James Parker spoke to a Belfast practice founded at the start of the 21st century, which expanded to specialise in “difficult” mixed use schemes, and is now the first in Northern Ireland to be completely employee owned
White Ink Architects was founded in Belfast in 2001 by three architects, Sean Tunney, Claude Maguire and Joan McCoy. Initially called Maguire Tunney McCoy, it was rebranded as White Ink in 2003. The firm began as a partnership, but converted into a limited company in 2005, and took the plunge to full employee ownership earlier this year.
Tunney, Maguire and McCoy remain directors, but the company is now owned by a trust that holds shares on behalf of the employees, without individual risk being placed on them. This new ownership structure also benefits clients by further motivating staff, “as every employee has a vested interest in the success of the practice.” says McCoy. As well as sharing in the financial success of the business, staff “get to influence its future.”
The three founding partners had all come from studios working on multi-million-pound projects, and McCoy admits it was “quite a change to be working on smaller projects initially,” although the scale of jobs quickly grew. The first UK project White Ink was commissioned to design was an office fit-out in Manchester in 2005, and its reach has grown steadily across the country. From taking on its first admin assistant in 2003, the Belfast office now houses 32 staff, including over 20 architects.
Ethos
A key part of the practice’s ethos is to “bridge the gap between design and delivery” – i.e. “to be interested in both, where architecture realised is the aim – not simply designs on paper.” McCoy says that one of the firm’s points of difference is that it is “genuinely interested in construction and getting things built.”
In addition, she says, White Ink “see every problem as a design problem – with a solution to be designed – whether it is planning a layout or working out a procurement strategy.”
Another important phrase that runs through the firm is ‘people first,’ considering everyone’s needs, from within the practice through to clients and external collaborators, contractors and building users. White Ink claim their designs are inherently informed by this, such as in residential projects, where “every single apartment is considered related to the needs of the occupants who will live in it for the next 70-100 years.”
Growing
As the practice grew, responsibility was delegated to individual team members, which now include an office manager, business support manager (covering finance, practice and IT), and a freelance IT consultant. Different team members hold responsibilities including Quality, Environment and Sustainability, Principal Designer, Specification and Marketing.
Alongside the three directors are five associates, but aside from this, the management structure is “quite flat,” says McCoy, as well as being meritocratic. “Anyone can be a project lead – if they show aptitude, responsibility, and talent.”
As projects have increased in size, the practice has naturally had to formalise roles and responsibilities within project teams – including defining the project lead and specific responsibilities. While their key expertise is in “complex and difficult” mixed use urban developments, they have also carried out refurbishments, industrial work, and university schemes.
Culture
To help maintain office culture during the pandemic, staff held daily Teams ‘tea breaks’, as well as a virtual Christmas party in 2020. Since returning to the office, the directors are consulting staff to retain a mix between home and office working.
When it comes to working on projects beyond Northern Ireland, despite being in Belfast, McCoy says that they “often find we can arrive in London earlier than someone located outside central London!” She reports that clients across the UK believe the practice has “a different attitude” to other firms; characterised by a sense of resourcefulness in particular. Having worked with generally lower budgets, and much lower budgets than London schemes, they have “learned to be extremely creative to produce great design on a small budget,” and we bring these lessons to our larger projects. There is a resulting ‘can do,’ collaborative and practical attitude, she says.
Rather than going the management buy-out or external buyer route, the new employee ownership model means that future directors of the practice “will be determined by leadership skills and talent – not ability to access funds.” says McCoy. This method also “allows them to secure the ethos and culture of the practice” – something that cannot be guaranteed with an external sale, where a buyer “might introduce a different culture or seek to take the practice in a direction that is not supported by the employees.”
The firm is proud to have a workforce that is 40% female, and has recently added a Wellbeing team who are working with a clinical psychologist. This recently started by addressing physical wellbeing as well as a student ‘lunch n’ learn’ programme “which aims to introduce them to all aspects of work in practice in a structured way.”
Emma Wright, who joined in 2013, is an example of the practice’s success in nurturing recruits, having won Belfast Telegraph’s Young Architect of the Year in 2019. She worked on the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast, which was awarded RIBA Journal Best on Show Readers’ Choice 2020. Emma was instrumental in developing the practice’s BIM protocol and the project was one of the first BIM Level 2 buildings delivered in Northern Ireland.
Other standout examples are Peter Greenwood, who joined in 2014, and established the practice’s Environmental Management system. He has worked on the RIBA award winning Brentford Lock West, Queen Mary University London retrofit and newbuild and North Wharf Gardens Paddington mixed use hotel and education schemes. Last but not least, Sarah McGonigle developed White Ink’s quality management system and applied a “wealth of technical and statutory knowledge” to both project delivery and the Construction Industry Forum NI.
Commissions
The practice says it has a strongly proactive approach to commissions: “It is important not simply to take things as read, but to look at the wider context – as there are often ways to obtain more value or to unlock opportunities that the client may not have seen.”
The practice counts among its key skills peer reviews of other designs, for example if a client is considering buying a site with planning permission, the practice will identify opportunities to add value to an existing design. This allows clients to make informed decisions about site value based on realistic outcomes.
Recent projects that showcase the practice’s range of strengths include a staff accommodation scheme at Queen’s University Belfast, which showed how they could create “beautiful, modern family friendly homes” in a conservation area. The brick facade details were carefully considered to create a “modern reference” to adjacent Victorian buildings, and the buildings were carefully planned to optimise natural light into the living areas in each apartment and create sunny courtyard garden spaces to the south.
Brentford Lock West, London saw the practice of “adding value” to an existing design, “while ensuring that the architecture was not diluted,” says McCoy. Initially the firm employed its knowledge to review the existing Stage 4 planning approved design to assist a contractor bidding for the contract. White Ink “completely rationalised the structural design of the basement and reconfigured apartment layouts to improve efficiency and to achieve a viable, buildable and compliant design solution, while retaining all aspects of the original design intent/brief and the specified quality of materials and finish.”
The ‘Block E’ element picked up the RIBA London Award 2018, and phase two, Keelson Gardens, was shortlisted for the RIBA’s inaugural Neave Brown Award for Housing in 2019, as well as winning the RIBA London Award 2019 and RIBA National Award 2019.
Goals
The practice’s short-term goals, in addition to embracing a ‘hybrid’ home/work balance, are to “increase employee engagement under the new ownership structure.” This will, says McCoy, “help us retain and improve our client and people focus,” with the longer term goal being to use the fact that employees now directly benefit to “drive improvement.” They are also tackling the current wider issues, including “putting structures in place” so staff are able to take the role of Principal Designer under the Building Safety Bill, with a goal to make the firm “leaders” in this post-Grenfell area. McCoy adds that they are also investing in training to “ensure that our team can lead the sustainability agenda to minimise our impact on the planet.”