Tag Archives: Education

October 25, 2011

Nottingham University – a critical component of the City!

By Tim GARRATT

I mentioned in some tweets and in my blog at the weekend that I had spent a lot of my day on Friday at the University of Nottingham. It was their Impact campaign launch last week – five days of engaging with lots of people – inside and outside of the University. Friday was about sustainable futures – so of great interest to me!

The opening of the new University Brewing Sciences building by David Greenaway

My day started at the Sutton Bonington campus and the formal opening of a new Bio-energy and Brewing Science Building. It was great to go back into a Brewery – its where my career started all those years ago. The smell of hops reminded me of Home Brewery and Kimberley Brewery. Modern brewing kit is a bit more high tech than I remember it being. Gone are the copper mash-tuns!

After my lunch (which you know about) we had a number of talks from the researchers involved in some real life projects at the University. It is amazing how far the University permeates the community – not just here but on a Global stage. We were reminded that much of what has been achieved at Nottingham was as a result of a massive investment by Jesse Boot in 1928 – £200,000 (estimated to be worth around £9m today).

I couldn’t help but reflect on how important the University is to us as a City. It really does add something which so often is of low visibility, but of huge importance.

My last hour was spent listening to Prof Martyn Poliakoff – who deserves his very own blog post! It was entertaining and informative. And world leading…

The City is very lucky to have this Institution. I am not sure we always realise this?

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September 7, 2011

SET conference – the lectures – day 2

By Tim GARRATT

It was day 2 yesterday of this International conference in Istanbul.

The gala dinner on Monday night was a fairly spectacular affair – dining outside by the poolside. The food was good – but there was just too much of it! I found myself with an eclectic mix of people – doing all manner of research. Some of them were speaking yesterday… We ran through an impressive list of technologies – PhotoVoltaics, Bio-Mass, Phase Change Materials. I wonder how they are going to react when I tell them later today that they don’t add value to a building (sorry if that spoils the story!)

But yesterday was a bit more pragmatic – and I enjoyed this. Some of the technical talks are just that – technical and theoretical at the extreme! But listening to speakers who are doing ‘real-work’ is fascinating. Some of the delegates here really are pushing our knowledge boundaries.

One of my concerns about some of the sustainable technology is that it can be seen as an afterthought – a sort of ‘green bling’. the market doesn’t like it. One of the speakers from the School of Architecture in Naples spoke about some of the wind turbine designs her students have been doing – to be incorporated into the building designs. Whilst much of her talk was about conceptual ideas it is surely how we should proceed in the future. We need to incorporate the technology into our buildings – not just bolt it on.

There were other talks where they reverted back to this statistic I mentioned yesterday – that 70% of the population will live in cities by 2040. This is going to have a huge demand on space – and the way we use that space. We heard about natural daylight solutions – and how buildings are being adapted to take account of high-rise. Light-wells are back – and I couldn’t help but think that we haven’t moved on that much in over 100 years… I looked around a building last week with a light-well – it was built in 1880!

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Nottingham

July 29, 2011

The housing problem….

By Tim GARRATT

When they came to power Labour had a battle cry, “Education Education, Education”. It became Blairs war cry.

They saw it as a way of improving the nation – a way of creating wealth, especially as manufacturing was pretty much low ebb. An educated workforce could work in the services sector – hardly the roots of Labour, but perhaps something that New Labour needed to become to shift the then incumbent Tories.

Kids though need somewhere to live and do their homework? And those who don’t may well suffer against kids who do. You can see where this is headed – the haves and have nots. Those with good housing allowing the education mantra tom come good and those without perhaps not?

Health is known to be affected by the quality of housing. Poor housing = poor heath.

The problem we are now seeing is that those trying to get on the housing ladder are struggling to do so. An average 3 bedroom house in my local area will set you back and it seems that most Building Societies are looking for a minimum 10% deposit. That’s £15,000 out of taxed income – and often beyond the reach of young people. It could take years to save – or a benevolent parent?

We may be seeing a generation who simply can’t afford to buy their first home.

The Government target for housing is 240,000 new homes each year – and this year it looks like there will be less than 100,000 built – adding to the growing shortfall. And shortfall generally means higher prices – so don’t expect good news any time soon.

The new mantra should perhaps be “housing, housing, housing”? It’s as fundamental as education…

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Business, Grumpy Old Man!

July 11, 2011

Regeneration in 2011 and beyond?

By Tim GARRATT

I spent a really interesting day last week at the University of Nottingham School of Architecture and Built Environment.

Masterplanning a new town at Ningbo China

We are offering them a site we manage to use as a basis for a competition next year; the site is real, has lots of constraints and opportunities and should be quite a challenge – I will fill in the details later.

But one of my old colleagues – and now a client – was also there at the meeting – Nick Ebbs. He is an evangelist on regeneration and lectures on occasion at the Universtiy. We were discusiing the direction in which regenersation is heading. And in particular the change of direction needed. The old world order of razing everything to the ground and then starting again has probably gone for the time being. Or for good?

The reason is two-fold. Firstly, there isn’t the money around to wholesale replace – so a mend and make do approach is more appropriate. Re-use of buildings is de-rigeur. We can now adapt buildings in a very sustainable way and hopefully this is more affordable.

But there is a second consequence from this refurbishment / repair / re-use – and that is that we don’t lose our sense of place or history. That is quite important. One of the striking things I saw in China was that they are simply building whole new ‘places’ from scratch. They have very little reference to what was there before – and the reason that some of our Cities and towns are so interesting is that they have grown organically, they change over time – new gets cut into the old. The places have a character – like lines on a face. You can’t build that – it becomes pastiche and obviously fake – like the Duckworths House!

So there is a new way in which we can regenerate places – but it is much more difficult than a blank sheet of paper!

But we always did like a challenge?

4 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Business, Green stuff, Nottingham

May 12, 2011

Students and the economy

By Tim GARRATT

Last week when I assessed for the RICS, one of the candidates spoke about the investment market for student accommodation – where there had clearly been a boom in recent years. I was interested in his view about the future of the sector – and particularly post-tuition fee increases. It was clear that there had not been a slow-down so far, but I think we had a consensus view that things might change.

Income from businesses per university in a city, 2004/08

I have vlaued thousands of student aprtments in the last few years – so maintain a keen eye on what is happening.

I have always had a view that, as a generality, students have a finite amount of cash. After drink and food (in that order) they have a little left for rent. The increase of tuition fees up to a maximum of £9,000 each year has to have an effect – in my view.

I was interested to see that the Centre for Cities published a report last week in which they looked at the effect of the student market on a City’s economy.

In Derby – £173m is estimated to come from students into the local economy – representing 3.2% of the City’s total economic activity;
In Leicester it is £333m representing 3.6%;
and in Nottingham £548m representing 4.5%.

You will see that the sums are not inconsiderable. And any reduction in ‘spending power’ could have an impact.

The conclusion of the report is that the impact a University on the local economy is in attracting students as consumers and through to their employment; that Universities play an important role in corralling knowledge, and; spin-outs from Universities are important – not high in number, but high in value.

The Centre are going to revisit the report in 12 months so it will be interesting to see what impact there has been on the local economies. My guess is that we will see a dip in the contribution – except perhaps at Wine Rack?

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December 10, 2010

Business and Education

By Tim GARRATT

I blogged yesterday about the Education vote in the House of Commons.

A few weeks ago I took part in another ’round table’ discussion – this time hosted at the new University of Derby Corporate Centre – completed earlier this year. It’s a great facility for Derby.

The subject of the discussion was the relationship between University’s and Business – particularly in relation to training need. Representatives from business and the University were present. Whilst business is often critical of the education sector – typically for not being aligned with training need, I was not convinced that this was entirely fair. I think local Colleges and Universities are becoming more adept at providing training needs in their markets. There are more vocational courses and short-courses available. Education is changing in line with requirements.

Educational establishments play a key role in preparing students for the workplace. Up-skilling is a key as well.

What came out of the discussion, however, was that finding good candidates – especially in the manual trade sectors – is proving difficult. When good candidates are found they are really keen to further themselves and there may then be a lack of suitable specialist courses. Of course specialist courses, by their nature are going to have limited appeal which will test the funding stream. This sounds like a vicious circle – we need specialists, we can’t find them, we can’t afford to teach them so we stop offering the courses – result … no specialists!

My view is that Business, more than ever needs to help the sector – we need to work closely with them, we need to offer our help. It’s no good us standing on the sidelines throwing stones.

John Henry Newman in a series of essay in 1909-14 suggested that a University was “a school of knowledge of every kind, consisting of teachers and learners from every quarter” and “a place for the communication and circulation of thought”. It was the last part that caught my attention – a circulation of thought. We need to give something back to the sector?

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December 9, 2010

U-turn if you want to?

By Tim GARRATT

So today is the great Education Vote in the House of Commons. We get to hear of student tuition fees will increase.

To help the Liberal Democrats in their pondering…

Manifesto Pledge – Page 5 – “Don’t settle for low politics and broken promises, be more demanding…”

Manifesto, Page 8 – “… we need to be clear and honest…”

Manifesto Pledge page 39 – “Scrap unfair university tuition fees for all students taking their first degrees..”

Manifesto – page 96 – … we must be honest with people ..”

Derek Deedman – web page and the Pledge. – “There is one thing that sets the Liberal Democrats apart from other political parties; this is that when we say we will do something during election campaigns we then do it in government.”

Oh dear.

It seems that Mr Clegg and his sidekick Vince Cable have told the National Union of Students that they needn’t really worry as Students won’t really have to pay it all back – because the payment doesn’t hit home until you earn £121,000 and after 30 years you don’t have to pay any more anyway.

So, I am just wondering where the honesty is in this. We are lending students the money but telling them with a wink that they should just ignore it?

As I have suspected for a long time don’t believe what you read in Manifesto’s. And I may just buy the book….

2 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Nottingham

June 4, 2010

Education – a new way?

By Tim GARRATT

I am a big fan of TED – and watched one of their great talks in HD over last weekend on my new ipad – both talk and ipad were impressive!

Sir Ken Robinson

The talk was by Sir Ken Robinson on “Bring on the Learning Revolution” – you can watch it here. If you are interested in the way we learn or teach – then it is a must.

Essentially Kens argument is that we teach in a linear and compliant way – which does not suit everyone. Learning is an organic process. I won’t spoil it – I recommend it to be watched. But there were two gems that really stood out…

One is a story about a boy at school, who tells his teacher that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. The teacher expresses his disappointment, but the boy points out that this is what he wants to do. The teacher explains that he has a great brain and such a career would be a waste. But the boy is undeterred and finds his way into the Fire Service, achieving his ambition. The boy later meets the teacher – who is trapped in an upturned car. The boy saves the teachers life; and that of his wife. As the story goes – the teacher thinks quite differently of the boy now!

And the second thought-provoking statement is that a three-year old is not the same as half a six-year-old. In other words they are very different people and we can’t assume that they will follow a prescribed route map.

There are lots of comments on the TED website about the talk – some not too complimentary. I am no expert, but I agree with Ken, we need to find ways of empowering kids. We need them to be engaged and enthralled (a word he uses). We also need to get away from this constant model that all kids have to be Doctors or Rocket Scientists.

Sometimes we may need the “Firemen” in our lives. They too can change (or save) our lives.

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May 8, 2010

Deja Vu part 2!

By Tim GARRATT

I blogged last year about my return to Nottingham Trent University to have a look around the Arkwright and Newton buildings – they were reaching the final stage of their refurbishment.

The newly created space at NTU

This week I went to one of the official opening evenings.

The £92m scheme is now complete – and it looks amazing. Hopkins Architects have done a great job in retaining the essence of two architecturally important buildings whilst connecting them with a modern piece of architecture. This really is the centrepiece of the University and the facilities are second to none. This is both in terms of teaching space, but also the newly created Nottingham Conference Centre.

It was interesting to hear some of the historical context of the buildings – D H Lawrence studied at the University College Nottingham (as Arkwright was then known). My old lecturer Paul Collins went dewey eyed when he remembered the old urinals – and the fact that David Herbert had once peed in the very same place. I wasn’t sure where it was headed, but he held it together I think – just. I think the Collins facial hair may have permeated his brain. Or he was being sponsored by Flomax …

I was also amused about some of the opposition when the scheme was put before the statutory consultees. One organisation were concerned about the loss of the rows of lockers in Newton building. I miss them too – I used to lean up against them …

But the real story (apart from the quality of the space) was the green roof – 30,000 sq ft of it. This has helped the University achieve the no.1 spot in the Green League of Universities in England and Wales.

It is a great regeneration project – which deserves all the accolades it will surely get. It’s a great advert for Nottingham – on the world stage.

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Business, Green stuff, Nottingham

January 21, 2010

University of Nottingham – prolific developer!

By Tim GARRATT

There was news yesterday that the University of Nottingham officially opened the new ‘Grace’ building on Triumph Road – which I blogged about before.

The Grace Building Nottingham


Designed by a local team – including Mabers, d3Shipway and Price & Myers I think is a really great example of a practical building which looks great. I drive by it each day on my way home – and I think it looks even better at night.

Of course the really clever stuff goes on inside – it is a world class centre for studying Global Positioning Systems. Our lives have become dependent on GPS – which is now a pretty unremarkable tool. My phone uses the technology.

I commented on an imagemakers blog about map reading last week when I was debating with Phil Songhurst about the next wave of GPS – augmented reality. The latter will be a fantastic tool which I believe will change the face of how we find our way around!

We should also remind ourselves that the University have been building on the Triumph Road site now for many years, since purchasing the old Raleigh site. The building programme has continued apace through all manner of market conditions!

I was privileged last week to be shown a building on the main University campus which has been renovated for use by VIP visitors to the University. I have to say that the results were visually stunning – at 5-star hotel standard. But what also struck me was that the building had been ‘properly’ refurbished respecting the original features. Corners had not been cut. I would love to stay there!

A few years ago I was asked by a University client to help them with a report to their Governors – who wanted to know why their build costs were higher than those on a typical business park setting. What was apparent was that general offices (like my own) are well built – to a price. The developer knows there is a quality standard to achieve the optimum rental and capital values. The Universities are not driven by this; they have a long term game play. So the materials tend to be better and the design can be more adventurous.

The day I met the Prince!


One of the proudest achievements in my professional life was my involvement in acquiring the former Devonshire Royal Hospital from the NHS for Derby University in 2000. I got to meet Prince Charles at the opening! And even today the building still wows me every time I go.

What I really liked about Grace (which is at the opposite end of the architectural scale to the Buxton jewel) is that it clearly is a ‘box’, but the use of light and colour lifts it so that it really is better than an office.

We shouldn’t forget the contribution the Education sector contributes to our built environment – as well as providing bright Graduates!

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