About

This blog is intended to partly dig into my portfolio of buildings and experiences over the years but particularly looks at a recent project that I was heavily involved with over 2007/8 and 9 – that being the new Vodafone superoffice at Etruria Valley – Stoke on Trent UK. There are lots of great diagrams and big pictures to look at and hope you may be as interested in them as I was doing the projects. I am an Architect currently based in the UK with 27 years of experience working on all kinds of building design projects from convention centres to warehouses and bespoke headquarters offices in various parts of the world  since leaving University in 1984. Designing and managing the building process is only part of what I do .When at PTP between 1987 and 1999 I ended up as  Director in the Hong Kong office and on my  return to UK – left PTP  to run and manage another office in Birmingham for Chetwoods until 2006. My last corporate employer was RPS Plc as Design /Technical director up until  mid September 2009 . Since then I have been working clientside getting involved in energy efficient and passivhaus commercial design in public and private sector. Have got involved in estates management currently Since then I have worked in the estates department of the University of Leicester until Feb 2012 – In March 2012 I joined   Center Parcs as part of their new building asset team and worked on several new and innovative projects within the Centerparcs estate.  I am acting as consultant to DAPArchitecture in Birmingham UK whilst also pursuing other business ventures .-Alan James Mcbeth- Barch Dip Arch  -Studied at Edinburgh College of Art 1979-84 – email – amcbeth@hotmail.co.uk OR alan.mcbeth@mcbethdesign.com WEBSITE – www.mcbethdesign.com mob – +44 (0)7507 963668 I have 3 kids who have now grown up. Over the last 11 years I have become fascinated with simple 3D design tools like sketch-up and am now designing , tendering and constructing on site using this tool. I like using sketchup because its cheap , fast and can interface with many other programmes (and I as the designer use it -hands-on!!)- If you know how to use it – it is a great alternative to all these other expensive 3D programmes out there and its getting more interest from serious designers as time moves on. I even use it for estimating costs , designing lighting with plug-ins and with IES you can even almost mimic what revit can do but with far less fuss. DONT FORGET TO LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF BLOG PAGE  – PREVIOUS OR NEXT PAGE TO REVEAL MORE PICTURES. The photo above is courtesy of the photographer http://www.edmundsumner.co.uk Note – ‘mcbethdesign’ is not a company it is purely a web address to display design work.