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Intelligence | Practice
Helen Forman
Design and standards manager Yorkshire and Northeast, HCA
‘A LOT OF my job is to be aware of new things,’ says Helen Forman, whose remit is to maintain and improve housing funded by the Homes and Communities Agency. She sets up events for registered providers to visit and discuss housing and encourages best practice and design review as well as checking standards have been met as promised. She has to be on the ball on legislation. ‘I
have to know what standards I’m upholding, it’s different if the HCA owns land rather than just giving grants. I keep up to date with email alerts. Sustainable Homes is a really good source of policy information. The Guardian Housing Network is new and I read Building Design (though I take it with a pinch of salt).’ Forman gets invited to various events – her problem is finding time to attend. But she fed her interest in prefabrication by visiting offsite factories to see how things are put together. Another recent visit was to Domary Close
in York, a new Joseph Rowntree Foundation development designed by Browne Smith Baker. It was built to Sustainable Homes code level 4. But most unusually it was built in Hemcrete. ‘The architect was honest about
CPD GETS SIMPLER: NEW RIBA CORE CURRICULUM
MEMBERS MAY recall the key themes of their training leading to qualification as an architect. The requirement to practise safely and effectively means those original core competencies must be kept up to date. The existing mandatory CPD Core Curriculum has six key headings, three learning levels and 31 subjects, all topics being covered within a five yearly cycle, and was agreed with Arb as demonstrating continuing competence to practise. So why change now? The RIBA has reviewed and refined the criteria covered in Parts 1, 2 and 3, and revised the CPD Core Curriculum to reflect these changes. Member consultation also indicated a preference for a simpler system. The RIBA’s CPD team and CPD committee have created a new,
simple Core Curriculum which all members are required to start using by September 2012. In this ever more complex and fast-moving world it is crucial that the Core Curriculum is easy to understand, relevant to how you practice and easily transferred between practices. The cycle is reduced to one year and the curriculum concentrates on 10 key topics (encouraging acquisition of new skills). It is easier to do and remember so easier to comply with. Each topic requires two hours minimum per year and within each topic, three learning levels are possible. These depend on the specific expertise needed to carry out your job or areas of particular interest. Remember, CPD is a generic term for any learning activity. Therefore, depending on the
expertise needed, your CPD can encompass anything from reading to additional qualifications, with limitless types of activities at various levels in between. Each will be covered in subsequent articles and are: 1. Being safe 2. Climate 3. External management 4. Internal management 5. Compliance 6. Procurement and contracts 7. Designing and building 8. Where people live 9. Context 10. Access for all
It is worth stressing that CPD remains personal to you. Not all parts of the profession or all architects need the same level of expertise; it depends on the type of work you do and your seniority. Thus a partner in a large practice may need basic knowledge
in Access for All but detailed knowledge of Procurements and Contracts; a recently qualified architect may choose to develop Internal and External Management expertise in order to seek promotion. You are, however, expected to maintain a basic ‘awareness’ of all 10 topics by spending two hours of learning per year on each. If you cannot cover all 10 topics in a year due to, say, redundancy, then it is acceptable to plan it for the next year. A reasonable, flexible approach will be taken. As now, help and advice will be available at RIBA on how to gain and record your CPD. At last something is getting easier!
Virginia Newman is practice director at KSR and chair of the RIBA CPD committee
WWW.RIBAJOURNAL.COM : SEPTEMBER 2011
the advantages and pitfalls, like the fact that Hemcrete takes a long time to dry out – so they used panels rather than pouring on site.’ ‘I always find it useful to be told the issues
‘ It is good to have pioneers to do things, to see what to learn,’ she says. ‘And we don’t want people duplicating mistakes’
as well as successes,’ says Forman. She was impressed by the Low Carbon Housing report from Leeds Metropolitan University and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, based on post- occupancy data at Elm Tree Mews, York. This showed people were not using the low carbon homes as expected. ‘It is good to have pioneers to do things, to see what to learn,’ she says. ‘And we don’t want people duplicating mistakes.’ She takes her role in passing those messages
Helen Forman found post-occupancy studies on Richard Partington Architects’ Elm View Mews really valuable.
on seriously. At recent meetings with housing providers she has brought in speakers on themes from post-occupancy monitoring, to renewable energy and modern methods of construction. Retrofitting is popular. ‘A lot of people want to know about this, it is a big market,’ she says. A visit to Chevin Housing Association’s 54-house retrofit in south Kirkby proved uplifting. The whole street was retrofitted with double glazing and insulation. But Foreman was particularly impressed by the community spirit that appeared to have been inspired by these improvements – with a new plot of common land which the community themselves have taken control of.
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