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Keith Ashton, CEO of SPACE&PLACE


SPACE&PLACE is a firm of architects, engineers, designers and consultants creating inspiring spaces that encourage communities and commercial


workforces to be more active. Within our specialist market, in sports


architecture we’re the UK’s number one at what we do, that gives us an easier stretch into other sectors that might want the same outcomes. For example, creating work space for businesses that have an emerging focus on workforce wellness. With around 60 employees, we had offices in


Glasgow, Manchester and London before the Brexit vote as well as smaller spaces in Northern Ireland and in the South West. We used to get between 10 to 20 amazing CVs coming through from continental Europe each week, but since


the Brexit vote we now get far fewer. More than half of our workforce is from continental European and equal pan-European standards allow us to ramp up qualified workforce numbers quickly to suit project needs.


the flow of skilled people has almost completely dried up and some of our European workforce has decided to go home


The flow of skilled people has almost


completely dried up and some of our European workforce has decided to go home. Our only option to ensure a good supply of staff was to set up an office outside the UK. We chose


Portugal as a significant number of our people come from the county, Setting up a Portuguese company based in


Lisbon was quite a challenge and a big commitment for a small company like ours, but we now have a great office there and staff numbers are growing. Fortunately, our investment in technology allows us to operate from anywhere. We are seeing good growth in other


European economies, but a lack of investment confidence is certainly hitting the UK market. We’ve also had to deal with the devaluation and fluctuation of the pound, which has increased the cost of construction in the UK. Up to a third of any building cost is subject to currency fluctuations and some clients have held back development because of all the uncertainty over Brexit.


www.space-place.com Michael Hall, partner, FaulknerBrowns Architects


FaulknerBrowns is an architectural practice with over fifty years of experience in creating buildings where people do better. We‘ve yet to feel any


significant impact in the lead up to Brexit in terms of new project opportunities across the sport and leisure sector. I suppose we’re fortunate in the sense that the size and diversity of our portfolio allows us a degree of flexibility in the opportunities that we’re able to pursue in these uncertain times, and that the expertise that we bring to these challenges


this is nothing new for us, and isn’t necessarily a reaction to the uncertainty of Brexit


puts us in a strong position to compete. As has been the case for a while now, competition on fees remains high, so it’s as important as ever that we clearly define the added value that we bring to projects and to our clients.


This too has been fundamental to the


success we have had in exporting our expertise in this sector overseas. We have yet to find out of course, what the full effect of the Brexit process will have on our opportunities to secure work internationally, however, our experiences in recent months have been extremely positive. We continue to receive approaches from European collaborators wishing to partner with us on schemes where our specific experience and ingenuity are required. Our engagement and participation in leading international sporting bodies and organisations (such as IAKS - International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities) over many years, has certainly helped maintain our profile overseas during this time and we’ll continue to support their missions to disseminate innovation and best practice


across international borders. Outside of Europe, there remains a wealth of


opportunities to export our thinking and we continue to explore prospects in the Middle East, North America and beyond. This is nothing new for us, and isn’t necessarily a reaction to the uncertainty of Brexit. However, it certainly provides us with fresh impetus to challenge ourselves to investigate new avenues to sell our process and our expertise to clients around the globe.


www.faulknerbrowns.co.uk


18 pactfacilities.co.uk


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