TWENTY TWENTY

 

Just as I am sorting through 20 years plus accumulation of books and looking to move towards the last major transition of my life, out come these articles and blog posts.  In recent years, GAJ has had a very dynamic PR department, keeping the firm in the public eye, and motivating us to take pride in our company.  This is a blog post to celebrate my 20 year milestone

 

“Love That Design” coordinated with Elaine to write an article about my 20 years in Dubai. This was to be one of the last acts of her time running our PR dept.  She did a wonderful job in that role and became a special friend.  Wishing her health and happiness as she moves back to UK.

 

Rather bowled over by this article about me. Very well put together. It's been an amazing journey (so far) and I'm looking forward to making another transition over the next couple of years.

Thank you to everyone who has been with me along the way. 😁

 

https://www.lovethatdesign.com/article/andrew-milburn-having-bim-and-design-specialistsits-an-awful-disconnect/

 

Before and after cataract surgery. Looking forward to walking around without glasses in the near future. It's a common thing for people of my age and I wanted to get it done while I'm still on private medical insurance.

No disrespect to the NHS which is a wonderful thing in many ways, but I have heard that there are long queues for many procedures. Some suggested a 12 month wait for this type of operation. Took just 2 weeks to set it up at the American Hospital Dubai who have also been handling my prostate cancer treatment.

Great ambience, top class doctors and nurses, plus my favourite breakfast menu at the Plaza Cafe 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

When I started to use Sketchup, (2002?) I had already decided on "The Way We Build" as the title for a series of books. The idea was to continue the work of the textbooks I had worked on for Secondary School building students during my three years with the Curriculum Development Unit in Zimbabwe. But the subject matter was to be extended now that I had reverted to a career in architecture.

Unfortunately the demands of returning to a profession at the age of 40 didn't leave time for more than a few exploratory notes and sketches. But the power of that title sustained me in collecting images and data, formulating thoughts and dreaming dreams for the next 30 years. It burst out in my enthusiasm for Project Soane, a competition to reconstruct the Bank of England as it was 200 years ago, using Revit.

 

And that spirit was given a new boost after the fire at Notre Dame de Paris, when a small group of Revit enthusiasts coalesced around my tentative first steps and embarked on a collaborative model of the cathedral on BIM360.

So "The Way We Build" has become a slogan, in my mind, to represent a personal research effort over several decades, linking together my years as a bricklayer, my work as a teacher of Building Studies, my career as an architect and BIM addict, and my travels to various parts of the world to look at buildings that express different human cultures.