Visiting construction sites for fun! The summer just gone was a super busy (and sweltering of course) period for our team, so it’s become a recurring theme that we defer our summer outing to September. This year, we decided to combine education with social. We visited one of our own retrofit projects by Paul Hurrell Building, along with a new build project (not one of ours) by AMC Build, finishing with a tasty lunch at the White Hart in Old Headington who do excellent pies and general pub grub.
As a practice, we believe it’s so important to visit construction sites to understand how our designs are put together, see the difference between screen and site, and discuss the pains and gains the contractor and client experience. How else can we learn? On our retrofit, seeing the number of fixings needed for the EWI and how labour intensive this is makes us more considerate designers. On the new build, seeing how the benefits of CLT can be lost through the design process makes us plan ahead more carefully.
Seeing buildings being built and celebrating with food and drink afterwards boosts both our team’s knowledge and morale. Get in touch if you’d like to work with architects who enjoy the journey with you.
