David Taylor meets recently promoted Studio PDP Partner Rebecca Campbell to talk through the practice ethos, the Building Safety Act, her work as an NLA expert panellist and the Claridge House project for Grosvenor 

 

Hi, Rebecca, how are you? 

 

I'm very good. Thank you. How are you?

 

I'm very good. Congratulations, slightly belatedly, on your new role as partner at Studio PDP.  You took over in that role in January, alongside some other new partners, Luke Richardson-Brown and Matthew Jones. How has it been so far, and how different has it been to how you were before that?

 

Thank you very much! Well, it's been really busy, which is great. How has it been different? I think not really a massive difference. It's been a subtle shift. The change of leadership wasn't so much as a big leap or change, it was more of an evolution. As you mentioned, my colleagues, Matt and Luke, were promoted alongside me, and we've all been at PDP for quite a few years. As associates, we've led on certain areas of management and been involved in more general aspects of running the practice, and we've also been involved in discussions about the vision and the future of the practice. So, we've had a certain leadership role for quite a while. Therefore, these recent changes felt more of a progression, really, of that. 

 

How do you think the practice's ethos is best described? What is your key strength as a practice that sets it apart from others? Well, I think PDP has always been well known for our work in very high-end projects, whether that be residential, hospitality, extra care, commercial so on. We're also really well known for, and have got a lot of experience in, working on historic environments, existing buildings and listed buildings. That's very much still at the core of what we do. What this recent evolution of the partnership perhaps brings is that there's new skills coming to the front in complementary areas of architecture. So, we're bringing in skills in retrofit and low carbon design, skills in building physics and those sorts of areas which really complement our bread and butter of what we've been known for over quite a few years. 

 

How would you say your perception of the practice, both internally and externally, has changed over the 15 years or so you've been there? How has the profession changed, would you say?

 

It's always been a really supportive practice. One of the things that a lot of people talk about is people. I think that's what keeps a lot of people here; it's a really lovely place to work. I've always felt that I've been given a certain amount of autonomy to get on with things, but always been supported in that, and I don't think that's really changed.

 

And mentorship has been important for you personally – is that right?

 

It has, yes. There have been people that I've really learned a huge amount from throughout my time at PDP, whether it's something technical or help with leading teams or aspects of running the practice, and people that I've really felt have supported me and pushed me forward. And it's not always just people that are in positions above. There are people that are perhaps more junior that I've always felt have been really supportive and pushed me along as well. In fact, there have been many people who have supported me and that I have been able to learn a huge amount from. I am keen to continue this strength in the practice by mentoring others - there are a lot of really promising people at Studio PDP; I would hope that I can support them and help them reach their career goals in the same way that others have helped me. Again, I think that's a real strength of the practice.  I think we've got a really great team.

 

That's an important thing, isn't it, in the workplace; to construct that kind of atmosphere.

 

It is, yes, and again, it's something that people often talk about in the practice. And that's something that we're really proud of.

 

Now, you've just finished, as a practice, the Claridge House project, which is a refurbishment of two floors of a 1920s Neo Georgian building in Mayfair. Do you want to just talk about that? As I understand it, you feel that this encapsulates a little of what the practice does. In what way does it, and what is the project?

 

Yes, so, as you mentioned, it's a net zero carbon refurbishment and a conversion of office space to residential. It's two floors of an eight-storey building in Mayfair, and it was for our client, Grosvenor. It was a pilot project for them as part of this think zero strategy to decarbonize their estate by 2030, so involved upgrading the thermal performance of the fabric and replacing the services, as well as making some improvements to the internal layouts and improving the building safety. It's a single stair building, and it fell under the building safety regime. Which is quite challenging!  So, yeah, it exemplifies where we are with the practice at the moment. We utilised a lot of our expertise; some of the things I've already talked about – at its heart, it was a high-end residential project in a conservation area and in Mayfair. But it also brought in those sorts of skills and expertise in retrofit and low carbon design and building physics, as well as other areas of expertise and things like interiors and building safety. Another strength of the practice is really in developing our relationships with clients and really understanding what drives them, where they're coming from, and what they're looking for from us, and trying to not only secure the future of this building for the client but deliver some value for them as well. So, it encapsulates all those aspects of what PDP is really good at, and where we see a future for us.

 

Sure. Finally, you're also a member of NLA's expert panel on technical competency. How is that? Do you enjoy that? What's the process like, and what is the key thinking currently? What's been the subject of debate there?

 

We have just had the one session so far. And, as you perhaps might anticipate, the key focus seems to be on how we can meet the new requirements, or not quite so new, but relatively recent requirements that have come into effect through the Building Safety Act and the new building safety regime. How we can establish what competence looks like, and how we can effectively try to manage and monitor that. So, there's various aspects of the building safety regime that we feel that maybe a lot of people in the industry are still finding a bit of a challenge, looking at how we can maybe try to find a bit of consensus. 

 

Yes, the profession is definitely finding it a challenge. Was that the general atmosphere of the debate? That it's a problematic piece of legislation?

 

Yes. I think we all understand the reasons for it. The challenge is perhaps in the way that it's maybe been delivered. I think some of the legislation is somewhat ambiguous, but there's not really a single central source of guidance, and there's some aspects that are really not covered by guidance at all. So yes, these sorts of panels are really useful for discussing these sorts of things in detail and try and reach a consensus that can then help the industry to move forward with it. 

 

Well, congratulations on the new role. I'm presuming you're going to be leading the practice in another 15 years…Is that the ambition? (laughs)

 

(laughs) I've not thought quite that far ahead just yet, but perhaps, yes. (laughs)

 

Excellent. Thanks for your time.

 

Thank you very much.