Who would have guessed nearly two years ago at the very beginning of the pandemic how our entire lives would be effected by Covid. Suddenly merely going to work with your colleagues could threaten the lives of vulnerable loved ones at home. We will always remember nervously coming into the office to take home our computers and those early zoom calls of the first lockdown.
Many months of home working showed us all the challenges of working in isolation. Finally we ventured back into the office with social distancing advice, separating screens & rules for almost everything we had taken for granted.
Our design studio approach handling a multitude of projects with a team of design professionals with all levels of expertise works most efficiently when direct mentoring can take place. The life blood of any architectural practice are those quick inputs into the design process, the overheard conversation about a challenging design or contractural question, basically the sharing of views & experiences. Our team especially the younger up & coming architects were so pleased to get back in the office with their colleagues, even though things were different.
Just as other practices witnessed many clients pause their efforts at the begining of the pandemic, we also saw commissions fall away for a 3 – 4 month period. Fortunately work picked up again quite quickly & our workload got back to near normal in the final quarter of the 2020.
2021 has been good year for the practice, although we have seen a shift in the type of new projects being commissioned. Our current Government clearly has had to change its priorities and new public sector projects including the new hospitals program has slowed, similarly the larger new school projects have also stuttered.
Fortunately however the West County is seeing a sustained boom in the housing sector. Currently Grainge Architects are extremely busy assisting in numerous land promotion deals, masterplanning studies, residential planning applications & detailed design packages. National & regional house builders, hotel & leisure developers, apartments, individual bespoke houses & Co-living accommodation basically any new project containing bedroom accommodation remain extremely buoyant.
Going into 2022 we are really positive with plenty of work on the books so much so we have recently started a recruitment drive with two new members of staff confirmed to join the team after the Christmas break. Who knows where the pandemic will take us next? at Grainge we all know how important it is to our own individual well-being that we remain positive & focused.
We also believe our shared ethos & multitude of skills will ensure that we continue to be a highly effected team that always exceeds our clients expectations and we will continue to produce the best possible results.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from the Grainge Team