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ASK THE ARCHITECT
Rory Bergin, a regular contributor to ADF, is an architect and offsite specialist who set up and runs the Sustainable Futures team at HTA Design. He leads a specialist team of architects and engineers analysing building performance, and has overseen the sustainability aspects of many of the practice’s key schemes. Here he explains what continues to drive him
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO BECOME AN ARCHITECT?
I always liked making things and enjoyed doing practical things – carpentry and Airfix models for example! Architecture seemed to be the career path that offered me a nice mixture of the practical and the abstract.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT IT MOST? As an architect it’s possible to make a difference, and to change people’s lives for the better. I think we try to imagine people living the best kind of life, and the kind of places that would enable them to do that.
WHAT IS THE HARDEST PART OF YOUR JOB? It’s complex, and becoming more so, in some ways having ideas is the easiest part. Actually getting buildings delivered the way they were designed is hard – and getting harder. But architects are good at dealing with constraints, so we always figure a way through the problem.
HOW HAVE YOU ADJUSTED TO NEW WAYS OF WORKING SINCE THE PANDEMIC? I have teenage children, so the pandemic offered us a time to reconnect. I now know
more about gaming than I thought I needed to, but perhaps they also know more about my job than they did before, so perhaps that is a positive. The world of work is not as remote from home as it used to be.
WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT PROFESSIONALLY? Getting a book published last year on our work in prefabricated housing. It took a lot of work and effort, but once it's out there it's not going to go away.
WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST CURRENT CHALLENGE?
Brexit seems to have pushed a lot of European graduates away from coming here to study and work, and that is making it hard to recruit young sustainability graduates. Hopefully the universities will step up and expand the number of courses, but so far this is not a career that seems to attract enough UK-based people.
WHAT SINGLE TECHNOLOGY, PROCUREMENT OR MATERIAL INNOVATION WOULD MOST BENEFIT THE MOVE TO OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION?
I am looking forward to manufacturers using smarter tools to cut down the amount
Hanham Hall, a 185 home zero carbon development in the suburbs of Bristol, built by Barratts and loved by the residents. Photo © Tim Crocker
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
ADF NOVEMBER 2021
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