CSA Architects

Latest News

Spring 2006

2006 has seen many changes for Falmouth based architectural practice, Christopher Smith Associates, since the turn of the New Year, the company has acquired additional office space, taken on extra personnel, restructured the company management and, in light of these changes, has re-branded as csa architects.

Christopher Smith, who founded the company in 1990, and for many years known as the face of the practice, has announced his retirement from day-to-day involvement, but will remain as a director, taking the role as a consultant. In light of Chris's new role and the continuing expansion of the practice, led by Justin Dodge, the company felt that it was necessary to re-launch the company under a new title, csa architects.

Justin explains; "The reputation of the company has always been directly linked to Chris personally. His new role offers the opportunity to re-brand and show that we are a large practice in Cornwall, with more capabilities than the old company name intimated. The new company structure and branding has been derived from the selection of high quality additional staff. The existing waterfront premises in the High Street, Falmouth, has constrained company growth during the past 12 months, but the acquisition of additional space in the immediately neighbouring existing offices Malins Hall, has enabled us to expand our workforce and introduce a new company structure to further expand and promote our capabilities.

csa architects is our main title and will focus on major projects, commercial and residential, under this we have created further specialist departments using the expert knowledge and experience of our resources, which includes;

• csa environmental, approved EcoHomes assessors and specialists in all aspects of sustainable & green design
• csa industrial, using our expert knowledge and proven track-record in this sector
• csa conservation, historically a fundamental aspect of the practice profile, having an excellent reputation in this sector
• csa leisure, expanding on our involvement with Falmouth Rugby Club and Truro City Football Club, to provide specialist architectural services for sport and leisure facilities, as well as hotel schemes

We hope that our new image will clearly convey our capabilities and areas of expertise"

Pictured above, from left to right, the new faces include;

Jeremy Bradley, who joins the company, having worked in Cornwall for the past 3 years for a Newquay based practice. Jeremy is an RIBA Chartered Architect and has become a company director to enhance the management capabilities of the company. Jeremy manages csa-leisure and the company quality assurance/accreditation to ISO 9001.

Nigel Atkins, of Cornish origin, is an experienced Chartered Architect who has returned to his native Cornwall after many years working for renowned Architectural Practices in London, working on major projects. Nigel has joined csa-architects as an Associate and is co-ordinating major residential and commercial schemes.

Steve Smit is an experienced Architectural Technician who has worked for many years in and around London having an eye for detail. Steve's focus is working for csa industrial, and with this continuity, enables the company to be more efficient in this sector, where csa already have a very strong reputation.

Claire Newton has joined the practice to provide additional administration support, an experienced secretary, she assists with the telephone system, maintains company records and filing procedure.

John Buchanan is an experienced Architectural Technician and accredited EcoHomes assessor. John has worked for many years in Bristol in the residential sector and has a very strong portfolio working with Housing Associations on major residential projects. John has joined the company as an Associate and will be working on residential projects and using his passion for sustainability, experience and knowledge in this sector to manage the csa environmental department. Under John's supervision, Saeed Khan has also been approved as an accredited EcoHomes assessor.

John and Saeed have also recently attended approved BREEAM training in London, to become BREEAM Industrial and Office accredited assessors, further enhancing the capabilities of csa environmental. The EcoHomes and BREEAM assessments allow csa to undertake such appraisals on behalf of their clients, or on behalf of other architectural practices and developers, John's previous experience and excellent reputation has already established csa environmental as one of the leading EcoHomes assessors in the country with a nationwide client base. For more information regarding EcoHomes and BREEAM assessments please contact john@csa-architects.co.uk.

csa attended the Interbuild at the NEC in Birmingham earlier this year to keep abreast of the latest building products and methods of construction, the team are photographed here, standing in front of the Architecture Pavilion, designed by Will Alsop.

csa are recruiting again, to ensure that their high quality service is maintained and to work on the many varied projects within the office. A number of schemes are currently on-site and there are many more projects on the drawing board. Having expanded with additional high quality staff, we are looking for new clients, to benefit from our extended services. For more information, or to discuss any potential projects or if you are interested in joining the team, please do not hesitate to contact us.