Newsletter Issue 15 - February 2009

From the Master

While the world around us appears in chaos, the City Liveries continue to flourish, albeit with an eye on the future.
Since my installation I have attended some 50 events; this gives some indication of the standing of the Company in the
City. Though some events are purely pleasurable others are informative and rewarding.

The Company provides prizes to both the City Schools for Boys and Girls and I attended both prize givings. at the
City School for Girls I was pleased to find the winner of our prize at the Girls’ school taking up studies at Cardiff
School of Architecture. Another, in her final year, introduced herself and confirmed that she would also be taking up
the challenge of studying architecture. Both Zoë Spittle and India Wills (pictured on page 7) are now student mem-
bers of the Company being bound to their Mentors at the 25th Anniversary Court .

The 2008 Stuart Murphy Travel Award was given to aWestminster University student to enable him to undertake a
trip to Southern Japan to meet and experience the works of the Japanese Architect Takasaki Masaharu. Steve Neu-
mann put together a presentation of his travels to members of the Company and to fellow students. The evening was
a great success, and Steve expressed his thanks to the Company for making the trip possible. The attending students
were keen to know more of the Company. The travel award is our largest charitable disbursement and, although it
has had a chequered history, many positives have come out of last year's award.

With events such as this and the hard work of the Master of Students, more students are becoming aware of the
Company and are seeking membership. We need to find members who are willing to act as Mentors - more details
about this role are to be found later in this newsletter - I would like to ask anyone who feels that they could contrib-
ute in this way to contact the Clerk (before he gets the shot gun out).

In November, I and many other Company members attended the Banquet of the York Guild of Building - as always a
welcoming event. Ihad to hot foot it back to a country house in Oxfordshire where I was one of the assessors and
presenter of the Company Prize in the annual Team Build Competition - an nitiative, run under the auspices of the
CIC which goes from strength to strength. I believe it to be a very worthwhile event for the WCCA to support from
our charitable funds. The winning team of the WCCA
prize For Procurement Strategy- Urban Garden are
pictured here

The Team Build weekend is a very intensive prog-

ramme for all participants designed around commun-
ication, management and team working from the 1st
stage presentation of master plans, through outline
design, procurement strategy, detailed design, cons-
truction stage and a final presentation on the com-
pleted projects to judges acting as potential future
clients. There were five teams of six, all construction
industry professionals under the age of 30. The client
was Keele University with the site being part of the
Keele Science and Business Park. Both the Master of
the Constructors, who also donate a prize, and I were
www.architects-livery-company.org 1
extremely impressed at the level of commitment of
these young professionals and the progress that they
made throughout the weekend, in working as a Team
to resolve each stage.
I have touched on some of the areas in which the
Company has, through the Charitable Fund, been able
to help and promote the interests of both students and
young professionals - this is at the heart of our purpose
as a Livery. In common, however, with a great number
of similar Institutions our charitable funds have not
grown significantly, and all donations - however small -
from our members are very welcome.
In November your Master and Wardens took part in
what must have been one of the wettest Lord Mayor's
Shows for a very long time, the smell of soaked fur
trimmed robes will remain for a very long time. The
overriding memory of the occasion however, was the
sheer number of people who still attended the show
over the whole day, still waiving and cheering as the
show processed, creating its own cacophony of sound.
In October I was privileged to attend the 25th Anniv-
ersary Banquet of the Worshipful Company of Engin-
eers. In January we had our own 25th Anniversary - a
well attended lunch celebrating the foundation of the
Company. I shall look forward to the 25th anniversary
of having received our Letters Patent in 2013.
I am also looking forward to the Banquet on the1st
April at Drapers Hall, where my guest will be the
Artist and Honorary Fellow of the RIBA, Ben Johnson.
He has just completed the monumental painting of the
Liverpool Cityscape which forms part of the City's
celebrations as European Capital of Culture.
I hope that many of you will be able to enjoy such
future events in my year and continue to support the
Company and its objectives in this period of
uncertainty.
News from the Court
Meetings of the Court, like those of most organizations
whose membership is voluntary, are remarkable only in
that seldom is anything remarkable discussed. There
are reports on the current finances, reports from the
three Committees, from the Master of Students and
from the Almoner. Requests for consultations about
arcane topics from ARB figure frequently. At the New
Year Court there were, in particular, three main items
of business which transcended the ordinary.
The Court has, for some time been considering the
way in which members of the company are invited to
progress to the Mastership. Traditionally, in many older
companies, selection is very much a matter of 'buggins
turn'. Being a modern company we have long taken
the view that while length of service was a valuable
measure, this needed to be balanced against interest in
and involvement with the events that the company
organizes. The city itself has seen a major change in
the way in which candidates for the Shrievalty and
Mayoralty are selected. So it should be with us. Mem-
bers were concerned that, in order to attract senior
members of the profession to join the Company along,
of course, with more junior members, then there
ought to be a real prospect of their being able to ad-
vance to the Court and Mastership within a reasonable
time frame. Past Master Richard Saxon set up a group
to look at the ways in which this might be accomp-
lished and a way forward has been agreed. From this
point onwards, two new members will be elected to
the court each year and their progress will be inform-
ally assessed (alongside that of existing members) after
a proscribed time. The most appropriate member will
then progress. Those who feel that they do not, per-
haps, wish to go forward or who have not shown the
willingness to participate with enthusiasm, will be
invited to join the band of esteemed Past Masters
more than seven years above the chair who retain an
involvement in the governance of the Company by
becoming Emeritus members of the Court.
The Court will be considering the proposed two
candidates at its next meeting.
A group, chaired by Peter Murray, involving wide rep-
resentation from the Company and other construction
based Livery Companies, has been active in putting
recommendations to the Court of proposals to mark
the occasion of the 2012 Olympic Games. The
2
proposals were to have an educational aspect that rel-
ated to the Livery, provide a physical manifestation of
its activities, engage with the wider community, relate
to the City's global reach, be a welcoming idea for
visitors to the City and provide a legacy. Out of these
criteria emerged the idea of 'the creation of a gateway
into and out of the City that recreates the ancient Ald-
gate as a contemporary icon.' It is intended that the
construction based companies as well as others who
would be interested should take part.

The substantive contents of the paper presented to

High Wycombe (l) The Mall 1953 (r)
and approved by the Court (subject always to cost
constraints) were as follows:
Temporary celebratory arches designed by Sir Hugh
History Casson were built along the Mall for the Coronation of
Queen Elizabeth in 1953.
During the Roman period Aldgate was the site of the
gate in the city walls that spanned the road from More permanent markers of place have been designed
Londinium to Camulodunum (Colchester). The by architects Denton Corker Marshall as the welcom-
gateway was rebuilt sometime between 1108-47, in ing entrance to the city of Melbourne.
1215 and again in 1607-9. It was finally demolished in
1760. Geoffrey Chaucer lived in rooms over the gate
between 1374-85. It was one of the four original City
gates - Aldersgate to the north, Ludgate to the west,
Aldgate to the east, and the Bridge Gate to the south.

Melbourne Gateway

Location

Aldgate and Aldgate High Street are located at the

Aldgate
A contemporary concept
The gates were originally designed as a means of pro-
tection - to keep people out. But today the gateway
may be seen as a welcoming and celebratory device
and as a means of marking a boundary but also rein-
forcing the relationship between the City and Tower
Hamlets. Celebratory archways were a popular feature
of the Victorian era - such as the chair arches built at
High Wycombe. These were used as a means of cele-
brating furniture-making in the town. The first known
chair arch was put up in 1877 to mark a visit Queen
Victoria paid to Disraeli at Hughenden Manor. It was
built by the Chair Manufacturers Association.
western end of High Street 2012 - the Olympic
boulevard which will be developed with a series of
regeneration projects along Whitechapel High Street,
Whitechapel Road, Mile End Road, Bow Road and
Stratford High Street. High Street 2012 forms the main
road link between the City of London and the Olympic
Park and will host the last leg of the Olympic and
Paralympic Marathons.
The junction of Aldgate High Street and Mansell Street
on the boundary between the City and Tower Hamlets
would seem ideally suited for such an installation with
a central traffic island that could provide space for
grounding the structure.

www.architects-livery-company.org 3

Aldgate High Street from Whitechapel High Street
Aldgate High Street looking east towards High Street 2012
Concept
To develop a design for a triumphal arch/gateway that
would celebrate the Olympics, mark the entrance to
the City, reinforce the Aldgate location and provide a
televisual landmark for the marathons.
Project Management
The project would be organised through a committee
of representatives of Livery Companies related to the
construction industry; the process would be designed
to encourage the involvement of students and appren-
tices as well as the local community and businesses in
the Aldgate area. The committee will develop the brief
for the New Aldgate which would then be launched as
an international ideas competition.
The Schedule for the project allows for liaison with
other Companies leading to the preparation of a com-
petition brief for announcemant in November. The
entires would be received in April 2010 with the win-
ning scheme being announced at London Festival of
Architecture in June.. Allowing for design development
and prefabtrication over the following 12 months,
construction would take place between August and
December 2011. Complete in January 2012 the Gate
will remain in place for the Olympic year - at least..
Approaches are being made to the other companies
and informal discussions have been held with the City
Planners, the ODA and other appropriate bodies.
There was lively discussion on the subject of the grow-
th of the Charitable Trust Fund - this has failed to
reflect the growing maturity of the Company which,
this year, celebrates its first quarter of a century. The
Trustees point out that only a small percentage of
members contribute to the fund and are feel that some
who may have done so earlier through covenant did or
were not encouraged to renew their contributions
once the time period had expired. It is appreciated that
donations to charity are a matter for individuals'
discretion but it is certainly made clear to all members
at they time they join that participation in the charit-
able work of the Company is strongly encouraged.
Regular donations of even small amounts are welcome.
It is, after all, the interest on the fund and investments
that the Company is able to donate to the selected
charities each year; support of charitable causes is the
declared aim of all Livery Companies.
An ad hoc working group has been set up to explore
ways of growing the fund and to look at the policy
which has developed for the disbursement of the
available monies. This is being chaired by Edward King
who is seeking volunteers from among those members
who might have specific experience in these fields.
Recent Events
In planning for the Annual Carol Service notice was
taken of criticisms from previous years concerning,
primarily, the question of over-crowding at the supper
following. Both the Chartered Architects and the Furn-
iture Makers with whom we share the event limited
ticket sales to 50 each - this being the number that
could be comfortably accommodated in the Hall.
Given these measures and a careful menu selection,
even the most ardent critics were satisfied with the
arrangements and the selection of music.
The Visit to St Paul's Cathedral followed by a
reception at Temple Bar was thoroughly enjoyed by all
who attended. Martin Stancliffe was most generous
with his time in taking the group into those parts of the
Cathedral not normally accessible to visitors. The
views of the public areas from the Triforium were
majestic and it was a pleasure, as always, to have the
chance to visit the splendid Trophy Room housing
Wren's large model of his proposed cathedral - the
more so as the Company contributed handsomely to
the restoration of the room.
4
 In another example of inter-livery co-operation a good
number of members joined with colleagues from the
Engineers' and Plumbers' Companies on a visit to the
2012 Olympics site which had been organized on
behalf of the Company by Patricia Stefanowicz. While
the visit was not all that we had been promised - not a
master plan drawing in sight - it did give us a very real
feeling for the scope of the undertaking. We were
driven around the site in a bus (whose seating config-
uration could teach the budget airlines a thing or two)
pausing while the frequent traffic jams allowed us
views through the rain of relevant bits of the site.
Progress on the main stadium was the most advanced
but the locations and foundations of other facilities
were readily visible. It is intended to make further
visits over the coming years. Most of the questions
asked of the guide and the architect member of the
ODA team travelling with us were answered satisfact-
orily even if there was a little embarrassment over the
question as to the preference for British workers on
the site. The percentage quoted was quite high but
obviously lower that it might have been had not the
ODA architect been Italian and the guide Australian!
Heaven knows where the driver came from.
photographs by TomBall

After the visit we repaired to the Upper Chamber of

Temple Bar to finish off the remains of the Cornish
bubbly left over from the previous Master's year.

A glance at the back pages of the Members' Handbook

would tell you that, in early January 1984, the first
letter proposing the formulation of the Company was
written to prospective members by Stuart Murphy -
the then City Architect and Planning Officer. It was
decided to celebrate this singular event by having a
25th Anniversary Court Lunch following the Court Coming Events
Meeting on 27 January in Cutlers' Hall. A significant
number of Past Masters were present along with the
The Naval Club in Mayfair is to be the venue of a Two
Masters of eight other companies. A souvenir menu
Worlds Wine Challenge on Wednesday 11 March.
cover was produced by Tom Ball incorporating photo-
Two Worlds because we will be sampling the red wines
graphs of all Past Masters - some looking improbably
of both the new and old worlds and because there is
young. There was also a fascinating photograph of the
to be an element of competition between the Con-
Founding Fathers taken, it is believed, at the inaugural
structors’ Company and ourselves. As it is likely that
Dinner at Plaisterers' Hall. The toast to the Company
any previous experience may prove to be a hindrance
was proposed by the Senior Past Master Deputy John
do feel free to give it a go and enjoy the fellowship. In
Owen-Ward and the response to the toast to the
the event of a tie, the two Masters will have to drink it
guests - proposed by the Master - was given by Father
out with the tie-break bottle of mystery white wine.
Derek Mottershead - Master of the Masons' Company.
Those wishing to see the phalanx of Past Masters
The United Guilds Service at St Paul's Cathedral
shown on the menu cover can log onto the Company
is to be held on Friday 27 March. There will also be
blog - www.architects-livery-company.blogspot.com.
the now customary lunch at Plaisterers' Hall.

www.architects-livery-company.org 5
The Annual Livery Banquet is to be held this year at
Drapers' Hall on Wednesday 1 April. The principal
Guest is to be the widely respected British artist Ben
Johnson. The winner of the Company's 2008 New City
Architecture Award will be announced at the Dinner
and the certificates presented to the Building Owner,
the Architect and the Main Contractor. While the Lord
Mayor is engaged on official duties elsewhere it is
expected that Sheriff George Gillon will represent the
City of London Corporation on the evening. George -
a Chartered Surveyor well known to many members,
will be most welcome.
Sadly the ravages of the financial meltdown have put
paid to the hopes of some who had signed up to go on
the Company's Architectural Study Trip to West
Coast USA from 16 April to 2 May. A slimmed
down party is set for what promises to be an excellent
journey - any last minute interest would be welcome -
please contact the Clerk.
There are two events scheduled for early May. There
are number restrictions on both.
The first is a Visit on Tuesday 5 May to the Studio
of Norman Ackroyd CBE RA . This is a rare
opportunity - organized by the Master who is a fan of
Ackroyd's work - to see the working environment of
one of the Britain's foremost contemporary print-
makers who also works across a range of media. He
attended Leeds College of Art and the RCA prior to
being elected Royal Academician in 1990. He currently
lectures extensively in both the UK and USA. His work
is exhibited in most major art galleries and Institutions
today together with many private commissions, one of
his latest being at the English Embassy in Moscow. In
the words of one critic 'He possesses both self belief and
humility and acknowledges that he is privileged to be
living in a society that gives him the freedom to be an
artist.'. His work also includes etched steel / copper
murals incorporated into buildings and he will have just
finished an external gateway considting of 64 stainless
steel panels making up one complete image.
The second is a visit to the Tower RNLI Lifeboat
Station on Friday 8 May. The Company is in the
process of setting up a formal relationship with this
arm of the RNLI. The Station Manager Janet Kelly will
show us round the facilities and talk about launch
procedures etc at what is the busiest (in terms of
launch numbers at the very least) lifeboat station in the
United Kingdom. The visit will conclude with some
refreshments.
Calling notices for all the above events accompany the
newsletter.
Plans are being put in place for the annual Milo Lecture
and another visit to the SB Ardwina for an informal talk
and general get-together. Both are scheduled for June.
Two other formal occasions are also in the planning
stage. The Annual Service will be held at St James
Garlickhythe on Tuesday 7 July followed by the
Election Court Dinner in the splendour of Vintners'
Hall - the first time the Company has had the pleasure
of using this venue.
The new Master will be installed in Watermans' Hall
on Monday 14 September. The Upper Warden has
invited Ruth Reid the (by then) newly installed Presid-
ent of the RIBA to be his principal Guest.
Once again Stephen Wagstaffe, on behalf of the
Company, will organize the stewarding of the City
Churches for Open House Weekend on 19 -20
September. Stephen and Patricia Stefanowicz will
welcome help from any member of the Company who
can make a morning or afternoon available over that
week-end.
Students of the Company
pictured above (from left): Zoë Spittle. Michael Bailey, India Wills with the Master
It was a pleasure to see three new students admitted
as indentured members of the Company. Michael
Bailey - currently finishing his first diploma year at the
MacIntosh School in Glasgow after a year out with
Make's London Office - has been indentured to the
Renter Warden Edward King. The Master takes on the
Mentor's role for India Wills - currently finishing her
secondary education at the City of London School for
Girls but then due to embark on a career in architect-
ure and the Junior Warden Michael Wilkey is mentor
to Zoë Spittle who also attended the City of London
School for Girls (she won Company Prize). Zoë is
www.architects-livery-company.org 6
currently doing an art foundation course in London
before heading for Cardiff University in September.
They are all most welcome to the Company - we look
forward to their having a long association with us.
We have since received an application from James
Patterson-Waterston who has his part 1and is study-
ing towards a Master's degree at the Bartlett. The
Master of Students advised that she has a number of
other candidates in the wings who will join either as
soon as she can get them to sign the application form
or sufficient mentors can be identified.
When approached to take on this role people sensibly
ask about their responsibilities. If you were to look at
the small print of a traditional indenture document of
an older Company you would find that you were down
to (in exchange for a modest consideration) to 'find and
provide for the apprentice during the said term, meat,
drink, apparal, lodging and all other necessaries '. If you
feel that's a bit rough, the poor apprentice undertakes
to 'faithfully serve his Master, his secrets keep, his lawful
commands gladly every where to do ……… He shall not
commit Fornication or Matrimony within the said term.
He shall not play at cards, dice, tables …He shall not
haunt taverns or playhouses or …….. (in modern lang-
uage, pull sickies)'. As we were not sure how much of
that would get past the human rights police our
obligations and duties were made simpler. Fuller details
than those set out below are available from the Clerk.
The Role of the Mentor:
The Mentor is asked to maintain reasonable contact
with his / her student for the relevant period and to be
available to the Student at times when advice might be
sought - at the times of transition between the end of
the Part 1 Course and the start of the Year out, at the
start of Part 2 and the end of that period. Most useful
advice can be given when students are studying for
Part 3 exams. Changes of offices (or the perceived
need to make such changes) can also be stressful times
at which wise counsel is often appreciated. At a tan-
gible level, Mentors are encouraged to invite their
Students to the occasional Company function and to
guide them to joining in with relevant Company events
- particularly those arranged by the Master of Students.
It must be stressed that it is not an obligation to
employ the students or to find employment for them.
In the happy circumstances that they are able to do so
and such a relationship is mutually beneficial, so much
the better.
The Role of the Student:
In agreeing to be indentured to the Company, the
Student is asked to keep the Company informed of his
or her progress and whereabouts. From time to time
Students will be asked to assist with the reading of a
lesson at one of the Company's Church Services - one
following the Election Court in July, the other at
Christmas. He or she who draws the short straw on
these occasions gets a free meal.
The application process for the Stuart Murphy
Travel Award for 2009 is being handled this year by
the RIBA in collaboration with the Company. The
deadline for applications is late in February with the
short listing and selection process being finalized in
March.
As part of the Company's engagement with our
Students, the Master of Students has arranged (through
the good offices of Ronnie Murning) for them to visit
Grimshaw's office on 25 March. While this visit is
intended for the students there may be a few spare
places and it would be good if a few (slightly) older
members were to offer to attend. Please contact the
Clerk if you are interested.
Civic Matters
Every so often the election of the Sheriffs of the City
of London generates more than passing interest. The
Shrieval elections for the 2009 -10 Mayoral year look
set to be such an occasion with possibly three candid-
ates standing for two posts. One is customarily filled by
an Alderman, the second elected Sheriff is, more often
than not, a layman. This year it seems likely that there
will be two candidates for the Lay Sheriff post. At
Common Hall for the Election of Sheriffs (sched-
uled for Wednesday 24 June) the Common Serjeant
reads to the assembled Livery the names of those in
nomination. When a vote is called by show of hands it
will become obvious that a secret ballot is called for
and this will be held at Guildhall on Wednesday 8 July
- the day following the election of our own Master for
the year ensuing. In this event it matters not who has
attended Common Hall on 24 June; what matters is
that anyone who wishes to support one of the
candidates for Lay Sheriff in preference to the other
will need to come along to vote on 8 July. The names
of all three candidates (including the Aldermanic
contender) will go into the ballot with the expectation
that the Alderman and one other will be elected.
www.architects-livery-company.org 7
You will, in the coming months, be encouraged by
divers methods (all subject to scrutiny by the Electoral
Commission no doubt) to support one or other of the
candidates. While the Company will sensibly have no
view on which should be supported, members may
feel that, on reviewing the credentials and backgrounds
of the Lay candidates that the one whose background
includes a year as Master of a construction based
Livery might best recognize the needs and represent
the interests of others in the construction sector.
The Clerk still has a great many Company ties which
seem to have been around for some time. Those of
you who receive email from him will have learned that
opinions are being sought for a new design which will
be ordered if there is sufficient interest to indicate that
most of the minimum order will be pre-purchased.

You are encouraged to note both dates in your diaries

and to attend - if a secret ballot becomes necessary -
on the second date to record your choice. This
election doesn't happen often and it will be interesting
to see the pump politics at work on the day.

At an entirely more frivolous level, 2009 marks the

800th Anniversary of the construction of London
Bridge. The Lord Mayor's Charity is marking the
occasion with a Medieval Fair on the Bridge on Satur-
day 11 July. The bridge will be closed to traffic, there
will be the inevitable sheep drive, and many Livery
Companies - particularly those based on medieval
crafts, will be plying their trades for the day. Mark it
down as a good day out for the family. We are prom-
ised catering (wild boar sausages, mutton pies, ale etc)
and all manner of other attractions. Watch this space.

Miscellany

Former student and Liveryman Simon Lincoln has

been deployed by Make Architects to help set 'Make
Gulf' in Dubai with another colleague. There are, he
writes, ‘two live projects in the region which is primarily
why we are there. it is an extremely exciting time for us
at Make, last year we also set up an office in Beijing and
may soon open an office in the USA.’

Earlier in the month, he

goes on, ‘I became a
married man. I wed my
girlfriend of 10 years in
Gibraltar, at the Garrison
Library, which is circa 18C
and beautifully rustic.
We then proceeded to
have our reception in
Spain at the Kempinski
Hotel in Estepona. It was
a small family affair with
a few friends, a truly
fantastic day and Leonie
looked stunning.’
The proposal is for dark blue tie which will sport not
just one temple bar motif but multiple copies at a
reduced size as illustrated above. This has the
advantage that it can usefully be made into bow ties as
well. The Clerk would welcome you advice (if you
have not already given it) as to whether you might be
interested in purchasing one or other of the proposed
new ties at the bargain price of £12.50 each.
www.architects-livery-company.org 8
The Company goes e-llectric

The Company started off into this new electronic world of publicity in 2002 by creating its first web page.
http://www.architects-livery-company.org/ This simple and static site contains much data and contact details, and started to
open the Company up to the world; to create a presence on the web's computer screens.

The long web-site name - a bit hard to remember with its two hyphens and .org suffix - was found to be necessary as the
initials WCCA came up as i) Web Cartoonists Choice Award, ii) Wisconsin Circuit Court Access or iii) Worcester Commun-
ity Cable Access and so on....in a Google search. And the full name:
THEWORSHIPFULCOMPANYOFCHARTEREDARCHITECTSOFTHECITYOFLONDON.co.uk seemed excessive.

This first step into the this digital world started to show that much of the expensive and often out-dated printed material,
until then required to operate the Company, might be duplicated electronically and, at some point in the future, replaced
entirely by electronic information using the world-wide-web to disseminate all data and publicity about the Company.

By 2004 the Company's Clerk was widely using e-mail to circulate documents to members of the Livery, although this was
not yet able to be the sole method of publicity, as some members with lesser computer skills continued to request paper
documentation. The poor Learnéd Clerk, tantalised by a much simpler method that reduced his labours, found that he was
now required to run two parallel systems. The efficiency advantage of a completely electronic system still eludes him. As
paper dissemination of WCCA information had been narrowly within the Company itself, and was invisible to others the
wider world, the paper method did not have the possibility of being a 'shop window' for the Company, presenting us to the
wider world. It is surely strategically important that the Company's activities should be more transparent both to the
profession and to the public wider world, so that the 'private gents club' impression of all the City's Livery Companies - and
the WCCA - can be diminished. This negative impression is, we feel, particularly non-magnetic to culture of the typical
architect; rarely a 'clubber'.

For the WCCA this electrification process is a big cultural change and we are still at the beginning of the transition to a more
visible and active public portrayal of the activities of the Company.

Static web sites started to be eclipsed by web-logs (or 'blogs') - a sort of easy-to-update electronic diary - from about 2006.
Blogs were in the main conceived by journalists as a way of speeding up day-to-day publication onto the web. Inputting data
had been a very cumbersome task using pure web-site programs such as Dreamweaver.
Suddenly with this new generation of software it became really practical to record the actions and activities of the Company
and inform the membership while simultaneously publicising the activities of the Company.

By 2007 the giant company Google - among many others companies - was offering a blog service that offered free 'hosting'
of the contents and supplied software to create the blog; all from out there in the e-ther. This type of remote operation is
called, we understand, 'cloud computing', where the entire program software and data are held remote from the actual
machines of the operators.

The WCCA blog http://architects-livery-company.blogspot.com/ was started in September 2007 and has developed a lot
since that time. Most of the activities of the Company are illustrated and the members of the Livery are progressively using
it as the first choice for contact to the Company and its administration. We hope that its up-to-date contents are useful to
the membership and show a dynamic picture of our activities to the wider world. We hope to enlarge widen the
contributors to the content and would encourage anyone who is interested to send in any material they think might be
published on it. In the first instance send any such content to: wccaclerk@blueyonder.co.uk

David Cole-Adams
The Clerk
The Worshipful Company of Chatered Archotects
82A Muswell Hill Road
London N10 3JR
www.architects-livery-company.org
www.architects-livery-company.blogspot.com

www.architects-livery-company.org 9