CC Jul-Aug 2021

CASE study
The Eight Gardens
Nick Lawrence of the A&Q Partnership explains how his practice is tutoring fellow project
members on the ambitious Eight Gardens Watford development who are less familiar with BIM
Nick Lawrence didn't get his start in
architecture. Now a practice
director who leads the BIM
strategy at A&Q Partnership, he actually
pursued engineering in his
undergraduate studies - knowledge
which he finds helpful in architectural
design.
Whereas engineering may be purely
technical with an emphasis on applied
mathematics, architecture is more heavily
focused on design and aesthetics. For
Lawrence, these two seemingly disparate
mindsets intersect with building
information modeling, or BIM, which
merges his technical background with
architecture's more visual nature.
"I've enjoyed producing technical
drawings which can be pieces of art in
their own way," Lawrence explained of his
career path, which turned towards
architecture over 20 years ago. "I was
considering getting into product design
and moving away from the mathematical
purity of mechanical engineering."
Working as a technician for an architect
at A&Q Partnership, Lawrence was able
to pursue a degree in architecture, then
capitalise on relationships he built as a
technician for A&Q Partnership to pursue
his own architecture career.
"Basically, someone took me out for
lunch, sat me down, and suggested
architecture was a good idea," he said.
"And looking back, I can't really imagine
what else I'd prefer to be doing at the
moment. I like the artistic side of
architecture, but I also like solving
technical details in construction work. It's
one of the few jobs I can think of where
you can do that, you know?"
His first job with A&Q Partnership was in
1998, and after a few years running his
own practice with his wife, Lawrence
returned to A&Q Partnership as a director,
where he's been expounding the merits
of BIM for over seven years.
GETTING TO KNOW A&Q
PARTNERSHIP
Founded in 1984, the UK-based A&Q
Partnership has around 60 staff
members across four offices and is led
by nine directors and six associates.
They work on a variety of architectural
project types, including residential,
workplace, retail, hospitality, data center,
banking, and mixed-use schemes.
Although they have worked on smaller
residential and commercial
developments, they now specialise in
large urban regeneration projects.
Their online portfolio includes images
and a write up for the Royal Arsenal at
Woolwich, the largest regeneration site in
Europe at 25 acres. The development has
won numerous design awards and has
helped established the firm's reputation.
In the UK, architecture projects are
categorised by the Royal Institute of
British Architects', or RIBA's 'Plan of
Works' which outlines the breakdown of a
project into seven stages, comprising:
Preparation and briefing
Concept design
Spatial coordination
Technical design
Manufacturing and construction
Handover and closeout
Use
"We take on a lot of work towards the
end of Stage Two, which means that
before us the concept architects on the
project have already produced a
proposal," Lawrence said. "We take the
scheme from a very loose concept and
preliminary drawings into something
deliverable for design and construction.
We've developed a reputation over the
years as being a safe pair of hands to
have on site to develop technical
working drawings."
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