At A’Bear & Ball Architects LLP, we welcomed two new staff members this year. This has helped us strengthen our ability to deliver a growing number of residential and commercial schemes and allowed our business run more smoothly.

So you can learn a bit more about our staff, here’s what our team members gets up to in their spare time outside of the office!

Rob, Co-Founder & Partner

• Rob has a number of interests, mostly involving the great outdoors. In addition to frequent lengthy walks with his mad cocker spaniel (the only other male in the house), Rob is a keen skier and road cyclist. As a member of ‘Mickey Cranks’ cycling club in Witney, he can be found most weekends getting some miles in on the back roads of rural Oxfordshire.

• In addition to club runs, Rob and a group of cycling friends also ride regularly and take on annual endurance cycling challenges with previous events including the London to Paris ride in under 24 hours (twice!), The London Revolution, a tour of Wales and out and back rides from Oxfordshire to Normandy, Isle of Wight & the Channel Islands. Rob’s next cycling challenge is to ride the ‘bucket list’ 1,000 mile LEJOG (Land’s End to John o’ Groats) in 10 days in June 2023.

• He is often providing taxi services for his three daughters, and they all have followed his love of sport. The eldest is an archer who shoots for GB at Junior (U21) level, his middle daughter plays football for Wantage Town U14’s and the youngest is heavily into street/contemporary dance.

• Rob is also on the small committee of organisers for the annual ‘Longfest’, a live outdoor music event in the village of Longcot where he lives. This year’s very successful festival has just taken place with over 400 local people enjoying four great live bands!

Damon, Co-Founder & Partner

• Damon is someone who always has a project on the go. As a keen DIY enthusiast, he has never owned a property he hasn’t revamped, improved or ripped roofs off of! In 2015, he completed his first self-build home, complete with a home office from which A’Bear & Ball Architects first started. He’s getting itchy feet again and is on the lookout for a new self-build venture so watch this space!

• In addition to his grand designs, Damon is a semi-decent guitar player with a love for a whole host of music genres from blues, jazz and funk to progressive rock and metal. Damon met his wife through his band ‘Blue Junk’, formed with friends he has played with around Oxfordshire for over 20 years.

• In more recent years, his two young children, Rufus and Adeline, have taken priority over music (along with whatever sleep they allow!). As a family man, Damon is an advocate of flexible working and committed to family-friendly practices to ensure that the workplace is an inclusive environment for all. At weekends, Damon loves spending time with family and is a frequent visitor of Millets Farm, Badbury Clump, White Horse Hill and any local cafe or garden centre with cake!

• Damon is also on the small committee of organisers for the annual ‘Longfest’, a live outdoor music event in the village of Longcot where he lives. He takes charge of the stage, sound and band line-up. In its first year, Blue Junk had a reunion. This year’s very successful festival has just taken place with over 400 local people enjoying four great live bands and bringing the community together after such a challenging few years.

Duncan, Part II Architectural Assistant

• Duncan is enjoying getting to know the Oxfordshire countryside by trying out the various activities on offer with his young son Theo in tow, or vice versa! You can see them enjoying the Abingdon Michaelmas Fair in the first photo.

• He also really enjoyed living abroad whilst on shared parental leave in 2019. He spent three months living in Aarhus, which is the second city of Denmark. He enjoyed taking in the sights whilst pushing the pushchair and joining in with various activities in the Dokk 1 Cultural Centre. Much of the city’s former docklands has been developed in recent years and accommodates some fantastic architectural interventions including The Iceberg, which is pictured in the second photo.

• Duncan’s trip to Denmark followed an earlier trip to Europe, when in 2013 he spent three months living in Brasov, Romania. Situated in the centre of the Carpathian Mountains (Transylvania), Brasov is a very pretty city that is surrounded by beautiful countryside. During his stay, he worked at a local architecture firm and undertook a course of language classes in Romanian.

• Recently, Duncan joined the Abingdon Atom’s, a Korfball team. This is a mixed sport with similarities to basketball and netball, and it looks likely to replace either squash or swimming as one of his preferred sports!

Gavin, Project Architect

• Most of his time is spent with his young family who he enjoys walking and exploring the amazing countryside with in the local area. His kids would say they enjoy this less so, but they love it really!

• He’s a semi-enthusiastic runner and has regularly run half marathons for a few years now, although he still has not decided if he actually enjoys it. Nevertheless, it is a necessary evil to offset a penchant for IPAs and barbecues.

• Music is very important to him. Although a ‘dyed in the wool’ rocker, he is into anything really. There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure in his view!

• He’s a proud owner of a Mk2 Ford Focus RS and an active member of the RS Owners Club. Through the summer months, he enjoys attending car shows and stroking his imaginary beard while discussing trim level variations between various Ford models over the years. His son regularly joins him when attending these shows and is gradually being indoctrinated.

Katie, Architectural Technologist

• Some may call her a crazy dog lady, but there’s nothing she loves more than exploring the beautiful English countryside with her golden retriever (soon to be two golden retrievers)! She spends her weekends exploring the Cotswolds and neighbouring counties, making sure each walk has a cosy country pub to stop off for a drink and bowl of chips.

• She also loves to travel, visit different countries and get a taste of local cuisines and cultures. Although lockdowns and covid put a stop to this for a few years, it did give her the excuse to experience different parts of the UK, such as the Lake District, north and south Wales and Cornwall.

• Since travel restrictions have been lifted, she’s managed to jump on a plane to Stockholm and Lanzarote, and she's visiting Mauritius later this year. So, she is definitely making up for lost time!

• Football has always been a huge part of her life. Growing up she played for the Swindon Spitfires, her local ladies’ team. But now, she follows from the sidelines. She loved following the Lionesses on their journey to European Glory, and she is very much looking forward to the new Premier League season.

Taryn, Office Manager

• When she’s not organising our office, she’s busy organising her family!

• Then, after all of the many after-school clubs and various swimming lessons are finished, she loves nothing more than taking her spaniel for a long walk and listening to music. Come rain, snow or shine, you can always find them out walking around Faringdon!

• She enjoys yoga and has been practising for over eight years since the birth of her youngest son. It has helped her get back into shape and relieve persistent back issues. On top of that, it gives her a chance to switch off and concentrate on herself for a short time.

• She's also very interested in psychology, particularly in the criminal and forensic fields, and recently, she has started working towards qualifications in Educational Psychology and Children’s Development. She finds the science behind this and the age-old question “what makes people do the things they do?" very interesting.

If you’d like to learn more about our team, check out our staff page!