AI Issue 11 2017

6 Acquisition International - November 2017 Paul Vick Architects have won AI’s prestigious Global Excellence Award 2017 for Best Architecture Firm. A growing, agile practice based in West London, their unique blend of skills and experience is backed up with a client-savvy world-view that sets them apart in their profession. Here, their Cambridge-educated director Paul Vick puts value in capital construction projects under the microscope to reveal its hidden anatomy. It’s easy to see why clients are sometimes surprised by architects. For starters, they don’t just do what’s asked of them. They keep pushing you to try different things, consider aesthetic appeal, rethink your carefully informed and worked out brief, and suggest more capital expenditure, as though it were their business to engineer your investment plan. When you’re not used to this kind of thing, it can be uncomfortable. Challenging expectations If all you want is planning permission and a viable building - foundations, floors, walls, doors, windows and roofs – delivered on time and to budget, you need to think again. If the only important factors for you are to keep the weather out, keep people safe, make them comfortable, with the space arranged so that they can do the things they need to do well, you’re missing a trick. Architects can seem to complicate matters because buildings are complex, a fact they understand better than any other professional in the construction game. Company: Paul Vick architects Ltd Email: [email protected] Web: www.paulvick.co.uk Address: 80-82 Chiswick High Road, London W4 1SY Phone: London 020 7993 6573 The architecture of value: reaching the parts of the investment appraisal numbers can’t reach I 1708AI24 A culture clash? No doubt this picture exaggerates the mismatch in expectations. Many clients absolutely ‘get’ the need to test ideas, especially in a sector that, because of regulatory and geospatial constraints, resists the commoditised pattern-book approach. However, the stereotype has an air of familiarity to all of us who have ever been in the position of procuring commercial developments. There is a culture clash that can polarise opinions to the detriment of ultimate success. Fig. 2 Royal Ordnance Depot, Northampton. Sold by the previous owner because the planning obstacles were too great, Paul Vick architects’ 100% planning permission record and experience is being brought to bear. The proposed uses aim to appeal to both demographic need, make the most of the grade 2* listed asset and in a way that makes business sense. Uses include change of use and refurbishment for offices and retail for creative businesses of approx. 7000sqm already with superfast broadband, new 40 room boutique hotel, 80room care home and 17 independent ‘close care’ living, 16 low energy family homes and 12 apartments. Fig. 1 Regeneration of £24m, 20 acre Royal Ordnance Depot, Northampton. The depot was located in the centre of the country to allow munitions to reach any coast quickly in the event of Napoleonic invasion. A spur of the Grand Canal was created down the middle of the site and is visible today. Figs. 1 & 2 Image:The Depot Image: Paul Vick Architects