Under the auspices of its newly-elected Chair Lisa Raynes, the RIBA NW Solo Practitioners Group (SPG) is delighted to announce that it will be taking part in the first Love Architecture Festival 15-24 June 2012. 

Outgoing Chair, Martin Percox underlines the importance of a peer support group like the SPG for professional service providers like architects, "Unlike other businesses, architects have a responsibility to comply with specific legislation in their work.  A group like the SPG is essential for boosting the capacity of practices with one principal, by offering a forum to share expertise, collaborate on projects and support professional development.  And our new Chair Lisa Raynes is taking some of that CPD experience to the wider architectural community as part of the Love Architecture Festival."

SPG Insider's Guide to Success for Architects takes place in Manchester on 19 June 2012, and offers 3 hour long workshops covering essential web search, social media and networking skills.  The session costs £15 SPG members and £25 non members. 

For more info or to book a place contact lisa@raynesarchitecture.co.uk

Lisa Raynes is Managing Director of Raynes Architecture, an architect with 15 years experience in housing and listed building refurbishment, she established her business in 2010.  As past Chair of Women in Property North West she has an understanding of the particular challenges facing professionals in the sector.  Lisa seeks to help fellow architects wanting to start up or return to what is a notoriously un-work-life-balanced profession. 

www.raynesarchitecture.co.uk

Membership of RIBA NW Solo Practitioners Group is open to Chartered Architects.  Its members are small to medium size practices with a broad range of experience and specialism to offer clients. The group is a linked society of the RIBA and has seats on the RIBA North West Regional Council and the Manchester Society of Architects.

Contact Barrie Jones to find out how to join bj.architects@btinternet.com

Love Architecture Festival is a programme of discussions, events, training and exhibitions across England and Wales that opens up the profession to members of the public. 

Presented by the RIBA it runs from 15-24 June 2012.

www.architecture.com 

We were fortunate enough to be in Venice over Easter 2012. As it was Passover there was no pizza or pasta for me, so there are no restaurants listed!

We arrived at Marco Polo airport from Manchester via Jet 2. We got a water taxi over to the Lido at a cost of 150 euros- it took 45min. We stayed at the Hotel Excelsior, Venezia, Lido, who operated a free regular launch to Venice. We got this most days we could.

Here's my list of must sees: 

1. Gondola ride, 80 euros for half an hour, 100 euros for an hour. As we had the kids with us, we did the half hour tour.

2. The Doges Palace and the Bridge of Sighs. Perfect for a rainy day as the queues are under the colonnade, but take the tour and you can jump the queue

3. St Mark's Basilica. Free to enter, but go see the 'treasure' for 3 euros a head. It's a collection of Ottoman loot from the 10-11th century, together with relics, ie bits of saint.

4. Isola di S. Giorgio Maggiore. Get the no 2 vaporeta- it cost us 24 euros return. It's the island on the left as you enter Venice from the Lido. The church was designed by Palladio in 1610. A stark contrast to the gold encrusted, multi marbled st. Mark's. Palladio believed that White was the colour of holiness, the square proportions are solid and comforting. And from the bell tower - 5 euros a head, are the most spectacular views over Venice, with no crowds.

5. The Venice Biennale, this was my first visit to Venice out of Biennale season, and great not to have my focused shifted.

6. Buy Block printed paper, simple and beautiful     

Traffic held us up on our way to the Women in Property event last Thursday (29th March 2012) at the Manchester Youth Zone so we kept our eyes peeled along the long Rochdale Road looking out for the address. However the double height glazed atrium sandwiched between triple height yellow clad volumes caught our eyes on the approach. The building is fourth to be built in an exciting new generation of youth centres by OnSide which is a, 'charitable enterprise leading the way in 21st Century youth provision to provide young people with top quality, purpose built, safe and affordable places to go in their leisure time.' The Youth Zone aims to be open 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year for 8 - 21 year olds, providing 25 activities every evening along with a mentoring programme to raise young people's aspirations and lead them to jobs and / or college.

Kate Vokes, Chair of Manchester Youth Zone and HR director of Bruntwood Ltd gave an inspiring talk on her involvement with the scheme from the very early stages, then Keith Hamilton from Roger Stephenson Architects explained how they arrived at the final design which included invaluable input from the committee of young people themselves, afterall they are the ones that will be using the facility. Janet Dunnett from OnSide finished by giving us a tour of the centre including a gym with the latest equipment, an enormous indoor sports hall with a climbing wall, a fully sprung dance floor, an outdoor sports pitch, areas for arts and crafts along with various chill out spaces, all the time emphasising there was never to be any compromise on the quality of equipment for these underprivileged youngsters. The presentation ended with a delicious lunch prepared in the state-of-the-art kitchen which is doubles up as a training facility for young people as well as provides healthy food options in the subsidised cafe.

Sarah King, Raynes Architecture