We are a community of Architects, Masterplanners and Heritage Consultants.
By continually reimagining places within urban and rural landscapes across the world, we unlock value and create sustainable futures for our clients’ sites. We research, analyse and then masterplan, survey, conserve and repair, adapt and refurbish, design, extend and build new within complex contexts. We understand the values embedded in these places and how to build a successful case for change.
We work to the highest standards within our client’s aspirations and budgets. This is the most satisfying and rewarding way of working.
It is because the places on which we work matter so much that they demand design and intervention that does not compromise what has come before. Working like this requires resilience, energy and creativity to make the most of the opportunities we are given.
We thrive on collaborations because invariably building relationships pushes our thinking further than if we thought alone. Every project is a collaboration which requires us to work with, rather than against, the character and quality of the place we are changing.
We bring people together with great enthusiasm, commitment and creativity to consider these places, to speak deeply about their past in order to imagine a better future.
We are acutely aware of the impact that reimagining places has on our changing climate and know that how we build now is key to addressing this emergency.
We take every opportunity to reduce carbon emissions in how we work and what we build. We are proud that our operations are net carbon zero.
Purcell begun as a traditional partnership in 1947 through our founder Donovan Purcell, eventually becoming a limited liability partnership. By 2016 we recognised that our culture had, over the decades, grown to align with many of the values associated with an employee owned business. After a three-year period of preparation Purcell became an EO business in May 2021, with an employee-owned Trust becoming the majority shareholder.
The Trust acts on behalf of all employees, working to support Purcell’s developing culture.