On 3rd February I was invited to attend the launch of the BRE flood resilient house by Dragonboard, one of the sponsers of the project who provided their boards as a resilient solution to plasterboard.
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Well the relaunch of NMW Design is now 3 months old and progressing far better than could have been imagined with great commissions in the North West, Northumberland, London and SwindonThis week this development site for a private client was unanimously approved 12-0 when presented to the planning committee. The scheme was warmly received and praised by council members stated that they looked forward to seeing the site redeveloped and enhancing the area. The site comprises 4 dwellings, two large detached houses and a pair of room in the roof in the roof town houses. The houses will be traditionally built to a high specification and will offer a superb level of accommodation. This week I watched a documentary called '1983 - The Brink of Apocalypse'.
This was an era of heightened tension in the Cold War, where it was probably at its highest state since the Cuban Missile Crisis of the 1960's. A NATO war game was being interpreted by the Soviets as the start of a nuclear strike by the US against them. Fortunately history shows that common sense prevailed as we are still here, yet at the time we were oblivious to how close we came to a nuclear holocaust. This was also the year after the Falklands War, the miners strike was looming and tensions were high in the Middle East between Iran and Iraq. History now shows that the world was a very unstable place. Conversely, we were entering an era where we hit a rich vein of music, feel good movies, cool cars and in general when looking back a very happy era, completely at odds to the supposed instability with the world at large. After this 1983 incident the Americans and Russians moved closer and started to talk to each other. This eventually resulted in the fall of communism and the Berlin Wall. At the time I remember watching thinking what a historic event, how the world was changing for the better. We then entered the 1990's, music started to deteriorate, cars became more advanced but boring and tensions erupted in the Gulf resulting in the Gulf War. Suddenly the world seemed very unstable, attacks on US Ships and an attack on the World Trade Centre. The new millenium gave everyone hope that we would be entering a new more positive era. We had hardly entered the new decade when the World Tarde Centre was attacked in the worst ever peace time atrocity. I often look at YouTube and when playing 80's music, everyone comments that they want to return to this spectacular decade. It wasn't perfect, far from it. It was a time of distinctive cars, every manufacturers looked different, music was arguably the best ever and whilst a secret cold war was being carried out by spy's, as a member of the public you knew who the enemy was. If you are negligent in your job to the point that you are forced to leave your position, you would be lucky to leave with a months salary.
Why then is Bob Diamond being paid £2m, the minimum they apparently can pay him including pension contributions which amounts to a years salary. Why a years salary, why not a months? Have the financial industry not learned any morals since the banking crisis. This guy should leave with a months salary as a maximum. The bank has just paid millions in fines because of their behaviour under his leadership and this guy is effectively being rewarded. He is being paid lottery money as a send off on top of the millions he has earned during the financial crisis. We are being led to believe that this is a slap on the wrist to this guy yet to the normal man on the street this is life changing money. The banking industry needs a massive overhaul, not just here but worldwide. The pay structure even makes premier league footballers look poorly paid - and at least they entertain people most of the time and have a relatively short career. While these huge amounts of money are paid to these immoral individuals, the banking industry is going to be scarred for many years. Because of their bad management and risk taking I lost a job I loved and worked hard to get. The last 4 years have been a huge stressful struggle. I would like to think I did a very good job as did my colleagues, did we leave with a life changing amount of money - yes we did, it put us in poverty, not the super rich category, and we did nothing wrong. This week we have received two planning permissions, surveyed a new commission, and progressed other jobs that are in progress.
In addition we have also had expressions of interest for future work from a number of previous satisfied clients which is very reassuring. Hopefully this is the sign of a recovering market rather than a small positive blip. Just received some new business cards that I have ordered from a well known online company.
Got a good deal on them, but have been reminded today that my uncle has a printing business and could have done them for me. In the heat of sorting them I forgot all about his business. Whoops!!! The house is a 3 bedroom detached, but the client required an additional bedroom.
By providing a single storey extension down the side of the house, we have created a 4th bedroom with an en suite shower room, and a utility to the rear. The house now becomes a 4 bedroom property with two en suite bathrooms, and the addition of the utility room frees up more usable space in the kitchen. Today I came across a competitors website that offers residential clients a design service that they quote is cheap and value for money.
They state that they offer a cheaper service by not needing to do a site survey, yet the quoted fees are generally more costly than what NMW Design and other similar company's charge and include a site survey. I do not see how a set of Building Regulation drawings can be produced without undertaking a site survey to get an understanding of the building. Most architects and designers take numerous measurements using expensive state of the art laser disto's, and this is done for a reason, to produce as accurate a plan as possible. They state that they can produce a set of plans in a week based on a minimum of 4 photographs and a sketch produced by the client with 'approx' dimensions marked on it. This appears to be an irresponsible way to producing architectural designs by appearing to automate the process rather than communicating and interacting with your client. I am a Liverpool fan and today I am sad that Kenny Dalglish has been sacked by the American owners.
In many ways we had a bad season, losing many matches we should have expected to win, but that is showing disrespect to other Premier League teams, we are not the all conquering side of the 70's and 80's. But we have had success, a trophy in the cabinet and close to forcing extra time in the FA Cup. We have had injuries to contend with, a suspension for our star striker, and new players that need time to bond with their new team mates. Dalglish made mistakes, both on and off the pitch. Some selections were questionable as were tactics. Probably his biggest mistake was the support offered to Suarez during the racism row, something that the American owners probably found hard to accept. But football is now an impatient game and owners demand instant results. But it takes time to build a team, getting the blend and playing style right. A manager should be given time, a little over 12 months is not sufficient. Dalglish came to the rescue to steady a sinking ship. He stopped the decline, built confidence and gave loyal fans hope. He had a plan and was rewarded with a 3 year plan however now he has departed after just 1 year. How long will a new manager be given, who will want to come to Anfield knowing that we have a revolving door for a manager who doesn't meet expectations instantly. Well lets see who they bring in to replace an Anfield legend. |
AuthorI am an experienced architectural designer with over 30 years experience Archives
February 2017
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