2021 all wrapped up: roll on 2022!

As 2021 draws to a close, we have the chance to take a pause and reflect on the year – and what a year it was! With all the challenges and successes along the way, we’re very thankful for the support of our brilliant TFT team, our clients and our industry friends and partners. Here’s to a new year of possibility ahead!

By now, we know the challenges all too well, but let’s recognise some of the successes we don’t often shout about: over 30 new joiners to the TFT team, five babies (very junior new-joiners), four weddings and new pets galore!

We’ve also raised over £14,000 to help fight youth homelessness with LandAid. We’ve given a day of TFT volunteering time to a whole host of causes dear to each of our hearts. And we all appreciated a much-deserved wellbeing day, for everyone to take a breather in their own way this November.

Hard at work, our teams have been delivering landmark projects of all shapes and sizes across the country. Scotland’s biggest new development, Edinburgh’s St James Quarter, opened this year. Liverpool’s iconic India Buildings also opened its doors, already shortlisted for the Architect Journal’s Retrofit Award and the Civic Trust Award. In the South East, a dynamic duo of ground-breaking office developments near Reading were shortlisted for Thames Valley Property Awards: 400 & 450 Longwater Avenue and Here + Now, which scooped the Award for Workplace of The Future.

At every point, our specialists have pushed the boundaries and challenged ‘business as usual’ thinking, across our engineering and sustainability advice, built asset consultancy and development projects. We launched our first Redefining Building Performance research in early summer this year, to identify the major issues facing our clients in the near future. The work revealed a series of action gaps across the industry, between what we can see on the horizon, and what’s being done today. Whether it’s addressing sustainability, health and wellbeing risks, or anticipating marketplace shifts, there remains a long to-do list for owners, developers and occupiers alike.

So it was reassuring to see over 300 guests tune in to our ‘Insight to Action’ CPD series in September. We created a set of presentations exploring what our research findings mean for different asset types and showcased how best practice interventions could shape more valuable and resilient buildings across their lifespan. We look forward to sharing much more on that front next year.

What else awaits us in 2022? You’ll have to stay tuned. Until then, we wish you a restful end to your year and we look forward to seeing you soon in the new year!