We're Hiring: Studio Manager

We are looking for a friendly, intelligent, dedicated and creative person to join our team in the role of practice manager. Supporting the founding director, you will take care of admin and finance as well as assisting with business development and marketing. The role will be based in our studio for the majority of the time – ideally 10-2, Monday to Friday, with some flexibility to WFH.

The role will include the following:

  • finance support – bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing and management of HR, setting and monitoring studio budget

  • admin – making sure that our team have all they need to work effectively

  • team management – ensuring timesheets are up to date, projects are on track

  • business development – helping to write fee proposals and pitches for new business

  • marketing – assisting with the periodic outreach to existing and potential clients, website maintenance, promotional activities

We are a small firm but we think big and want to make a difference through our work. Our success is defined by the quality and attitude of our people. While we are looking for experience and professionalism, in equal part we are looking for someone who will come on board with the practice’s ethos and ambition. A positive, can-do attitude is essential.

If you think this sounds like you please submit a short letter outlining why you think you would be a good fit for the role via Dezeen Jobs. Please attach a CV.

Applications close 16 October. No agencies please.

Women in Lighting: See the Light, Feel the Light

Maria Favoino's first article for Design Insider is live! This month, Maria discusses how light allows us to see and, more importantly, feel.

“Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.”

You can read Maria's article 'Women in Lighting: See the Light, Feel the Light, here. Next month, Maria plans to address lighting and interiors, which we’ll be sharing as soon as it’s published.

Supporting STEM in Primary School Education

I know I’m not alone in thinking that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is going to be the key to answering many of the challenges that the world and society face now and into the future.

I have some experience of education - in part through being a governor at a local primary school but more so through parenting three children. One thing that I have observed is that children are forced to do their maths and science at school and yet see few examples of where these skills will become relevant in the real world (aside from perhaps becoming a maths teacher!).

Our lighting design studio 18 Degrees is based at Here East in East London. One of the things that is great about Here East is the diversity of institutions that are based here - from small companies such as ours through to larger firms, broadcasters, arts institutions and educators. The thing that we all have in common is a connection to STEM in one way or another.

Last week I had the opportunity to bring 90 children from Rhodes Avenue Primary School to Here East to show them some STEM in action. We saw robots, funky architectural models and the lighting lab with an artificial sky at UCL. We had the kids wearing Oculus Rift VR headsets, we saw industrial scale 3D printing at Hobs Repro. In Plexal we were inspired by a talk from Grimshaw about the art and science of #architecture. The underlying message in all of this is that maths and science should not be seen as those lessons that you’re made to do whether you like it or not; but the gateway to a career doing something really cool, hanging out with interesting people in a hotbed of innovation and creativity such as what we have here at Plexal and Here East.

Feedback from the children: “I definitely want to do STEM when I leave school”. From one of the mums who came along to help on the day “I wonder if it’s too late to retrain as an architect?”.

Special thanks to those who made this day possible: Andrew Roughan Henry Turner Steven Kennedy Peter Raynham Edward Barrett Denis Delaney.