Nominations close tomorrow (18th January) so have a think about who has used the internet and web 2.0 in the built environment over the last year to good effect and put your suggestions to the dedicated website for the Be2 Awards.

The Be2 Awards are the brainchild of Be2camp, a collective of built environment practitioners and web 2.0 techy types who get together and share experiences, ideas and projects at ‘unconferences’. The combination of people from at least two separate sectors and their collaborative attitude has made be2camp a huge success, so much so that they have run fifteen events and are launching these awards just two years after they were founded by four people on three continents.

http://be2camp.ning.com/”>
The awards will be presented on 9th February at the Building Centre in London at an afternoon event, ConstrucTALKs, a type of TED-X event featuring a series of thought provoking talks by industry speakers, well worth putting in your diary.

The ethos of Be2camp is that everyone is a participant, so don’t be shy, make your nominations in these categories:

The 2011 Be2Award categories

• Built environment blogger of the Year
• Best sustainability blog
• Best AEC social media blog
• Best use of Twitter
• Best AEC collaboration platform
• Best AEC community, network or application
• Best use of Web 2.0 for construction products
• Best location-based AEC application
• Best ‘internet of things’ application
• Best mobile application
• Best virtual or hybrid event
• ‘Old media/new media’ award
• Best AEC PR campaign
• Best AEC marketing campaign
• Best education and learning award
• ‘Other’ (suggestions please!)

To nominate, just visit the Be2awards website nominations page and start a discussion in the relevant award section about the person or organisation you wish to nominate. Lets take this opportunity to recognise best practice in online innovation in our industry.

I’ve been asked to speak to the CIMCIG Marketing Conference in November about getting social in your marketing, and so I’m looking for recommendations of companies in the construction industry using social tools well.

Things are changing and in the last six months there have definitely been some new players coming on board and plenty of new examples out there to be found. I’m looking, but I wonder if you’ve seen some good work?

Here are some examples of what I’m looking for:

• A construction products company who are engaging with specifiers online;
• Consultants (architects, engineers, QS etc) who have created a community around their area of expertise;
• Social media campaigns in the construction sector that have been particularly effective.

If you specify products, do you go online to get advice? Which companies use the internet well to help you get the answers you need?

If you work in construction, who do you know who helps you do your job better, using social media and interactive tools?

Who do you think are the influencers online in the construction industry at the moment, and what are they doing?

Any suggestions for firms and individuals I should look at would be most gratefully received, and of course I’ll credit everyone who helps as usual, and share the slides from my talk.

Looking forward to seeing your favourites!

On Wednesday the new, first woman president of the Royal Institute of British Architects continued her tour of the East of England with a stop off in Chelmsford to see the new Salvation Army Citadel and to meet local architects and architecture students from Anglia Ruskin University.

Working for a Chelmsford architect myself I was pleased to attend what was a positive, friendly and busy meeting, and get a good look round the new Citadel by the architect Anthony Hudson, who told me it was the first place of worship his London practice had designed. This was somewhat surprising as it is clear the building is working extremely well and the client is very happy with it.

Ruth Reed was on strong form, much more engaging than our last meeting in London and clearly enjoying getting out and meeting her members across the region. Yesterday morning I had asked my network on Twitter what they would like to ask her and interest seemed to focus on the planning system and how it prevents contemporary design.

I wasn’t able to ask all the questions which came out of this (notably @scarpadog’s question about how small practices can get involved in school design – because they should) but she did spend much of the session talking about improving the planning system, an issue raised by artist @Linda_Sgoluppi:

@SuButcher Will RIBA campaign for local planning departments to be more enlightened to contemporary design in domestic housing? #ruthreed

One of Ruth’s four policy areas on her personal agenda is planning (you can see the detail of her manifesto here )Ruth was a planning inspector in a previous guise, and would encourage all architects to enter local politics – not least to get involved in the planning process.

Ruth said the RIBA is working to bring in local Design Review Panels (representing a range of professionals) to give Local Planning Committees more confidence in planning decisions.

One way that she thinks that planning can be simplified is for other issues such as building performance, nature conservation and so on, to be removed from the planning process and leave planning for land use and spatial design – important matters for which the process was intended.

Issues of building performance could then be addressed through Building Regulations where they can be enforced. Ruth said that it would be a brave planning authority who would demolish a house because it didn’t conform to a required level of the Code for Sustainable Homes!

The audience, though somewhat reluctant to engage at first, took up these issues and a discussion developed. Should there be architects as patrons of local planning authorities to help LPAs? Could the government extend permitted development rights to schemes submitted by a Chartered Architect – perhaps there could be self-certification?

Were Design Review Panels really going to be able to help with the huge workload when there isn’t enough support for them? There is a huge problem getting financial support for Design Review Panels – though there is a legislative requirement for LPA’s to consider design in the planning process. We will have to see what the general election brings.

Ruth was optimistic about the future of design quality in the planning process. Where there is competition between developers, and pressure from the public to get good contemporary design, she feels that the bar will be raised. A recent RIBA discussion paper on housing pointed out that only 30% of homebuyers would consider a new home, the remaining 70% of the developers market don’t want a new home and prefer the older (larger and perhaps better quality?) housing stock. There’s a marketing opportunity.

Other issues discussed included employment – Ruth campaigned for election during a boom time and now the RIBA has to deal with high levels of unemployment not just amongst architects but also graduates. There has been some talk of enabling architecture graduates to train as planners, but unfortunately with high unemployment amongst planners as well this seems unlikely.

Old chestnuts surfaced – including protection of title (“The RIBA has a quality brand which it can promote to the consumer”) and students not being ready for practice (“Graduates shouldn’t be expected to have the wisdom of our years”) Students of architecture come out as great problem solvers, lateral thinkers, and keen to hoover up new skills and knowledge. This is an opportunity, not a disadvantage.

I was particularly glad to hear Ruth Reed’s comments on Value. The RIBA has tried to help architects articulate the value provided by design. There are simple metrics, such as the financial benefit of BREEAM, but there are also complex metrics like the value of landmark buildings to a town, the value of hospitals and schools to human recovery and performance. It was great to hear that the RIBA is planning a Guide for practices on Value-based Fees. Ruth said that people realize over time that good design adds value, once they experience it. You can’t force people to accept that you add value, you have to prove it.

Hear hear!

You can see my tweets about the visit and the questions and answers by following the hashtag #ruthreed.

The Guardian published an interview with her in September; Leading Questions

image: BD Online

Ruth also has her own website at www.ruthreed.co.uk It would be great to see her engaging with architects on twitter – don’t you think?

As promised, here is a pdf version of the presentation I gave to the RIBA Stakeholder Forum last week. Download the file (1MB) by clicking the pdf logo.

You are welcome to share this pdf as you wish as long as you keep it in its entire state – this enables me to comply with the Creative Commons licences by which the photographs were used.

Do let me know what you think, and share with me where it goes, by commenting below.

Here is the presentation I gave to the RIBA Stakeholder Forum yesterday.

If you click this link you can view direct in the Slideshare site, and read the presentation notes (there is a tab – “Notes on Slide 1″ under the presentation).

All the links on the show (including on the acknowledgement slide at the end) are clickable so please visit the people who provided content, either via creative commons or through their examples.

Special thanks to Andy Marshall for his architectural photography.

You can see some of the 72 people who helped me with this presentation here on the blog and here on Linkedin. I am endebted to you all for making it such an effective presentation – thank you!

There will also be a pdf version for the RIBA Practice Committee to share with the attendees at the conference which will be available to you here – why not subscribe to my rss feed or by Email and I’ll be able to let you know when it’s ready.