Inside Innovation: BDP's Justin Parsons Talks Transformative Design

Show Notes

Dive into the world of architecture at BDP with Justin Parsons, the creative force behind some of the most innovative retail and residential spaces across the globe. 

With a hand in shaping the future of cities from London to Beijing and a keen eye on nurturing the next generation of designers, Justin's journey is a testament to the impact of thoughtful design on our daily lives. 

Expect insights into recent projects alongside the importance of mentorship in architecture and interior design. 

📐 Curated content, insights and opportunities to accelerate your career in Architecture, Design, Development and Real Estate to the next level.

💻 Find out more at https://www.architecturesocial.com

Creators & Guests

Host

Stephen Drew

Hello! I’m Stephen Drew, Founder of the Architecture Social—an online community and resource hub dedicated to helping professionals in Architecture, Design, Development, and Real Estate advance their careers. I’m here to connect you with insights, tools, and opportunities that lead to meaningful growth, whether you’re just starting out or ready to take that next big step.

What is Architecture Social?

Curated content, insights and opportunities designed to elevate careers and strengthen teams in Architecture and Design.

Inside Innovation_ BDP_s Justin Parsons Talks Transformative Design
===

Stephen Drew: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Evening crew. Let's go. Multidisciplinary. What does that mean? We'll find out now. Architecture, interiors, engineers, all this cool stuff collaborating. It does happen under one roof actually in Farringdon if you believe it or not, just finding my bell Here we go.

Hello everyone and welcome to this live stream special I am super excited you're here because I have an awesome guest like I said if you've ever thought about What does multidisciplinary mean? We're going to dive deep into that because we've got the awesome, I can't even say architecture practice, [00:01:00] but they do architecture, interior, engineering, all that.

cool stuff, even acoustics.

You might have heard of the word BDP and from PDP, building design partnership. I think that's the correct term. We had, we, yeah, perfect. I've got it right. That's a good start. I wouldn't want to get it wrong. But I've got an awesome guest with me. I've got Justin Parson, who's a design director. Justin, how are you this evening?

And welcome to the show.

Justin Parsons: Thank you and I'm very well. Thanks, Stephen. Delighted to be here. Thanks for the invitation.

Stephen Drew: I really appreciate you being here. Now, quick one before we even begin. Are you current? Is This the backdrop to the office right now? I can see that cool image behind you.

Justin Parsons: This is a former project we were doing in Russia, actually. We were doing a little bit in Russia about five or six years ago with IKEA, and this is one of their Mega centers on the outskirts of Moscow, which we were refurbishing and doing an extension for.

Stephen Drew: Very cool. Very interesting. I touched [00:02:00] upon BDP, the Building Design Partnership. So maybe, Justin, before we talk about yourself, first of all, who is BDP?

Justin Parsons: Partnership, a few years ago, we celebrated our 60th birthday. One of the sort of founding members was I'm here with Sir George Grenfell Baines, and it started up in the north of England more sort of Manchester area and it's expanded throughout the UK and we've got offices, still we've got the sort of head office really is in Manchester, but the largest studio and office is London, we're 450 strong, we've got studios in Dublin, we've got Glasgow, Sheffield, Bristol.

So a mixture around the UK and then we've also expanded internationally as well with offices in China, India, more recently Rotterdam and Toronto, Canada and the Middle East [00:03:00] in MENA. And we have a sort of fledgling office in New York and we've got plans for other offices. So we're also international now.

And I guess the other key thing is we're multidisciplined. That was. The, from the word go. That was what inspired Sir George Fel baes as an architect to bring a number of disciplines under one roof. And I, my understanding is that when he set it up that Reba didn't really approve and he lost his Reba license for a short period.

And that he got it back. And so we are, yeah, we're architecture, but we're interior design. We're structure, we're m and e. We're acoustics, we're lighting designers, we're master planners, we're urban designers. We've got Sustainability Departments, so a real group of complementary disciplines and some of the best jobs are when we're all round the table working together on a project.

Early doors, really coming together and [00:04:00] getting a creative concept together.

Stephen Drew: Really cool.

Justin Parsons: We do work, individually as well. So each sector will sometimes work on their own or all together.

Stephen Drew: excellent. And that's interesting, because I know that while you work on a lot of different variety of projects yourself, you do a lot of different types of architecture, but you also do interior design as well. But just before we go into that, I'd like to wind it back a little bit as well, because yeah, I would love to know How you came to Bouts to BDP, because I understand that you've been there for, quite some time. and built this amazing portfolio of projects.

So Yeah, tell me, how did you get involved with BDP then? A little bit about your background.

Justin Parsons: I, came to interior design by the artistic route. I was, I enjoyed art at school, I did art A level, I did English and history, but, At the end of [00:05:00] school, I went on to do a foundation in art. And I have to say, I had a fantastic year at Farnham Art College. And Farnham was really brilliant at giving you a little taste of everything.

So we did fine art, graphics, sculpture, glass making, photography, filmmaking. So many of the arts that we could do and through that I discovered interior design. I got streamlined into three dimensional design while I was on foundation course. That led to the opportunity to do a degree in Furniture Design or Product Design or Interior Design.

I actually didn't know Interior Design, didn't know what it was about. I quickly learned and started looking around at different courses. There weren't so many on offer then. This is 1980. And I went to Middlesex. Middlesex had a really good course. Nottingham Trent still had a really good course.

Kingston had a [00:06:00] really good course. I went to Middlesex. And actually, it was one of my still best friends today who went on to study architecture called Stephen Taylor. He was He came down from Bolton and he, because that was the sort of founding office of BDP he taught me about BDP because BDP was famous in his mind as being one of the biggest and most influential architecture and design practices.

So they, their name lodged with me but I didn't go and work with them straight away. I I graduated and I worked in a couple of companies in London. And then I worked abroad in Japan, and then in Brunei, so for the whole of the 90s I was working internationally and it slightly coincided with the economy downturn at the end of the 90s.

The eighties, early nineties. And then when I came back, I had a fairly unusual portfolio. I'd been doing palaces and hotels in Bruno. I'd been doing golf clubs [00:07:00] in Japan. And most of the people I was going for interviews for was ideally looking for a project in my portfolio that it was just about to start and.

They weren't going to find a palace or a Japanese golf club hotel, but BDP, I think, had enough breadth of work to think this is an interesting portfolio. I think you could fit in somewhere here because you've done a bit of this and a bit of that. And and I was really happy to reconnect with BDP as a company that I remember way back as a student and know that it had a great reputation.

And actually someone who was in the fourth year when I was in the first year called Martin Cook. ran the interior design studio then and also another director coincidentally had worked in Japan for a sort of similar company as I worked for so they there was a sort of understanding of my slightly unusual portfolio as well so that's how I ended up at BDP.

Stephen Drew: I love [00:08:00] it. Wow. We've got the furniture, we've got the interior design, and also, because BDP is different scales, isn't it? And that's what, before we, we go into it a little bit further, I'd love to unpack as well, what it means to be doing interior design in a multidisciplinary practice, because interiors, you can think of all the different worlds, you've got the bougie clubs, you've But you've also then you've got the interior design of workplace offices, huge retail outlets, all this stuff, there's wayfinding, there's all this cool things.

So tell me, how did does interior design work in a place like BDP then?

Justin Parsons: Yeah I mean I think being an interior designer And it's interesting because you know that I interview people from different courses and you know you could, I could be interviewing an architect who has discovered interior design through working as an architect and starting to do more interior work and actually thinking, wow, I really want to specialize in this.

Or it [00:09:00] could be a straight interior design course, or it could be a course that's slightly re banded itself as interior architecture course. Or we've got people who've come from furniture design courses, Theatre design courses, but I think wherever you've come from to make success of it, you have to be really committed to the world of interiors and understand that you can bring something unique that the other disciplines under BDP's roof can't bring you will, when you're around that table, you'll be able to advise architects on materials, furniture the sort of customer journey, how we inhabit that building, how we understand the scale of that building, and how we'll leave the architectural envelope to the architects generally.

But, once we're through that front door. We have confidence and ability to really help support and lead that interior concept. And when we're working [00:10:00] well together, we will, align with the architectural concept. We'll deliberately bring some of that architectural thinking and concept into the interiors, or we'll deliberately Contrast it because you walk from one world into another and that's dramatic.

So whatever we do, we need to understand the holistic scheme and then develop something on the interiors, but you do need confidence. There'll always be an architect who thinks they can maybe do your job, not quite understand what you are doing, what you're bringing. And as an interior designer, I think you need confidence and drive and knowledge that You are bringing something really unique to the table that will make this project better.

And then, we work with the lighting guys or, as you say, the signage and wayfinding guys. BDP does have these different disciplines, whereas, a small out of town architectural firm might have to do everything. They don't have those [00:11:00] resources to pull on. But I think we are lucky when we have those specialisms.

And, our lighting design guys. Lighting is so important in interiors, and if they can sit down, understand your interior concept, add to it. It's excellent as the graphics and way finding team.

Stephen Drew: I couldn't agree more. Like before we were talking, I was having a look at some of the projects that you showed me. And if you're happy with it, maybe I can bring up the first project that you were passionate about. I can see why, which was the well. So maybe I'll bring it up now. Now you have to remember, Justin, I'll be like the equivalent of a part one architectural assistant or a junior interior designer here who's a bit naughty clicking.

The mouse. So you got to tell me if you want me to move on or not. But what I'd love to, for us to have a quick look at is because this is the kind of interior design that you do then, Justin, isn't it? So it's a different scale than I initially thought. It's really interesting, very fascinating. If you could run through a [00:12:00] little bit about this project, that would be amazing.

Justin Parsons: sure. This is an unusual one in that it's in Canada. We recently merged with a Canadian office called Quadrangle. And actually it actually, weirdly, we got this job, I think even before we did that. But anyway, this is, we have a lot of good, strong retail knowledge as a company, and for many years, it was 30 percent of our business was Shopping centers and there

Big sort of shopping centers being built in the 80s and the 90s and therefore When a development like this is happening So this is in sort of downtown Toronto in a former industrial area and it is a mixed use scheme but The podium, which is four levels, is primarily, retail.

It's got a number of car parking levels underneath. And then above, there is a tower blocks of retail and residential which was different [00:13:00] architects. But I was working with our London Architectural team on the retail element and this is an open street scheme. So that again was unique for Toronto because it's cold, it gets really cold in the winter, it gets hot in the summer.

They have doors and they have air conditioned spaces or they have underground retail malls but we've done a lot of open street malls and we were confident this would work and get the wind Studies correct and it's been very successful. It's just opening up now, but therefore the interior, we still need, you still need a floor.

You still need ceilings that here this entrance area. You still need the areas that you enter from the car park. You still need all the lift lobbies. You still need balustrades, you still need bridges, you need the glue that, that sort of holds all the different buildings together. And the interior team were developing the glue that tied it all together and connected it all and brought consistency to, What was architecturally deliberately [00:14:00] quite contrasting buildings to make it an interesting sort of open street scheme?

Stephen Drew: Yeah, it looks amazing. And it feels like an experience. What I wanted to ask Justin as well, since you're designing these interior experiences, especially since the pandemic, you mentioned before retail You'd be doing X amount of it as well. I'm seeing that retail and hospitality is taking a different life of its own to create these experiences and environments that now keep people going to these spaces, as opposed to buying online.

I think people are craving these spaces. That's my impression though. But what are you seeing? Is that right or wrong? Would you see any trends coming up in retail and these hospitality spaces?

Justin Parsons: Yeah, absolutely. It's it's a challenging but really exciting sort of period to be working in retail. We've got a lot of the bigger anchor, traditional anchor stores, the Debenhams, House of [00:15:00] Fraser, even some of the Some of the bigger John Lewis's those bigger anchors that we would anchor a traditional shopping center have been struggling and we're having to repurpose those.

And we're also having to make going out shopping something for all the family. Food is becoming much more important. When I first started doing shopping centers, a food court was fast food. The first one I did, I think was in Norwich, Chapelfield, and there was McDonald's, there was Spudgyalike, there was Kentucky Fried Chicken.

It was all the fast food operators and that's what you got. And it was almost as if you went shopping and then you'd grab some fast food between your shopping. Now we're doing really lovely curated food environments where, there'll be local offers, there'll be national offers, there'll be international offers.

There'll be something for all different tastes. And all different age groups, and you might [00:16:00] go to the shopping center to have a coffee or cake or lunch with your friend and then do a bit of shopping as you leave. There might be a place where you can work, there might be a clinic where you can get your teeth done or Get, a health check.

There might be a gym. There's, it's so much more about understanding the community, understanding the location you're in and really responding to that location and giving something for everybody and making a real community out of that space, which will breathe and live throughout the day and into the evening.

Stephen Drew: really well said. I agree, there's nothing I enjoy more than going out, having one of those days. You go exploring places with your partner, your loved one, whatever. And it's a great time. And, but you're right. It's a far cry to where I grew up in Swansea, Justin, where there was the big Debenhams and a few shops and that was your lot and there, that was it.

So it's evolved. And I'm quite excited to see that on that theme of evolving shops. One of the [00:17:00] things that always comes to mind is Ikea because you'd go through it. Everyone would enjoy it. You go there, you're like we're going to go to Ikea. You get the toy, you get the meatball, you see all these rooms.

It's like living in houses in a different world. You pick up a few things as well, but I'd love to know, cause since you've been working on this what's it like being working on an Ikea project? Then I'm fascinated.

Justin Parsons: Yeah, so I think IKEA, we've got a really long relationship with them. And this isn't, when we say IKEA, everyone thinks about the blue box, but we say part of the blue box. We don't do the blue box. They have their own in house design team. They know how to do their blue boxes. We will, they, they decided a while ago that if we're going to expand in other countries and be this anchor, they're which is a very attractive to that shopping center.

We might as well be the shopping center as well. So we did a lot of shopping centers for IKEA. In Russia, we did three all at the same time. We've done refurbishments [00:18:00] for them in, sorry, in China. We did three all at the same time. We've done refurbishments for them in Russia. We've done them in France.

We've done them in Portugal. And we've done them in London. And what's really changed with IKEA, which is interesting, and this is the Hammersmith, project that we've recently completed. So it's the old KingsMAL, which is now live at Hammersmith, is they're moving from their sort of large out of town format in the UK, where you have trolleys and you You just follow the route and then you go down to the market hall and then you stack everything up and you take it away in your car to a inner city center model, which is really much more like a department store.

So they bought KingsMAL in the middle of the shopping center. They've put an IKEA, which is all about showroom. It still has the meatballs. You can still go there for lunch. It still has all the candles and the smaller things that you can pick up and take out with you. It doesn't have the big [00:19:00] market hall, because you're basically ordering everything and it'll all be delivered.

And their ambition is to deliver quicker than Amazon. And in the process, they have enlivened the whole sort of shopping center, the mall, the seating, the resting areas, the toilet areas. They're bringing in click and collect. They're bringing in areas where you can do a bit of work. They will improve the food.

Their ambition is to have a little collection of curated food. And and they, talking about community and connecting with community, that we're given at the beginning of any project, a meeting place document, which is all about the community, the needs and desires of that. Locality, and therefore we target everything, including how we design, to appeal to that sort of research.

Stephen Drew: Yeah,

Justin Parsons: Yeah, very different model, which has led to other projects as well that we're doing with them.

Stephen Drew: I love it. It makes it, I'm very excited. Now, interestingly, you told me about [00:20:00] another blue box, which has come in a bit of a surprise at the moment in London Center in, and just down the road from all of us. Now I know we're not going to break any NDAs on the Architecture Social show. Is there a little tidbit you can give us of what to expect here, or is it very much work in progress?

Watch this space.

Justin Parsons: Sure, no, we can talk about this. They've, they, so how, cannot be more central. This is Oxford Circus. This is the former Topshop. And, they have taken the whole building and they're going to have a city center IKEA in the lower ground floors, the sort of basement areas, you'll come in up street they'll again be the cafe and the meatballs and the usual offer, but not the big warehouse offer.

And then the upper floors, which were also Topshop are being turned into office space. So we're doing our work. We have a big workplace team. So the workplace team have been developing the offices on the upper level, which will [00:21:00] be leased out. We've been developing and fitting out the IKEA, which is in process on the lower levels.

We've also managed to break up and do a little rooftop area where there'll be a bar and event space. Fantastic views from up there over London. It's amazing.

Yeah, a really different sort of IKEA experience right in the middle of London.

Stephen Drew: I'm looking forward to it. Very interesting. Now, while you're passionate about retail, and I'm I like it as well because it's interesting seeing how it's completely evolved in the last 10 years. So very interesting. But when I was doing a little bit of research before this, you've also done other sectors.

And when we were talking about one or two other things to show, you mentioned the Grand Union, which is very different than what we're doing now. Then talking about Central Oxford Circus Retail, this is residential. I'd love to know, Justin, maybe your involvement in this, but also in a kind of wider sense, do you think it's helpful or useful sometimes for an interior designer or [00:22:00] an architect to sometimes go in different sectors than what they have specialized in before?

Justin Parsons: Yes. No, in fact you, going from IKEA to, to this is a really good example of that because residential is a relatively new, commercial residential is a relatively new sort of area for me and even for BDP. I think BDP is doing a lot of, been doing a lot of architectural housing, but not so many of the residential interiors, but we've rapidly.

Built a really strong portfolio of residential interior projects. Also strengthened actually by our Canadian office that's got a very strong background in that. But what I think we've brought, which has been refreshing and I think clients have liked is coming from a retail background, the concept, the narrative is always really important.

It's what is the concept for, I don't know, the refurbishment of Meta is the concept for King's [00:23:00] Mall in Hammersmith. And there's a strong narrative. And when we look at a residential scheme like this, Grand Union, we want to bring that same strong narrative to the interiors because we want to bring an interior that is unique and different and, So we wanted to make a narrative that was really suitable to either that history of that site or that locality or the type of purchases and likely buyers.

So with Grand Union, we brought a narrative. We said what's so interesting is you're by the Grand Union Canal. The Grand Union Canal has got a fantastic history of, Taking sort of bricks, flour, coal from London to Birmingham or the other way around, Birmingham back down to London. And that influenced how we did the interiors of all aspects of Grand Union One.

It had a little bit of an industrial feel. It had a fairly muted palette. We played with some of the warmth of brick colors. We talked about the [00:24:00] black metal work that was used in some of the barges. And it, I think that was so much healthier than talking about what's the latest trend, what's the latest fashion, or what color should we do the bathroom, because that color is in trend now, and it won't be, don't talk about trends, don't talk about fashions, talk about a unique narrative for the project you're working on, and rooted in something really unique.

So I think there is a really healthy overlap, and even with workplace, what's interesting in residential is You know, in residential, we're doing more and more residential facilities, so there'll be co working areas, there'll be, people are working from home more, and therefore, actually having a really strong workplace team, they can really create a really lovely, flexible working environment that they bring from workplace.

Just as workplace, actually, he's trying to offer more homely, lounge, cinema, breakout [00:25:00] spaces that are influenced by your home, by a residential setting. That is perfect, it's a really healthy overlap. We want to bring more home life into the office and we want to bring more office into home life.

So if we can design them both, great,

Stephen Drew: exactly, it is.

Justin Parsons: from our different experiences.

Stephen Drew: It's very exciting. And hats off to the projects you've done, but you touched upon it earlier. You do a little bit of mentoring and you're involved with a few universities. And I think that's really important. I guess that also means as well, because you're part of the department, you run the department, you're involved with it.

You're a design director that you're involved with interviewing people at BDP. Some of our listeners are. A bit like me and you at the start of our careers when I was a part one or you were that interior designer, ex furniture maker extraordinaire. It's a different world now trying to get a job in 2024.

Oh gosh, I have to look if it's [00:26:00] 2023 or 24 there. Where I'm going with it is Because you do these interviews, you look for the CVs. If we were to talk about CVs and portfolios, is there any bits of advice, tidbits that you think would just in that kind of highlights, draws out those CVs compared to all the ones in your inbox.

Is there any quick do's and don'ts that you advise people in the applications itself?

Justin Parsons: Yeah, are you talking about recent graduates, or are you talking about across the field, experienced and less experienced

Stephen Drew: I think maybe we could touch upon the interior grad graduates and maybe the difference a bit further in your career, if you're happy to do that quickly.

Justin Parsons: Yeah, I think with graduates I, in terms of the CVs, I think it's, Do always include examples of your work. It doesn't always have to be the beautiful, polished CGI's. Do include sketches as well, because, [00:27:00] and they don't have to be perfect sketches, they don't have to be beautiful, but what we look at in a sketch is for you to communicate your thinking.

You could have been inspired by something you'd seen earlier that day, you'd sketched it, you out why or what interested you, how that influenced this project, what you brought to it. It's some sort of is really nice to see because it gives us an insight into how your mind thinks and how you approach and how you work out space and then, Of course, lovely, beautiful imagery plans.

Something that we can understand the project from a bit of this sort of beginning to this is the plan, this is the size of it, so this is what it might look like. Include mood boards if you want to do that, and materiality, I think with interior design we, It is really important to understand materials and we don't want everything to be about fabrics and cartons and carpets and everything but some element of materiality is really nice to see.

And then I think a CV that I suppose just [00:28:00] shows that you've, you are you've done your degree course, but you might've done a bit of jobs in the summertime. You might've, it doesn't matter, if you've worked. In a bar, in a cafe, if you've worked for a charity, if you've Got some sport interest.

Add all the interests, add the interests and your extracurricular activity, which is good too, as an insight. And then when you come along for the interview I think it's enthusiasm is really important energy not just enthusiasm for the sake of it. I love this, I love that.

I love this. It's also exciting, but it's like a,

Stephen Drew: yeah.

Justin Parsons: A little bit of a passion for the subject and a questioning and inquiring mind, I think, is what we're looking for. And we're a big company. It takes a while to settle in. We're not expecting you to hit the ground running. We'll give you a lot of support, but but we are looking for energy and we are looking for an [00:29:00] enthusiasm in the subject.

And an Inquiry Minder, and I'm so impressed when I see, we might be in a meeting, and some meetings are about concepts and early ideas, and you know that they've just come from college, and it's all been about ideas and concepts, and it's great. Now, a lot of the time that's familiar, but it's not actually what you'll normally end up doing as a straight out of college.

You might have to do furniture layouts and lighting plans, but. Whatever you're doing, we're still expecting you to be designing and thinking and questioning. And you might end up in a meeting where the hour or two is all about, ductwork and beams and how we're going to get those cables underneath and through that small gap.

And can we actually fit that and open that door? I'm so impressed when a student Be actively leading forward, listening to all of that and contributing to it and going, oh, did I hear this? How about that? You think, great, that's, that shows such sort of energy and initiative that you're, [00:30:00] you understand the whole holistic thing and you are, you've got an inquiring mind.

Stephen Drew: Very very insightful. There's a lot of useful information. So you in the audience that applied for sure. I had one quick question on that, Justin. Let's pretend now I'm an architect. Mid career. I've done bits of interiors and actually I think, do you know what I think my passion is with interiors?

But I'm halfway going up this journey. And now you mentioned you did furniture design, you did a bit, you found your way, but if someone's finding their way, do you have any advice on how that how do you think an architect who wants to lean in interiors should go about that? How they would strengthen that transition?

If that makes sense, Justin?

Justin Parsons: Yeah, quite recently, we had an architect join us, and she had been, I've forgotten, it was a well known architectural firm that she'd been working at, and she had just found herself, through the company, taking a little bit [00:31:00] more responsibility on some of the interior projects, enjoying that aspect of the work more, and starting to think why don't I just do that all the time, Why don't I try and change?

And we interviewed her and she was great because, I, an architectural degree is definitely a very good qualification, it. It's, it gives you a very rounded set of skills. And as I've said, you, as an interior designer, you need to be confident. And you need to be, have real confidence that your contribution is worthwhile and unique and different.

And actually if you can come from that perspective. interior design sort of focus, but with a fairly strong architectural background as well. That will just help when we, you are having those conversations in a room of architects and engineers and M& E guys and everything and you are talking confidently because you can go if you want me to talk [00:32:00] about other things, structures, and if you want to talk about the facade, I will, because, I've done that before, but now I'm doing interiors.

So I think. We're always open to architects who've got, who've developed a real passion for interiors and realize that actually that's what they want to do. They often make very good interior designers. And as you say, some of the stuff, it's not all apartments and residential. Some of those big spaces like The they are multi story, big volume.

They are very much, Falling into the sort of interior architecture type role and you do have to be confident dealing with that scale. So I think it's comp, it's complimentary definitely, but on the other end of the scale, we've had a, we've had recently a theater designer who would spend, qualified, spent Three or even four years doing theatre design, thought, actually, you know what, I love it, and it's so creative, but it always gets knocked down and dismantled, and it doesn't [00:33:00] exist anymore, and I'd love to do some interiors, which actually, Stood the test of time and maybe felt a bit more sustainable.

And she joined us and it was a bit of an experiment, but she's been brilliant. Absolutely fantastic. So we're open to lots of different backgrounds as interiors.

Stephen Drew: I love it. It's good to know that people can do that transition because he, someone maybe is thinking about it and then they go, Oh, no, maybe I've never fit in, but it's good to know that they do. While we were on the topic as well you're a design director. Amazing. Design has evolved and design tools have evolved or how we design has evolved as well.

Now some people get worried about the terms like artificial intelligence that it's going to replace people's jobs. I don't particularly think that. However, what I would love to know is what are your thoughts on Artificial intelligence, these kind of tools and involving them in design. Is it something that you think we should explore, embrace, use a little bit, not worry [00:34:00] about or just not bother at all and keep going on?

Justin Parsons: I think it, it's a, it is such an interesting topic and it. It also is moving at such a pace, and

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Justin Parsons: we can't ignore it, and

Stephen Drew: Yeah.

Justin Parsons: we've also recently expanded by buying a sports architecture firm called Patton, who do a lot of big stadiums, they do a lot of Olympic stadiums. There's one or two guys within that group that have really embraced and experimented with AI, and they've given us talks really interesting talks at the end of the day over a beer in our hub.

And one of the talks that I really remembered was, look, this is what AI does. I put in terms of questions and show me a year ago and this is what it pushed out and this is what it's doing now. And it was the same script. It was, one was, I don't know, a mountain, a chalet in a ski resort [00:35:00] with some snow and a river.

And the first. A year ago, it looked like it was made out of gingerbread and it looked a bit cutesy and the colors weren't quite right. And a year later, it was absolutely grounded on that grassy hill with a really fantastic river flowing and slightly more contemporary chalet look to it. And it's really developed.

And I think, it does have its place. I think we've got to be really careful about Sort of copyright and how it's pulling on its imagery and where it's coming from. But the way we work now in terms of, to win work we often have to do a quick upfront concept. And we have to present something in absolutely no time to either win it over our competitors, or provide something to our client who needs imagery and a sales brochure to get the funding and go to the next step and, They can't afford us, afford to pay us weeks of work [00:36:00] and, and it is very creative work.

So can maybe we use AI in a creative way up front very openly and honestly to say, look, these are some generated AI images. We're not trying to hide anything, but it gives you a look and a feel for how we could develop this project if we actually could win it. And and I think it still takes a lot of creative input because the script you put in, you've got to respond to it.

No, that's not right. No, but how about trying this?

Oh, now you're getting it. Actually, that's coincidence, but that's worked really well. I'm hoping it will be a positive thing, but I hope we do regulate it in some way because I know in other professions, it really can be quite I'm Quite a worry, the sort of theatrical profession, the the sort of audio books the there's a number of areas where you can, you only need a few minutes of somebody's voice and you could, they could recite a whole book [00:37:00] from beginning to end and that's their career.

It, it does need a consideration and talk and openness and but I think it's, I think it's interesting. It's definitely interesting. I've seen some amazing stuff being generated.

Stephen Drew: It's an interesting time, isn't it? The evolvement of retail, like we were talking about. We've got these tools which are incredibly advancing, so I'm quite keen to see the space, and I'm definitely keen to see what you Build what you design, what the feel of inhabiting, especially the IKEA in Oxford Circus, because why not?

And before you go, Justin, I always like to ask the the guests, because it's only fair, but because I've asked loads of questions. Maybe you ask me one or two quick questions as Well, Did you have a question for me at all, Justin?

Justin Parsons: Yeah, I'd be interested in terms of, your architectural social and I I understand that you're about recruitment, but it looks like you've got a much broader sort of platform and interest as well. So what [00:38:00] is your main focus as a company?

Stephen Drew: Good question. Sometimes you're mid doing a project or a crit or when you look back and you think I can't remember where it came from, but it did. That's how I feel sometimes, but it started as a forum just then back in the pandemic geared more towards helping part ones, part two architectural assistants and some interior design students on how to get a job.

And you're right. Recruitment has been important. My father sometimes jokes, it's a necessary evil, but jokes aside, it's actually kept revenue in the business. Get to work at great companies like BDP patent you mentioned earlier. So it's been really cool doing all that cool stuff as well, but where it could go, I think is really interesting.

And what the next step is, because really. When you've got a bit of revenue coming into the business, then I'd like there to be experimentation. And historically, that's been some episodes of the podcast. We've got one coming up, which is [00:39:00] Architectural and Dungeons and Dragons. So goodness knows what's going to happen then.

However, the framework of the Architecture Social, maybe it could do with some really good stuff. So I'm thinking about ideas of these episodes are really important. Also, maybe involving some students work there, how to get them cast out, how to get them hired. Maybe there's some experimentation to do around that kind of stuff.

Maybe there's a safe space for people to share their work, talk about that. Have informal crits. I won't be doing a crit, but who knows? There's, I think there's a bit of experimentation there. A bit like for example, a quick one that you talked about AI there, Justin, we released an AI tool, which is quite interesting.

So it was chat GPT, but it's got a lot of embedded information to do specifically with architecture, finding jobs in the UK. So it's very accurate. doing that because it's got all this embedded information. So who knows? I don't know. Maybe [00:40:00] there'll be an AI version of me. Maybe they will. Who knows? But I think I'd like to start doing some more stuff in person as on online.

I think that would be the overarching step. And the, call me corny, but I, and when I was a part one architectural assistant, I was there, the printer was jammed. I was at the University of Westminster trying to get my stuff out. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is a nightmare, but maybe the Architecture Social can evolve into this kind of physical online space where people can do that.

You can print out your portfolio for an interview. You can get stuff ready. I'd like to see that. In the medium to long term, however, in the short term who knows it's going there. Is that a fair answer? Does

Justin Parsons: No, that's great. Yeah, sounds really interesting. Well done.

Stephen Drew: It's a bit like thank you. It's a bit like your Ikea blue box right now.

I'm hoping that when it opens up, it'll all be good. However, I've got to be careful not to overpromise or say these things, because the real life [00:41:00] sometimes creeps in, doesn't it? But who knows? I would like it to be that way. But listen, Justin, I really appreciate you. You come in, you're showing the projects and illustrating what it's like to be an interior designer as part of a multidisciplinary company, which does amazing architecture.

And I am conscious that you're doing this in real life. In your evening. So thank you. Please go home at some point, but a big thank you. Before you go, Justin, last thing, where can people find you online if they want to get in contact with you to say hello?

Justin Parsons: I think it's, yeah, if you go to BDP and if you look up my name or if you look up the design studio name, you'll find me and yeah, there's an email address, I'm sure, and by all means do. I've enjoyed being an interior designer. I've had a long career and it's taken me all around the world and generally it's, I've been working very closely with architects all along the way, but it's gone well.

Stephen Drew: I've definitely looks like that to me. Thank you [00:42:00] so much, Justin. You're an absolute gentleman. I really appreciate you spending your time to share all of those cool projects with us. Stay on the stage for one more minute before we go. And I just want to say thank you to you in the. Audience, whether you're watching this live, 'cause I can see there's a few of you that are, but also if you watching the replay, that's okay.

No problem. It's good that you're here. I really appreciate it. Or maybe you watch one of these reels, or maybe we've AIed it so that you get lots of Justins fragmented. Who knows? But thank you so much for being here. More content to. Reach out to Justin on BDP and check out BDP. It's a great multidisciplinary company.

I wouldn't have anyone on here if I didn't believe that ultimately they're a good place to work. And I, hopefully you got a feel of that from the content, speaking to Justin, listening to Justin and taking it from there. So check out. BDP. com, BDP. com. We can't mess that up. It's pretty simple. Check it out.

Have a good evening and take care, [00:43:00] everyone. Bye bye now. Take care. Bye bye.

Justin Parsons: Thanks. Bye.