Welcome to Where it's AT | the Architectural Technology Podcast

Host Jon Clayton interviews Ryan Davies, a Chartered Architectural Technologist at Rio Architects in Cardiff with five years’ experience across fire remediation, education, high-rise residential, and heritage projects, and winner of the AT Awards 2025 Aspiration Award for Emerging Talent. Ryan describes discovering Architectural Technology through school DT, completing an art foundation, and studying at Cardiff Metropolitan University, including the challenge of transitioning from hand drawing to Revit. He shares how a cardiac arrest during second year, alongside the start of COVID lockdowns, disrupted his motivation, but focusing on goals helped him finish with first class honours and secure a graduate role at Rio. He discusses gaining chartership, varied work on complex fire remediation details, the coordination demands of the profession, his Aspiration Chair role supporting students and graduates, and the importance of perseverance through difficult times.

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Ryan Davies MCIAT

Ryan Davies is a Chartered Architectural Technologist at Rio Architects in Cardiff, with five years’ experience across fire remediation, education, high-rise residential and heritage projects. He graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2021 with First Class Honours and is the current Aspiration Chair for the Wales region. In 2025, Ryan won the CIAT Aspiration Emerging Talent at the AT Awards.

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00:00 Introduction

01:03 How Ryan Found the Field

01:20 School Spark and Curiosity

01:56 Art Foundation to UCAS

03:01 Starting Cardiff Met

03:14 Learning Revit the Hard Way

04:05 Finding Confidence in Tech

04:54 Cardiac Arrest Turning Point

06:26 Recovery During Lockdown

07:03 Drive to Finish Strong

08:20 Landing the Rio Job

09:18 Earning Chartership

10:35 Life at Rio Architects

12:33 Fire Remediation Challenges

13:21 Mentorship and Paying It Forward

15:09 The Real Challenge of Coordination

17:52 Thriving on Deadlines

20:41 Aspiration Chair Role

22:16 Showcase Events and Connections

24:11 Winning the Aspiration Award

25:59 Advice for AT Awards Networking

27:26 No Single Career Path

28:41 Favorite Tech and iPad Workflow

30:07 Key Takeaway Message

31:14 New Initiative Teaser and Farewell

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Setbacks don't define where you end up

Ryan suffered a cardiac arrest during his second year at university. He lost his motivation and felt trapped with his thoughts, especially as COVID lockdown had just begun. But he poured his energy into his work, and bit by bit his passion came back. He says it took almost losing everything to realise his own potential. His message to anyone going through a hard time: it's not the end of your story. Just keep going, and you will surprise yourself.

Good mentors and community make a real difference

Ryan talks about how the experienced team at his firm helped him grow when he started out. One director in particular, Mike, was a brilliant mentor who could look at a problem and just know the answer. Now Ryan is coming full circle — new Technologists are joining the firm, and he's stepping into that mentoring role himself. He also values the wider CIAT community, from organising student site visits to meeting people at events. Being around the right people opens doors you didn't know were there.

There's no single right path in a career

Ryan didn't even know what Architectural Technology was when he was younger. He did an art foundation year first, only to realise he missed the technical side. He then found the right course by chance while scrolling through UCAS. His point is that you can build your own road — you can focus on BIM, on design, on site work, or on education. The field is open-ended, and you'll always find the path that fits you.

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We welcome your feedback, so please keep in touch and email all feedback to [email protected]

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Podcast recorded and edited by: Jon Clayton [Podcasting]

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Disclaimer

The contents and views expressed by individuals in the Where it's AT podcast are their own, and do not necessarily represent the views of the companies they work for, or CIAT (the Host). This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as advice.

The episode transcript is AI-generated. Typos or incorrect words may still be present.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: I'm Jon Clayton, Chartered Architectural Technologist

and your host for this episode of "Where It's At." We're joined by Ryan Davies.

Ryan Davies is a Chartered Architectural Technologist at Rio Architects in Cardiff,

with five years' experience across fire remediation, education, high-rise

residential, and heritage projects.

He graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2021 with first

class honours and is the current Aspiration Chair for the Wales region.

At the AT Awards 2025, Ryan won the Aspiration Award for Emerging

Talent in Architectural Technology.

in this episode, Ryan will share the challenges he faced while studying

Architectural Technology, he'll talk about his current work, his role

as Aspiration Chair, and of course, tell us about winning that AT Award.

Ryan, thanks so much for joining us today.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Thank you for the warm introduction

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Oh, you're very welcome.

Been looking forward to this conversation.

So, um, Ryan, could we kind of rewind and start at the very beginning?

Could you tell us a little bit about how you first heard about

Architectural Technology, if you remember how that came about?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: At the beginning I didn't know what

Architectural Technology was.

I didn't even know what I wanted to do for a career.

I just knew I liked drawing, designing, um, figuring out how things worked.

And ultimately, it was DT was my favorite subject, and it was my teacher

who probably first introduced me to anything relating to architecture.

He brought out an old floor plan, because he was an architect back in the day,

and I just remember looking at all the symbols, all the lines, and just not

being able to make sense of it, and not understanding how anyone would be

able to build a building from that.

That curiosity was the first spark for me.

You know, I carried on studying.

I did a quick art foundation degree, and it was, it was very arty, and I

almost missed that technical side.

So when I came to picking what a university course, I was scrolling through

UCAS and I just happened to come across Cardiff Met Architectural Design and

Technology, and as I read into that, the more it aligned with what I wanted to do.

Um, so I don't necessarily see that year in art college as a waste of my time.

If anything, it taught me what I didn't want to not have in a career.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: The seed was planted fairly early then.

It was, was that at high school then, at secondary school when you.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Yeah.

Yeah, it, it was.

But, um, I could have done anything.

I, I was looking at going to be, like, a car designer, just as long as I was

drawing with my hands, which is really weird because I only use a computer now.

Um, it's, it's all I wanted to do back then.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: You mentioned then that you, you did that foundational

course, and then you went to Cardiff Met.

Could you, could you tell us a bit about your time at university?

Maybe start with the first year and then, you know, how

things progressed from there.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: When I first started in Cardiff Met I was still trying to

figure out exactly what I wanted to do.

I remember trying to do everything again by hand at first.

I was just so much more comfortable using a scale ruler and a pencil

on a bit of paper than I was trying to model something on my computer.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: pencil and a scale ruler.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Oh, I, I've got about 20 by my desk.

I just, I just don't use them anymore, and it's, it's a shame.

But yeah, it was because of that I was probably a few weeks

behind the rest of my class.

At some point I just had to bite the bullet.

I had to learn this scary software that Revit was and get over the user interface.

I wasn't really computer-based before that.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: That's quite a hard transition.

When you've been used to doing things like drawing by hand.

I, I started in a very similar way And Revit it's a complicated piece

of software, so I'd imagine that that could be quite a, a challenge for you.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: It was, but once I started to learn it, what was so

daunting wasn't that scary at all.

And if anything, once I got into it, my confidence and my drive of wanting

to learn more about what Architectural Technology was, it just grew even more.

I mean, we were having three-hour lectures on bricks that wasn't the most

interesting three hours of your life, but you're learning really important

stuff about your coordination joints.

And it was a really good time looking back at university.

I, I remember just having the world ahead of me and just being really

passionate about what I was doing.

Um, so my first year was going really well, and going into my second year, I

just carried on from where I left off.

I was really enjoying what I was doing.

But as I came back after Christmas, I, just as things were, I thought were

going really well, I suffered a, I suffered a cardiac arrest, and that,

that really changed everything for me.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Wow.

That, that must have been incredibly tough.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Yeah.

Um, it's a difficult one to explain, um, and I still struggle trying to explain it,

explain it to my friends now because I've … physically I've always had heart problems.

I've adjusted to, you know, all the little things I deal with

every day, um, that was common.

But just on that day, I felt something was different, and by chance I went to the

hospital, and that, that decision, yeah, that's the only reason I'm here today.

I just remember it was like 5:00 in the morning as well, so I remem- all

I remember from it is just waking up and apologizing to a nurse for falling

asleep, and it was only then they had told me what had actually happened.

I just didn't feel anything, and I think that's where I struggled mentally, was

I could not come to terms with something that I couldn't see and I didn't feel.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: How did it affect you and you-- how did it

affect your studies in particular?

How did you manage in the middle of year two with that,

something like that happens?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: I, I didn't.

Um, uh, it was only when I was coming towards the end of my second year.

Obviously, COVID had just started at this point as well, so this was

the first lockdown for us in Wales.

Um, so I was really trapped with my thoughts at the time,

so my motivation was gone.

I didn't have any direction, and my second-year deadline was

rapidly approaching, and I just had to, I just had to do it.

I didn't want to spend money to resit another year.

I had to really confront my thoughts.

I, uh, so I, I dived into my work.

I used it as a distraction at first, but bit by bit, the more I poured my time

and energy into it, my passion started to return, and I got that real sense of

drive back, and I had that one tangible goal of finishing my second year, and that

was an excellent thing to work towards.

So I just, I just took it day by day, and I wasn't going

to let what happened stop me.

And it, if anything, it worked.

I got through my second year, I went into my third, and I… You know,

it took almost losing everything to realise my own po- potential because

everyone had potential, but I just never really had tried as hard as

I could have up until that point, so it was a real awakening for me.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Wow.

I mean, congratulations.

I mean, to be able to go through such a challenge like that and to be able to come

out of the other side of it and, and to, um, find some good out of a very difficult

situation, that's, that's amazing.

In terms of timeline then, um, were you working at Rio Architects at the time?

Were you… Or did that come, come later?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: That, that came after.

So I, when I finished my third year, I was lucky enough to finish with a first,

and, you know, a year before that I didn't think that was a possibility at all.

And from that, I remember getting a call from my now director offering me

a position as a graduate Technologist, and yeah, I was in the gym.

I couldn't finish my session.

I was skipping home.

It was, it was a great day, just having a goal like that is

what still keeps me going now.

You know, I'm still, I can't say I'm completely over what happened.

I, I have my troubles every now and then, but having these goals I set

myself, having something to work towards, and getting that job at Rio was, it

was all I really wanted at the time.

I hadn't really looked at any other firms in the area.

It was, if that didn't work out, I didn't know what I was going to do.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Oh, well, I'm so glad it did work out.

What about qualifying as a, as an Architectural Technologist, as a

Chartered Architectural Technologist?

I mean, how did that feel when that happened?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: A- again, an- another big goal of any Technologist.

Obtaining my chartership was a really significant f- moment for me.

And I think going through the process, you don't necessarily appreciate how much work

and energy and time you've put into in the past few years to get to that point.

I can just remember the same feeling I've probably got now about this

podcast, about my professional interview, just being in knots.

But in the end, it went amazing.

And hearing on the there and then whether you've passed or not, it's,

it's a real accomplishment, and it was a, it was a great feeling.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Hmm.

That is a really good feeling, isn't it?

Especially when you, you don't need to wait and, and you find out,

like, almost immediately after that professional interview and, um,

uh, it's such a good feeling that.

Yeah.

I, I remember how I felt, um, after going down to the office in, in

London for my professional interview and, um, uh, I think I celebrated

with a pint of beer afterwards, and I, I really felt I deserved it.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Definitely.

I think they should bring that back.

Like you say, have a nice pint somewhere else afterwards.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: I guess you've gotta do it in, in your local to celebrate,

uh, with your friends and family.

Could we talk a little bit about, your typical work week now as an

Architectural Technologist, um, at the current practice that you're at?

Could you tell us a little bit about what a typical week is like if there,

if there even is a typical week?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Well, that's the thing, and that's probably what you hear from

every guest you have on this podcast, is that there isn't a typical work week.

And the same for me as it probably is for them, that's the most

enjoyable part about the job.

There's days where you could, I could be deep in a Revit model.

There's days where I'm on site discussing suspended ceilings with

a contractor and what could possibly be above there that needs fire

stopping and all these random things.

But there's always something new you can get your teeth into.

But at RIO, I mean, it's a great company.

My director founded it 25 years ago, and I can-- it's still got that drive and energy

about it I imagine it had 25 years ago when it was just him and his co-founder.

And I was having lunch with him today.

He's just so personal.

It's a really great place to work, and even, uh, when I was a, a graduate

Technologist, there was 10 to 15 other Technologists in the company,

and that, that's exactly what y-you want, what you need s- because

there's that quality and depth.

Someone's always got that time to properly nurture you, um, and you're

not rushed too much at the beginning.

So that was a really good help for me.

And it's, it's come full circle now where we're having new Technologists

join, and I'm starting to creep into fulfilling those roles.

By no mean do I see myself as one of the technical pillars of the company

yet, but, um, it's nice having your responsibility grow and you start

looking at yourself how you looked at others, and that feeling, that growth

is quite an accomplishment for myself.

But yeah, going back to these fire remediation projects I do.

It's… Some of them are in existing hospitals, some of

them are existing colleges.

And with the college in particular, the work they have to do, it can

only be done d-during the off-season.

That is the program, so there's no allowances for the unknown.

You take-- We took some suspended ceiling down, and you can see it's concrete frame,

but there's this timber floor infill, and that's got to achieve 60 minutes.

So you're doing all these details, you're installing barrier ceiling, and then

it abuts into this curtain walling, and the transoms are at horrible heights.

So there's all these technical difficulties you're trying to overcome.

And again, that's where I can fall back on the experience within my company.

One of my other directors, Mike, technically just incredible,

the experience he has.

He's so pragmatic, where he can just look at something and he

just knows the solution, and he's been a great role model for me.

He's, he's taught some quite well-known Technologists and design managers in

the area, so having him as a mentor has been, it's been really great for me.

And I, I put a lot of my growth now down to people like him.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Yeah.

I mean, you can learn so much from other people in the industry.

Uh, and being in a workplace where you've got that peer-to-peer support and you've

got more experienced team members, um, that can help mentor you and you can learn

from, um, is, is incredibly valuable.

As you mentioned actually, about as you progress and you grow and then younger

team members come in, and then you get the opportunity to impart some of that

knowledge and experience that you've been acquiring through the mentors and through

your own experience at work, then that's a really good feeling as well, isn't it?

Like, be- to actually be able to start mentoring other team members yourself.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: They'll be able to say if I'm doing a good job of it or not.

All I can do is just share what I know and give it my all.

I know my, my own shortcomings.

if I'm in a rush sometimes I'm, dealing with all these different projects,

sometimes I can be a little bit hard to get hold of, but I do my best to be there.

And that's where luckily there are so many other Technologists in the company

that we're not relying on one person.

We all work really cohesively as a team.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Ryan, what would you say then professionally would be

your biggest challenge or struggle?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: My biggest challenge is probably people often assume that

Architectural Technology is all about designing buildings, when actually it's

just as much about managing conversations.

Every drawing you produce represents hundreds of conversations with

so many different people, and the reality is they don't always agree.

As an Architectural Technologist, you'll always have, like, your

preferred solution, mostly because that might be the technically

the most, um, buildable method.

Thermally it might be the best.

Um, thinking of sequencing it might be the best.

But then you're dealing with all these other consultants who have their own

constraints, their own limitations, and you're constantly balancing all these

different opinions and viewpoints, and you've got to bring them all

together to have this cohesive element.

And it can just be one sheet of A3 paper, and it could have 50 hours which have gone

into it over multiple different companies.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Yeah, that is a real challenge.

As you say, on most of these projects, there are multiple stakeholders that

have all got their, uh, differing priorities and different viewpoints on

how, how things should be put together.

And, um, yeah, you sort of-- you, you may look at it through your

Architectural Technologist lens but then somebody else, there's a client

there that's looking at it or a developer that's looking at it, maybe

looking at it through a financial lens.

The end users of the building might see things differently as well.

And then, you know, throw in planning and building control

officers, other consultants, you know, M&E and all of that.

And, um, yeah, it can make it a real challenge to coordinate all of that.

yeah, it's really tricky to bring that all together.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Again, I think that's where it comes back to conversations

where, yes, um, you're, you are juggling all these different elements, but if

you can… Especially if you have these conversations with people outside of the

work setting as well, it's easier to have them on side instead of seeing each other

as these conflicting entities, you can have much more constructive conversations,

and you can have much more of a cohesive conversation, and the outcome is a lot

better, and the process is so much easier.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Yeah.

I think i-if we can have that more collaborative approach with all

the stakeholders on projects, um, rather than all sort of working in

different silos, then the end result can be so much better for sure.

So what about what you enjoy?

I mean, are there any aspects of your role that you, you particularly enjoy?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: There's a few.

I think what I'm probably known for most, um, is enjoying the rush of a deadline.

It, it's a weird one, but it's, it's like spring.

You, you know the deadline's coming up, and there's loads of work to be done, and

I just get this real sense of clarity.

And I like to think that I don't panic.

Sometimes I might panic, but everything just becomes clear.

You know what has to be done.

You know what you can't compromise on.

And w- whether you're working by yourself or as part of a team, getting

everything out of the door on time is just a great feeling, you know?

Some of these projects, they're small.

It might be a small package, and you might not have these rushes, but on

large projects that we deal with, sometimes it can happen quite often.

So whether you're working on your own project or you're helping out on

someone else's, That's quite fun for me.

And it, it, it's probably a weird one, because I'll do extra time, I'll work

on weekends, I'll work in evenings.

But again, I, I'm passionate about what I do.

And yes, it's outside of the typical 9:00 to 5:00, but It's what I enjoy.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Yeah.

Well, if you enjoy what you do, they say that you, you never work

another day in your life again if you, if you enjoy your work.

So it's, um, it's good that you've found something that you do enjoy so much.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Exactly.

And again, I can talk about the variety as well.

It just keeps everything fresh.

You know, I could be deep in a Revit model doing some really difficult,

um, like, family parameters, trying to resolve, um, a slab edge detail I'm

doing at the moment where we're using this prefabricated off-site system,

and we're having to rethink a lot of the industry norm at the moment.

I should put it down as CPD.

It's been a great challenge.

But then thinking about all the CIAT stuff I do as well, I get so many opportunities.

Most recently I was a voting delegate for my region, and I

got to go to Dublin to their AGM.

Uh, and when you get to meet all these amazing people in a room,

you, you just see them on LinkedIn.

They're these really prolific people, and they're there, and you get to talk

to them, and it, it's, it's just great.

Just having the opportunities to travel.

The plane there and on the plane back, I was on the same plane as Usman.

an incredible person.

He just took the time to talk to me in his own time, and that,

that was a great feeling for me.

And again, it's just little moments like that which, yeah, you know

you're doing the right thing and you're in the right place.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: That's lovely.

That leads me neatly onto the next question I was gonna ask you, Ryan.

Can you share a bit, a bit about being the Aspiration Chair?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: So being the Aspiration Chair at its core, to me,

it's most about supporting, uh, graduate Technologists, student Technologists,

and people early on in their career.

you work with universities local to your area, or you could work with other

Aspiration Chairs, and you're bringing together these new initiatives that

everyone does in their own regions.

It comes with a lot of responsibility but it comes, again, it comes

with a lot of reward as, as well.

Y- there's extra opportunities for travel.

Again, you get to share the room with some incredible people, and

just in the end, you get to call them friends more than just colleagues.

It's a real good community, so that's a great feeling.

So some of my responsibilities, I'll go to Cardiff Met, and I'll be

helping organize some presentations, or I'll organize some site visits.

Coming from that course that has given me so much, I try

to give back as much as I can.

I should probably maybe focus on some other areas but it's,

that is where my passion is.

Obviously coming from that course, I graduated not too long ago, I know

where some help from me could help that transition between education

and industry, so that's where I've tried to focus most of my time.

So one thing I did feels quite recently, um, I organized a technical showcase

event where we had a contractor come in and construct a section of rain-

of a rain screen facade right in front of the students there and then.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Wow

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Some of the students probably got a little bit bored, but

you could tell there were some really interested, and having the contractor

there, having the, having Charter Technologists there, having the product

reps there, being able to talk through the process and show them the sequencing,

why things are done in a certain way, being able to ask questions there and

then, y- I don't think you can replicate that because there's only so much you

can learn on a computer or from a book.

It's only when you see it, you believe it.

you know, events like that I put down to all the industry connections I've made.

You know, I only did half the battle there.

There were some people that put in a lot of time to support it as well.

The Rockwool representative at the time, Sebastian, a good friend of mine now,

he pulled so many strings, and I, I still feel in debt to him today because

he ended up doing most of the talking.

So, yeah, I'm ve- I'm very grateful to him.

Using those connections you make can help make someone else's experience better, and

whenever I meet someone and they say, "Oh, I do this," some-- a light bulb just goes

off and it, I'm like, "Oh, well, I can use that here." And I try to, I blend a

lot of my work and my CIAT work together, and I feel like it benefits both sides.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Absolutely, yeah.

I mean, that sounds like such a, a fulfilling role as Aspiration Chair.

I, I also wanted to ask you about your AT Award.

Could you tell us about winning the Aspiration Award

at the, uh, 2025 AT Awards?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Yeah.

I mean, being shortlisted was already a huge honor, especially knowing the caliber

of people I was nominated alongside.

I mentioned being friends with some other Aspiration Chairs.

Adam was nominated as well.

He's generally a brilliant person, and he deserved recognition

just as much as myself.

So obviously we were, we were talking, and we both knew we were up against

each other, but I think the moment was special because knowing if whoever

won out of either of us, it, it was deserving, and, you know, if he won,

I would've been just as happy for him.

But yeah, on the day I was in knots.

I had, I had great group of people around me.

I had, uh, Dan Rossiter, I had, um, Aled from my region, and they

were just trying to keep me calm.

I was doing laps.

But the moment came where, um, Jo introduced someone who knew them best,

and I wasn't facing the screen, but I heard my director's voice, and I

just remember my shoulders dropping.

It was such an incredible feeling that I went back and watched the YouTube

video the other day of the awards ceremony, and I only now heard Jo

ask me to give a speech at the end.

I didn't hear that at the time.

I walked straight off afterwards.

But it was, it was incredible.

And it, again, I've… You can't see it.

I've got it behind me here.

It's just a great, again, another reminder of what I've achieved,

so it, it's a great feeling.

It was something I wanted to try and go for at some point.

I remember going a few years prior.

There was a year where a bunch of us from the region were going to go down.

I went by coach because I was trying to be cheap.

They all went by train.

All the trains got canceled, so I was there on my own.

I was struggling to mingle at that point.

So I was stood there on my own just watching all the nominees, and it…

The atmosphere was just incredible.

And being part of it now anyone going for the first time,

please just talk to anyone.

Everyone there is amazing, and I br- I wish I did when I first went.

But I remember when I saw Sam, the now overarching Aspiration Chair, win his

award, and I think then, again, something just lit a spark and I was like, "I

want, I want to go for that one day."

It was a, something, another challenge for me to try and, uh, overcome.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Oh, that, that sounds amazing.

I would say as well that the, the AT Awards it is a great event, isn't it?

CIAT, they know how to put on a good event.

Even if you're not a nominee or, or, you know, up for one of the awards,

just to go as an attendee, um, it is a really good evening and, um, a

chance to meet some of the other, other members and, and maybe some people

that you might have connected with online that you've never met in person.

Um, so yes, it's, uh, it's definitely worthwhile getting along to the AT Awards.

Little plug there for it.

Ryan, what's one thing that you wish more people understood

about Architectural Technology?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: Probably that there isn't a right road to follow.

You can, you can build your own.

You know, I work in a company where we work almost as a brigade.

I compare it quite often to Hell's Kitchen almost, compared to some

people who like to go on their own, have their own companies.

The world is your oyster.

You can do whatever you please with the role.

Um, you can be a BIM specialist.

Um, you can be more, um, creative-focused.

It's, it's so open-ended, and you'll always find the path you want to follow.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Yeah, I think, um, Architectural Technology,

it can be incredibly varied.

The more and more Technologists that I speak to, the more I realise

that there's an awful lot of variety to, to everybody's day-to-day.

You know, we ask people about their typical week and, you know, it, it

can be so different, you know, the types of work that people are doing

and, um, you know, it's not-- it isn't something that is just the same.

It's not the same because there's so many variables to what you could do with it.

Um, so it is a, a great opportunity to get involved in Architectural Technology.

Changing the subject slightly, Ryan, do you have a favourite piece of tech?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: I think there's probably an unofficial rule that says

you're not a Technologist if you're not keeping an eye out for the latest kit.

I've been looking at trying to rebuild my computer for a while now,

whether it's the latest graphics card processor, motherboard.

It's a passion of mine, something I want to do again.

And we're looking at getting new laptops in the office, so I'm always trying

to say, "Oh, look at this. This isn't that good. Try this." And sometimes

they listen, sometimes they don't.

But there's just always that little nerd inside of you, I guess.

But my favorite piece of tech at the moment I'd probably say is my iPad.

I can … I do everything from it.

I'm recording this off it now.

The other day I was on site and we were trying to discuss a, a, a detail, and as

much as I used to do everything by pen and paper, this has been my hybrid of

that, where I can explain a detail there and then, but I can save it as a PDF.

Um, I can draw over it.

I can rub things out.

It works a lot quicker, and I can share it with the team there and then.

So in terms of keeping a conversation going, it's been a great tool for me.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: The technology we have these days that we, we often

take it for granted, but I mean, it's, it's pretty incredible, isn't it?

iPads are amazing bit of kit.

Ryan, what would be the main thing that you would like everyone to, to

take away from the conversation today?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: I think the biggest thing I'd hope people take away from

this conversation is no matter… Say if you're going through something,

it doesn't define where you end up.

Sometimes you can't see the next step, and just making it

through the next day is enough.

It might not be the route you expected, it might have not panned out correctly, but

as long as you've got something to focus on you'll get there, and it's just good

to know that things will always change.

So if someone is listening to this and they are going through a difficult time

just know it's not the end of your story.

Just keep going and honestly, you will surprise yourself.

I never thought I'd be here.

Never in a million years.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Oh, that's a lovely message.

Thanks for sharing that, Ryan.

And, and as you say, I mean, look, look what you've achieved so far,

and you, you've still got a whole, whole lifetime ahead of you as well.

Um, i- is there anything else you wanted to add that, um,

we haven't already covered?

Ryan Davies MCIAT: There is one thing I've been working on

in the shadows for Aspiration.

It's a nice new initiative which I don't know how much I can say about it right

now, but hopefully it'll be launched soon.

It's going to be a, a big boost for the profile of Aspiration,

and I'm really excited about it.

I've put a lot of time into it, and so have many other people.

So hopefully that's something we can talk about very soon.

Jon Clayton MCIAT: Intriguing.

Intriguing.

I'm looking forward to hearing more.

I've really enjoyed this conversation.

It's been so interesting to hear your story.

Um, thank you so much for talking so openly about some of the challenges

that you've been through as well.

We really do appreciate it.

And again, just congratulations for everything that you've achieved so far.

It's great to have the opportunity to have this chat with you.

Ryan Davies MCIAT: No, it's, it's been really great.

Thank you for having me, and you've been really accommodating.

It's been great.

I've really enjoyed it.