For almost a week now, our server in work has been down, a faulty hard disk is the problem, I'm told. Its meant that everything on the network was down, printers, email, internet access, and even access to files. Fortunately I had loads of paperwork to tidy up, so the down time allowed me attend to that, but at the same time it has shown how depend we have become on certain pieces of technology. Email and internet access are now an important part of the office structure,providing access to local authority planning files, application forms, and documents and even printer drivers. I went about setting up our mian printers as local printers on my laptop, only to find there were no drivers in the office, nor does the printer manufacturer supply them..... other than to download them for their website.... a bit of a problem if you have no internet access. Anyway things should be back up and running before the weekend, and possibly tomorrow.
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Saturday 14 March 2009
Information Evening
On Thursday Evening I headed to WIT for one of the IATGN information evenings. The attendance was much smaller than the previous events, with approximately 25 in attendance; a reflection on how the industry currently is.
On the night three topics were covered; Accessibility Auditing by William Longeran MCIAT and OPW Architectural Assistant, Update on Planning by Peter Thompson Planning Consultant and Vista Options for the Architectural Technologist/Technician by a rep from VisaFirst.com. The evening was worth attending as I did learn something from each of the speakers presentations.
The Accessibility Auditing was particularly interesting, considering that it s expected that in the comming year the long awaited Access Certificates will be introduced. BS8300 2009 will be on the shopping list for these I would image. Now when things are quiet , is the ideal time to get up to speed with that document and incorporating the principals of same into new building design.
The second presentation of the night on planning, was beneficial and I picked up some information on enforcement and that every often is it best to request a declaration or referral under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, where Planning Authorities issue a warning letter prior to applying for retention permission. The talk moved on the proposed new planning bill and the expected implications for development plans and zoning. By all accounts zoning will not longer be a case of putting a colour on a map: things like demostration of adequate services, school capacities etc will have to be taken into account when lands are been zoned. No doubt it will be up to the landowner to demonstrate that the lands should be zoned.
The third talk was on visas, it was more interesting than I expected it would be.
Afterwards a cup of tea was enjoyed , and more importantly a chat with fellow ATs.
On the night three topics were covered; Accessibility Auditing by William Longeran MCIAT and OPW Architectural Assistant, Update on Planning by Peter Thompson Planning Consultant and Vista Options for the Architectural Technologist/Technician by a rep from VisaFirst.com. The evening was worth attending as I did learn something from each of the speakers presentations.
The Accessibility Auditing was particularly interesting, considering that it s expected that in the comming year the long awaited Access Certificates will be introduced. BS8300 2009 will be on the shopping list for these I would image. Now when things are quiet , is the ideal time to get up to speed with that document and incorporating the principals of same into new building design.
The second presentation of the night on planning, was beneficial and I picked up some information on enforcement and that every often is it best to request a declaration or referral under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, where Planning Authorities issue a warning letter prior to applying for retention permission. The talk moved on the proposed new planning bill and the expected implications for development plans and zoning. By all accounts zoning will not longer be a case of putting a colour on a map: things like demostration of adequate services, school capacities etc will have to be taken into account when lands are been zoned. No doubt it will be up to the landowner to demonstrate that the lands should be zoned.
The third talk was on visas, it was more interesting than I expected it would be.
Afterwards a cup of tea was enjoyed , and more importantly a chat with fellow ATs.
Wednesday 11 March 2009
its the small stuff
Its the small stuff that takes the time.... working on small projects/jobs are far more time consuming to that of working on a large project. You could spend a day working on a small project and have hardly anything to show for it, yet a day on a major project, could see 5 or 6 drawings after the days work.
A planning application for a domestic garage for example may only have one A3 drawing and a few maps in its planning application but it still takes the best part of 2 days to prepare the planning application, while a week working on a larger project, could see a lorry load of drawings created for a planning application.
Also for some reason the small stuff seems to get left on the desk for longer, at present there's properly 5 or 6 small jobs to be done, which would occupy a week or two, yet some of them are outstanding for nearly a month at this stage and all are sitting on someone's desk for over a week. I think its time to allocate a morning or two each week solely to the smaller projects to keep on top of them.. staring this morning.
A planning application for a domestic garage for example may only have one A3 drawing and a few maps in its planning application but it still takes the best part of 2 days to prepare the planning application, while a week working on a larger project, could see a lorry load of drawings created for a planning application.
Also for some reason the small stuff seems to get left on the desk for longer, at present there's properly 5 or 6 small jobs to be done, which would occupy a week or two, yet some of them are outstanding for nearly a month at this stage and all are sitting on someone's desk for over a week. I think its time to allocate a morning or two each week solely to the smaller projects to keep on top of them.. staring this morning.
Monday 9 March 2009
Planning Authorities
If you were to go by a planning authority and the length one has to wait for an appointment, you would think there is a flood of appointments and planning applications to be dealt with . Tried making an appointment last Friday to be given a date of the end of the month, yet the planning authority in question hasn't received a planning application in nearly 4 weeks. Mind you with the rate of the requests for further information from the same authority, you can see how there are no available appointments for nearly 3 weeks... further information requests for almost every application with in most cases requests for redesigns of previously agreed proposals and the flowerly language used, in the same requests for further information isn't helpful either ... just to really get up the applicants and agents backs.
One would think local authorities would be helpful and encourage activity that maintains jobs. Do they not realise that they will end up supporting the construction industry out of their own pocket, through the higher taxes needed to fund the ever growing dole queues.
Other planning authorities are boosting their number of planning applications in retention applications as a result of warning and enforcement procedures, which isn't a true reflection on how active or not construction will be. I wonder how long it will be before the planning authorities throughout the country will realise that there is a significant dent in their revenues due no construction activity and no development contributions, or how many planners will loose their jobs due to the lack of planning applications. Maybe we will see volumes of masterplans for village that will now never be developed prepared by idol planners.
One would think local authorities would be helpful and encourage activity that maintains jobs. Do they not realise that they will end up supporting the construction industry out of their own pocket, through the higher taxes needed to fund the ever growing dole queues.
Other planning authorities are boosting their number of planning applications in retention applications as a result of warning and enforcement procedures, which isn't a true reflection on how active or not construction will be. I wonder how long it will be before the planning authorities throughout the country will realise that there is a significant dent in their revenues due no construction activity and no development contributions, or how many planners will loose their jobs due to the lack of planning applications. Maybe we will see volumes of masterplans for village that will now never be developed prepared by idol planners.
Friday 27 February 2009
New year updates.
So far the new year (well its no longer the new year now) has been busy but tough. We haven't been getting any breaks from the planning authorities...... just requests for further information and refusals. We did get one permission, for the construction of two boundary walls, which was a "tidy up" job. The further information requests have lots in them, mainly trivial stuff but it has to be answered. Hopefully we will see positive decisions which will enable clients to move on site. As for the refusal, it is a case of sitting and waiting for the next 6 months.
An Bord Pleanala (fortunately) did up hold the Planning Authority's decision in respect to the proposed expansion of a business park, however the delay has meant that the project is not going to proceed on site for a while.
An Bord Pleanala (fortunately) did up hold the Planning Authority's decision in respect to the proposed expansion of a business park, however the delay has meant that the project is not going to proceed on site for a while.
Friday 16 January 2009
Monday 22 December 2008
it's been a while
Feck ! I didn't think its been that long since I last posted over 5 months. Alot has happened in the meantime. There's been major downsizing in the practice where i work. I'm now the only AT in the practice. Many other practices in the area too have down sized, I will be in the minority rather than the majority, when I return to work after Christmas, as unfortunately many AT's will not be returning to work. Many of our clients too have down sized their staff. It's not been an easy year and some say worse is yet to come.
In our practice, we have refocused abit, looked at costs and methods of saving money and how we are going to survive. By the looks of things, we have managed to get one or two lucrative projects for the new year, which should see us through until September or so. We're alos back doing insurance assessment's and Fire Safety Certificate Applications, in addition to the run of the mill stuff we have been doing.
Positive news brings back confidence and that appears to be alot of the problem at the moment, lack of confidence.
On a personal front, I have failed to complete my CIAT POP Record, mind you I am nearly there and will have it done early in the new year. The events that occurred in the office attributed to me failing my goal, but other things, like moving house, attending the scout jamboree all had to take priority. Early next year and I should be sorted.... Well actually I need to be as a Professional Qualification will become more important.
I have been developing my skills with AUTODESK's Impression 2 and think is a great package for preparing sketch drawings.I'm using it quiet a bit of late. Sketchup 7 has arrived too , although I haven't used it that much yet.
In our practice, we have refocused abit, looked at costs and methods of saving money and how we are going to survive. By the looks of things, we have managed to get one or two lucrative projects for the new year, which should see us through until September or so. We're alos back doing insurance assessment's and Fire Safety Certificate Applications, in addition to the run of the mill stuff we have been doing.
Positive news brings back confidence and that appears to be alot of the problem at the moment, lack of confidence.
On a personal front, I have failed to complete my CIAT POP Record, mind you I am nearly there and will have it done early in the new year. The events that occurred in the office attributed to me failing my goal, but other things, like moving house, attending the scout jamboree all had to take priority. Early next year and I should be sorted.... Well actually I need to be as a Professional Qualification will become more important.
I have been developing my skills with AUTODESK's Impression 2 and think is a great package for preparing sketch drawings.I'm using it quiet a bit of late. Sketchup 7 has arrived too , although I haven't used it that much yet.
Thursday 17 July 2008
Making the best of time.
With things not as busy as they were , it has allowed me look at various methods of presentation and hopefully develop new skills. .. maybe I might now have time to learn revit or even complete that POP record which will allow me apply for CIAT Chartered-ship. In the last few weeks I've been doing some work with AutoDesk's Impression 2. In the past I've use the original version for one or two things, but not to the extent of recent weeks. Its great for presentations as it allows dwg drawings to be transformed into what looks like a hand sketches. And whats better is you can update the cad drawing and with a clip of a button the impression file updates as well... so all the work done is not lost. I have found a few bugs, with times not updating properly, but its still faster than redoing a hand sketch. The smaller fills seem to export better to pdf and jpeg for printing and distribution. So far with the larger files i've found the best results by printing through the software itself. I recently competed a set of plans which looked like a traditional set of blueprints (in blue and all).
Its all about upskilling now.
Wednesday 16 July 2008
The downturn
The last few weeks has seen a major sudden down turn resulting in a significant rationalisation plan been put in place in work. Unfortunately most of the staff have received their notice, as work has pretty much dried up and little prospect of anything like the volume of work we had. Getting in fees for work done isn't helping either, as clients are slow to come up with the money. We're not the only one's in the same boat: speaking with many fellow technologists the trend is common, throughout the country. The construction industry as a whole is taking a big hit.
Despite the downturn, my work of late has been varied from doing feasibility studies, planning applications for warehousing and even the odd fire cert application... something I haven't done in about 6 years.
Where will it end, I don't quiet know, however one thing is we need to be positive and look to the challenges of the future and not the good times of the past.
Despite the downturn, my work of late has been varied from doing feasibility studies, planning applications for warehousing and even the odd fire cert application... something I haven't done in about 6 years.
Where will it end, I don't quiet know, however one thing is we need to be positive and look to the challenges of the future and not the good times of the past.
Tuesday 13 May 2008
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