Vision Magazine
How interactive/collaborative is the design process?
Once the overall elements are in place it’s pretty
well hands off by me. I’m not involved in the choice
of taps or wallpaper but keeping contestants on the
straight and narrow with building code compliance
issues. That might seem a bit hum-drum but it’s
quite technical and needed to ensure that the units
eventually sell.
What is the best, and the most testing, part of
your role?
Because we work six months out, we tend to work
with authorities who tend to have a different concept
of time. The most stressful part for us is to get the
ducks all in a row prior to the start of shooting. The
show doesn’t stop. It just rolls on and if we don’t
have planning permits in place then it can become
unstuck very quickly, so it’s about coping with some
pretty testing time frames.
How important is the role of program sponsors?
Important in that it is about fit. We don’t design by
sponsor, we invite them to suit whatever we’re trying
to achieve. More often than not, the involvement of
sponsors opens up a range of unexpected design
opportunities based around innovative and new
technologies. We were lucky enough to attract good
sponsorship partners and they helped right across
the range from glazing, to roof louvres and photoelectric cells for energy generation. One of our
sponsors provided solar thermal air-conditioning.
I’ve been morally opposed to air-conditioning for
most of my life and that will continue, but this
system essentially works as an off-set heat exchange
using solar power and is exceptionally efficient.
Tell me about your experience of working with
Viridian on the series?
There was a lot of analysis to arrive at the best
looking performance package. We’re definitely not
talking any bog standard glass. We wanted doubleglaz ing without thermally broken seals and where
appropriate, laminated or toughened glass and
maintain thermal properties.
The New Kid On The Block