architecture offshore

Follow me on Twitter
Find me on Linkedin

I grew up in Barbados and currently run my practice Amonle Studio Workshop out of London where I have lived for the past twelve years. This blog comes about through the process of me moving the domicile of my base 'offshore' to Barbados. This borders on a contradiction since architecture as it is traditionally practised is rooted in the place that the building is built. However globalisation has not ignored us and architects frequently build far away from home. But the challenge here is a little different - not of setting up a 'satellite' to a large base but one of establishing a versatile small-scale presence and a genuine global operation - a micro-multinational. Immediately certain directions become relevant and productive and others complete dead-ends. The signposts that are leading me there include:

social media Communication is more important than ever and social media is the most effective self-powered way to get your message out there. It underpins everything else.
entrepreneurship The model encourages small, versatile and vibrant entities driven by the spirit of self-employment but within the financial and legal structures that modern business provides.
mobility Buckminster Fuller famously asked how heavy buildings were. I had to ask - how heavy is my office? The whole idea lends itself to embracing systems that are literally (physically) light - from office management to the computer hardware itself - systems that you can take with you and plug in to hubs around your house, your town or the world.
3D design The old ways of 2D CAD can no longer accommodate the complexities that 3D geometry, illustration and BIM embrace. Airbus and Boeing do not need to print plans and sections to build. The 3D model is a virtual building at its most portable.
pre-fabrication Construction is typically a heavy, messy business with the majority of the action on site. Pre-fabrication takes it into the realm of off-site mass-production and clean, dry, transportable solutions
sustainability Environmental responsibility is always critical but travel brings issues into focus that you might have been able to ignore in urban bubbles. The words 'eco' and 'green' are banned but their spirit is mandatory - to be woven right in to the design process and not as an appendage.
utopia Elusive, probably unattainable but it doesn't hurt to try. Not just the state of the place but a state of affairs. The grandaddy of them all.

Therefore this blog is a journey - me thinking out loud as I develop a strategy to make it work. So even though it is ultimately about architecture I'll be posting about the full spectrum of strategies that influence and inspire me. Architecture school is great and your creative mind can run wild, but the real world is very different. I used to tell anyone who was willing to listen that the best way to realise your creative ambitions is to work for yourself. Now I would add working with others, everywhere. It takes a leap of faith but the thrill is definitely worth it. Enjoy.

Coincidence or ‘flattery’

A group of us have been developing an idea called the Virtual Building Studio - which I presented at Be2camp about a month ago. In a nutshell it is a BIM social network for ArchiCAD 13 users with the slogan “Get Work, Hire and Collaborate”. Conceptually it is a combination of Facebook-like social networking with ArchiCAD’s new collaboration technology “Teamwork 2”. The beauty of Teamwork 2 is that it allows a group to share a project (design a building) whether they are sitting in the same office or in different countries - and do it FAST.

This opens a world of opportunity for large distributed companies but also (especially) individuals. It means that you can get work from, hire or collaborate with others internationally - literally!

Be2camp Virtual Building Studio

It is early days but obviously an idea whose time has come. Hot off the press (or ‘the twitter’ anyway) is Autodesk’s Bluestreak - inviting us to “Collaborate, Socialize… BIM!”. And what is Bluestreak? - well, a BIM social network. The big thing that is missing though is Teamwork 2 or an equivalent. Who knows, maybe something is coming in Revit 2011, but ArchiCAD has it now. At the moment Bluestreak pretty much looks like a social networking shell with file sharing. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

However I would argue that without a social BIM technology in the mix Bluestreak doesn’t distinguish itself from other web-based collaboration tools like Basecamp or Facebook itself.

But for sure, the way we work is changing.

← Previous post Next post →