We asked everyone to submit a Christmas receipe for a gcp-recipe-book, including in their gift box at the beginning of the month. Not just a nice keepsake, this book also forms part of todays challenge: guess the humblest & fanciest recipe based on the price of ingredients.
Well done to Michael who correctly guessed both the humblest and fanciest dish!
“The beginning of lockdown was so hectic with everyone trying to get to grips with working from home, home-schooling and collaborating with colleagues in a completely different way. Immediately the media team made the decision to use our Social Media to connect with each other across the distance of lockdown. We wanted to find out what people liked about working from home, to talk about some of the challenges and to bring the varied and vibrant personalities of our team to the forefront of our posts. It was so much fun sharing pictures of our families, pets, home offices and daily walks and it felt like maybe we weren’t as far apart after all.”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project or activity of 2020. Our Practice Manager Natalie took over the social’s during Lockdown.
Proudly wearing Christmas Jumpers (and grinning) on our Teams meeting this morning.
“I chose this project because it is the first project I have taken from concept to completion with gcp. It is also the first pilot scheme in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) exciting Urban Cricket Centre Initiative (UCCI) which aims to increase community engagement with cricket, but more importantly sports, health, and wellbeing. Refurbishing an existing building under an accelerated programme created various challenges to solve but working closely with fantastic design and construction teams meant that Phase 1 was opened as part of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, with Phase 2/3 following in Summer 2020. Our client (ECB) and the end user (Waltham Forest) have been delighted with the transformation. We hope to achieve similar success on the future UCCI centres across the UK.”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Matt has worked on several cricket schemes over the past 2 years so no wonder this makes the list of his favourite project.
“We have a number of sports enthusiasts here at gcp and so it’s always a delight to design facilities to support sport in the community. We’ve been working with Downend & Frenchay Tennis Club to deliver a new pavilion to cater for their growing membership and exciting programmes. We share a passion for sustainable communities with the client and are looking at ways to make the pavilion as self-sufficient as possible with regards to energy generation and use.”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Sarah couldn’t decide on her favourite so along with Radford Cottage (8th December), she also enjoyed working on Downend & Frenchay Tennis Pavilion.
2020 has been a challenging but exciting year at gcp. Lockdown forced us to temporarily vacate our office in Warmley and learn how to work from home. Rather than forgetting about the office we saw this as an opportunity to refurbish our working environment, not just to make it Covid safe, but also to make it a more pleasant place to work when we all return.
“This has been a fantastic project to be involved with. gcp has always been passionate about designing low energy buildings and Castle Park Energy Centre has given us the opportunity to work on a project which will deliver renewable energy. In a prominent location on the Floating Harbour on the edge of Castle Park the proposed Water Source Heat Pump forms an exciting part of the council’s ambition for Bristol to be a carbon neutral city by 2030”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Jon has an interest in low energy buildings and was thrilled to help deliver this project which was granted permission in November.
How easy was it to identify the gcp-er from a picture of their parents?! Judging by today’s advent challenge not as easy as we thought! Sarah was the outright winner, matching 11 of us to our parents correctly, with Jeremy in a close second with 9.
“A very interesting project working alongside a flexible main contractor, able to adapt to LiveWest requirements as they developed.
The resultant building achieved an attractive domestic scale frontage to the residential streetscape and provided the residents with an accessible building with high levels of safety built in”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Martin has chosen a lovely scheme in Brentry for LiveWest and Fisher & Dean. This scheme is for 8 flats for residents requiring additional support.
Can you find the differences in our Team Photo?
Scroll for the answers!
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“Designing (and building) my home office has been a fantastic challenge, one that has certainly developed my skill set. I feel I have a greater understanding of the challenges that are faced on site, even on a small scale, procuring materials, site logistics and sequencing has certainly been testing.
I have come out of it with a lovely, calming workspace that provides an area for focus. It is great that it is separate to the house and even though I’m only walking to the bottom of my garden it’s enough to provide the necessary separation. With the likelihood of working from home more in the future with gcp, I am lucky to have such a nice spot to show off on our weekly teams calls.”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. James has had an exciting time whilst working home this year and has decided to talk about his own home project with the support of his partner @personalised_by_amy
“It’s currently on site and we can’t wait to see the finished project! We’ve seen this year in particular how important it is for mental health to have an inspiring working environment. This project will create a bright office with fantastic views over the countryside and features a beautiful oak frame crafted by local carpenter @CarpentersMarkltd.”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Sarah’s favourite scheme is a little home office for a longstanding client of gcp.
It’s an office favourite today: gcp’s Hot Chocolate Bar!
With current social distancing in the office and homeworking, we weren’t able to do the Bar in the way we normally do. Everyone got a hot chocolate spoon with marshmallows in their box, we snuck in a baileys and some candy canes for thoe who fancied it too.
Quick catch up on teams with a hot chocolate warmed me up on this frosty morning & gave me lots of Christmassy feelings.
It’s Desk Decorating Day in the office (and home office) today! Will update with pictures as they arrive …
ELIZABETH HOUSE, HOLBORN
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“We have really enjoyed the challenges posed by this project to maximise the available lettable space of this office building in central London. Devising a method to add a rear extension and two storeys on the roof where the only access to the site is through a pedestrian archway was an interesting technical challenge requiring close coordination with a great project team”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Tom has chosen Elizabeth House, known in the area as Fulwood Place in Holborn.
In the midst of a pandemic, where the line between home and work life is blurred, it is important now more than ever to talk about our #mentalhealth and #wellbeing. It wasn’t too long ago when there was a stigma to these words. Some progress has been made as our understanding of the issues and ability to talk about it is so much better, but there is still more to do!
In October it was national work life week. It provided an opportunity to discuss our work-life-balance, wellbeing and mental health. We ran a series of activities to mark the week including daily brain teasers, a few games, a one million step challenge and we finished the week with a virtual pub quiz. The most important activity we held was a virtual coffee morning because although the activities were great fun, a huge part of mental health and wellbeing is communication and it asked the question, ‘although we see each other’s faces in meetings, how much do we actually chat and check in with how each other are doing?’
These weren’t one-off events, but something gcp are keen to continue to improve on. Since this week we have signed up to Thrive at Work West of England and have embarked on a two year commitment to improve and evaluate our working procedures in a way that puts keeping our team mentally healthy at the core of what we do.
“Having worked for Southmead Development Trust on three previous occasions (youth club refurbishment feasibility, 90kW PV installation on the Greenway Centre and the early stages of the Glencoyne Square development), I was really pleased to join up with a multi- disciplinary team of construction and housing consultants to prepare a long-term masterplan for their north Bristol site. This commission draws on the 30 years plus of experience in supporting clients similar to Southmead Development Trust and including sports facility design, integration of specialist housing and small scale business space provision. Having completed a high-level Stage 1 Options Appraisal the team have now been asked to develop the Stage 2 Masterplan”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of the year. Jonathan chose Southmead co-housing.
“It was really satisfying to have achieved Passivhaus certification for these lovely self-build clients, who put so much into building their home and achieved such a high standard of finish and detailing. It is a real pleasure to work on projects like this where the end result is all you hoped it would be.”
We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Colin has chosen Homelands Dundry, a private dwelling which was a self-build to Passivhaus certification.
