brief is established, advice given at the preliminary stages of a project is most likely to be charged on an hourly basis, however, as a project progresses and full supervision is needed, fees are calculated as a percentage of the construction cost of the building,18 a similar situation that happened to Nudge Group when they took the lead on the Engine Shed project from Childs and Sulzmann Architects and were no longer the secondary practice involved. The RIBA used to exemplify average traditional fee calculations on a scale, suggesting for example, that if construction costs meet 30,000, the percentage taken from this for practice fees should be 6%.19 However, this suggests that an average part one architectural assistant would receive payment that would cover just 10.3 days to complete stages 2 to 5 of the 2013 RIBA Outline Plan of Work, excluding the percentage cost the practice will automatically take from the fee. This implies that this RIBA fee calculation never realistically extended beyond statutory approvals, and now rather than responding with scales that are more appropriate to the current conditions of the profession they have instead dropped them, arguably enforcing another moment as suggested by the Architects Journal where the authority and value of architects and architecture was eroded. 20 This exempli es why the calculation of fees holds such risk, however once established it can be reduced by ensuring â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;that arrangements for paying invoices are clearly set down in the terms of the commission, and by instituting and operating strict administrative procedures for the issuing of invoices and for their prompt payment, 21 which with regard to the Engine Shed project was orchestrated from the beginning with the client being two professional bodies who guarantee security and funding through the use of the Bath and Bristol Inward Investment Service and the Council. With regards to procurement, which consists of the purchasing of products, work and services ,22 Nudge Group operated the Engine Shed project under a design and build contract, which enabled the project to be cheaper and will be further discussed in part four. The client bodies also helped the procurement route to be more instrumental, as instead of going through the normal public sector system, they had a professional body from the council to work with jumping every procurement hurdle to enable the vision 23 and outcome that Edgar wanted successfully and within the strict project budget.

PROJECT REPORT

COMN3O4

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FIELD

they had a professional body from the council to work with‘jumping every procurement hurdle to enable the vision’23

Footnotes 06 - Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, ‘Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture’ (London: Routledge, 2011), p.69.

07 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn in Architecture School’, (Newcastle upon Tyne: RIBA Publishing, 2014), p.149.

08 - Nishat Awan et al, ‘Other Ways of Doing Architecture’, p.69.

09 - Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn in Architecture School’, p.149.

10 - Sarah Lupton, ed. ‘Architects Job Book’, 6th edn, (UK: RIBA Enterprises, 2002), p.63-64.

11 - Sarah Lupton, ‘Architects Job Book’, p.63. 12 - Sarah Lupton, ‘Architects Job Book’, p.63.

13 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation].

14 - Stanley Cox and Alaine Hamilton, eds. ‘Architect’s Handbook of Practice Management’, 6th edn, (UK: RIBA Publications, 1998) p.184.

15 - Stanley Cox and Alaine Hamilton, ‘Architect’s Handbook of Practice Management’, p.184.

16 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation] 17 - Rob Imrie, Emma Street, ‘Architectural Design and Regulation’, p.222.

18 - Alona Martinez Perez, ‘Different forms of architectural praxis: Brief, Fees, Programmes’, 2014, <https://dle.plymouth.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/297636/mod_resource/content/1/Lecture%202.pdf>, [Accessed 27th April 2015].

19 - Adrian Dobson, ‘Fee Calculation, Negotiation and Management for Architects’, by RIBA, RIBA, 2013 <http://www.architecture.com/Files/RIBAProfessionalServices/Regions/NorthWest/Education/Part%2 03/StudyPacks2013/March2013LectureNot es/FeeCalculation,NegotiationandManag ement-AdrianDobson.pdf> [Accessed 28th April 2015].

20 - Kieran Long, ‘Fee Survey Graphs: How RIBA Damaged Architecture’, Architect’s Journal, 2009 <http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/fee-survey-graphs-how-riba-damaged-architect ure/5210440.article> [Accessed 3rd May 2015].

21 - Stanley Cox and Alaine Hamilton, ‘Architect’s Handbook of Practice Management’, p.184.

22 - National Archives, ‘Select a Procurement Route’, by UK Government, National Archives, 2011 <http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118095356/http:/www.cabe.org .uk/files/free-schools-procurement.pd f> [accessed 7 May 2015].

23 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation].

24 - Nishat Awan et al, ‘Other Ways of Doing Architecture’ p.37.

25 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation].

26 - BMA, ‘Pay, Fees and Allowances’, BMA, 2015 <http://bma.org.uk/practical-support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances> [Accessed 5th May 2015].

CONCLUSION: DOES THE PROFESSION VALUE ITSELF? +LO.7 Although Nudge does not entirely ful l Awan, Schneider and Till s understanding of a spatial agency as challenging traditional practice and holding to the idea of be erment but with a more uid set of processes and social conditions ,24 the practice does assimilate to a few of the same motivations, by utilising the project at hand to bene t purposes beyond the project boundaries, for example by Edgar locally sourcing furniture for the Engine Shed project with the assumption that for every pound spent locally there is two pounds that goes back into the local economy. 25 The practice appears to be wise by situating not only projects technically, socially and economically into context, but also itself suitably within the current conditions to enable a viable future of successful agenda related business, which is appealing to someone like myself who is soon to enter the profession.

Although Nudge may have challenged the traditional brief and programme structures to be er their practice and their projects, on a broader scale it appears the profession as a collective does not value itself, with no critical approach to fees discussed unlike other professionals such as doctors who credit their work with o erings of negotiation and guidance available to be er their profession.26 This is a necessary issue that needs to be addressed immediately in architecture in order for our profession to be valued again as much as it used to be.

CONSTRUCTION / CONTRACTS

PG. 33

PROJECT REPORT

CONTRACTUAL FORMAT

Footnotes :

During the construction phase in typical practice - it is usually up to the architect to mediate between builder and client as contract administrator . The contract administrator is the individual responsible for administering the construction contracts. The contract administrator may be the architect, and indeed the JCT Joint Contracts Tribunal standard form of contract describes the role as architect / contract administrator .2 In this case it is up to the architect to approach the client, advising the client of exactly how the contracts should be composed. At this point they will inform the client of the options and the di erent roles undertaken depending on which contract they choose. There are two main types of construction contracts under JCT Joint Contract Tribunal Traditional / Conventional, and Design and Build.

01 - Stanley Cox and Hugh Clamp, ‘Which Contract: Choosing the Appropriate Building Contract’ (London: RIBA Publications, 2003) p.47.

02 - JCT, ‘Deciding on the Appropriate JCT Contract 2011’, JCT Ltd, 2011 <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/docs/Deciding%20on%20the%20appropriate%20JCT%20contract%202011%20Sept%2011%20ve rsion%202.pdf> [Accessed 29th April 2015].

03 - JCT, ‘Traditional/Conventional’, JCT Ltd, 2012 <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/traditional-procurement.aspx> [Accessed 29 April 2015].

04 - JCT, ‘Traditional/Conventional’, JCT Ltd, 2012 <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/traditional-procurement.aspx> [Accessed 29 April 2015]..

CONSTRUCTION/CONTRACTS / ARCHITECT’S ROLES

SAMUEL EVANS

f architectural practices are using contracts to shed liabilit instead of using the as a creati e pla or ha e e set up boundaries that ill inhibit a creati e output?

INTRODUCTION: OUTLINING THE CONTRACT Within the practice of architecture there is grounding in the way architects set up projects. This grounding is founded within the contractual agreement set up in the preliminary stages of the design process, between the contractual administrator usually the architect and the client. The RIBA outline what they consider the criteria of a successful contractual agreement re uires during the book Which Contract .

- Fair dealing for all concerned a team e ort - Wholly related documents, whether for the appointment of consultants, contractors, sub contractors or suppliers - Comprehensible guidance notes - Mechanism to allow allocation of risk control / adjustment - Fair payment provision to agreed procedures and realistic timescale - Fair and rapid resolution of disputes1 This Check List infers that there is a possible adaptation and development in the form of the contract. Through discussion with Shankari Raj Edgar, founder and director of Nudge Group, I will a empt to develop an understanding of how contracts in uence the way architects practice and the increasing pressure to step away from the traditional form of the contractual agreement into new forms of practice.

JCT de ne the di erence of Traditional / Conventional contracts by two main features. Firstly the design process is separate from the construction although JCT contracts provide for design of speci c parts of the works to be carried out by the contractor 3 and secondly full documentation i.e. drawings, work schedules, bills of uantities must be supplied by the client before the contractor can be invited to tender for carrying out the work. 4

Fig.01,02 - The Engine Shed

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EVANS

PHOTO

Fig. 01

PHOTO

Fig. 02

CONSTRUCTION / CONTRACTS

PG. 35

PROJECT REPORT

Traditional contracts are becoming less as the role of architecture is clearly changing and adapting to a contemporary view of construction, for more details see part 5. There are many reasons why practices especially those on a smaller scale are turning to Design and Build contracts. The main di erence between the two is that Design and Build works on the basis that the main contractor is responsible for undertaking both the design and construction work on a project, for an agreed lump-sum price. 5 This inevitably diminishes the role of the architect into a preliminary role that doesn t re uire the architect during the build stage or at the very least greatly reduces their function. The RIBA for example describe this developing role stating that the architect is likely to be no more than a consultant to one of the parties, with no management or executive function during the construction. 6 Theses two contracts act as the majority of contractual agreements and although there are sub categories within both, there seems to be a limitation in this system that limits the creativity of the profession.

This usually involves the architect making regular site visits to inspect and communicate with the contractor in charge of the work. It is obvious that smaller practices, such as Nudge, are beginning to choose Design and Build contracts over traditional ones, and this is because of the nature of the industry turning to one of liability . Many small practices do not have the nancial backing to take on such responsibility. O en companies that choose Traditional / Conventional forms of the contract end up being held liable for damages or delays which can destroy a practice and leave them nancially ruined. This is made even worse when considering that those in charge of partnerships or independently run practices see part 5 for more detail can individually be held liable and be forced to reclaim compensation that can inevitably infringe on their individual lives exterior to the practice, which in many cases can leave individuals bankrupt.

If traditional forms of the contract allow for greater control but larger liability, and design and build contracts o er less liability but at the expense of reduced control over a project then why are new contracts not being created by those in the profession Rory Hyde uestions the profession in a similar way in Future Practice .

Footnotes

POSITIONING THE PRACTICE THROUGH CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENT To explore the way Nudge Group operate in contractual terms it is crucial to identify how they work, which will be explored through the example of the Engine Shed project. The Engine Shed, as mentioned in the introduction, is a semi public project that acts as an incubator for new industrial businesses within Bristol. The architect s role during the construction phase was minimalised by undertaking the project with a design and build contract. Nudge de ne themselves as a practice that focuses on working to budget and time restraints, 7 which indicates that they may be more inclined to o er a design and build contract. The size and ethos of the practice would also gesture towards this as it reduces liability. The Design and Build contract allows the employer control over any design elements of the project that are included in their re uirements 8 but contradictory to that a er the planning stage is complete and the work is handed over to the contractor to tender the employer has no direct control over the contractor s detailed design. 9 This is where the employer loses out on control and advice compared to a traditional contract, where the architect would be in charge of making sure that every detail provided in drawings is adhered to by the contractor.

Although it is primarily up to the contractor to take the design through to completion, it is still up to the architect to monitor the construction through out the building process, and this should not be confused with the contract administrator discussed previously.

The architect remains responsible for checking that the construction conforms to the planning permission and building regulations and all stages are properly completed to a satisfactory standard of workmanship. 10

Discussions of new models of architecture practice inevitably lead to the same complaint: we can t change the way we practice unless we change the contracts. 11

05 - JCT, ‘Design and Build’ JCT ( 2012 ) < http://www.jctltd.co.uk/design-and-build.aspx> [ Accessed: 26th April 2015 ] 06 - Stanley Cox and Alaine Hamilton, eds. ‘Architect’s Handbook of Practice Management’, 6th edn, (UK: RIBA Publications, 1998) p.197.

07 - Nudge Group, ‘Architecture and Digital Media Consultancy Services, Bristol’, by Nudge Group, (Nudge Group, 2015) <http://www.nudgegroup.com> [Accessed 22Nd April 2015].

08 - JCT, ‘Design and Build’ JCT (2012) <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/design-and-build.aspx> [Accessed: 26th April 2015].

09 - JCT, ‘Design and Build’ JCT (2012) <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/design-and-build.aspx> [Accessed: 26th April 2015].

10 - Nudge Group, ‘Architecture and Digital Media Consultancy Services, Bristol’, by Nudge Group, (Nudge Group, 2015) <http://www.nudgegroup.com> [Accessed 23rd April 2015].

11 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture’, (London: Routledge, 2012) p.113.

12 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture’, p.115.

13 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [Conversation] (Personal communication 4th February 2015).

14 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture’, p.115.

15 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture’, p.113.

16 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture’, p.113.

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‘Discussions of new models of architecture practice inevitably lead to the same complaint: we can’t change the way we practice unless we change the contracts.’

- Rory Hyde

03

Time Saved

Construction

02

It seems that Nudge - like many other adaptable practices - are taking the easy approach of relieving themselves of as much liability as possible using Design and Build contracts as the legal framework in the background of a building project seem so embedded in how we are paid, in how we respond to a project brief, that it s become an unassailable barrier. 12 This inevitably comes at the expense of losing control during the construction phase although Shankari Raj Edgar, the founder of Nudge Group describes the practice as one that is de ned by a look which people go to them for. 13 However, this must be di cult to bring through to fruition when there is such a lack of control during the construction phase. These relationships between what the practice want to achieve and what the practice are capable of because of the chosen contract are in constant ux and in the end it comes down to the clarity and drive to produce what they consider ethically correct, as mentioned in part 2.

Detial

CONCLUSION : THE FUTURE OF THE CONTRACT

Drawings

TRADITIONAL CONTRACT

01

Fig. 04

Preliminary

04

Drawings

Construction

BID 02

Detial

Drawings

01

02

Preliminary

Drawings

03

04

Fig. 05

DESIGN AND BUILDCONTRACT

In my opinion there is a di cult decision for small practices, such as Nudge Group to make regarding contracts. When looking to de ning practices in this eld it is obvious that they do not conform to the restrictions that generalised JCT contracts set out.

Instead there is a willingness to adopt new forms of practice, for example, ARM Architects de ne their position on the ma er as crucial to explore the idea that you can treat this conceptual aspect of architecture as something that needs to be designed just as much as the building. 14 As a part one student, looking to the future of the profession and the way that I want to practice, it is important to re-evaluate the way we see contracts . I believe that they should no longer be looked at as a device which in current scenarios appears to be a complex interlocking puzzle of risk avoidance and liability 15 and instead become a tool in the process of construction, designed to assist in the production of the project.16 There is de nitely a current view of contracts as dry administrative work that is useful and unimportant in the design process, but this could easily be reversed if we had the same approach to contracts as we do the design of a project.

PRACTICE STRUCTURES AND DESIGN TEAMS

PG. 37

PRACTICE STRUCTURES AND DESIGN TEAMS- ANAL SIS HOW DOES THIS PRACTICE DIFFER FROM TRADITIONAL PRACTICE

PROJECT REPORT

Footnotes: 01 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation] (Personal Communication 4th February 2015).

02 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

03 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

04 - Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider And Jeremy Till, ‘Spatial Agency: Other Ways Of Doing Architecture’ (London: Routledge, 2011), P.78.

05 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation].

06- Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview With Nudge Group. [Conversation]..

IEUAN EVANS

Fig.01 , Nudge Team

“ In terms of traditional practice, I think that archi1 tecture is changing. Dramatically! ”

Architecture is changing. In fact, the very rst of these ve essays essentially arrived at this conclusion when it stated that the role of the architect is changing .

The following essays, which reinforced this concept, explored how this, now progressive, role of the architect has also begun to break down the restrictions surrounding fee s and contract law whilst simultaneously toeing, or falling short of, an endemic line of ethical responsibility. Now, in the nal essay, we will use our investigation into Shakari Raj Edgar s NUDGE Group and their Engine Shed project to formulate a conclusion that poses uestions surrounding the relevance of these points with regard to practice structure and its evolution from traditional practice.

In essence, all of the previous discussions point towards one undeniable and repetitive fact.

Architecture is changing. Constantly adapting itself to higher standards and lower costs, architecture is also confronting much broader issues and taking on ever greater social, ethical and political responsibility.

Thus, the ubi uity of architecture is on the rise.

Shankari Edgar also complies with this notion during our interview she proclaims that we architects can look at transport and look at public space. We can look at buildings and their interiors. We can look at all 2 of those things and think about all of them at once. .

She goes on to explain how this characteristic now separates architects from the status uo, surmising that we have the ability to do more than just buildings. For our generation, I think that is where professional practice di ers, we have to put a political 3 spin on things as well. . Her energy and excitement surrounding this level responsibility is extremely self-evident. It appears that if the role of the architect is gaining more autonomy, this architect will relish in shouldering its authority, and certainly Nudge Group prides itself on its capacity to ful l more than the contracted re uirement of a building .

To elaborate this point we must rst understand that The key political responsibility of the architect lies not in the re nement of the building as a static visual commodity, but as a contributor to the creation of empowering spatial, and hence social relationships in 4 the name of others. . Following this we may now uestion how successful our example, Engine Shed, is in facilitating these relationships.

Shankari Edgar is explicit in iterating her desire to produce projects that bear social value5 and o en remarks how the Engine Shed project can be cited as a prime example of this agenda. In describing how she went about designing the Engine Shed, she informs us that With this situation they needed something iconic, they needed a brand. We needed to take the name as concept from start to nish, as a brand and a logo, the icon. 6 and it seems that generally speaking, she was correct. The Engine Shed, whether you see it as stylish, crude or just a li le too orange, it o ers an image, a brand . For the start up s who are incubating within the engine shed project, this building pushes them into the corporate limelight under a banner that screams look at me , and for that reason, is undoubtedly successful.

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EVANS

SHANKARI RAJ EDGAR FOUNDER / ARCHITECT

AISLING MUSTAN

SID SHARMA

DAMIEN DOHERTY

MARKETING / COPYWRITING

NEW BUSINESS

DESIGN / DIGITAL MEDIA

Fig. 01

PRACTICE STRUCTURES AND DESIGN TEAMS

PG. 39

For NUDGE Group this ‘building of brands’ is something that seems to underpin not only the Engine Shed project but much of their recent success and indicates how this practice seeks to separate itself from the restrictions of tradition. Shankari 7 constantly refers to a project for ‘OVO Energies’ , a scheme for a national energy company which is now de ned by the brand born from her design of their Bristol o ces. It appears that this branding is a hallmark that escapes the remit of traditional practice and pushes NUDGE group rmly into the contemporary world.

How she describes NUDGE is almost like a collaborative enterprise. She says What we do is uite malleable, it ts into lots of di erent areas, we are uite di erent in that way. 8 and although she is clearly ‘the boss’, generally this appears to be true.

NUDGE who also o ers services as a media consultancy employ 4 sta that include a mixture of designers such as a magazine editor and web designer, all of whom are involved at various stages within the design process. This fusion of media and architecture is, put simply, cool undeniably perverse for the traditionalist, but an otherwise venerable advancement in contemporary architecture.

The relevance of this point is highlighted in a book recommended to us by Shankari, named 21 Things ou Don t Learn in Architecture School . In this publication Shakari poses the uestion Should you be prepared to relinquish some control or should you lead everything from beginning to end Its really a di cult dilemma. 10. Our collective subscribes to a very humanitarian position, best de ned by Jeremy Till’s claim that the architect should act as the ‘open minded listener and eet footed interpreter, collaborating in the realization of other peoples unpolished visions 11, an easily agreeable and moral disposition. For Shakari Raj Edgar and the structure of her practice this dilemma appears to be ongoing. For us, it appeared that so long as she retains control, she does not fear sharing her responsibilities with the creatives that she employs. She even admits that her practice could not function without every member of her team and that she believes the technician to be just as important as herself12. However whilst she remarks on this fact and her intention to one day reward the ‘right technicians’ by turning NUDGE into 13 a co-operative . Whether she intends to make good on these claims is yet to be seen. Ultimately, NUDGE is still her practice and it is clear that the last word, is hers.

Using NUDGE Group as representative of the advancements undertaken in contemporary architectural practice what we can now presume, is that in a generation of multimedia inspired, politically active, architectural practitioners, the architect appears to be gaining an unmanageable uantity of responsibility. Somewhat ironically then, it appears that architectural practices such as this one are, as a result, becoming more inclusive.

In a new age of interdisciplinary architecture the proverbial building is bursting at the seams, architecture is spilling out of its four walls into a street full of creatives that represent all walks of life.

Nudge, it seems, may be tomorrow’s architecture, today.

Liam Young, lecturer at the AA school of architecture is commi ed to the advancement of architecture from traditional practice and provides no be er perspective on this subject. Interviewed in a book titled Future Practice, he discusses how the introduction of new mediums and design approaches can be seen as essential to the advancement of architectural practice. . .

I do believe these changes force us to rethink what the very core of our profession is. There will always be physical objects and spaces that need some architect-like character to engage with it, but this zone of operation will become increasingly narrow. To continue to de ne our work within this part of the spectrum will just lead to us being further marginalised, irrelevant and ine ective . . . We are interested in the idea of the architect as so ware engineer, as infrastructuralist, as media strategist, as some sort of trans-media guru – all of these forms are not departures away from the profession but are about expanding what we think of as being the profession. They expand the umbrella of what we do as architects, as opposed to moving outside architecture in order to engage those aspects of the world.’9.

For oung, this forward thinking architecture identi es the inclusion of new mediums in architectural practice as a defence against the extinction of the role of the architect. It may be more prudent to advertise this development here as the evolution of architectural practice. When we now consider the evolution of architecture, alongside the structure of the Nudge group we should therefore not envision just the lone gure of the architect, Shankari Raj Edgar, but the aptly named NUDGE Group, a practice that absorbs all facets of design, from the genesis of their projects, to their realisation and one day, their inevitable obsolescence. This said, she does remain ‘the architect’, singular and dominant, and this a fact she is very much aware of. It is a fact that even nds her swinging procariously between impressive and arrogant during our interview.

PROJECT REPORT

Footnotes 07 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [ConversatioN].

08 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group. [ConversatioN].

09 - Rory Hyde, ‘Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture’, (London: Routledge, 2012) p.228.

10 -Adrian Dobson, ’21 Things You Won’t Learn in Architecture School’, (Newcastle upon Tyne: RIBA Publishing, 2014), p.150.

11 - Jeremy Till, ‘Architecture Depends’, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009), p.164.

12 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group [Conversation].

13 - Shankari Raj Edgar, Interview with Nudge Group [Conversation].

Fig.02,03 - The Engine Shed

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Fig. 03

03 BIBLIOGRAPHY +NOTES

References & Notes

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PROFFESIONAL PRACTICE

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BIBLOGRAPHY 01 - Architects Registation Board, ‘Architects Registration Board, UK’, Available at: <http://www.arb.org.uk> [Accessed 6th May 2015].

02 - Awan, N, Schneider, T, and Till, J. ‘Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture’, (London: Routledge, 2011).

03 - BMA, ‘Pay, Fees and Allowances’, Available at: <http://bma.org.uk/practical-support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances> [Accessed 5th May 2015].

04 - Chappell, D and Willis, A. ‘The Architect in Practice 10th Edition’, (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).

05 - Cox S and Hamilton A. ‘Architect’s Handbook of Practice Management’, 6th edn, (UK: RIBA Publications, 1998).

06 - Cox, S and Clamp H. ‘Which Contract: Choosing the Appropriate Building Contract’, (London: RIBA Publications, 2003) 07 - Dobson, A. ‘Fee Calculation, Negotiation and Management for Architects’, Available at: <http://www.architecture.com/Files/RIBAProfessionalServices/Regions/NorthWest/Education/Part%203/St udyPacks2013/March2013LectureNotes/FeeCalc ulation,NegotiationandManagement-AdrianDob son.pdf> [Accessed 28th April 2015].

08 - Dobson, A. ‘21 Things You Won’t Learn in Architecture School’, (London: RIBA Publishing, 2014).

09 - Ferguson, G. ‘Lecture to Plymouth Architecture and Design Society’.

Plymouth University. January 2015.

10 - Gerber, M, E. ‘The E-Myth Revisited’, (New York: Harper Collins, 2001).

11 - Hyde, R. ‘Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture’, (London: Routledge, 2012).

12 - Imrie, R and Street, E. ‘Architectural Design and Regulation’, (UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).

13 - JCT, ‘Deciding on the Appropriate JCT Contract 2011’, Available at: <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/docs/Deciding%20on%20the%20appropriate%20JCT%20contract%202011%20Sept%2011%2 0version%202.pdf> [Accessed 29th April 2015].

14 - JCT, ‘Traditional/Conventional’, Available at: <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/traditional-procurement.aspx> [Accessed 29th April 2015].

15 - JCT, ‘Design and Build’, Available at: <http://www.jctltd.co.uk/design-and-build.aspx> [Accessed: 26th April 2015].

16 - Long, K. ‘Fee Survey Graphs: How RIBA Damaged Architecture’, Available at: <http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/fee-survey-graphs-how-riba-damaged-architecture/ 5210440.article> [Accessed 3rd May 2015].

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Image Fig. 01 -George Ferguson being a boss in the Engine Shed

17 - Lupton, S. ‘Architects Job Book’, 6th edn, (UK: RIBA Enterprises, 2002).

18 - Lupton, S. ‘Architects Handbook of Practice Management’, 7th edn, (London: RIBA Publications, 2001).

19 - Martinez Perez, A. ‘Different forms of architectural praxis: Brief, Fees, Programmes’ Available at: <https://dle.plymouth.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/297636/mod_resource/content/1/Lecture%202.pdf> [Accessed 27th April 2015].

20 - National Archives. ‘Select a Procurement Route’, Available at: <http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118095356/http:/www.cabe.org.uk/f iles/free-schools-procurement.pdf> [accessed 7 May 2015].

21 - Nudge Group, ‘Services’, Available at: <http://www.nudgegroup.com> [Accessed 22nd April 2015].

22 - Oxford Dictionaries, ‘Definition of Architect’, Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/architect [Accessed 3rd May 2015].

23 - Powell, G. ‘Construction Contract Preparation and Management: From Concept to Completion’, (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

24 - Raj Edgar, S. ‘Interview with Nudge Group’, [Conversation].

25 - RIBA, ‘Explaining an Architect’s Services’, Available at: <http://www.architecture.com/files/ribaprofessionalservices/professionalconduct/disputeresolution/p racticalmatters/explainingservices.pdf> [Accessed 1st May 2015].

26 - RIBA, ‘Working with an architect for your home’, Available at: <http://www.architecture.com/FindAnArchitect/Assets/Documents/Workingwithanarchitectforyourhome.pd f> [Accessed 27th April 2015].

27 - Sinclair, D. ‘Assembling a Collaborative Project Team’, (UK: RIBA Publishing, 2013).

28 - This is Bristol, ‘Bristol mayor George Ferguson sworn in and scrapping Sunday parking charges’, Available at: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-Mayor-George-Ferguson-sworn-scrapping/story-17363216-detail/ story.html [Accessed: 4th May 2015].

29 - Till, J. ‘Architecture Depends’, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009).

ITS TIME FOR US ALL TO BE UTOPIANS.

...MAYBE

As a group, we have chosen to structure this report around a single case study of a particular project undertaken by a particular practice. We chose to explore a practice which is not operating in a traditional manner, therefore allowing ourselves to compare and contrast alternative modes of practice with the more traditional perception of the work of architects. Having investigated a number of practices in the South West, we eventually chose to focus upon a relatively young partnership in Bristol called Nudge Group.

Nudge was founded by architect Shankari Raj Edgar, who also acts as the company’s director. The practice operates as a partnership, and employs a total of just four staff. Unusually for an architecture practice, their work extends beyond the construction industry as they have the means to accept commissions in business management, graphic design, web design and marketing, as well as architecture and interior design.

As a group, we have chosen to structure this report around a single case study of a particular project undertaken by a particular practice. We chose to explore a practice which is not operating in a traditional manner, therefore allowing ourselves to compare and contrast alternative modes of practice with the more traditional perception of the work of architects. Having investigated a number of practices in the South West, we eventually chose to focus upon a relatively young partnership in Bristol called Nudge Group.

We have chosen to orientate our report around one of Nudge’s projects; the renovation and fit-out of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Engine Shed at Bristol Temple Meads station.

Nudge worked in collaboration with Bristol City Council, another architecture practice and the small business incubator SETsquared to create mixed-use office space for start-up businesses inside the disused listed building. 1,2 The intention of this report is to investigate how, across five facets of professional practice, the alternative approach and diverse skillset which Nudge Group employ have impacted upon their projects when compared with traditional architectural practice.

The first chapter of the report explores the role of the architect, questioning whether the alternative approach and cross-professional dialogue adopted by practices such as Nudge signals a new direction for the profession of architecture. The discussion then moves on to the question of ethics and professionalism in chapter two, outlining the ways in which the profession wishes to view itself from an ethical standpoint and asking whether alternative modes of practice, such as that exhibited by Nudge Group, conform to the ethical and professional standards of the industry. Chapter three explores briefs, fees, costs and programming, seeking to understand how businesses such as Nudge may fit their alternative way of working in to a framework designed with traditional architectural practice in mind. The fourth section of the report aims to understand contracts and construction within the industry and in doing so seeks to establish what type of contracts would be most suited to the unusual nature of the work undertaken by Nudge. The final chapter in the report will explore practice structures and designs teams, underscoring the ways in which Nudge’s work differs from traditional architectural practice.