A board showing all completed projects
The secretary's compartment
The conference room (There are two conference rooms in total)
Architect's typical car?!
The outside of Austin-Smith: Lord
Austin-Smith:Lord Cardiff is situated in Cardiff Bay, address being One Dunleavy Drive. The big "One" outside the office is pretty self explanitory, with Austin-Smith:Lord being situated directly next to Cardiff Clinic. The office itself has two floors, in which the first contains a secretary's office, the different architects' office, and conference rooms. The second floor contains the architects' offices, a kitchen, and the third floor, which isn't an office, but a storage room, can be reached via a ladder. The different projects that may be ongoing or have been completed are hung out on the walls, and there is an area where people can have lunch, and reading architecture magazines. The actual atmosphere of the office is relaxed, with the odd frustration at computer difficulties and client difficulties. Many of the architects can be seen to smile at each other as they walked past the corridors, and it is apparent that any hostility is not an issue, as the architects avidly go about their daily business. The firm in Cardiff consists of about 20 people, with other studios in Manchester, Glasgow, London, and Liverpool and a sixth studio is opening shortly in Abu Dhabi. When flicking through their site, I found that these studios have done over 2500 projects, have won over 150 awards, have been active for over 60 years, currently have 29 partners, 25 studios, and 2 founders (Mike and Inette Austin-Smith). It states on the site that they have "1 constant- the client comes first". Through my time here, I have found that this is definitely the case, with the architects fully responding to the clients needs. They can be depended on , with one client even switching to them from another architect, due to the need to follow the clients orders closely, and fully. Austin Smith Lord do not seem to disappoint.
