Posted in architecture, other stuff, tagged Mies van der Rohe, Rob Annable on March 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »
It’s Mies van der Rohe’s 126th birthday today! In celebration, here’s a fitting piece of tribute punk (originally spotted by the mighty Rob Annable about 5 years ago, but it’s always stuck with me).
Mies’s work is still hugely influential and mostly loved – but always horrifically inefficient and guaranteed to overheat. And four decades after his death, we’re still cranking out the glass boxes. ARCHITECTS, IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON!
Ah well, happy birthday mate.
Posted in other stuff, tagged bridport, Brooks Devlin, recruitment, vacancy on March 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Nick and Julian at Bridport-based consultancy Brooks Devlin are recruiting for an environmental design consultant. It’s a fantastic and growing practice headed up by people I really like. If you think this might be the role for you, get in touch with them direct via the link.
Posted in other stuff, tagged help wanted on June 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »
I’ve just sent this out to recruitment agents. If this is you (or someone your know who’s looking) drop me an email.
Job title: Energy consultant / project engineer
Timescale: Immediate start
Job specification
Posted in other stuff, tagged Borough Market, Fontenergy, Stoney Street on June 18, 2010| 1 Comment »
It’s been a while. Loads has been happening at work – all extremely positive – and it’s been difficult to carve out any time to blog.
Anyway, as part of all this, we’ve moved to new offices. And not just to any old offices, to probably the best offices on planet earth – on Stoney Street in the heart of Borough Market. Most importantly, above the finest coffee in London (Monmouth). (more…)
Posted in other stuff, tagged ITV, leaders debate on April 15, 2010| 3 Comments »
Just got to the end of the leaders’ debate on ITV and there were exactly zero questions about energy, carbon, and the environment. WTF?
I’ll be in the kitchen drinking sherry and crying if anybody needs me.
Posted in other stuff, tagged beer, Ecobuild, twitter on February 23, 2010| 7 Comments »
I just heard from Mel Starrs that there may be beers after EcoBuild next week – but it’s being arranged via Twitter!
So is this it? Have I officially fallen out of my own peer group in 140 characters or less?
Now that Twitter is standing between me and blogger beers, I dislike it more than ever!
Posted in consumerism, other stuff, tagged iphone on January 22, 2010| 10 Comments »
My headphones died a couple of months ago – a great pair of Sennheisers. The cord had shorted out for the second time in a just a few weeks. The first time it happened I’d got a replacement from Amazon and to have them break again so soon made me sick. I’m sure Amazon just chucked the old ones in the bin and posted out a new pair, so this time I decided I’d fix them myself.
Late at night under the kitchen downlights I grimly set to work on the headphones with my multitool. My multitool, incidentally, has become my entire toolbox since all my actual tools are in Italy – we live in a rental now, profound interventions are banned.
I poked and probed the headphones looking for a way to take the jack apart but it was soon clear that there was no easy way. The rubber casing was fused on. Undeterred, I pared the rubber back with the knife looking for the shorted connection. But the wires were encased in solid rubber at random depths, the connections to the jack fell to pieces, and in short it all went wrong.
I was gutted. Clearly these were unmendable consumer goods intended to be used for a few weeks or months and thrown in the bin. Worse, I suspected that shredding my own headphones with a multitool had invalidated the warranty so no chance of a replacement from Amazon.
The reaction from folks in the office the next day was: of course you can’t fix headphones, just get a new pair. I muttered disgustedly to myself and resentfully jabbed the keyboard as I bought another pair online.
Then, a few weeks later on an icy day just before Christmas, I slipped on a platform at East Croydon and smashed the screen on my iPhone.
Posted in other stuff, tagged twitter on January 15, 2010| 4 Comments »
Despite Phil’s best efforts, I’ve resisted tangling with twitter. Mostly because I’ve had trouble understanding how it would make my life better. (I’ve had even more trouble understanding people’s determination to apply it to things like construction management or FM.)
And other people seem to be coming round to this view. Ricky Gervais is the latest high profile twitterer to drop his account.
Looks like Mr. Gervais and I are in good company. Cultural juggernauts Stephen Fry and, er… Miley Cyrus have also recently ceased to tweet.
Maybe it has its uses but I can’t see them. Me, Ricky, Stephen, and er… Miley will be over here on the high ground if you need us.
Posted in other stuff on September 9, 2009| 9 Comments »
Linked In seems to be nothing but a tool for head hunters. I’m not looking for a job so what good is it? I find my finger hovering over the delete button.
Has Linked In done anything for you? Phil? Mel? Anyone?
Posted in climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, other stuff, renewable energy, zero carbon on August 3, 2009| 2 Comments »
Made it into the Sunday Times this weekend in an article titled Ed Miliband’s carbon neutral homes pledge in peril.
Two things: first, I sometimes feel a little uneasy speaking to journalists because I might be selectively quoted – but I needn’t have worried. And second, it’s very interesting to see this sort of article making its way into the mainstream press. Discussion about low carbon is spreading outside the building industry.
| Why Ofgem must stick… on how many old homes will get he… | |
 | Marko Cosic on Testing, testing |
| Martin Winlow on the myth of stone walls as… | |
| Martin Winlow on the myth of stone walls as… | |
 | Martin Winlow on the myth of stone walls as… |
 | AlanDHill@hotmail.co… on the myth of stone walls as… |
| Comment: What would… on why we’ll share Open… |
carbon limited 