I am writing a paper on the use and performance of inverted roofs in the UK, since the late 70's, early 1980‘s, if you have any information, project details, drawings, building knowledge of inverted roof, and don't forget, they were also known as green roofs, upside down roofs, protected membrane roofs, Dow roofs, Styrofoam roofs, Roofmate SL, or Roofmate lg roofs, I would be eternally grateful and list your contribution.

I have looked all over the net for similar papers and no luck, I know studies were done, but perhaps so long ago they are not digital.

The inverted roof as I originally knew it was little known in the early days, but grew in popularity due to it's detailing and workability, and over all performance. It's uniform thermal performance, together with the improved condensation risk analysis, was and still is a major plus for this style of roof.

I was for many years the technical man for styrofoam and helped many an Architectural practice detail and specify inverted roofs, together with helping in some trials across the globe, so have some background knowledge, but now I am no longer with Dow, and I thought it might be time to do an impartial review of some of these roofs and see just how they have faired, if they are still there that is.

Dow was not the only producer of Extruded Polystyrene, several other manufacturers were also involved, such as Styrodure, the green product and Polyfoam, the pink product, with some imported yellow products from Italy.

I am looking for old pictures, video, or manufacturers literature, site addresses, clients what ever, that might help.

The overall goal of the project is to look at a variety of roofs and see how they have faired over almost 30 years, from the initial look of the roof, to the detailing, surface topping, drainage, maintenance, and the materials them selves, has the foam performed, did the roof membrane work as thought, and more important perhaps, did the structure and membrane cope with the increased load.

The CPD for me here is vast, I will have to spend a lot of time in research, looking at old roofs and if I can taking samples, collating information and photos.

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I am writing a paper on the use and performance of inverted roofs in the UK, since the late 70's, early 1980‘s, if you have any information, project details, drawings, building knowledge of inverted roof, and don't forget, they were also known as green roofs, upside down roofs, protected membrane roofs, Dow roofs, Styrofoam roofs, Roofmate SL, or Roofmate lg roofs, I would be eternally grateful and list your contribution.

I have looked all over the net for similar papers and no luck, I know studies were done, but perhaps so long ago they are not digital.

The inverted roof as I originally knew it was little known in the early days, but grew in popularity due to it's detailing and workability, and over all performance. It's uniform thermal performance, together with the improved condensation risk analysis, was and still is a major plus for this style of roof.

I was for many years the technical man for styrofoam and helped many an Architectural practice detail and specify inverted roofs, together with helping in some trials across the globe, so have some background knowledge, but now I am no longer with Dow, and I thought it might be time to do an impartial review of some of these roofs and see just how they have faired, if they are still there that is.

Dow was not the only producer of Extruded Polystyrene, several other manufacturers were also involved, such as Styrodure, the green product and Polyfoam, the pink product, with some imported yellow products from Italy.

I am looking for old pictures, video, or manufacturers literature, site addresses, clients what ever, that might help.

The overall goal of the project is to look at a variety of roofs and see how they have faired over almost 30 years, from the initial look of the roof, to the detailing, surface topping, drainage, maintenance, and the materials them selves, has the foam performed, did the roof membrane work as thought, and more important perhaps, did the structure and membrane cope with the increased load.

The CPD for me here is vast, I will have to spend a lot of time in research, looking at old roofs and if I can taking samples, collating information and photos.

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I have used so many different todo list, so often I forget they are there, but finally I have found a way that suites my work style, in that I send myself or copy client letters to Evernote and put an alarm on it for action, it simple and I have all the info I need, I use blind copy so my Evernote email address remains private. No paper, no additional work having to re enter info, just a copy to Evernote and a quick transfer to slide the note across to add the alarm, excellent, and it's available on all my devises.

I have also made notes in Evernote, just so that it acts as a reminder when I set the date option, I then set up this and other files with a specific tab that's only for this link, like 159934, which happens to be a job number of a job.

The photo today is of a building on Edmond Street, Birmingham that has been preserved as new buildings have replaced much of the older, with this exception.

Look at the brickwork, the joints are so fine, and the bonding neat.

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No blog yesterday, I spent it installing hanging basket brackets onto the rear wall of our house, which involved drilling the wall and screwing the brackets up with external quality screws. No CPD here I thought, as I trailed the drill cable across the patio. But perhaps there is, because it made me think of the various screw types I could have used, I wanted brass screws but my local shop was having none of it, not even black japanned domes head screws, just a bland “External” none descript package with the screw size in inches no screw size, and I was what I call a Philips screw head, described on the package as none slip !.

The guy behind the counter was not an ironmonger, he knew that was all they had, and offered no comment or help. Compared to the old shop I used to go to, now no longer there, with an old guy who new every screw in existence and their use, after interrogation on the screws use, and what i would be fixing and into what, he would pull open a draw and ask how many, not this should do and here is a packet of 10, that or nothing.

Still job done, basket hangers in place ready for some serious planting to day, even the weather will not stop me as I can use the cover of the garage to fill the tubs, hanging baskets and pots.

Have you noticed that trying to record more than 2 different channels on a sky box, and watching a third, is not allowed, we have several different films we want to record for later viewing, but two max, is annoying, ok we have two sky box's so in theory we can record 4 different program's at the same time which today is being tested, so why just two, per box, and why can't I see both box's on the sky iPad app.

Today's photo is of the beer board in the “old contemptables” pub in Livery street, Birmingham, I had lunch there with my father on Friday, bombadere and a hot beef sarni, nice.

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It's been a while since I mentioned Andrew Warren and the ACE Association, but a recent report might be of interest, where Andrew looks at the energy efficiency of electrical consumption in the products we use at home.

Read through the article it's not bad, look at the numbers they are staggering. This is well worth an hour of CPD, there is plenty to follow up on, the Chinese dam, the three gorges, is particularly interesting in the output, verses the savings that can be made by efficiency standard for just fridges and air conditioners.

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Last night I attended Jon Pickups online lesson for Vectorworks, this one was a tips and trips event, and Jon struggled to get all he wanted to say within the hour, we went to over an hour and a half, some of this was down to simple chat, the audience was from all over the Globe, USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and NewZeeland.

A massive time difference that worked very well, I watched on my iPad, via my hotel wifi, and was even able to comment and talk to all the others, really clever.

But it was the small tips that were the topic, and Jon sent through a whole raft of little tips, some I knew, but several I had forgotten.

For me, this was a massive 1 1/2 CPD and led to several hours of research, ie I practised some of the tips after the lesson.

The benefit of using the iPad is the ability to take an instant screen snap of any point, and several times I had to ask Jon to stop or hold a screen whilst I took a shot, but, and it's that word again Jon has recorded the show and it's live on his learn site.

Today it's the final day for the External Examiners for Northumbria University, and we report to the Exam board, which I am very pleased to say will be very positive.

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Today I am in Newcastle acting as an External examiner, more on this after I have finished the two days here in Newcastle, but I thought I would share with you my observations on the bathroom and it's detailing, and in particular the shower, good though it looks, the detailing in reflection is pretty poor.

First lets look at the way it's designed, with a flat floor with no step, and a drainage strip in front of the doorway, nice looking tiles and a glass screen.

The flat floor is nice, I do like these showers, but, and it's that word again, but, it's very badley thought out, the water flood past the drainage strip and drains into the main bathroom, the only way to stop it is a barrage of towels, next the shower control is not under the actual hose, but at the other end, !! The glass is nice but the shower floor is so badly laid it's the only stop for water which naturally falls towards it, and as the shower is not bad in terms of water output, a large volume gathers against the glass and it naturally snaps under the frame into the bathroom area.

The strip drain should have been in the centre with all the shower area falling towards it with a joint line at the entrance. And defiantly the shower control should have been under the hose.

The tiling is nice but again I would have liked to see the tiles laid out correctly, it's a little lopsided and early in the morning it's just upsetting.

Over all it's a nice try, with just a little thought this would have worked, but now they have a major flood problem every time the shower is used, and it not just me, the plaster at the corner of the shower entrance is now Spaulding and repairs with paint have been ongoing, so this in not new.

There is no simple repair, the drain outlet looks good but is almost ineffective. Residents I presume, let it flood or do as I did and use towels to stop the flow. But in the long term removing the floor and relaying correctly is really the only proper repair.

I have uploaded more photos of this bathroom to my Flickr account. The CPD here is obvious, first it's observation, next it's the realisation of the bad detailing and putting it right, I made notes on my moleskin and will upload this to Evernote for future use.

Tonight Jon Pickup has an online event, this time it's Vectorworks tip and tricks, I hope the hotel wifi is up to the task, I spoke online with Jon via Skype and it looked ok, so fingers crossed I will have a very enjoyable hour updating my Vectorworks skills, as Jon always say, unless your using these tip daily you tend to forget.

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You all know my interest in Vectorworks, it's my primary CAD package and I have invested a lot of money in, so I am particularly please to show the full press release I got from Nemetschek yesterday evening.

BIM is going to, if not already is, a major force in Architecture, and I am very please to see this compliance.

I shall be hosting a hangout for West Midlands Architectural practices next Wednesday morning at 8:30 am to discus this and other BIM related uses within Vectorworks, please join us, the event is up on Google Plus, look for me, Steve Scaysbrook, or follow in YouTube again under Steve Scaysbrook. I'll mention it nearer the time to remind you.

But until then please read the press notice it's good.

=======================

Vectorworks 2013 Software Achieves Certification for IFC Coordination View 2.0

The Certified IFC Export will be Available to Customers with the Release of a Service Pack this month

Columbia, Md. (June 10, 2013) – Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. is pleased to announce that Vectorworks Architect software has achieved certification from buildingSMART International for the BIM data exchange standard IFC 2×3 Coordination View 2.0.

The IFC Certification 2.0 procedure requires BIM software vendors to pass new, more comprehensive and rigorous tests with the intent of promoting consistent and reliable interoperability across all the participating certified BIM programs.

“This certification is one more step in our commitment to supporting Open BIM workflows for our customers,” said Sean Flaherty, CEO of Nemetschek Vectorworks. “We understand the importance of offering dependable collaboration in balance with design freedom, analysis tools and documentation capabilities so that all stakeholders in a project can easily work together.”

Managed by buildingSMART International, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is a neutral exchange format, not controlled by any single software vendor. As such, it provides a robust way to exchange BIM models between various software programs.

With this certification, Vectorworks Architect has demonstrated support for IFC Export, based on the Coordination View 2.0 and supporting the Architecture Exchange Requirements. IFC Interfaces are delivered with Vectorworks Architect and automatically installed, as they are fully integrated into the software.

The certified Coordination View 2.0 IFC Export will be available with Vectorworks Architect 2013 Service Pack 4, which will be released this month.

For more information about buildingSMART International and IFC, please visit: http://www.buildingsmart.org.

About Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc.

Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nemetschek Group and has been developing software since 1985. The Vectorworks line of software products provides professional design solutions for more than 450,000 designers in the AEC, entertainment and landscape design industries. With a tradition of designing flexible, versatile, intuitive and affordable CAD and BIM solutions, Nemetschek Vectorworks continues to be a global leader in 3D design technologies. For more information, visit www.vectorworks.net.

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Did you watch the Apple show last night, I did, both on my iPhone and when I got home from a CIAT meet. All I can say is can I really wait until Sept or Oct, or as they kept on saying “Fall”

As I use Apple almost exclusively from email, through to calendar and address book on my MacBookPro I have a vested interest in what Apple does or says, and last night I liked what I heard, a move into the future. Jonny Ive has done it again and applied himself to a stunning interface.

Did you see the new Mac Pro desktop machine ooooow, got to have one of those, rendering and waiting is a thing of the past.

I was a little surprised he did not take the stage, but there again his presence would have upstaged every one.

So today I have to measure the depth of a pond, to measure the volume of water needed to empty it ready for cleaning and mud removal, that latter I suspect being the more operative word.

CPD in the Apple story is in the need to sit and review your office workflow, I see no change to mine, the tagging of files might be interesting, but not at this stage life changing, more its a case of nice and the house has been cleared ready, but for what, IOS 7 certainly looks good, and multi tasking is certainly worth the hype, but so is the battery enhancemen, and what about the New Mac OS.

My question is do I wait until the fall for a new iPhone or just do it now.

Today's photo is the view down into the lower floors of the atrium of Millennium Point at Birmingham City Uni, with the new I made Birmingham exhibition.

See my blogs later today for new of Vectorworks and BIM, it's realy good news.

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For a while, I have been looking into the art of being a futurist, there have been many good example in the past, H.G.Well was a prime example with his classic book , “The Shape of Things to Come, he mostly got it right, and if you want a good read, find it on Amazon or one of the free sites.

Why might you be asking have I ventured into this crystal ball gazing, well for a long time it's been obvious to me that the past and present, gives many signs as to what might be the future, not so much in where the next cheque is coming from, more ideas for materials and services.

I have been part of several great product developments in my time, products that I think changed construction, from shiplap cavity wall boards, to the pitched roof insulation board, and the resulting breather membrane.

We're these product part of my futurist thoughts, not really, they just came because of a need, a present day development.

OFuturist's look for clues way of into the future, I remember once being asked to bring 10 ideas to the table, cold, it's an impossible task, but given some time, this becomes easier as you look at trends, signs and possibilities.

Lists or ideas don't just appear, they evolve, they take time to formulate, they need work, massage, to develop them into a workable scenario, asking for 10 ideas now is a complete waste of time.

So drop into my new site Konstrukshon Foresight every now and then and see what I write about, it's mostly about material development, what do I think will be the next generation of building materials, and why. CPD is here, I have not always worked in an Architects office, for 14 years I was the Technical guy for the Dow chemical Company, and trying to develop new products was part of the job.

Today's photo is about the Birmingham Botanical garden I look after, drawing wise, it a great historical book, looking back over the history of the site, the characters and celebs that have attended, and more important the plants.

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