Making notes for a retrospective of 2020 from APM’s point of view was never going to be particularly uplifting.
We started the year really well, with an established, experienced and supportive team, lots of interesting work on site and enough in planning to keep us busy for at least 12 months. Then lockdown happened and the main consequences for us (from a business perspective) were:
Working from home (and really missing the camaraderie of the office)
Getting used to virtual communication with everything except very socially distanced site visits (extremely luckily, we bought a laptop ‘just in case’ a couple of weeks before the first lockdown was announced)
The jobs on site being affected by difficulties in getting workers safely to site and delays/ straightforward lack of availability of some materials and fittings
New enquiries completely drying up from April to Sept – fairly terrifying…
Feeling so sorry to see the effects of the lockdown on some of our suppliers and industry colleagues
However, I realised there were positives for us in 2020:
We managed to finish 5 major jobs during lockdown, with delays but of a few weeks only, which seems remarkable in hindsight
We completed 3 additional jobs during the year (the starts of which were delayed by lockdown)
Two large jobs started in the summer, when it looked like the restrictions would be lifting and so far are still on track
By taking advantage of furlough, we survived with no redundancies
In a startling flurry of activity, we thought up, finessed and launched a new ‘lockdown design’ product within 3 weeks
Since late summer we’ve had loads of new enquiries and have several new projects in various stages of planning (more than half of which are from personal recommendations, which feels amazing)
Industry-wise:
Liz was appointed Chair of the Professional Practice Committee at the BIID
Jo became a member of the new BIID Diversity and Inclusion Committee
I had my first radio interview (which to my astonishment was really fun)
On a team level:
Katherine passed the final section of her post graduate Interior Design course
Jo bought a house and Liz and Katherine had offers accepted on theirs
Leah moved flats twice
Our v efficient ‘year in industry’ student, Anu, went back to uni for her final year and we decided to take on Hatice part time (manageable around the first year of her Interior Architecture course)
Two of our team got dogs (follow their progress on our insta…)
We started supporting The Orchard Project and made donations to Shelter
Lucy had a baby (tho we are distraught not yet to have met Charlie) and Dina is about to…
We’re going into 2021 in a new lockdown with lots of trepidation, but also hope for an improvement in the health and economic situation in sight.
Though we are in lockdown again, we are still working hard, so contact us now if you need help with your renovation!