MIKE MAKES SPACE IN HIS LIFE FOR ALPACAS

Mike Douglas with two of his alpacas at his farm near Hexham, Northumberland.

THE executive chairman of Space Group is turning his thoughts from architecture to alpacas as he takes semi-retirement after spending almost four decades with the top Tyneside firm.

Mike Douglas, who has worked for Newcastle-based Space Group (formerly known as Waring and Netts) since 1972, is stepping down from his role as executive chairman to devote more time to his 88-acre alpaca farm at Fallowfield near Hexham, Northumberland.

From January, Mike will take on a consultancy position as non executive chairman of the business to spend more time developing his alpaca and fleece business with wife Melanie, breeding a top quality herd with world class Australian bloodlines and genetics.

The ultra-fine and soft alpaca fleece produced by Fallowfield Alpacas is processed and turned into yarn, which is then made into a range of products from children’s clothing to duvets and pillows.

Another web-based business, selling high end designer baby and children’s clothes from alpaca, is being planned for launch in autumn 2010.

Mike, who became a partner in 1985 and chairman of Space Group in 2007 when it was incorporated, said: “During my time as an architect I have worked on a wide range of projects including Blyth Community Hospital, Newcastle Hospitals PFI and the recently completed Redcar Community Hospital.

“In 2008, the business successfully rebranded to Space Group and in the last 10 years we have seen controlled organic growth, opening offices in Leeds and Manchester, and completing projects across the UK as part of the strategic drive towards being a national market leader.

“The business is in good shape with a strong brand and culture, led by a talented and focussed team, and I feel the time is now right for me to step back to allow more time to pursue other interests and spend more time with my wife and family.

“As well as the alpacas, I will also be supporting the running of our five star luxury B and B, which has had a successful first year, and will hopefully find enough time between all this to play some tennis and catch a few salmon in the Tyne.”

Space Group chief executive Rob Charlton said: “Mike’s contribution to the business over the last 37 years has been considerable and while we are sad that he is stepping back, we are thrilled he’s agreed to stay on with us in a non-executive capacity, not least so we can keep up with what’s going on at the farm with those alpacas.”

LOCAL KIDS RECIEVE CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM SPACE

Space Group’s Christmas Giving Tree with presents for disadvantaged youngsters from Children North East.

ARCHITECTURAL firm Space Group is hoping to lift disadvantaged kids ‘out of this world’ by delivering special Christmas gifts.

As part of Space Group’s Christmas ‘giving tree’ scheme, talent manager Diane Charlton gave each of Space’s 140 employees a gift tag with the name, age and interests of a child helped by Children North East.

Each person was then given a budget of £10 to spend on a Christmas present.

Space Group has supported the region’s oldest children’s charity Children North East for many years. It is currently volunteering its services in-kind by designing and building a new youth drop-in centre for the charity - The West End Youth Enquiry Service (WEYES), and every year it arranges the ‘Think Pink’ ball for the charity.

Space Group talent manager Diane Charlton said: “Space Group has always championed Children North East because of the excellent work they do for disadvantaged children within the region.

“Our Christmas ‘giving tree’ is a great way for all our people to give Christmas presents to children not so fortunate at this time of year. We all can’t wait for the excuse to go shopping for a special child whose Christmas would otherwise be a bit grim.”

Children North East’s Carol Taylor said: ‘We are very thankful to Space Group for all its support over the years. Their gifts this Christmas will be cheerfully received by the children and put a smile on their faces over the festive season.”

Children North East was formed in 1891 and is the longest running children’s charity in the North East.

The organisation manages a number of diverse, region-wide community-based projects from Northumberland to Teesside.

The charity aims to enable children and young people to reach their full potential and to ease the pressures that life’s inequalities can bring.

"MY SCHOOL IS LIKE A FUNFAIR"

STUDENTS and teachers from two Middlesbrough schools have teamed up with an architectural practice to create a ‘wish list’ of design ideas for their new secondary school.

Newcastle-based Space Group is in the running to become the appointed architect to design a new building for the soon to be amalgamated Hall Garth and King’s Manor school under the Council’s Building Schools for the Future project.

Hall Garth and King’s Manor schools will be amalgamated from September 2010. Earlier this year, Middlesbrough Council ran a school competition seeking proposals to run the new school. Endeavour Educational Trust was selected and a new principal, Michael Hutton, was appointed in October 2009.

The new school has a working name of Acklam Base – a new name will be chosen in 2010.

To start the design stage of the project, Space Group held a ‘design festival’ for 16 students and a selection of staff from both schools to get their thoughts on how they would like their new school to look and function.

The design festival was broken up into an afternoon session for the students and an evening sitting for the teaching staff and members of the community.

Both workshops included activities such as a ‘Wish Wall’ where the students answered the question ‘I wish my school was…’ and posted their answers onto the wall.

There was also a ‘Smiley Wall’ where they voted for their favourite examples of different school designs using smiley face stickers.

The session also included a ‘Metaphor Tree’ where the students thought of what sort of things their new school could be compared with. Some of the answers generated interesting results not immediately obvious for a school environment but no less stimulating for the architect. Examples included, ‘like a funfair’ and ‘like a funky rainbow’.

The information gained at the design festival will now be collated into a report and presented to Middlesbrough Council’s BSF Team.

Andrew Grounsell, lead architect on the project and associate director at Space Group, said: “The design festival was held as an engagement session to gain opinions and ideas on the new school design from all stakeholders. We always aim to get this community engagement from the start of any new project.

“This is obviously the very early stages of the development, but we would certainly take all design concepts into consideration and strike a happy medium between the opinions of the children and those of the teachers – which, by comparison, were very different. We will be looking to capture the idea of a funky rainbow in our design proposals.

“We were very open minded before we went into the design festival and had no pre conceptions about what everyone would have to say about the new layout and the overall look and feel. The students seized the opportunity to put their ideas forward and one of the strong themes that came across was the sense of togetherness and community spirit that they both wanted to gain from the new school.

“From Space Group’s perspective, as a firm that prides itself on creating sustainable communities that makes people’s lives better, this was a hugely rewarding day.”

The plans for the school will be developed early in 2010 and announced by the spring of 2010. The new school is due to be complete by summer of 2012.

Information on the BSF project is available on the council website, www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/bsf.

Space T-Shirts Go... to the British Virgin Islands

Kevin Drysdale from BCQS in the British Virgin Islands became the next person to wear the Space Group Tee, while standing in front of the BVI’s new Courts of Justice.

Kevin said "It’s one of the first buildings in the islands to do VRV systems, an excellent example of what an integrated design team working together can do.

"As you walk down the main street in Road Town, it certainly jumps out at you as one of the largest, handsomest buildings on the island, and I'm proud to have worked on it."

Christmas in Space...

The beginnings of our fantastic Christmas tree, at Space Works in Newcastle...

More pictures to follow!