At CMS Architects, we believe strongly in encouraging growth and promoting advancement, which is why November was such an exciting month for us as we saw many of our team advance in their degrees and courses.
This included two team members that completed their course, Sophie Cosgrove achieved her degree at Bath University and is now a RIBA Chartered Architect and Grace Brooks has now attained her HNC in Construction Design and Management with a distinction, qualifying as an ACIAT Architectural Technician.
We asked them what it felt like when they passed and what they aspire to achieve in the future…
What was the most challenging part of your course?
Sophie: Definitely the intensive nature of the course, which was very time demanding; both in the day-to-day work coursework requirements and the training length in its entirety.
Grace: Having to find a balance between, work, study and play the first year of my course was definitely a challenge. Adjusting to working full time with a weekly day release for college was quite a shock to the system at first but one that I quickly adapted to.
How will your role change now that you have completed your course?
Sophie: Due to the nature of Architectural training I’ve already been undertaking the role of an Architect throughout my 2 years at CMS (as an Architectural Assistant), with this final qualification confirming my readiness to represent the profession on the official Architects Register. Accordingly my role will remain largely the same, gradually accruing more and more responsibility as I progress within the company.
Grace: Now that my HNC is complete and I’ve gained experience whilst being at CMS over the 2 years, I will soon start taking on larger roles within projects as well as starting to manage smaller projects more independently. As a whole my role shouldn’t majorly change, just developing to have more independence and responsibilities.
What area of your work do you enjoy the most?
Sophie: The variable nature of the role, especially within CMS with its wide ranging portfolio. No two projects are the same, so we are continuously adapting and pushing our capabilities as designers, administrators, coordinators, and the other myriad of skills we call upon.
Grace: Working at CMS, there is always a different range of projects and no project is alike another, this provides more than enough variety to develop skills and knowledge in a number of different sectors, I enjoy the continuous development and day to day variety.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Sophie: We’ve currently got some really exciting projects at their early stages, so I’m really looking forward to seeing those through to completion in the upcoming years; to stand within the tangible realisations of my designs and see how people interact in the spaces.
Grace: Currently I am an associate member of CIAT so over the next 5 years I plan on working towards becoming a fully chartered architectural technologist, MCIAT.
Also as a company we have some great projects in the pipeline that I am looking forward to working on and seeing them come to fruition. One of the best parts of this job is being able to physically see your work in the built environment and the part you have played within a project.
If you would like to know more about our architectural design services near Bath or have a project in mind that you’d like to discuss, please get in touch.