The South West is home for Co Create Architects. It is where our practice started, where most of our team live and where we have been fortunate to build relationships with clients, businesses, charities and communities over many years.
As Co Create has grown, so has the area we are part of. From our beginnings in Devon, we now have teams working from Exeter, Torbay, Plymouth and Newquay, supporting projects throughout Devon and Cornwall. That growth means a lot to us, but we also think it comes with a responsibility to remain connected to the places that have helped our practice develop.
For us, that has always meant doing more than architecture. Where we can, we try to give something back through fundraising, volunteering, supporting local charities and providing our professional skills to community organisations that can genuinely benefit from them.
Supporting charities across the South West
Over the years we have been lucky to work with and support some incredible charities. These have included Children’s Hospice South West and Rowcroft Hospice, both of which provide vital care and support to families throughout Devon and the wider South West.
Our fundraising events have now helped raise more than £22,000 for charitable causes. We are incredibly proud of that figure, but it is very much a shared achievement. Our clients, consultants, contractors, suppliers, friends and other businesses across the South West have consistently supported the events we organise, whether by entering teams, sponsoring activities, donating prizes or simply turning up and getting involved.
Our annual Charity Golf Day has become a particular highlight, bringing together people from across the property and construction industry for a good cause. We have also held smaller events at our Exeter studio, including our Charity Crêpe Day for Rowcroft Hospice, showing that fundraising does not always need to be a large event to bring people together and make a difference.
What matters most to us is that these events support organisations working within the same communities in which we live and work.
Giving our time as well as raising money
Financial support is only one way we can help. As architects, we also have skills that can be valuable to charities and community groups trying to improve their buildings, secure planning permission or simply understand whether an idea is achievable.
We have therefore provided professional time and architectural support on a pro bono basis to a number of organisations across Devon. This has included our work with Theatre Alibi at Emmanuel Hall in Exeter, helping to explore the future of a much loved creative and community space, as well as supporting The BRO Project and Navigators Youth Club.
Our involvement with Navigators Youth Club is a good example of the type of relationship we enjoy. We initially helped with the architectural and planning work for a new covered outdoor space, before members of the Co Create team later returned to help build it alongside parents, volunteers and local businesses.
We have also spent time supporting organisations including Wild Planet Trust at Paignton Zoo and ELM Wildlife Hedgehog Rescue and Rehabilitation. Our team Environmental Days give us an opportunity to leave the studio, spend time with local organisations and help in a much more practical way.
Sometimes the best thing we can offer is architectural advice. Sometimes it is fundraising and sometimes it is simply another pair of hands.
Growing with our communities
Co Create has changed considerably since the practice was founded. What began as a Devon architectural practice has grown into a team working throughout the South West, with offices in Exeter, Torbay, Plymouth and Newquay.
We are proud of that growth, but we want each of our offices to feel genuinely connected to its area. Our Exeter architects work throughout the city and East Devon, while our Torbay team has strong links across Torquay, Paignton, Brixham and South Devon. Our Plymouth architects work throughout the city and surrounding parts of Devon and our growing presence in Newquay is allowing us to build new relationships across Cornwall.
The South West is not simply an area we work in. It is our home. Our team live here, our children grow up here, we use the local businesses, visit the same beaches, towns and countryside and rely on many of the same charities and community organisations as everyone else.
That connection is one of the reasons supporting local causes matters so much to us.
We also know that none of this happens in isolation. Co Create has grown because of the support of a brilliant network of clients, consultants, contractors and businesses across Devon and Cornwall. Many of those same people have become some of the biggest supporters of our charity and community work, which makes what we have achieved together even more meaningful.
Part of who we are
Architecture will always be at the centre of what we do, but we want Co Create to be a practice that contributes to the communities around it as well as the buildings within them.
We will continue to support local charities, give professional time to worthwhile community projects, organise fundraising events and encourage our team to get involved wherever we can make a useful contribution.
As our practice continues to grow across Exeter, Torbay, Plymouth, Newquay and the wider South West, we want that commitment to grow with us.
We love living and working in this part of the country and we are incredibly fortunate to call it home. Giving a little back to the people, charities and communities that make the South West what it is simply feels like the right thing to do.
