News archive

Nigel Oseland made a presentation on ‘How to create office buildings that really work’ at the SCRI (Salford Centre for Research Innovation) forum on 26 June 2008. The forum discussed the need to understand the activities which go on inside and around our buildings.

Building on the success of last year's learning conference, AMA sponsored the second conference, held at the Royal College of Surgeons on 18 June 2008.  This year's theme was Designing and Managing Sustainable Learning Environments. The conference provided estate managers and designers with an overview of the key requirements for sustainable educational facilities. The unique element of the event is the combination of all stages of the education process (schools, academies, FE, HE) into one day.

Nigel Oseland, main author of the new British Council for Offices Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation, hosted a workshop on the guide and the benefits of POE at the BCO Annual Conference in Brussels on 4-6 June 2008. The guide, published in November 2007, can be purchased at the BCO website.

 

Our new French office, managed by Pamela Kovachich and located in Nice, opened in March 2008.  This step across the channel is an opportunity to roll out AMA's philosophy and methods through mainland Europe.

 

AMA's education experience in linking space to learning has led to recent invitations to Alexi Marmot to advise a major international school in Copenhagen, and the NIACE National Institute of Adult Continuing Education inquiry into the future of lifelong learning.

Alexi Marmot gave a paper on post occupancy service issues at the Architects' Journal Low Carbon Offices conference in March 2008.  She showed that only by designers actively addressing operational issues and user behaviour can low carbon buildings be delivered successfully.

Nigel Oseland attended MIPIM at Cannes in March along with 35,000 delegates. Nigel was invited to a joint BCO and Architects Journal lunch where sustainability was discussed by a panel of property experts; their views were published in the Architects' Journal (24 March 2008).