Property Focus: The Interview – Mick Timpson
IN our series of interviews with top professionals from across the property sector, TheBusinessDesk catches up with Mick Timpson of Manchester design and masterplanning practice DPP Shape.
What are your views of the current state of the commercial property and property development markets?
Very tough but there are opportunities for those who can think long term.
What key challenges and pieces of legislation do you think will most affect your sector over the coming months?
The Code for Sustainable Homes should it survive a Tory Government! We are due to be at Code Level 4 very soon and I’m not sure we are ready.
Why do you think the North West is a good place to work?
Firstly the people. There is an ambition and a will to do things here that you don’t find so much in the south. Plus, Manchester and Liverpool are proper cities – not too big, not too small.
What is your favourite building in the North West and why?
Places such as Hope Street in Liverpool (introduced to me by my partner Shelagh McNerney) and the south end of Deansgate in Manchester – in particular that amazing façade of the Great Northern .
Port Sunlight is a delight and still a model we need to look at.
By far the best new building in the North West is the Manchester Civil Justice Centre by Denton Corker Marshall. An ingenuous merging of a tricky urban site and a set of complex uses.
If you could improve anything in the region, what would it be?
Stockport.
What was your first job and how did you enter your current line of work?
Office junior in a small south coast architects practice. Then lots of hard work and perhaps a little talent.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
Being able to do what I want to do. Everyday.
What barriers have you faced during your career and how have you overcome them?
Lack of ambition and self interest from some who should know better. I have learnt to go round them.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Be what you want the world to be. Gandhi, although I never met him when he came to Manchester!
And the worst?
Open wide. This might hurt a little bit.
