So what seems relevant to a woman in construction in Cambridge as we slide towards the end of 2015?
On being a woman...
Well I've just listened to a radio programme called the Misogyny Bookclub on the Story of Eve and it's impact on our view of women which has left me feeling pretty flat.
I still ponder the discussion on Woman's Hour about Women in Architecture and why they never get to the bottom of an apparent lack of success yet find lots of women architects to talk to (my view? talk to the ones who don't 'make it' and reevaluate what you call success and/or 'an architect').
I'll be 44 in a couple of weeks and I'm taken aback by the speed of all those "signs of aging"...I wanted to age gracefully and for that read gradually...
On working in construction...
Inquiries have been pretty steady but progression is a bit stop and start and I'm starting to see how one needs many projects in the pot in the hope that a few will go the distance.
Builders are busy and getting interest and having any idea of costs is a challenge.
On Cambridge...
Can you keep up with the changes? We had a public consultation on new road layouts and social housing near us (Yay! It's not all £1million plus houses getting built).
and then, well, I guess we're thinking about Christmas and then a New Year and some new resolutions - watch this space.
Tuesday 24 November 2015
Monday 28 September 2015
I enjoyed our lunch-time meet up last week sooo much. It gave me exactly what I wanted / needed:
- stimulating conversation
- a laugh
- contact with the wider world
- reassurance
- food for thought (and a nice halloumi salad for my tummy)
I remember talking to a woman who had tried to start a similar group a few years ago and she said they quite quickly ran out of things to talk about. That just doesn't seem to happen with CWIC. Perhaps it is because we come from multi-disciplines. Perhaps it's because we only meet once a month and there are different people there every time.
It also surprises me how readily we talk about 'women's issues'. In my experience these are 'risky' topics in general company and with people you don't know. A bit like talking about politics or religion. We heard about an engineering firm and a contractor who both run programmes to improve awareness and support around gender issues (I wonder if there are architecture firms that do this). We talked about unconscious actions on all sides - how women nod in conversation to show they are listening and encourage the speaker, how men nod to say they've got it, now move on. We noticed how, although we all made a point of shaking hands with men at a meeting, we hadn't shaken hands with each other (bar one). So then we did shake hands with each other and we realised it gave us a chance for eye contact and to give our name and to hear the other person's name and I, for one, resolved to make sure I do this more often.
It strikes me that women are aware that they communicate differently and struggle for ways into a conversation with a group of men. Out of work and in a balanced gender group the conversation topics can be more varied. But, just as I have found myself talking about hairdryers and 'not having enough time to exercise' with women, so men can bond over formula 1 and whichever current sports tournament is on. There's a really interesting summary on male/female conversation styles here.
I remember consciously deciding whether to join the pre-meeting rugby banter once. These were my options:
1. try and join in:" no I didn't watch France, Ireland but I did see them play Italy and I thought their line-out's were scrappy and Italy should've won"
possible outcomes - shocked silence, competitive probing questions which reveal I'm really just repeating what my Dad said, being thought 'laddish', being brought into the conversation and settling down to the meeting
2. join in with self-depreciation, "oh I don't know anything about rugby, it's not my thing" maybe risk a joke about funny shaped balls
possible outcomes - shocked silence, condescending reassurance, being brought into the conversation and settling down to the meeting
3. silent paper shuffling, writing the date in my notebook and drawing a pointless margin
possible outcome - nobody notices, others find you aloof, someone starts a one to one conversation, everyone settles down to the meeting.
Sadly, despite being a quite rugby fan I don't know much about women's rugby and didn't feel like challenging the majority so on that occasion I went for option 3.
- stimulating conversation
- a laugh
- contact with the wider world
- reassurance
- food for thought (and a nice halloumi salad for my tummy)
I remember talking to a woman who had tried to start a similar group a few years ago and she said they quite quickly ran out of things to talk about. That just doesn't seem to happen with CWIC. Perhaps it is because we come from multi-disciplines. Perhaps it's because we only meet once a month and there are different people there every time.
It also surprises me how readily we talk about 'women's issues'. In my experience these are 'risky' topics in general company and with people you don't know. A bit like talking about politics or religion. We heard about an engineering firm and a contractor who both run programmes to improve awareness and support around gender issues (I wonder if there are architecture firms that do this). We talked about unconscious actions on all sides - how women nod in conversation to show they are listening and encourage the speaker, how men nod to say they've got it, now move on. We noticed how, although we all made a point of shaking hands with men at a meeting, we hadn't shaken hands with each other (bar one). So then we did shake hands with each other and we realised it gave us a chance for eye contact and to give our name and to hear the other person's name and I, for one, resolved to make sure I do this more often.
It strikes me that women are aware that they communicate differently and struggle for ways into a conversation with a group of men. Out of work and in a balanced gender group the conversation topics can be more varied. But, just as I have found myself talking about hairdryers and 'not having enough time to exercise' with women, so men can bond over formula 1 and whichever current sports tournament is on. There's a really interesting summary on male/female conversation styles here.
 |
| England's Natasha Hunt (scrum half) in last year's Rugby World Cup |
I remember consciously deciding whether to join the pre-meeting rugby banter once. These were my options:
1. try and join in:" no I didn't watch France, Ireland but I did see them play Italy and I thought their line-out's were scrappy and Italy should've won"
possible outcomes - shocked silence, competitive probing questions which reveal I'm really just repeating what my Dad said, being thought 'laddish', being brought into the conversation and settling down to the meeting
2. join in with self-depreciation, "oh I don't know anything about rugby, it's not my thing" maybe risk a joke about funny shaped balls
possible outcomes - shocked silence, condescending reassurance, being brought into the conversation and settling down to the meeting
3. silent paper shuffling, writing the date in my notebook and drawing a pointless margin
possible outcome - nobody notices, others find you aloof, someone starts a one to one conversation, everyone settles down to the meeting.
Sadly, despite being a quite rugby fan I don't know much about women's rugby and didn't feel like challenging the majority so on that occasion I went for option 3.
Monday 14 September 2015
One of my projects is a small new house in central Cambridge. The clients are keen environmentalists and working through the design is bringing me right up to date with the latest government policies.
A click through from the BREEAM website to the DCLG - Code for Sustainable Homes takes you to Policy Paper: "2010 to 2015 government policy:energy efficiency in buildings" and
Appendix 7: code for sustainable homes, which states: This policy was withdrawn on 27th March 2015.
More recently the government also scrapped the Zero Carbon Homes policy planned for 2016 and the corresponding idea for "allowable solutions" where funds are put into off -site carbon savings. According to the Guardian UK Green Building Council, housebuilders, energy leaders and environmentalists are all critical of the move.
As I swing from link to link trying to get my head round latest theory and up to date approaches to energy conservation it strikes me just how much work has been done with the 2016 deadline in mind. I reason that it is not wasted as it has expanded our knowledge and understanding but I really feel for the authors, researchers and house builders working to be ahead of the game. So much careful work, so many clear explanations and tested solutions, abandoned.
Yet I am sympathetic to the government wanting to make building housing easier. The 'housing crisis' is real but it is hard for some of us to see. It is misleading too because it implies that it has to do with people having somewhere to live - a roof over their head. If we aren't seeing more people on the street then they must be living somewhere so it's not so bad -is it? I suspect it is the doctors and teachers and police, separate to the social workers, who see the housing crisis even though they are having to deal with its fallout, not the issue of housing itself.
There is a mismatch - governments want more (affordable we hope) homes built and they want the private sector to do this. At the same time they need to meet energy targets and buildings are a major contributor to Green House Gas emissions therefore they want buildings to be more energy efficient and they want the private sector to do this too. It seems this has proved too costly and cumbersome for the building companies. It isn't the companies' fault because ultimately they need to make profits to keep functioning.
This starts to look like a case study from Joel Bakan's book "The Corporation" published 2003. I bought this years ago when I first got excited about the idea of corporate social responsibility. Bakan stamps all over that idea and describes the corporation (limited company) as a pathological entity, self serving by design and with no conscience social, environmental or otherwise.
State building of energy efficient social housing. Is it impossible? I don't know. Time to start looping though some political links out there and getting my head round the big picture.
A click through from the BREEAM website to the DCLG - Code for Sustainable Homes takes you to Policy Paper: "2010 to 2015 government policy:energy efficiency in buildings" and
Appendix 7: code for sustainable homes, which states: This policy was withdrawn on 27th March 2015.
More recently the government also scrapped the Zero Carbon Homes policy planned for 2016 and the corresponding idea for "allowable solutions" where funds are put into off -site carbon savings. According to the Guardian UK Green Building Council, housebuilders, energy leaders and environmentalists are all critical of the move.
As I swing from link to link trying to get my head round latest theory and up to date approaches to energy conservation it strikes me just how much work has been done with the 2016 deadline in mind. I reason that it is not wasted as it has expanded our knowledge and understanding but I really feel for the authors, researchers and house builders working to be ahead of the game. So much careful work, so many clear explanations and tested solutions, abandoned.
Yet I am sympathetic to the government wanting to make building housing easier. The 'housing crisis' is real but it is hard for some of us to see. It is misleading too because it implies that it has to do with people having somewhere to live - a roof over their head. If we aren't seeing more people on the street then they must be living somewhere so it's not so bad -is it? I suspect it is the doctors and teachers and police, separate to the social workers, who see the housing crisis even though they are having to deal with its fallout, not the issue of housing itself.
There is a mismatch - governments want more (affordable we hope) homes built and they want the private sector to do this. At the same time they need to meet energy targets and buildings are a major contributor to Green House Gas emissions therefore they want buildings to be more energy efficient and they want the private sector to do this too. It seems this has proved too costly and cumbersome for the building companies. It isn't the companies' fault because ultimately they need to make profits to keep functioning.
This starts to look like a case study from Joel Bakan's book "The Corporation" published 2003. I bought this years ago when I first got excited about the idea of corporate social responsibility. Bakan stamps all over that idea and describes the corporation (limited company) as a pathological entity, self serving by design and with no conscience social, environmental or otherwise.
State building of energy efficient social housing. Is it impossible? I don't know. Time to start looping though some political links out there and getting my head round the big picture.
 |
| Studio Hobohm - Proposed New House, Cambridge |
Monday 7 September 2015
How confident am I?
I was out for a drink with a good friend, SJ, last week and she told me she'd joined "Toastmasters".
I sipped my G&T, nodded pretending I knew what she was talking about and then said,
"No, I'm sorry, what?"
Toastmasters is evidently an internationally organised public speaking club. A quick search on their website finds 6 groups in a 25 mile radius of my back garden (north Cambridge). The Cambridge Speakers Club meets every other Tuesday at 7.15pm for 7.30pm at the Royal Cambridge Hotel, Trumpington Street. SJ said the idea is to complete a certain number of prepared speeches (was it 10?) in a year, to the group but there are also impromptu exercises like speaking for (oh dear, perhaps there were too many G&Ts) 2 minutes? 5 minutes? on a random question. Her question was based on the news story about a lion and the question was "Why do you hunt?". She managed 30 seconds and felt like a queen afterward.
Now my friend is not university educated, she has advanced her career through distance learning and grabbing opportunities even when she thought she was not qualified (although the people offering her the jobs clearly did). She now finds herself at a weekly meeting of 20+ people, all of whom she imagines are brighter and more able than her. She hates it. "You don't have this problem Jo," she says, "I've seen you," (we used to work together) "you don't mind all those eyes on you."
Well, maybe I did learn how to ignore the voice of doubt in my head. The one saying "They all think you don't know what you are talking about...you don't know what you are talking about...your face is going red and by the way you look fat."
Mind you, I need to listen to the one saying "Stop playing with your hair and your necklace".
However, I am very out of practice. I anticipate a planning committee meeting for a project of mine soon and this will be my first as my own boss. The thought makes me feel a bit sick.
So I look at my friend with absolute admiration because she has identified something that is making her working life difficult and she is doing something about it - something that terrifies her and also costs her a bit of time and money. CamAWiSE for women in Science, Engineering and Technology are running a Confidence Workshop on 15th September -for members and non-members.
Workshops will be held in the Woodlegh Room at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, 8-10pm
Numbers will be strictly limited. Cost for two workshops is £20 for members, £30 for non-members. You may book for just one workshop (Members £12 / non-members £18) . Tempted?
 |
| "I have confidence in confidence alone. Besides you can see I have confidence in me." |
I was out for a drink with a good friend, SJ, last week and she told me she'd joined "Toastmasters".
I sipped my G&T, nodded pretending I knew what she was talking about and then said,
"No, I'm sorry, what?"
Toastmasters is evidently an internationally organised public speaking club. A quick search on their website finds 6 groups in a 25 mile radius of my back garden (north Cambridge). The Cambridge Speakers Club meets every other Tuesday at 7.15pm for 7.30pm at the Royal Cambridge Hotel, Trumpington Street. SJ said the idea is to complete a certain number of prepared speeches (was it 10?) in a year, to the group but there are also impromptu exercises like speaking for (oh dear, perhaps there were too many G&Ts) 2 minutes? 5 minutes? on a random question. Her question was based on the news story about a lion and the question was "Why do you hunt?". She managed 30 seconds and felt like a queen afterward.
Now my friend is not university educated, she has advanced her career through distance learning and grabbing opportunities even when she thought she was not qualified (although the people offering her the jobs clearly did). She now finds herself at a weekly meeting of 20+ people, all of whom she imagines are brighter and more able than her. She hates it. "You don't have this problem Jo," she says, "I've seen you," (we used to work together) "you don't mind all those eyes on you."
Well, maybe I did learn how to ignore the voice of doubt in my head. The one saying "They all think you don't know what you are talking about...you don't know what you are talking about...your face is going red and by the way you look fat."
Mind you, I need to listen to the one saying "Stop playing with your hair and your necklace".
However, I am very out of practice. I anticipate a planning committee meeting for a project of mine soon and this will be my first as my own boss. The thought makes me feel a bit sick.
So I look at my friend with absolute admiration because she has identified something that is making her working life difficult and she is doing something about it - something that terrifies her and also costs her a bit of time and money. CamAWiSE for women in Science, Engineering and Technology are running a Confidence Workshop on 15th September -for members and non-members.
Workshops will be held in the Woodlegh Room at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, 8-10pm
Numbers will be strictly limited. Cost for two workshops is £20 for members, £30 for non-members. You may book for just one workshop (Members £12 / non-members £18) . Tempted?
Tuesday 1 September 2015
Did you know squirrels ate pears?
I have just noticed a very neatly nibbled core on the grass - I hesitate to use the word lawn - outside my studio window. Since I'm pretty sure this can't have been either of the kids or the cat I can only assume it must have been the bouncing grey squirrel I spotted first thing this morning.
And with that we squelch into September.
It's been a 'good' summer from a family point of view. I mentally blocked out 2 fortnights off work and tried to keep projects ticking over but next year I want to keep more definite work-time going.
This isn't so much to do with the work itself but to do with holding on to 'me'.
By the time we made it to North Devon for our week away I was drained. I started planning ways to re-focus on myself, get intellectual stimulation, outside interests, new challenges and goals. Then I remembered I get all that from working. I remembered how much more tolerant I am of the kids when I've had a bit of time not thinking about them. The slightly sick feeling in my stomach had a lot to do with knowing I'd been spending lots of money and not feeling in touch with making any. My husband told me he actually liked it better when I didn't think of everything 4 days in advance and left a bit of room for him to get involved. Point taken.
So bring on September. Resolutions for this autumnal restart include DOING THIS BLOG, getting on top of my accounts and having husband cook tea more often.
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