It is loosely educational, undoubtedly sociable but always uplifting.
Feedback
Every Friday, in the last hour of the working day, we lay down our tools, gather together with wine and share a particular experience. It is loosely educational, undoubtedly sociable and moulds the culture of the practice. Feedback is a discussion not a presentation, and is distinct from our parallel CPD series, project workshops and Professional Practice study groups. In Feedback we encourage the experienced to share the platform with the less experienced, and our subject matter ranges in nature weekly.


Feedback also gives us the opportunity to revisit schemes, whether built or not. There are always lessons to be learnt from these historical projects, and they help fill voids in the knowledge of new staff or returning graduates. The sessions can be considered a ‘celebration of the process’, but this is real life and it is sometimes equally true that we debate the ‘frustration of the process’.
This way we stay fresh in our thinking and versitile in our service.
Architecture is a complicated business, involving integration and co-ordination of complex technologies, ever changing legislation and a constant interrogation of ‘cost’ against ‘value’ in our care of our clients’ purses. Feedback allows us to debate these issues in a closed environment, where critical debate prevails and a consensus usually results. Occasionally, the forum changes and we invite visitors to lead the discussion, as experts in their field.


Feedback gives us the opportunity to share that expert knowledge from the individual project to the practice as a whole, which in turn feeds consistency across our portfolio. We believe every commission has the potential to be a jewel; however small, however fast, and however demanding the budget. It is important to us that the schemes which take a decade to realise are complemented by others that are completed in shorter timescales.