He moved south in 1978 to Dorset County Architects, and designed Ad Astra First School in Poole, amongst many other educational projects. It was whilst working in Dorset that he built up an expertise in schools, and he has been a consultant architect to Salisbury Diocesan Board of Education for other thirty years. Paul has also built up considerable expertise in house and flat design, working for several housing developers in the South West, as well as designing one-off houses or house extensions for private clients. Working in a rural economy, the practice has turned its hand to many other different types of project, including offices, industrial units, a hotel at the Southern Counties Shooting Ground, and a new cemetery at Poundbury, opened by Prince Charles in 2006. The practice believes in supporting local businesses, and wherever appropriate, local firms are included in the contracting phase. Energy efficient design has been an integral part of many of these projects. Green elements in projects have been solar panels, photovoltaic panels and ground heat source water to water heat pumps. We designed the conversion of a former milking parlour on a site near Sydling St. Nicholas into a six bedroom holiday cottage, where the client already has a wind generator up and running, and is using a heat pump linked to ground coils. We have also installed a large biomassboiler at St Osmund’s Middle School in Dorchester, the largest such boiler currently used in a Dorset School, and we designed and installed a large array of photovoltaic panels on the flat roof of he new Sixth Form block at Parkstone Grammar School.
