The Rents Got Too High In Kings Cross (After The Area’s Redevelopment) So Michael Moved Out After Consulting With His Family. His Children Especially Loved Brixton (Which They Knew From Socialising In The Area). He Especially Loves The Transport Links Which He Says Are Goood For Business. TOP Left: An Iman Model From Iman Cosmetics (Available In Morleys Department Store Which Has The David Bowie Memorial On Its Side Wall). Morleys Department Store (488 Brixton Road) Is Not To Be Confused With ‘The Department Store’ (248 Ferndale Road) Which Is Where Michael’s Business And Members Club Now Call Home, Having Previously Been The Site of An Old Bon Marche’ Store (Which Michael Bought And Refurbished). SquireAndPartners.Com UpstairsBrixton.com
Part One
(September 2020 Issue)
Part Two
(October 2020 Issue)
Super Saturday & Back To Work Monday
People Are Already Referring To Saturday July 4 2020 When The Hairdressers, Pubs, Bars, & Restaurants Re-Open As “Super Saturday” & It’s Anticipated The Great British Public Will Be Out In Force. As A Design Professional Extraordinaire When It Comes To People, Places & Spaces, How Are You Planning To Manage The Movement of Members In The Club With Regards To Social Distancing & The Fact That The Virus May Have A Second Wave?
“Downstairs The Vast Majority of Staff Are Back on Monday.” (Monday Being July 6 2020 – As Was To Be The Case When We Originally Spoke With Him Back In June.)
“We Use A Complicated Technique For Drawings & So It’s Not So Easy To Work From Home. However Because They Can 80% Do Work From Home. The Big Issue Will Be Transport & People Are Still Nervous About That.”
“It’s About Making People Feel Comfortable About Going Back To Work. All Desks Are A Metre & A Half Apart. We Have A Very Clear Programme That We Will Follow. Based on Government Guidelines. One Adapts.”
The Design Team @ Squire & Partners, Including Leader Isobel Fletcher, Have Been Designing Scrubs For The NHS, As Well As Visors & PPE, Through The One Love NHS Charity Project It Launched. https://squireandpartners.com/bespoke-products/one-love-nhs/
“Customers Can’t Go To The Bar To Order. They Can’t Stand At The Bar To Drink. They Have To Book Tables In Advance & All The Tables Will Be At A Two Metre Distance Apart. Each Table Booking Will Be Considered A Bubble & Each Member of That Bubble Must Stick Together In Their Own Little Space.”
“The Staff Will Be Wearing Visors. Our Model Shop Has Been Making Visors & Staff Will Be Wearing Them, Decorated of Course. We will be operating at 50%.”
“We Have A Model Shop onsite & We’ve Been Making Visors & Scrubs For The NHS Through The Charity One Love NHS. Usually We Use The Model Shop For Models of Buildings & We Have Seamstresses In There Who Use Materials For Carpets For Instance.”
The Workshop (In Which The Employees Engage With Social Distancing) Is Part of The Squire & Partners Design Department. The Firm Made A Financial Donation To The Charity To Help Fund Material Used To Create The Scrub Suits, Each of Which Have A One Love NHS Logo on The Pocket. Thereby Creating A Medical Charity Designer Brand, With The Help of Volunteers & Community Minded Companies.
At The Beginning of The Lockdown People Seemed To Be Particularly Upset That They Were Still Seeing Builders & Workmen on Building Sites. Then Lockdown Kicked In On Another Level & Everything More or Less Stopped. How Did That Impact The Architecture & Building Community, & Do You Think As Two Interdependent Industries One Can Be Confident About Them Picking Up Again Fairly Soon – or – Are There Some Irrecoverable Developments & Renovations As A Result of Having To Down Tools? And Were Architects Able To Still Sit At The Drawing Board & Carry On Designing Regardless.
“Initially It Was If You Can Work From Home, Work From Home. If You Can’t, Then Just Go To Work As Normal. Builders Can’t Work From Home. The Government Said Carry on Responsibly. In Terms of New Work, 6 Months Would Be A Problem. But 3 Months Short Term Is Ok”
Police, People & Property
In American Two Newspaper Editors Resigned After Both Published Articles Expressing The View That “Property Matters Too” And “Buildings Matter Too”.
In Response Staff & Protest Supporters Made It Clear In No Uncertain Terms That It Was Wholly Offensive To Seemingly Equate Permanent Loss of Life At The Hands of Evil & Corrupt Officers, With Properties & Buildings Which Can Be Rebuilt, Compared To Lives Which Are Lost For Ever & Involve Much Personal Human Pain. Both For The Victims So Murdered & The Families They Leave Behind.
The Brixton Riots In The 1980s. The Rodney King Riots In The 1990s. The Michael Brown, Ferguson Riots of 2014. The Freddie Gray Riots of 2015. The George Floyd Riots of 2020. To Name But A Few, But Way Too Many. All Stem From & Involve Sinful & Shameful Police Abuse of Power & Inhumane Brutality. Inevitably They Subsequently Also All Led To Arson, Destruction Of Property & A Paradoxical Ruination of The Local Areas & Incomes of The Communities Aggrieved.
As A Property Designer, With Architecture Running Through Your Viens, What Is Your Take on That Horrible Irony?
“People Can Be Pushed To Extremes.”
“Of Course Anything Destructive Is Negative.”
“However ‘Property or People’ Is Not A Comparison Anyone Should Be Making.”
As Someone Who Is Not Black, Do You Ever Wish The Police Would Just Stop Their Country Wide Wickedness & Let The Whole Of Society Just Get Along In Peace, So That People Do Not Feel So Hurt, Sad & Abused That They Also Feel Compelled To Burn Down Buildings & Upend Society Just To Have Their Voices Heard? Do You See That The Police Don’t Just Hurt The Black People They Murder Or Abuse, They Hurt The Whole Of Society, Including White People, Children, Families, Businesses & Communities?
“My Son Lived In America For His Gap Year. We Know There Can Be Extreme Police Treatment. Of Course I Wish The Police Would Not Do What They Have Done In These Situations. Some People Have No Sense. “
Upstairs At The Department Store Has Announced on It’s Instagram Page That It Supports The Black Lives Matter Movement & The Call For Social Justice Reform.
In July, Squire & Partners, Who Are Ambassadors For The Stephen Lawerence Foundation (https://stephenlawrenceday.org) Completed It’s 2016 Commission To Design A New Education Center & Community Hub On The Site of The Brixton Windmill, Brixton Hill.
White Privilege. In Your Experience or Opinion Is It A Thing (…To Use Modern Parlance) – & – Is There A Thing To Be Done About It?
There Is No Doubt Sometimes White People Are Treated Differently. It’s A Bit Like Gentrification. Because Historically White People Had More Power, Money, Jobs, Certain People Were More Friendly With White People. It’s About Attitudes At Home, School, Political Will & The Next Generation. Education. Education. Education.
mICHAEL SQUIRE INTERVIEWED BY THEORATOR.PRESS MAGAZINE JUNE 2020
Things Don’t Happen Overnight. But Things Have Changed.
We Have At Least 29 Different Nationalities In This Building.
When I Was Young I Had A Burmese Friend & My Father Once Referenced Him As – “Ah Yes, He’s The Half Cast Boy”.
It’s About The Next Generation Doing Away With Such Language.
TheOrator.Press ~ A New, Monthly, Online, Independent Magazine 