WHAT_architecture believes, thanks to the practice-based research being undertaken with the RMiT, it has developed a management model that operates less like an architectural practice and more like a football club. It’s one of player rotation, controlled injury-free deadlines and performance based metrics where the goal comes not from client patrimony but self-build projects. This requires a lot of movement: practice makes perfect! This week included one Transfer Deadline Day: 1st September. This is a football term representing a “transfer window, the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other countries into their playing staff'”according to Wiki. In 2014, the biggest news of TDD / the transfer window was the transfer of Radamel Falcao from Monaco to Manchester United. For £6m. Now £6m is a lot of money. In architecture, £6m will buy you the built 127sho_Shoreditch Station which would consist of 7 flats and 4 commercial spaces in the heart of Shoreditch. With Ace finishing, this represents a fantastic project. In footballing terms, £6m will buy you a 2-bedroom-East-London-flat type-of-player: sexy, promising but a long way from the end game. Manchester also paid in the transfer window £60M for Angel Di Maria. Okay so Falcao was a Loan (from Monaco) and Di Maria was a Purchase (from Madrid). Nonetheless the purchase needs to out-perform the loan 10x to qualify the expenditure. In architecture if the annual rent paid for anything (a flat, an office, a car? Well let’s see) was just 1/6 of the purchase we would never rent, but always seek to buy. This undoubtedly priorities lending. In football, a loan player apparently has less value (culturally, commercially) than a bought player>>> Unedited / memo TBC…. 8:{])

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