The Day Before #The Kidney Donation

This is a quick picture post of Dad, Me and his girls Elissa (on his knee,my niece) and my two girls Olivia and Ava. We are sporting the T-shirts proudly provided by Yorkhill Children's Foundation.

As I am writing this I just wanted you all to know that I am very humbled by everyone's support and well wishes.

I am also amazed at the number of people who have also contacted me to wish us well and then explained how Kidney Problems have effected either themsleves or someone that they know. It's really quite a common problem, much more so that one would initially think...

Anyway I am feeling well and I am in the right mind. Dad never slept last night but I surely did and I will sleep well tonight. Follow our updates at www.facebook.com/blockarchitects or www.facebook.com/feelfabfaster.

If you have yet to do so you can also donate through www.justgiving.com/kenneth-martin

The Kidney Donation - Art Auction Raising Funds For Yorkhill Children's Foundation,Glasgow

Jack Frame - 'Spring Blossom Looking Toward Glasgow'

The Auction...

This is your opportunity to obtain a fascinating oil painting 'Spring Blossom Looking Toward Glasgow' which is very kindly donated to our fundraising cause by Mr Jack Frame. Thank You Jack. This is immense. Please read on and I will tell you how to bid...

All proceeds from the eventual winner will top up our fundraising pot for Yorkhill Hospital, all in association with my forthcoming kidney donation on 25th August 2010. I am looking to get bids in excess of its Value of £895. For the eventual lucky winner ‘The Studio Fine Art Company’ will provide the provenance & valuation as well as a photo opportunity with Jack himself…

More About The Artist...

A sell-out star at Glasgow School of Art’s degree show in 2007, Jack Frame has been building steadily on this early promise, working through his fascination with trees and the natural world as a metaphor for the bigger picture.

Still in his mid-20s, Frame, who was shortlisted for the prestigious Jolomo Award for Landscape Painting in 2009, is hotly tipped to become one of Scotland’s most collectable contemporary artists. An exhibition of the finalists work, including Jack’s will be taking place in London this September.

Frame has just completed a successful showing of his work at the RGI Gallery in Glasgow this August and thereafter will be taking up the post of Artist in Residence at The Studio Fine Art Company, Glasgow’s newest contemporary Gallery in Bath Street http://www.thestudiofineart.com/ where his work will be on permanent exhibition. At the Gallery you will have the opportunity to meet Jack Frame and as well as the exhibited work you can commission a more personal piece from the artist himself. Please read on and I will tell you how to bid...

How To Bid...

The Auction will close on the morning of the operation ie 9:00am on the 25th August 2010. I will probably be in theatre by then! We would invite all interested parties to leave ther name and email address in the 'comment' section below. We would kindly ask for £50 bids to get us started.

Alternatively if you cannot for any reason access the comments section below please contact me personally by email and I will had your bid for you.

Finally, thank you for your interest and if anyone wishes to see the painting prior to bidding I am happy to say that I currently have it displayed at home and that I will happily allow a viewing and a coffee or wine.

PLEASE POST YOUR BIDS NOW BELOW.

Thank You on behalf of myself and Yorkhill Children's Foundation

#thekidneydonation - Raising Money For Yorkhill Children's Foundation

Meet Lucas - We Want You To Help Him...

22 month old Lucas suffers from a rare bone disease.... To Read more please click on the link to find out how Yorkhill Children's Foundation help and assists kids like ours...


To understand how your donations will help kids like Lucas please click here


I've just put our two healthy daughter's to bed. Lucas is not quite so fortunate. Please donate now to our charity via www.justgiving.com/kenneth-martin

Kenneth Martin is fundraising for Yorkhill Children's Foundation

Kenneth Martin is fundraising for Yorkhill Children's Foundation

On the 25th August 2010, I will donate a kidney to a man (my dad) which all going well will afford him the luxury of participating in the lives of his 3 young grand daughters. It will also afford my 2 daughters Olivia and Ava, and my young niece Elissa with the luxury of knowing that their papa can now do simple things with them like take them to the swimming baths.

In order to afford this luxury to others, our family have decided to raise funds both pre and post operation to assist Yorkhill Children's Charity. Our proceeds will assist other families and children with renal difficulties and offer them some hope with their troubles.

Dig Deep now and visit our donation page at Just Giving

I will be in hopsital for approximately 1 week and have been told to 'take it easy' for a few weeks afterwards. If anyone has any daring activities that they would like to see me participate in post operation then please contact us on our facebook page

Establishing The Boundaries Of Your Plot #Ask The Architect

Here's an interesting one. How do you establish the boundaries of a plot?

A quick tip is that the red line or thick line on your Title Deed often relates to markers on an Ordinance Survey plan. These are typically visible on site. You need to be aware that in our experience Ordinance Survey Plans can be inaccurate ie I have at times seen them being out by 700mm. It's quite excessive isn't it?

Solicitors always panic about getting the correct title plan shown however the reality is the 1:1250 scale on a Title Plan really is not sufficient to accurately locate a boundary on site particularly if the site is in the middle of a field.

What prompted this post was simply that I have returned from a site where a field was being carved into 3 plots all of equal width. Or so we thought. The 1st plot is built and the boundary line is established and correct to the title, however when we measure our Client's title it would appear that the plot owner immediately adjacent has positioned his timber post 800mm into our site. I have measured this several times in both directions across the site and checked the overall outline dimensions of all 3 plots and there is no doubt about it, the adjacent plot is incorrectly defined. So what to do now?

Well as an Architect I often need to remember that I am dealing with my Client's future neighbours therefor a polite call asking for a brief meeting on site and mentioning (without being inflamatory) where I thought the problem lay is sufficient to get all parties out to site to discuss.

Remember if you are scaling from a 1:1250 Title Plan it is very easy to be 100mm out. Always seek professional advice.

Bertie Auld In The News!

On behalf of everyone here at block architects we would like to wish our Client Mr Bertie Auld , Celtic Legend, every success with both his health and his planning application.

Read more here

#Ask The Architect - Heating Scottish Homes

Here we are again with the second #AskTheArchitect (follow this on twitter or follow me @blockarchitects) post.

The Question posted is: 'Why can't we contain the summer heat and re-use it in the winter months?' and this particular question related to housing in Scotland.

It's an interesting question because it taps into the current push by the Scottish Government and EU regarding reducing carbon output.

The fact is that there are many new products on the market place all of which are working towards reducing the carbon footprint of new and used houses. I today saw a VPhase product which regulates the power supply to a house saving £75-£100 a year on electricity costs and it can be fitted to existing houses. This can be fitted by KCC Electrical, Glenrothes

I am not aware that it is possible to store heat for several months in advance but if anyone knows differently then I would love to chat with them. We do however have Air Source Heat Exchangers which are powered by photovoltaics or solar panel on the roof. The energy from the sun powers a motor which extracts heat contained within the house and the recirculates this into an underfloor heating system. Certainly the heat is being recirculated and in theory reduces the running costs however, if we could invent a way for buildings to store heat in the summer and displace this in the winter...well, the inventor will I am sure be a very rich man.

I do not wish anyone to think that block architects are specialists in environmental design as it's an industry which is revolving and moving fast, however I can assure everyone that we are meeting many leading industry professionals with a view to getting this knowledge rooted within our design process.

Comments welcome at the bottom of the blog.