Here are the excerpts from his recent interview with Window & Façade Magazine…
Could you please tell us about your journey in the field of architecture? How did you think of becoming an architect? What do you enjoy most about your profession?
My parents are first-generation immigrants from the Caribbean, and I am one of seven siblings. From 2004, I attended St Thomas the Apostle College in Nunhead, Peckham, Southeast London.
Throughout the early 2000s, going to school in Peckham was unfortunately dangerous for boys like me. Every day, I would have to precisely choose which bus to get on, to avoid gang violence, to avoid knife crime, to avoid racism, and somehow persevere to make my parents proud, by learning something new.
From these beginnings, I witnessed hard work overcome talent found my early academic success, and strived towards a goal of making this city a safer place. A higher quality-built environment that one day, my kids could live, without the fear, danger, and traumas my generation experienced daily.
There was a careers advisor, that attended our school in Peckham, and she recommended that I apply for a City of London bursary. Without it, there would be no way that my parents could afford my attendance.
None of my immediate family had been to university, experienced scholarships, or had any accreditations via higher education. I was never aware that we were operating at a disadvantage to my peers because I didn’t have that perspective. During those times, my most valuable possession was making my mother smile, when she would attend a parents’ evening, and hear the news from a teacher that I was excelling in my class. I was able to achieve a level of academic and professional achievement not yet present in my family history. I left the sixth form with 2 As and 2 A*s (Maths, Additional Maths, Physics, and Art) and was accepted into my first-choice university.
It was Mr. Pomeroy of the art department who inspired me to pursue architecture and told me about University College London and the Bartlett School of Architecture – one of the top Russell Group universities for architecture in the world. Architecture was a practical application of my skills in maths, physics, and the arts, combined into a format I could use to make lives better all around the country.
The independent learning, self-determined nature found at CLS has only been reinforced, enhanced, and furthered throughout the university and carried on throughout the professional forum. Evidence of this is when I was scouted for a freelance project with ITV studios during my second year at UCL, a project that arose directly from the engineers at the university who came to understand my proficiency in design software was self-taught, and at a level that could be applicable in industry. I have had a career of robust effort and inertia – with a world of ideas and development challenges that arise; where I have been fortified with the experience and qualifications to keep the train off the tracks.
Many times, throughout this process, I always wondered what I could be when I grew up. Now my career isn’t finished, but today, I can tell you what I grew up to be. I am a three-time university graduate with both first and distinction results. I am a qualified Architect, a registered member of the Architects Registration Board, and a senior associate at my practice leading a team in the development of 5 construction projects across the UK simultaneously. Not only did Mr Pomeroy inspire me to attend UCL, but as of November last year I am also a professor of Design Realisation, tutoring a class at the same university I attended.
Please name some of your architectural projects and their façade & fenestration details. How do you go about choosing materials for the façade and cladding?
‘Ilderton Road’, ‘Old Kent Road’, and ‘Avonmouth House’ are the latest Your Tribe PBSA (Purpose-built student accommodation) developments to keep your eyes out for along the major Old Kent Road south connection of London. These projects primarily experiment with high thermal performance depths of masonry cavity walls, metallic variants of cladding, and composite glazing units. There is a consistent and bold reminiscence of London materiality throughout the façades of these projects, paying homage to the industrial history of the city of London. Many red to brown to smooth grey tones and distributed metallic RAL colours paint a picture of the historic shipping and warehouse skirting of the River Thames, creating bold outstanding additions to the London skyline.
We have collaborated with Dovista as well as Nordan across the projects here, utilising their high acoustic performance composite window ranges, offering safe and unique opening functionality to hundreds of purpose-built student accommodation rooms. To shy away from the plain hardness of a flat brick wall, all project the opportunity to recess, and revel in pockets, vertical portions, or horizontal banding of alternative special glazed brickwork, complementing tonal insert of pressed metal framing. A well-populated material palette to entertain the eye across the far-spanning sites.
What do you think is the role of a façade in the sustainability enhancement of a building?
Sustainability is becoming more prominent in the strategic approach to our current designs. Not only with a strong awareness of the approved documents of design guidance and planning sustainability goals and energy strategies to comply with, wherever possible, we have pursued high-performance building envelope detailing, to design for the future. No singular building will save the environment experienced by the future generations well ahead of ourselves.
It is a mutual collaboration of all the buildings for the remainder of my career, all successfully giving thousands of residents a safe and comfortable place to live, whilst having a minimal detrimental impact on the environment and operating at the utmost efficiency achievable with the current restrictions and project parameters available. Alternative energy methodologies, utilising air source heat pumps and recovery strategies, seek to create long-term, sustainable additions to the city. Many thanks to the collaboration of Jaw Sustainability here, guiding the design team to the designated U-values, glazing specifications, and mechanical performance systems that now operate on-site.
How has the integration of building information modelling (BIM) impacted the process of façade design in building projects, and what key advantages or challenges have emerged as a result?
Efficiency is key. We at ACA Studios now operate at a level of accuracy and output that is not commonly matched in the industry. The integration of BIM across both the planning and construction teams has added the strengths of synchronicity amongst all teams, who now contribute to project design digitally, and simultaneously, combine our skill sets, expertise, and workflows all across the office towards the same primary goals.
When done correctly, the production of these few projects can stand as a testament to the systematic and parametric architectural workflow, rapidly executing design packages, and clear production of information to support sub-contractors with interpreting their scope and specific input within the projects swiftly.
There are now projects where global location coordination, clash detection, and reported project progress occur regularly amongst internal designers and structural and mechanical/electrical consultants across the world, facilitating a detailed and instantaneous level of collaboration that is empowering architectural design more and more every year.
What is your vision for 2030? What kind of cities would you like to see? One piece of advice you would like to give to aspiring architects?
Architects are service providers. All our labour, efforts, and work are for the benefit of occupants other than ourselves. On a daily basis, I give all I have so that children in the future can grow up in an environment safer, cleaner, and more beautiful than the streets I survived. Focus on the goal. Make the quality of life here, after you are long and gone, a significantly safer, cleaner, efficient, and beautiful experience. A word that I feel is not used enough in our industry is the word ‘beautiful’.
Design beautiful. Build beautiful. Preserve the planet through your attention to the efficiency of space and material use, so that the next generation has the opportunity to enjoy and celebrate the beauty that you have laboured to create, for years and years to come.
