Anniversaries are a time for celebration, reflection and resolution...

Can you believe it – we are fast approaching the first anniversary since the appointment of the new board.  It has certainly been an interesting and packed year with plenty of achievements and challenges, which have created opportunities to learn, develop and strengthen our team.

The changes spurred us into looking at our structure from a new perspective and whilst we didn’t want to throw baby out with bath water by altering systems that were functioning well, we recognised that there was definitely potential to introduce new ways of working that would enhance our client support.

We set about restructuring the office to create dedicated design and support teams, to develop stronger focus and generate closer working relationships both internally and externally.   It made sense for each Director to take on responsibility for a specific area, so Matt Payne heads up the affordable housing team with input from David Savage and Gareth Williams has taken over the internal management of internal resources, ensuring project delivery targets continue to be met.  David Tithecott continues to work closely with our architecture and planning consultants, managing contracts, offering CSH assessments and dealing with other building related matters to support the delivery of projects onsite.

My role has remained one of ensuring the big picture remains on track, whilst maintaining and building client relationships and of course designing innovative project solutions.

Whilst it took us a while to fully adjust to our new roles, the changes are paying dividends resulting in us surpassing our targets for the year.  It also appears to be directly affecting our clients as we were recently informed that we had provided one of them with ‘the best set of tender documents they had ever seen’!

People are obviously key in our future plans and we are continuing to develop the team here in Holsworthy.  We have welcomed three new members of staff to the practice, strengthening and broadening our support capabilities and bringing our total numbers to 20.

The past year has also seen the completion of a range of interesting and diverse projects, including :

• Bude Cricket Pavilion
• Cross Place, Wadebridge – a small local museum, plus apartments
• The restoration of Torrington Town Hall
• A number of individual luxury houses in coastal locations
• Affordable housing developments:   Pill Gardens for North Devon Homes, Roche for Sanctuary, Lanner & Consols for Coastline and numerous planning applications

And I’m pleased to report that there are plenty more exciting projects currently in progress and developing for the coming year.  Firstly, there is one on our doorstep, as we have been working with Morgan Sindall, Kivells and Torridge District Council  on Holsworthy’s new £6m Livestock Market which is nearing completion.  We are also already onsite for The Ark at Newquay and have just achieved planning approval for 130 homes, plus a football pitch and clubhouse at Pelynt.

You may have been following my blog which has been charting progress with a fascinating luxury house in Polzeath.   There is no chocolate factory close by, but amongst many interesting features, there is an all glass elevator at the heart of the property (Charlie eat your heart out!).  (read more about this project)

For the longer term we have many new projects in progress, which will hopefully come to fruition over the next few years and everyone is experiencing a sense of optimism and excitement for the future.  Our first year under the new banner of Trewin Design Architects certainly seems to have set out in the right direction and we are looking forward to our second with eager anticipation.

So, we feel like celebrating and what better way to do that than with fireworks!  So having had to delay our traditional office party due to the terrible weather conditions at the end of last year, we are now marking our first anniversary with a bang later this month.