Week Ending 26th May 2012

We have been involved with a lot of structural art over the years varying form a man made from (metal) hands, a toy tug boat that stands 6m tall and metal trees that now stand in the middle of a Las Vegas casino.

However at the end of last week, we got blindsided by a client who wants an island; not any sort of an Island but a Pirate based island complete with rickety old houses, stone jetty, palm trees and even a large skull with a waterfall coming through its mouth! Following an appointment we are waiting for the completion of pumping out 13 million gallons of water from the lake so that we can send the surveyors in order that the earth movers can remodel the lake for both the island and to increase the depth of the lake by 1.5m which should be sufficient for the pirate ships to float!

With the construction of the high bay waste handling facility at Gt Blakenham now complete the machinery which sorts and recycles the rubbish has been installed. These bits of kit are mammoth in size and we have been providing the designs for the support of such machinery across the UK and Europe due to the 3D functionality of the design software we use. The latest one is the interestingly named ‘Left Hand Trisomat Flip Flop screen’ – no idea what it does but it’s a great name.

Week Ending 19th May 2012

First visit of the week was to inspect the newly constructed underground car park for a small apartment block in Leicestershire and I am pleased with the outcome which was designed with FE Analysis for the irregular shape and large open spans. Unfortunately NHBC won’t adopt the project because the basement wasn’t specified to be waterproof which we (client, architect and ourselves) pointed out that there was big open door at the front, three large smoke vents open to the elements and wet cars driving in and out!

Met with a new client in Stamford Hill regarding a new basement under his house and he then took me off to a Social Club he had just bought in Edmonton Green where it looks like we can build 8 new flats over. It will be a bit of a long slog with the planning but the returns should be pretty impressive for him once it goes.

Met with the owner Artfabs who is carries out large metalwork sculptures to discuss a new piece he has been commissioned for. Whilst I was at his workshop we inspected a recent piece we had designed which was 75% complete but it did seem to be oscillating a lot in the wind which didn’t look right. It turns out that the client didn’t want to include the high level restraint we had specified as it detracted from the look!

Interesting chat with a potential new client on Thursday who wants a Pirate’s Island built in the middle of his lake complete with a waterfall though a skulls head! Arranged for a meeting on Monday to discuss in detail.

Jim’s model of the underwater diving experience now proudly hangs in the office.

Week Ending May 12th 2012

Site visit on Tuesday to view on going works for the re-building of a mid-terraced house with a basement beneath whilst retaining the front façade and, in theory the houses either side. Unfortunately, sloppy propping works by the contractor exacerbated by the appaling weather has resulted in movement to one of the neighbouring houses. Once again the Party Wall surveyors are having a field day but I suppose that is the purpose of their job.

Temporary & final propping works

Spent yesterday looking for an additional office in London and think we will go for space in No 1 PoultryLane EC2R. Easy access from Liverpool St and good facilities. A bit futuristic and somehow reminds me of the Key Keepers building in Ghostbusters but nice all the same!

Drawings arrived for new project in West Hampstead where I have convinced the client that we can build a 4m deep basement under the house without knocking it down or using a piled system. At the time I even convinced myself but now the drawings have arrived I am now wondering how! Nevertheless, I have drawn the schematics up in Sketchup and  (in theory) I am sure it can be done and Joel Snitzer at BSD London has had the gauntlet thrown down.

Preliminary underpinning concept for new basement

Small project for my brother-in-law who runs Stoke Sauces and wants to extend his storage shed which used to be used for Tank Building. It also turns out that he is related to Isambard Kingdom Brunel which, by a little stretch of the genealogical ties; makes me related as well!

Green light given for two different housing estates (70+ houses each) requiring design of roads, sewers, foundations and superstructure

The Midlands office started off  the beginning of May relatively quietly although this was in comparison with an extremely busy April. Nevertheless it has picked up significantly this week and their offer of assistance of the workload to East Anglia has diminished to nothing resulting in the decision to appoint another Technician with a couple of interviews taking place this week. Meeting with Studio Idealyc has resulted in a number of small commissions.

Yes - i'm the 'large' gentleman!

Week ending 5th May 2012

Early start last Sunday with an emergency call out to a house in  London where builders (I’m using the word ‘builder’ very loosely here!) have, over the past months, have been excavating beneath a mid-terraced house in order to form a basement. Due to inadequate propping, disregard of the engineers design and lack of accounting for the recent weather conditions the building was in a rather precarious state! After managing to pacify the HSE and the Local Authority Enforcement Officer a scheme of remedial works is now in hand. In the meantime, solicitors and party wall surveyors are having a field day – no doubt on hourly rates.

This is actually how they have propped it!!!

One of our clients had the misfortune to have a fire at his home a couple of weeks ago which resulted in the loss of his roof and the scaffold we designed to provide the covering is now well on the way.

Phone call with a contractor in Portugal on Thursday has now got us involved in the design of a winch system for a chandelier. The winch itself costs £8k so goodness knows how much the chandelier itself is costing.

Finally the revised drawings of the new Synagogue in Clopton Rd London have been issued by the Architect after 4 months of ‘design by committee’ which seemed to revolve about the number and position of the toilets. The client will probably start chasing us Monday wondering if the structural design is completed. In a similar vein, the design for the Synagogue in Pagett Road, which we thought was ‘fixed’, is back on the drawing board for amendments. There again, I suppose it is better to get it right at this stage than when it is actually on site.

Press Corporation in at our London CMT Office on Tuesday interviewing and filming Jim and his model of the underwater diving observatory due to be built off the coast of Turkey. Interview is to be broadcast peak time on Saturday across the Middle East – unfortunately it was all in Turkish so I didn’t have a clue what was being said!

Green light given to our Marketing Company approving the brief for the new web-site. Hopefully the new site will bring us into the 21^st Century.

A site inspection of the balancing lagoon for the new 20,000 ft2 industrial unit at Gt Blakenham following this week’s unprecedented rain showed it full to the brim more or less exactly as predicted by the computer analysis – which is a relief.