I’m being inundated with pictures of what my colleagues are getting up to when they aren’t working on gcp projects. Here is a collection of our puzzles … this has sparked some debate about the “correct” way to complete them. I vote that you always start with the edges, what do you think?
You might have seen this already, over on Instagram, but for those who aren’t currently following us (WHY NOT?) here is the evolution of Matt’s home working space.
Matt: So I started the setup with what you’ve already seen [on socials]. It was great - except for the fact that there wasn’t a desk … after four weeks of this I’ve realised it’s no good for my back / neck so …
Matt: I decided to replicate my sit-stand desk … only to realise that ideal ironing height is NOT the same as ideal working height!
Matt: Then things went downhill rapidly as I thought “the only way to improve this ironing board situation is with a ladder”. Actually the height now was pretty good, but the downside of a ladder is it has massive holes in it. Time for a rethink …
Matt: luckily we have been donated an old desk, which when coupled with some Lego monitor stands has created a much better work space!
#homeworking #stayhomestaysafe
As you know from previous posts, gcp continues to be fully operational and are here to assist you. In line with government guidelines we are working from home to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve.
Working from home is a new experience for many of us, here are Matt’s thoughts on this new situation.
What’s something challenging about working from home? I tend to get engrossed in work and with few distractions at home I often forget to get up and move about. My back is not happy with me.
What do you like about working from home? Being able to listen to music. I’ve quickly exhausted my vinyl collection so I have set up a collaborative Spotify playlist with some friends so we can listen to each others favourites.
What do you miss about being in the office? I definitely miss the atmosphere in the office and having people to chat to. Even just some background noise, it’s too quiet here (you can tell I don’t have kids!)
The view looks a bit different right now, here is Matt’s desk-at-home.
As you know from previous posts, gcp continues to be fully operational and are here to assist you. In line with government guidelines we are working from home to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve.
Working from home is a new experience for many of us, here are James’s thoughts on this new situation.
What’s something challenging about working from home? Trying to entertain our dog, Ralph, he never stops whining when we are around! Distractions of tidying the house too, although the dishes are always washed, which is nice.
What do you like about working from home? I enjoy the flexible nature of it, including listening to music whilst I work - maybe I’ll bring some into the office … you never know! Also the milk frother at home is working overtime …
What do you miss about being in the office? Other people! Day-to-day interaction and the social aspect of the office I miss for sure … and Owen’s coffees!
The view looks a bit different right now, here is James’s desk-at-home.
As you know from previous posts, gcp continues to be fully operational and are here to assist you. In line with government guidelines we are working from home to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve.
Working from home is a new experience for many of us, here are Esther’s thoughts on this new situation.
What’s something challenging about working from home? I can honestly say my cats are as distracting as children! If they aren’t climbing on my shoulder for attention then they are sitting in front of my screen or on my keyboard. I have gotten quite good at working one-handed as one has decided to start sleeping in my arms!
What do you like about working from home? Everyone in the office knows how much I like my PJs and onesies so I have loved being able to work in clothes I feel most comfortable in … I do get dressed properly for conference calls though!
It’s nice to break up my day by cooking at lunchtime - allows me to properly give my brain a rest.
I have a window that is nice to look out of.
What do you miss about being in the office? Firstly I miss my walk to the office in the morning. It’s only 20 minutes but it’s along the Bristol to Bath cycle path & it wakes me up. I get to see the sunrise if I’m early enough & I just felt like it started my day right.
Most importantly, I miss the constant & easy communication in the office from serious, informative conversations about work to just general chit chat about the latest TV series.
Thanks to Microsoft Teams we can still communicate as an office, which is important, but it’s not quite as easy as just talking the ear off the person next to you (sorry Matt, realised how much I must do this now I can’t do it every day!)
The view looks a bit different right now, here is Esther’s desk-at-home.
As you know from previous posts, gcp continues to be fully operational and are here to assist you. In line with government guidelines we are working from home to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve.
Working from home is a new experience for many of us, here are Natalie’s thoughts on this new situation.
What’s something challenging about working from home? Balancing mum-work-Natalie life is always challenging but it’s much more difficult when we are all together at home. They don’t understand that I can’t always stop to give cuddles … and when I (almost always) do, it can be hard to refocus on work!
What do you like about working from home? The change of pace has been excellent for my creativity. I feel much more mindful in my work right now. It’s nice not rushing everyone out of the door on a morning. Being able to take time to have a family lunch or do a puzzle together is really lovely.
What do you miss about being in the office? Its the team for me. I MISS YOU HORRIBLE LOT. I am a chatterbox (which I’m sure lots of people don’t miss!) and I genuinely miss chatting away to the gcp team.
The view looks a bit different right now, here is Natalie’s desk-at-home.
As you know from previous posts, gcp continues to be fully operational and are here to assist you. In line with government guidelines we are working from home to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve.
Working from home is a new experience for many of us, here are Olia’s thoughts on this new situation.
What’s something challenging about working from home? Working in isolation can be challenging! We are so lucky we can make use of the available technology & stay connected!
What do you like about working from home? I like the fact that I have gained 1.5 hours a day, by not needing to commute.
What do you miss about being in the office? My colleagues. I miss being surrounded by lovely people who are always willing to help, answer questions, banter & share cake with me!
The view looks a bit different right now, here is Olia’s desk-at-home.
We’ve mused about the benefits of working from home - keep an eye on the blog for some home-desk-interviews, but thought it would be fun to post pictures of those things distracting us from work whilst at home. The number 1 culprit is our new “colleagues”.
WFH Log: Day 10
Mood: Slightly peckish.
Attire: Casual dress and slippers, buts its ok because I’m wearing a work cardigan AND did my makeup today.
Thoughts: Very much aware that I am the newbie working in the office of a regular WFH-er and 2 dogs. Even the slightest breath or shuffle seems to mean that it’s time to go for walkies or to eat or to belly tickle (all requirements of my new dog colleagues not partner!)
To do list: Amendment prep for drawing issue next week, check supplier packs, plant cabbage seeds and start consumption of easter egg!
#workfromhome #stayhomestaysafe
New Director Jon Briscoe tackles the current reality of working from home & ponders the future
Working from Home - Is this the future?
During these extraordinary times we have all had to find new ways of working. For those of us lucky enough to be doing this from the safety of our own homes this can be working from the coffee table, the kitchen table, sitting on the end of the bed, taking over the children’s playroom or perhaps in the garden. I know this because video meetings have given us all an unexpected glimpse in the home lives of not just our colleagues but clients as well. As for my ‘home office’, its an old camping table propped up on bean bags to be at a useable height – the big Swedish furniture company doesn’t deliver my desk for another 19 days (not that I’m counting!).
Back to those video meetings – they’re working much better than we all thought aren’t they. And they have a number of advantages. Firstly, you can carry on with other work in the background which is an excellent boost in productivity. Secondly, if you get bored you can always go and do something else. If you turn off the camera no-one else knows that you are now eating a big slice of cake – you can’t do that when you are all meeting around a table.
And what about that rush to buy wine and beer before we went into lockdown? I don’t know about other people, but our office only consumes alcohol at work on Christmas Eve. Somehow the same rules don’t apply when you are working from home in your pyjamas. Whose going to know that you’re enjoying a glass of wine while still on the clock? Just remember to keep the camera off during those meetings!
The biggest adjustment has been finding a work routine - I’ve settled on: get up, eat, work, eat, work, eat, watch tv, sleep, and repeat. And now that we have the technical capability to work from home there’s the opportunity to do this 7 days a week!
When life returns to normal, will this become my new normal? No – I’ll be unlocking the office door quicker than you can say ‘social distancing’.
gcp continues to be fully operational, with staff working remotely. Here’s a sneak peak into our #homeoffice setups. We are progressing current projects & have even had a few interesting new opportunities this week.
#stayhomestaysafe #architectsbristol #homeworking #homeworkingspace
Due to developing circumstances the gcp Chartered Architects Warmley office will be closed for the foreseeable future. All staff will continue to work full time but remotely. Please contact gcp by using a personal contact or the mail@gcparch.co.uk e mail address in the first instance. If you have not got a personal contact but would like a call back from a member of the team please call the office number 0117 9676286 and follow the instructions in the answerphone message.
In response to the developing circumstances surrounding COVID-19, gcp has made some temporary changes to working practices.
We continue to be fully operational and our office remains open. However, we have a responsibility to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, our clients and the communities we serve, whilst helping to slow the wider spread of the virus.
During this period of uncertainty, we’re here to assist you. You will continue to receive the collaboration and outputs you need from gcp to support your projects and we are committed to ensure that our customers can access our usual high levels of service. Our teams remain fully available for you via all the usual channels – phone, email and online through Microsoft Teams.
From Monday 9 March, all our employees were given the option of working from home and all our technical staff have full remote working capability and full access to gcp systems.
Following Government advice on Monday 16 March some of our colleagues are now working remotely but there will be a continued presence of Directors, technical & support staff in the office during this time.
We have encouraged the use of conference calls or software applications for some time and would encourage as many meetings as possible to happen by remote means for the time being. We understand that certain meetings and site visits will remain necessary for the continuation of normal business practice and our attendance at these will of course continue.
We are expecting the circumstances and Government guidelines to continue to change and are committed to a sensible and flexible approach during these uncertain times and will update you as regularly as necessary.
Thank you for your continued support. If you have any queries regarding your individual project, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards
Jeremy Pilling
17 March 2020.
Managing Director, gcp Chartered Architects
2020 will see big changes for gcp as we continue to develop the way we manage our business and our in-house talent. We have always been a forward-looking employer, keen to support the development of the next generation of architects and technologists.
We are pleased to announce that at the beginning of March, Jeremy Pilling and Jonathan Platt will be joined on the board of directors by two of our senior architects, Jon Briscoe and Tom Mellor. Jon and Tom bring a wealth of experience and will be a central part of building our business into the future.
At the end of February, Colin Powell will step down as a director, allowing him to focus on his long-standing passion for research around issues for the design and construction of low energy and PassivHaus buildings. This will become the focus for his new role as ‘energy architect’ within the practice. He will continue to support colleagues and clients with his extensive knowledge and experience in residential design, particularly supporting the set-up process and advising on the pre-planning design of new projects.
Jeremy Pilling
Managing Director
gcp Chartered Architects
On the 21st April 2019 we were appointed to help Gloucestershire Country Cricket Club deliver Phase 1 of this fast-paced project for England v Pakistan ODI on May 14th. Phase 1 has been designed to improve the existing indoor practice hall with a new configuration of bowling lanes, nets and LED lighting adopting the ECB’s latest format standards encapsulated in their 2019-2023 Inspiring Generation strategy.
The bowling and batting ends have now been switched creating a safer entrance approach to the hall with new padding up and bag drop areas with IT enhanced coaching aids. The new lights are the very first LED, ECB approved installation designed to provide 1500 lux in the practice nets.
gcp worked closely with Ridge & Partners (QS) and Griffiths Evans (Lighting Engineers) and 21st Century Building Services to deliver Phase 1.
Phase 2 (yet to be instructed) would extend the hall allowing the bowlers a longer run-up in line with ECB technical design standards.
gcp are also working directly for the ECB to deliver a new Urban Cricket Centre in Leyton, East London in time for the Cricket World Cup being hosted in England throughout this summer.
gcp has secured planning consent in the Green Belt for a new clubroom at Downend and Frenchay Tennis Club. This exciting project will provide much-needed indoor facilities for the club, as well as a covered external viewing gallery. Technical design stage starting soon!
We are passionate at gcp about designing places for sport and leisure; this clubroom is the latest in a string of projects for clients including England and Wales Cricket Board, Swindon Town Football Club Foundation and various Local Authorities.
December has brought completion of a couple of our larger commercial projects of 2019. Elizabeth House was the strip-out, extension and refurbishment of a seven floor office building next to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, City of London. The project was supervised by Tom Mellor under a traditional contract for long-standing client Courtenay Investments Ltd. Foundation Park is a new sports pavilion for Swindon Town Football Club Foundation Trust on the County Ground site. The building was rationalised within the parameters of an existing planning consent and the final design features a standing-seam single plane inclined roof giving the building its unique appearance. The construction phase was managed by James Pilling and Martin Spear.
Back in Warmley, the office is now seventeen strong with the arrival of tired ‘new dad’ Tom Hubbard as a senior technician and irrepressible ‘old dad’ Owen Faunt joining recently as our first ever architectural apprentice. Owen disappears once a week to allegedly attend college at London South Bank University. He was an insurance underwriter until recently and tells me he is working hard and very much enjoying his change of career. Thanks for your secret santa present Owen! Martha Eustace joined us on placement for six months over the summer doing a brilliant job of trying to make head or tail of our new marketing strategy and has now returned to her third year studies at the University of Bath for a well-earned rest. James Pilling is close to completing his Architecture Part 1 distance learning course and Sarah Makroum has successfully completed her first year architecture Diploma, both at Oxford Brookes University. Esther Brown is due to qualify as an architect early next year.
Housing projects continue to flourish with large schemes for Acorn at the former Brooks Dyeworks site in Ashley Down with the team very ably led by Siobhan Tarr; for Curo at Henacre Road in Lawrence Weston with Sarah Makroum; for Stonewater at Northwick Farm near Worcester with Olia Kyritsi; and for Mi-Space working for Nationwide in Swindon at Oakfield, a construction phase scheme with Jon Briscoe. Ranelagh Road in Malvern for Broadway Estates and c-t-s Construction run by Esther Brown and Martin Spear is due to complete in the spring.
We have also been busy with a couple of individual PassivHaus projects too, achieving completion of Homelands in Dundry, a private house with fantastic views north over Bristol and to the Suspension Bridge and Severn Bridges beyond, and the start on site at Clover Place in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. All in all, we reckon that we have 1,216 individual housing units either on the ‘drawing board’ or under construction, boosted by our continuing programme of refurbishment of mid and high-rise council flats in Bristol co-ordinated in necessary painstaking detail by Michael Hanson.
Work with the England and Wales Cricket Board continues apace with successful completion of phase 1 at Leyton, East London, the conversion of an existing facility to create an indoor cricket centre opened by local legend, Graham Gooch. Phase 2 in Leyton, run by Matt Bonney and further inner city projects in Bradford and Birmingham are due to come on stream in 2020.
We have also made fantastic progress with our instagram presence, masterminded by Esther Brown, and our blog by Natalie Lock, our long-suffering practice manager. Maria Steward, our office manager, has worked tirelessly to keep us all under some sort of control, usually remembers to pay us on time, and has checked the car park out on a regular basis throughout the year come rain or shine. In Autumn it was announced that we had won the small employer category of the Travelwest Business Travel Awards 2019. Well done everyone who braved the cycle path or waited for a bus over the summer. The winnings were donated to Mind UK our chosen charity for the year.
On the social side we have tried to organise an event most months during the year with the highlights being a tough ten peaks hike in typically horrendous August weather in the Brecon Beacons; a mid-summer weekend (not) camping, eating, walking, swimming and drinking at Star Cottage on the Devon coast, courtesy of the Mellor family; and a couple of trips to Bath Races to blow the company profits. The programme for 2020 is already in the planning with talk of axe throwing ( not in the office ) soon after Christmas, a casino night at the wonderful Kings Weston House in the spring, a vineyard visit ( unfortunately only to Somerset ) in the summer and a revival of our successful charity quiz night in the Autumn – bring your torches.
Siobhan Tarr continues to lead on our impressive variety of in house and RIBA organised CPD sessions. We held a fascinating half day training session recently run by Mind UK, which really brought home our vulnerability to mental ill health at work.
2019 has been very busy, challenging and rewarding in equal measure and with much more staff involvement in managing and marketing the business. With our plans to convert to full employee ownership well under way, we have much to look forward to in 2020. My thanks, as always, go to my fellow directors, Colin Powell and Jon Platt, and to a dedicated hard-working team of very talented individuals.
To our existing clients we hope you will give us the opportunity to work with you again next year and if you have not worked with us before please give us a call and we will do our very best to do a great job for you.
Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.
Jeremy Pilling
Managing Director
PLEASE NOTE: Our offices will be closed from 12pm on Thursday the 19 December. We will open as normal at 8.30am on Friday 20 December
We will close for Christmas at lunchtime on Christmas Eve and will be back in the office on 2 January 2020.
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
