The role of mentoring in practice offers confidential support to early-career architects who are feeling challenged in their efforts at project delivery.  The focus throughout is to realise design intentions by confirming and communicating buildability.

Areas of support:

•    construction:  methods, materials, sequence, details, and buildability

•    structural:  strategies, possibilities, and coordination

•    managing client expectations

•    consultant management

•    hand-drawing as a design tool

•    what the end-user needs from the architect’s drawings

•    design, material, and colour studies

•    job management

•    Design Team leadership

•    resourcefulness:  how to get the needed information, when the project needs it

The complexity of architectural practice has become such that young architects are likely to need significant support, particularly in areas of constructability, project strategy, and effective construction documentation.  Delay in addressing these can damage project momentum and profit, and use of external mentoring is helpful because young professionals are often anxious about drawing attention to areas of weakness. 

The mentoring is usually delivered as a regular series of one-on-one surgeries focused on particular projects and challenges.  Repeatability is key, and it remains important throughout that the young architect be able to apply the thinking again on other projects in the future.  Strategic thinking is central to the sessions, with a constant eye on key project parameters and goals.

Hand drawing and visualizations are used constantly in the sessions, interweaving a range of awareness that I bring together from my separate trainings and practice in architecture, structures and sculpture.  Many years teaching in these areas, in parallel to practice, have enabled me to communicate core thinking strategies, and I always find it gratifying to help others be more effective in realising buildings. 

Pavilions offer the opportunity to feature structural and sculptural forms which building envelopes often obscure.

These are examples of interior and exterior permanent public pavilions and sculptures realised from a variety of materials and methods, for a range of settings.

Central to the renovation was the extensive removal of the existing masonry façade, allowing the additions of an all-glass wintergarden that cantilevered over the Thames, a 4m wide bespoke external sliding glass wall, and sliding stainless steel solar shading panels at roof top terrace level.

The delicacy of the project presented many challenges to its delivery.  Extensive coordination was required with the structural engineer to control deflections and minimize risks to the frameless structural glazing, while not letting the visible steel structure overpower the aesthetic.  With the client remaining in residence throughout construction, it was crucial to stay ahead of the contractor’s progress with the supply of information coordinated with newly revealed conditions.

The design was done by Barker Shorten Architects, and Anderson Inge acted as project director to deliver the £400k project from schematic design through construction. 

Pre-design can be the most important moment for a project, where a period of blue-sky thinking can focus on the abstract aspirations that will eventually underpin the built project.  Users of architecture today are informed and worldly, and they read and appreciate the ethos of an underlying design vision that unifies architecture.

The feasibility stage offers the crucial opportunity to juggle multiple, vying demands, and to test the possible impact on the architecture.  At this point the basic parti must be developed, with core organising principles subtly linking the various elements of the project.

Pre-design and feasibility benefit from experience and breadth, and Anderson Inge contributes an exceptional combination of these skills to the project team.

Anderson Inge was Project Director for this £30M conservation and extension project in central London, while an Associate at Harper Downie Architects. 

The Grade II* Listed building had been on English Heritage's At Risk register for twenty years prior to redevelopment. Planning permission was obtained to integrate extensive conservation with new structure at top to deliver 5* hotel accommodation of 41 suites, with lavishly decorated bars, restaurants and function rooms on the ground and first floors and in the contiguous octagonal ‘chapel’ building.

Complexity of this gritty refurb stemmed from the combination of demanding conservation requirements combined with new structure and stabilization requirements.  A new Crossrail tunnel beneath, two new lift cores, and the addition of four upper floors in steel construction demanded careful coordination with the conserved heritage features and new high-spec finishes, particularly during construction as existing conditions were newly revealed.

The re-use and re-purposing of existing materials and structure hold considerable potential for delivering more sustainable architecture. Anderson Inge, in collaboration with 51% Studios, worked at length with an historic mining community in remote Colorado, undertaking to design in the mindset of the original settlers.

Appreciation for improvisation and intelligent use of available materials led to extensive analysis and design development for the re-purposing of now-surplus mining cables and rail car chases, as structural elements in new buildings. Rather than an imposed 'style', these strategies developed an aesthetic that built on the material and intellectual heritage of the locale, in visually powerful ways.

Architecture and structural design are essentially both predictive disciplines. Both share a focus on knowing, in advance, how a building will be experienced and how it will perform for many years into the future.

After completing his architectural training, Anderson Inge trained as a structural engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, concurrently with further graduate study in architecture. While requiring very different methods and ‘mind sets’, Anderson has over his career woven together these two trainings to enable particularly innovative structures in architectural design.

Throughout his career, Anderson Inge has been involved in research and testing of innovative structures and building materials.  Both in professional practice and in their university teaching, there has been a deep commitment to the value of predicting the performance of design invention through various analytic methods and physical modelling.