Jeremy Pilling

Foundation Park Dome - a fantastic new facility on the horizon.

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Following the successful delivery of Foundation Park Pavilion, we are excited to be supporting Swindon Town Football Club Community Foundation again.  

“We are very excited to announce that we have now formally submitted a planning application to build a covered sports facility on the disused bowls club at Foundation Park.

This covered facility would be another fantastic addition to the sporting hub at Foundation Park, offering more opportunities to the people of Swindon.
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— Swindon Town Football Club Community Foundation

The site, occupied by Swindon Borough Council, is located on the north side of the newly built Foundation Park Pavilion. The site is 0.31hectares and had been used by County Ground Bowls Club, which was founded in 1925 until 2017. For the last three years the site has been disused and left abandoned.

The choice of site is driven by its adjacency to Swindon Town F.C Community Foundation’s new ‘state of the art’ pavilion building. The new site will offer immediate adjacency to allow for the further expansion of the foundation.

The proposals are for an engineered covered structure and specialist all-weather multi-sports facility. There will be three small-sized sports pitches, two running east to west with a full-size 5-a-side football pitch running north to south. The proposals include a glulam structure with a tensile covering which will be translucent to allow natural light into the facility, with the materials used on the bowls club refurbishment will match the cladding used on the adjacent pavilion building.

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New covered pitch proposals with existing pavilion in foreground.

New covered pitch proposals with existing pavilion in foreground.

The development’s primary objective is to serve the needs of the local people in Swindon. The Community Foundation provides fantastic support to the people of Swindon to improve their physical and mental well-being. This facility will provide a platform for people to thrive.

Special moment for Lawrence Weston as planning submitted for Ambition House, a much needed Community Hub.

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gcp is delighted to have submitted a full planning application to Bristol City Council for Ambition Lawrence Weston’s new community hub in the heart of Lawrence Weston.

This will create a fantastic facility so desperately needed for the community of Lawrence Weston providing multi-purpose halls, meeting rooms, workshops,  a community led interactive library and much more.

We have been working with Ambition Lawrence Weston for several years now and have had various setbacks along the way, but we are proud of the proposed scheme and the determination of the team.

Ambition House, Lawrence Weston, Bristol.

Care home Blog, a personal account by Tom Hubbard

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I started working with gcp in August 2019. One of the first projects that hit my desk was St Phillips and St James care home. We have a history of working for this care home and in 2013 we worked with them to create an extension to adjoin two existing buildings creating additional bedroom space, circulation space and lift to make the building work better for the residents.

As the care home is set across three existing terraced houses there are some odd level differences leading to staff having to go up and down sets of stairs to access different areas of the building on the same floors. To address this issue, we worked closely with the care home to design out the need to use these stairs by combining two bedrooms into one bedroom and incorporating a new by-pass access corridor.

Within the new bedroom we have worked closely with the care home to ensure the specification of the shower room and WC are designed with the elderly residents and care staff in mind. This includes grab rails to WC, shower controls outside of the shower cubicle, level access into the shower etc.

During the construction stage of this project the dreaded COVID-19 hit, and works were temporarily halted. Fortunately, we were able to create a solution to reduce the need for SW Wren building services to access the project through the care home. All access to the area was through the external scaffold tower and the existing bedroom doors were maintained and sealed effectively isolating the new bedroom and corridor from the rest of the care home. This allowed the majority of works to be carried out in isolation. Close contact and communication with the care home was maintained when larger items were required to be brought through the building.

Despite the challenges COVID-19 presented us and difficulties in obtaining materials the project was successfully completed in late 2020 and the client was very satisfied with the end result.

We are proud of the outcome and look forward to working with the care home in the future to help improve the experience of the elderly residents, enjoying a functional and comfortable building. 

End of year blog 2020

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A year like no other is coming to an end and I just wanted to say that, despite the numerous challenges presented to us, the whole team has responded magnificently demonstrating a deep-routed culture of mutual support and understanding. My thanks and appreciation go to you all. I have known for ages that it was all about the people and so I want to mention some of the ways that we have progressed as an organisation to put us in such a strong position looking forward to 2021 and the part that the individuals have played in that.

Everyone has developed a ‘teams’ persona whether it’s during a virtual rendezvous with genial GP ‘doctor’ Martin Spear, ‘cat juggling’ Esther Brown, ‘squeezed under the stairs’ whispering Michael Hanson or ‘wild man of the woods’ Jonathan Platt. Sometimes they all appear at once on screen like a mad version of University Challenge.

I thought some like borrowing the cool neutral background of a beautifully tasteful modern kitchen until I eventually realised that in Olia Kyritsi’s case it was actually her real kitchen.  Some like Tom Mellor, Tom Hubbard and Matt Andrews like fading out the domestic child strewn chaos in which they obviously live while Owen Faunt either has many rooms in his house or a different selection of bold wallpapers in each. Sarah Markroum looks as though she is just about to pick up an instrument and sing us a song and Matt Bonney has been sitting next to his match pot decorated wall for most of the year.

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Natalie Lock likes to share her domestic bliss with us occasionally interrupted by child or husband or both and recently we have been able to share the homes of Maria Steward, who’s husband lives, we now know, behind a door curiously located half way up the wall in her kitchen, or Siobhan Tarr who has brought the garden inside her house with her spectacularly green fingers.  James Pilling resides in his person shed in the middle of a building site with bike poised for an early morning spin whilst Jon Briscoe organises our every waking hour with benevolent decisiveness and our recently distanced genial voice of reason and wisdom Colin Powell looks over us and after us. 

What a dream teams team!

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This year really has been full of achievement. Financially we have, more or less, broken even which has been no mean feat on its own.  During a year when we have completed a refurbishment of the office, had to work in bubbles, incurred the considerable cost of converting the business into an Employee Owned Trust and set everyone up with the IT infrastructure to work fairly seamlessly from home or from Corum 2, this performance has been even more remarkable.

The year stared with James Pilling achieving a Part 1 Architectural qualification by distance learning with Oxford Brookes and ended with Esther Brown becoming a fully qualified Architect.  In the middle Sarah Makroum passed her first year of Part 2, again at Oxford Brookes and Own Faunt his first year apprentice Part 1 at South Bank University, both with flying colours.  Matt Bonney and Olia Kyrirtsi became qualified Passivhaus designers and Tom Hubbard became a certified Architectural Technologist.  Congratulations to you all.

Shout outs go to Michael Hanson for his tireless responses to your never-ending technical queries and Michael again with Tom Mellor for masterminding the IT development and eventual delivery of a VOIP telephone system.  Don’t ring us ( and expect to get transferred ) we’ll ring you back!  Lastly a big mention for Esther Brown, Natalie Lock, Matt Bonney and James Pilling for boosting our social media presence to the status of influencers – who would have believed it!

And then there was the actual work!

Happy Christmas to you and yours and I look forward to eventually meeting up with you all in 2021.

Jeremy Pilling

2020 Favourites: Durdham Down Tower

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“Known to generations of Bristolians as simply ‘The Water Tower’ this iconic landmark is located at the highest point in Bristol on Durdham Downs. gcp has been delighted to continue it’s long standing association with Bristol Water as assist in restoring this massive concrete structure to its former glory and taking in some breath-taking views in the process.”
— Jeremy Pilling, gcp
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We asked everyone in the office to name their favourite project of 2020. Jeremy has chosen the refurbishment of the 1950s water tower for Bristol Water.


Meet the Team: Jeremy Pilling

“Sky” Photographs taken by Jeremy

September is a special month here at gcp as it marks the company’s birthday! This year is our 32nd anniversary and to celebrate we will be reflecting on past staff events over on social media.

As part of this celebration, we have conducted Director-interviews to add to our meet-the-team series. First up is Jeremy Pilling, Architect and Managing Director who, since completing his professional qualifications in 1984, has lived and worked in the Bristol area.  Jeremy has a wide network of local contacts and was a Council Member for the Avon Branch of the RIBA between 1992 and 1998.

Jeremy worked for eight years with JT Design and Build, a Bristol based construction company specialising in development through Design and Build.  This experience provided Jeremy with an excellent understanding of commercial design and cooperative working between design and construction teams.

In 1987 Jeremy founded gcp Chartered Architects with Graham Carruthers, initially established in Bath. Jeremy has led the company through its growth, incorporation in 1994 and relocation to Bristol in 1998.  Jeremy is the senior Director and majority shareholder of the company with principle responsibility for financial and business management.

Jeremy has delivered a wide range of projects, managing complex developments through all project stages. Jeremy is passionate about finding new uses for redundant buildings and giving tired buildings a new lease of life. He is particularly knowledgeable about planning regulations and has helped to achieve consents on some complex and sensitive sites in a range of settings.

Jeremy is always keen to consider multiple options for a project weighing up their relative feasibility in terms of cost benefit, whilst striving to achieve the best possible outcomes in terms of the quality and practicality of the design.  Sometimes the solution may be to challenge the problem and rewrite the brief. Frequently his advice has been to reorganise a building or a site in a smarter way, build less from scratch and achieve a viable solution well within a budget.

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Morning Jeremy. Considering your impressive CV and professional experience, not to mention leading gcp for 32 years I think it would be difficult to capture everything in one interview! Today I’d like people reading this to get to know you a little better on a personal level, so could we begin by hearing about what inspired you to pursue architecture?

My dad was a local authority planner and being an architect was the only thing I wanted to do from the age of about 14 apart from be a footballer of course!

And apart from professional footballer, if you weren’t an architect, what would you be?

Rich – Ha ha!

Well you managed a smile from me, self-confessed hater of cheesy jokes, so perhaps comedian might have been an option as well! Why don’t you tell me some of the things you like to do in your spare time.

Playing golf, learning to play the piano, skiing, swimming, cycling, drinking, cooking and gardening and I do like seeing new places – sorry – I wish I had some more spare time!

Fantastic. My favourite thing to ask in these interviews is “tell me something we might not know about you” – do you think you could?

I collect cigarette cards and have nearly thirty thousand of them.

Wow. This one gets me every time. Considering I’ve worked alongside you for twelve years now, spending most of that time sitting in the same section maybe I need to start paying more attention!

As much as I like the jokes and fun facts, I hope you don’t mind if I ask a few more serious questions about your time in charge of gcp. I’d really like to hear about a favourite project that you’ve worked on to date.

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There have been so many projects that I have really enjoyed but probably Lisson Grove Medical Centre in Plymouth in the 1990s. Life was a bit simpler then!

I can agree with that – I was still at school then (and it’s not often I get to say that, believe me !). Moving on quickly before I get a pencil thrown in my direction, what’s your proudest personal achievement?

Not quite a personal achievement but I am proudest of my children and their strength and independence.

Lovely and it’s thirty-two years old for the company this year – older than your children. How has gcp changed over the years?

 It is better organised and has developed systems which allow staff to work efficiently and to their strengths.

And what has been your best moment at gcp in the last year?

Resolving the roof construction at Swindon Town Football Foundation pavilion and a staff ‘camping’ weekend away down in Devon.

I’ll link out to the Swindon Drone footage for anyone who’d like to see the complex shape of the pavilion. As for the staff camping pictures – check out our Instagram page for fixed social stories.

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It’s been a colourful 30 years. Looking forward for a moment, where do you see the future of the practice?

I am going to work hard to usher in employee ownership in 2020 and believe the business has now developed a core strength which will enable it to thrive irrespective of minor or temporary vagaries of the market.

Thanks Jeremy, I couldn’t agree more. We really have a strong, diverse and dedicated team here and I think we are all looking forward to seeing what 2020 brings. I won’t keep you for much longer, but maybe before you go you could tell us what you are looking forward to in the next year? 

Seeing my daughter move into her first house, manage the transition to employee ownership and plans to visit New York and New England again next September.


Exciting! To finish – and this is a tough one considering there will be lots to choose from – could you share a special memory or moment from your time at gcp? 

Probably the effort everyone put into our 30th year events in 2017 but over the years definitely the people who I have had the pleasure of working with – you know who you are!

Lovely, what a nice thing to end on. It really sums up what is at the heart of our successful team, the people who we work with and the relationships we have forged over the years.  

As part of the interview, Jeremy was asked to pick three, favourite and  iconic projects that he’s worked on. He chose:

Junction 3, a regeneration scheme comprising a new library, crèche, work space units, apartments and houses. The bold shapes and bright colours brought a new lease of life to the area which had suffered from neglect.


He chose this because it was very challenging to build but a huge achievement and the project went on to win several awards. 

Filwood Green Business Park was designed by Stride Treglown through to planning stage and then we took on technical design stage working for Midas Construction. This is one of Jeremy’s favourites because of what the building provides - small units for start-up businesses where they can develop and grow.

Jeremy’s final choice was Bristol Water HQ.

Bristol Water’s offices were in desperate need of refurbishment when we were instructed. gcp’s relationship with Bristol Water goes back to 1999 when we embarked on the design of a new fishing lodge at Chew Valley Lake. The relationship continued and in 2010 we were asked to prepare a feasibility for a refurbishment of the head office building. 

The iconic 1960s office building was revived with a new extension, over-cladding of the existing envelope and full internal refurbishment. On completion, two hundred network staff joined their colleagues under the same roof for the first time to enjoy the stunning new facilities.

This is one of Jeremy’s favourite projects because it is the perfect example of recycling old buildings and creating something new and improved. The finished article is hugely successful.

2018 Recap & Merry Christmas !

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Henacre Road, Bristol

During 2018, gcp has been continuing to work with Courtenay Investments on the strip back to shell refurbishment and extension of their 1950’s office block in Holborn, Central London.  Enabling works are now complete and construction work proper will commence in Q1 2019.

Elizabeth House, Holborn

Four schemes have been progressing in Lawrence Weston in North West Bristol with ongoing design work for Ambition Lawrence Weston, Pioneer Medical Group and Bristol City Council to try and bring the vision of a community hub building to fruition.  We are also working with social landlord Curo at Henacre Road and Corbett Close.  The 128 home scheme at Henacre Road will be on site by Easter next year following a painstaking search for any unexploded ordnance scheduled for the New Year.  The fourth scheme is for Bristol City Council to the rear of the Ridingleaze shops where we will have designed nine houses for social rent.

Henacre Road, Bristol

We have also been working on an inner-city housing scheme for Acorn Property Group at Brooks Dye Works in St. Werburghs, Bristol (106 units) and large rural schemes for Lindon Homes near Long Ashton (103 units for phase 1) and Stonewater at Northwick Farm near Worcester (62 units).

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has been working with us on the development of their Urban Cricket Centre Concept, designed to bring playing opportunities to some of the most deprived post codes across East London, Birmingham and Bradford. The opening of the first site in East London is scheduled to coincide with the Cricket World Cup 2019.

ECB Urban Cricket Centre Concept

Halsall Construction continue to be a great supporter with design for projects completed at Silver Street in Willand and Station Road in Castle Carey.  In Swindon we have been working with the football club’s community trust to bring about the construction of a new pavilion building to support their new artificial turf pitch at the County Ground site.  In Malvern we have just secured planning consent for fourteen homes for c-t-s Construction and Broadway Heritage Ltd on the edge of a local conservation area in the grounds of a former convent.

Swindon Town Football in the Community Trust, Community Club Hub

It only remains for me on behalf of the Directors to express our warmest thanks to the staff, clients and fellow consultants who have made 2018 the most successful in our now 31 year history!

Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to you all.

 

Jeremy Pilling

Managing Director

gcp chartered Architects