First day back at work after my great hols.
I am just back from my annual retreat to the far north west of Scotland where the landscape never changes! Well it seems to never change and in my miniscule lifetime it never will – that is reassuring and fills me with renewed vigour and enriched spirit to pursue my life and work based in the World’s first industrial city where daily change is relentlessly exciting!
As usual after a holiday I like to re – connect with all my friends and family and work colleagues. Starting a new business is giving us all here at Shape an extra something in every working day! Call it excitement – call it fear – whatever it is, it’s certainly exciting!
Mick Timpson and I have been dreaming and scheming and working with the top people at DPP to create a new business in what is the worst recession since the ice age according to some and the greatest opportunity for creative entrepreneurs according to others. We are all living and breathing the articles of association, the shareholders agreement, the instructions to graphic designers and I can’t remember the new office number yet which is slightly embarrassing when new clients ask where to get hold of us?
Shape is the name of our new urban design, master planning and regeneration consultancy business. We are interested in working with anyone involved in improving the physical fabric within which we all live, work and play – from the strategic scale through to individual sites and buildings. We know what we mean and setting this new business up means we must keep explaining what we are about – a new name around town needs introducing and that reminds me – PR strategy is on that to do list!
As well as ideas we have the support of half a dozen investors from the national planning consultancy DPP and a brand new independent company with a small board of just 4 directors – including Mick and I. We have desks based in Manchester and IT and our small team of urban designers is in place – Ste and Matt are already working hard and we have clients too! This is all still new to us, our friends and colleagues throughout the north west and beyond - and I must admit to relishing the newness!
So many friends and colleagues are taking the opportunity of the changing economy to start great new things – based in Manchester and reaching out across the country to spread the benefits of some fantastic experience and ideas coming out of the regeneration world! More about those people later…….
Mick Timpson and I are in the first month of our 3 year business plan and totally focussed on putting in place our ideas about making the workplace creative, relevant, successful and responsive . We are called “Shape” quite simply because we want to continue to shape change and believe that how places are planned and built and renewed, demolished, adapted and renewed again is important. Its important for us as professionals working together as architects and planners to use our experiences in a way that is beneficial to the quality of people’s lives – the lives of our fellow human beings living in places of change but also our fellow work colleagues - our collaborators and competitors – we should be all adding to the body of knowledge, skill and insight in the interests of progress! – Yes – call me old fashioned – a greater good hey! After many years of resistance I can now call myself hopelessly old fashioned – the work place must be interesting and stimulating and how we spend our days should be leading to progress in some form – not just in our marketing leaflets but in real time experiences with the people we work alongside and in the places our ideas are implemented.
Our talents and experiences have been moulded by a 20 year process of personal and professional development in the worlds of design, architecture, regeneration, development, and planning – all the disciplines and processes that shape our physical world and will continue to do so inspite of the apparent economic ice age that will carve out an entirely new landscape for us all to operate within.
Anyway – its getting late – holiday photo at the top– this landscape was formed 3 billion years ago – one of the oldest on the planet – its Lewisian Gneiss and I like it a lot!
