Q1 IN REVIEW
Director Dominic Gaunt reflects on a busy Q1
10 April 2022
Face-to-face meetings, group lunches and the studio buzz are finally back. The change to a hybrid way of working has been embraced by our team and it really feels like the studio culture has been reignited. We’ve facilitated flexibility with a wholesale change from desk-based Macs to PC laptops. This wasn’t without its initial challenges (who wants to use a PC when you’ve been using a mac!), but has been a huge success with everyone enjoying a better work-life balance.
A significant number of new projects and the return of some we’d assumed had long since died, has led to a big upturn in workload for Q1 of 2022; being able to predict months ahead with more certainty again is welcome and a far cry from the past couple of years. Our housing work has been boosted with several new urban regeneration schemes of various scales, while our education work goes from strength to strength, particularly in the Further Education sector. The investment in tech that we’ve made over the last few years is really paying off with notable efficiencies seen from automation, but more importantly, an increase in quality. The speed at which we can test and evolve designs means that the of quality of the output has skyrocketed.
In January, we won our first two commissions in the motorsport sector. We’ve been designing grandstands and ancillary buildings for two new tracks in China and India and have needed every part of our efficiency drive given that the speed of the programme is commensurate with the speed of the cars and drivers we’re designing for. Such great projects and we hope to be able to publish details soon.
Events in Ukraine cast a shadow over our new found optimism and positivity, but I’m really proud of the way the team have galvanised and decided to do what we can to help. The team are finalising plans for a series of fundraising challenges for our nominated charity RefugEase, the details of which we’ll be releasing shortly.
We have welcomed five new team members so far this year, while saying a sad goodbye to some longstanding members of our support team in Vicki (finance) and Helen (HR) who we wish all the best to in their new roles. Our recruitment drive continues with vacancies for seniors, architects and assistants- so feel free to spread the word.
As always, please do get in touch if there’s anything we can help with, Happy Easter and all the best for the next few months.