1. What are your names and what is the name of your business?
We are Emily Hatton and Emma Buchan and we are both the Directors and Architects at Buchan Rum Architects.
2. What does the business do and who are your customers?
We have a wide and varied customer base and work across a number of different sectors within architecture. Although much of our work is residential, we do quite a lot of commercial as well, mainly in the private healthcare sector, mostly up in London. That specialism has occurred through word-of-mouth. We originally carried out a bespoke fit-out of 6 physiotherapy centres in London and that led to private GP’s, dentists, private nursing homes etc. I would say it’s probably a 70/30 split – being 70% residential and 30% commercial. Residential includes large individual new builds, small-scale developments of 2-3 houses, as well as extensions and refurbishments.
We also do the interior design and so will offer the clients as much or as little as they want – we break it down into services. Sometimes people get to the end of a project and then want help with the interior design, others may have it from the outset. And sometimes people will come to us wanting an extension, but we will look at the potential for internal remodelling and see that we can just make the existing footprint work harder for them.
3. What’s the history of the business & what are your roles within it?
We originally met when we worked together at a large practice in Brighton. Frustratingly architecture, because it is so deadline driven, is a slightly archaic profession where you are often still in the office at 11pm at night and is therefore not well suited to women with young children! Emma and I had started to tentatively take on our own projects whilst working together in Brighton, and both being parents to young children, we realised that setting up our own practice would be the way to make things work for us. Obviously, we were under a lot of pressure to succeed, but there was a point when we had so many enquiries coming in, we bit the bullet and struck out alone, and it worked!!
4. How long have you had an office here at Freshmill and why were you looking for a space like this?
We joined Freshmill as it opened in 2019! We had been a company for a couple of years by then, working from home and cafés and then we saw Freshmill advertised on social media and thought it looked interesting, particularly because the space had been designed in a creative way, which, as architects, really suited us. We had looked at a few coworking spaces but Freshmill was by far the best. Working from home was not an option, and having a concierge desk was really important. This meant that clients could be greeted and looked after with coffee/tea etc and gave a professional feel to our practice. If we were to rent an office somewhere, that would all be extra, on top. The fact that it is all included here is great.
5. Why does Freshmill work well for you and your business?
For our business, I think the collaboration is brilliant. I would say we speak to other architects in the building at least once a day, in addition to other interiors companies, Architecture is very collaborative so we often pass work to each other.
I also love the social events, and the horizontal circulation in the building means people constantly pass each other and therefore get to know one another. We’ve looked at other coworking spaces and they say it’s a ‘community’ feel; mostly that hasn’t been true, but it really is here! We have made connections with so many people at Freshmill -in the legal field, financial services, social media, tech, HR, admin etc. For us, there is a really good mix of business and creative industries, and we have connected with most of them!!
6. What is the most important lesson you have gained from your career so far?
I would say it is not just about the architecture, your relationship with your client is the most important thing, as well as having good relationships with other consultants. We deal with statutory bodies like planners, building control, water companies, as well as engineer’s, ecologists, agriculturists…. the list goes on! And having good relationships with them all and managing expectations is hugely important.
I also think it is worthwhile to remember that reputation is everything. Approximately 90% of our business comes through recommendations and word-of-mouth, and so keeping relationships positive and working hard to make sure the client is happy has been fundamental to our success.
7. Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?
We have often discussed whether we want to grow as a business in terms of office size/staff number etc and right now it would not be right for us to take on more. However, in terms of turnover and success of business, that is something we really want to grow over the next few year:, and that is happening… and as our children grow we can focus more on that.
Work/life balance is also really important to us though. So, for example, if Emily needs Monday to go to sports day and I need to go on Wednesday, that is fine. We can cover for each other which is another reason why this set up is so much better than working for a large practice!
8. What advice would you give your younger self just starting out?
I would say be more confident and know your worth. I think we undervalued ourselves in the early days just to keep clients happy.
Also, the nature of our business means that there is always a hiccup, something always goes wrong. It is unavoidable. I would say, ‘don’t panic’! My brother is a heart surgeon – if he does something wrong, then that is worth panicking about! But for us, it is important to take a step back before making a decision. Decisions made quickly to try to resolve a situation, or placate a client, can often be the wrong one! We have learnt to take a breath before jumping in with a solution!
9. What is your favourite quote/mantra?
Not so much a quote or mantra, but one of the words we use a lot, is ‘communication’. If something has gone wrong, communication is so, so important. Just let the client know, get ahead of it, make it clear. Clients really appreciate honesty.
As a business I think we are really good at changing and adapting when a project evolves or changes direction – we are great at making that happen. But the one area we are constantly working on is communication – how we can respond to people faster, how we can improve our communication whether that be in-person, on the phone or through online platforms.
10. If you could, who would you switch places with for the day, and why?
Emily: I would swap places with Sarina Wiegman, the Women’s England football coach, and coach them through a crucial game in the Euros, That would be fun!
Emma: I love tennis, so I would be Emma Raducanu for the day – when she is playing on form, during Wimbledon perhaps!!
