The LIHE (London Institute of Healthcare Engineering) a recently completed project that Watson worked closely on with HLM client King’s College London and Contractor Morgan Sindall



David Taylor talks to HLM practice chair Philip Watson about ‘thoughtful design’, ethos and EOT status, ‘entitlement syndrome’ – and his former pop career…

David Taylor  

Hi, Philip, how are you doing?

 

I'm doing really well. The sun is shining in North Yorkshire and it's good to be alive.

 

God's own country!

 

Indeed!

 

Now, you've just become HLM's practice chair. Could you talk a little bit about what that role is? And also, your plans for the business? 

 

Yes. Well, I guess at a perfunctory level, I chair the board meetings. But, of course, it's much more than that as a role. I suppose it's incumbent on me to lead the practice around a clear vision, a set of values and a design ethos. Indeed, to set out what that vision is. And I think, as a practice, we’ve come a long way, in the past few years. We became an EOT at the beginning of 2021. And really, I just want to continue to develop the confidence of the practice, the confidence in our design ability, our expertise in various sectors, and for us to have a voice, a really confident voice in industry, on the issues that are really important to us. I think the thing I'm really relishing about the job, just from a personal point of view, is I'm a person that really enjoys joining the dots of ideas and initiatives. I've got that kind of mindset. And seeing where opportunities are. So, I'm really looking forward to that. And obviously, I guess I'm the face of HLM in our industry.

 

You mentioned that you became an EOT in 2021. So, you're three years down the line. What have you noticed as being the sort of material changes in the way that the practice feels?

 

I think we feel genuinely a lot better connected and collaborative, and that sense of shared purpose really emerges. And people are really buying into the ethos, the values, and perhaps a better understanding of the business as well and the way it operates. Maybe a slightly more entrepreneurial approach as well emerging - people coming forward with innovative ideas that we've invested in, which are paying dividends as well. So yeah, I think it's been great for the business really,

 

You mentioned ethos there and people buying into that collective sense of the ethos of the practice. I've seen it written that you've described this as 'thoughtful design'. Could you just unpack that phraseology a little for me? 

 

I think if we go back to distil what the business is all about, what we're driven by is social purpose. That's what underpins the practice. And so, our design philosophy is really just about putting people at its centre. That thoughtfulness for the human experience, if you will. So, it's about really allowing the specifics of each project to really flourish; allowing ideas for each project to flourish in their own chaotic, delightful way, rather than imposing some kind of signature style. I like to think of it more as signature thinking - creative, thoughtful, fun. A lot of practices might say that kind of thing, and quite rightly. But I think we're really walking the walk as well, because we're underpinning this ethos with investment as well, and a commitment to investing in R&D that keeps us at the forefront of design thinking.  We've got a Thoughtful Design Toolkit, which came at no little cost. We've invested in many years of R&D to develop our own tools around stakeholder engagement that puts wellbeing as part of developing a brief; a tool that helps us make really informed decisions about environmental sustainability, and how that impacts on people. And then a Post Occupancy Evaluation tool as well. So, we're going through the whole lifecycle of what we do in delivering places and spaces in the built environment and making sure that we're getting the brief right, we're testing the concept designs, and then we're testing whether the impact on people through those places and spaces is what we hoped it would be. And if it isn't, then we learn from that, and we go again.

 

I was looking through some of your pieces that you've written in the past, and there was one from 2021, where you mentioned 'entitlement syndrome' amongst architects, and I was interested in that, and whether you could explain what you meant by that phraseology again - but also whether you think that has diminished or has actually got worse as a principle?

 

Yes. I had just become a fellow and I was sort of reflecting on that.  I applied to become a fellow so I’m aware of the irony here...(laughs).  I was aware of the ridiculousness of it; looking at my younger self, to imagine that I'd become a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects! You know, I would have just thought it too ridiculous...

 

Why?

 

...Well, as I explained in the article, I grew up on a council estate in East Birmingham, and left school when I was 16.  So...

 

...So what?

 

 (laughs) Well, you know, that made it potentially challenging for me to get to where I am today...

 

Sorry. I didn't mean to diminish that. I just meant that Fellowship should be open to everybody. That's what I mean. 

 

Oh yes. I understand what you mean, David. And so, I guess I was reflecting on that. I'd read quite a lot about imposter syndrome. And it was almost always women, ethnic minorities and people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who were expressing this imposter syndrome thing. And I was just joining the dots as I do, and thinking, "Well, do you know what, I think I've got a bit of that imposter syndrome as well, because, you know, I don't actually feel that comfortable when I'm at the RIBA, even though I'm a Fellow. And then I was thinking, well, why is it imposter syndrome? Why isn't it, turning it on its head, why isn't it entitlement syndrome? Because actually, the problem isn't with the people who feel like they're imposters. Actually, people who question themselves are just displaying human nature, human frailty and humility, which are actually good, in my view. Good qualities to have. And actually, it's the entitled that have the problem. My view was that those entitled people have too much sway both in our industry architecture and in architecture schools, I've got to say, because the second part of the question was is it improving? Not long after I wrote that article in 2021, the whole thing blew up at the Bartlett, didn't it? 

 

Yes

 

And funnily enough, a lot of the people who were trolling me because of my piece in the AJ I think became very quiet in that context. Incidentally, I had hundreds, and I mean, hundreds of people who wrote to me after that article, saying thank goodness someone is being brave enough to say that stuff, because I've experienced that all my career as well. But they weren't brave enough, all of them, to write to the AJ and put their thoughts there, because actually, they thought that it might limit their career prospects.

 

So, in summary, it's still an issue, then?

 

I think it's still an issue. But if I was being brutal, I would say, I think those behaviours are becoming more and more marginalized. I think it is generational. 

 

Good. And the young'uns are coming through. And speaking of the young 'uns you teach, don't you? I'm just wondering what you feel about the current crop of students and how optimistic you are about them?

 

Well, if I could pause on that very slightly, but to kind of wrap that into the previous question. Because what I worry about, with student debt, and how that impacts on inclusivity and diversity in schools of architecture? Because I'm pretty sure that if I were 17,18, now, looking at what courses to do, I probably wouldn't choose architecture, just because the size of that debt would be just overwhelming for me, I think.

 

So, it's a factor of how long the course is? 

 

Yes, absolutely. But if we just park that, I'm very optimistic about the students that I see. I'm a visiting professor at the University of Leeds - I was there yesterday, doing some interim crits. And the quality of work was astounding. And I think with that school, perhaps because it's a fairly new one, and they're quite focused on creating students that are fit for work, as it were, the technical aspects, environmental sustainability, things. That's where the focus is. So, none of the students have been kettled into any kind of stylistic modes, which you do see in other schools of architecture. So, there's a real independent spirit, and they're all kind of developing their own design narratives that speak of the site, the context and the client brief, and all generating completely different solutions as a consequence. I just get completely energised when I'm exposed to that. That's good to hear. And are drawing skills still alive and well, in the younger generation? Hand drawing skills, you mean? I think the quality of the graphics, and imagery is exceptional; I don't see very much hand drawing at all, if I'm honest.

 

Do you lament that?

 

I love hand drawing, personally. If somebody does it, it does connect me with that drawing and what that person is generally trying to communicate better. But, you know, I'm also in awe of some of the hybrid graphics that people are generating now where it's part CAD model, part rendering, part illustrator, part hand drawn.  I think it's a really rich cross section of material that I'm seeing.

 

So back to HLM; Is there anything we can look out for in the near future from the practice? 

 

There's an important thing that's emerging for us, really in that we've had some recent project successes in the Republic of Ireland. We established our Dublin studio a few years ago. And we're really looking to push on and grow that studio. So that's a really exciting aspect for us. We think it might well be a springboard to growing for us internationally. 

 

Final question. I noticed on your blurb on your website, there's a teaser at the end of the blurb about you, which says that Philip was a regular contributor to The New Musical Express (NME) in the late '80s and has at least one entry in the Guinness Book of Hit Records, which is such a tease, really. It begs the question, what? Could you let us know the secret here?

 

The secret! (laughs). Well, it's quite easy to find out really. I was in a Britpop - I guess you'd call it - band in the mid-90s. called Speedy and we had a bit of a one-hit wonder, with a song called Boy Wonder.

 

Well, thank you very much for talking to me. I should go away and listen to this song and think of the 90s fondly. 

 

Thanks David. Bye