About Us
We are a team of Architects, Designers and Technicians based in Sheffield.
We pride ourselves on our team ethic, care for responsive design and our drive to understand the needs and priorities of our clients. We want every project to be one everyone is proud of, and for everyone involved to enjoy the process of getting there.
Our Approach
Our principal activity centres on designing buildings to meet the complex requirements of our many clients.
We work across many market sectors including health, education, civic, community and environmental projects, retaining many of our early clients.
Our practice mission is to deliver a high quality service to our clients so that working with Race Cottam Associates provides a positive experience and one that our clients would wish to repeat.
Listening is good for design; the best design occurs when architects listen to the client to understand all the constraints and aspirations.
Listening helps cultivate teamwork, create stronger relationships, better design solutions and ultimately happier clients
We have no ego; the main mission for us is to be responsive and put our client’s interests and goals first.
When we have fully understood a brief we can then bring our skills, professionalism, passion and creativeness to produce a building that exceeds expectations and provide a positive experience that our clients would wish to repeat.
Our Story
RCA was established in 1993 by Peter Race and David Cottam.
At the time of formation it was involved in three key areas of work: Healthcare, Food Retail and Sensitive Infrastructure Projects. The business was founded on delivering exceptional service to clients with a commitment to considered, deliverable design solutions with the RCA team at its heart.
During its first year, the young practice was awarded a European Design award for their Day Care Surgery at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield and a National Award for an infrastructure project in Snowdonia National Park . It’s first major commission was the Royal Mail Centre in Sheffield, which propelled the company to delivery over 25 years of large commercial projects across the UK.
Today the business is still heavily involved in its original core sectors, but has diversified into Education, Civic, Community and Residential projects nationally.
David Cottam remains as chairman of the business having passed on to a second generation of leadership; Laurie Cottam is Managing Director, and Pauline Lake and Paul Foster are Directors.
